Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 October 2012 04:55:32PM 1 point [-]

i'd be grateful for one or several specific links to start from.

It's difficult, because many of eridu's comments were "deleted" by site mods who very much wanted that discussion to stop. I suspect your best bet is to browse their user page (where the comments remain visible) if you're really interested, but roughly speaking: eridu self-identified as a radical feminist who endorsed dismantling patriarchy, and ended up in a very confrontational series of exchanges with several LW contributors that were widely considered low-value.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 09:10:55PM 0 points [-]

Thank you. This contains some very interesting parts.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 October 2012 06:40:08PM 0 points [-]

Hee! Um. If the long answer takes more than 5 minutes to write, I want the short answer; otherwise the long answer.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 07:05:50PM 1 point [-]

In my great foresight i already basically wrote up the long one before deciding to go with the above, so i'll just finish that now.

what is your preferred language?

That would be English.

In case that wasn't what you meant to learn: i was raised with German as my first and only language. At eleven years old, i began learning English at a German secondary school. A few years later (uncertain how many exactly) i began to actually learn English, outside school, mostly using literature and internet content. And yes that's primarily written language. Speaking and listening to spoken English remains more difficult for me (seldom practice that) but i have been complimented on my wordiness even in that.

I could have looked up an entry for "pernicious" in an English dictionary just as easily as a translation. Using translations most of the time is now out of habit rather than necessity.

My preference for English isn't universal (so the first line is a bit contrived) but for written content especially net-wise, i do now prefer reading and writing English most of the time. The preference is certainly informed by jargon both in software development and obscure variants of feminism etc being primarily available to me in English. (Software jargon is typically used as untranslated English loan words in modern German today, and about feminism jargon in German i don't even know because i too seldom examine that.)

And yes i'm well aware that i deviate from English language norms, most notably in not capitalising some pronoun, quote mark usage, using too many commas, generally many long and unwiedly run-on sentences, and using "complicated" words often. Guess which of these won't stand out here and is the last one. Some of the listed quirks are my conscious decisions, others are my conscious decisions not to do much against them.

That's everything relevant i can think of now. So that was the long answer!

Comment author: DaFranker 05 October 2012 05:16:20PM *  0 points [-]

Your wording here might mildly suggest that you disagree with such reactions to that behaviour on some level, but i might just be imagining that.

Nice catch there.

Yes, I do believe that the reaction is sub-optimal, and that there are better ways to handle these cases that would apparently further their cause faster. However, my model of all this is incomplete, so I'm most likely not entirely right, and I'd probably never voice that opinion outside of a context like this one.

Note that I don't think the reaction is "wrong" or "negative", but ISTM that there are probably other alternatives with similar cost and better utilitarian results.

Your own reaction seems like a good example of a much more productive reaction, but it does have some rather limiting contextual requirements.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 06:48:42PM 0 points [-]

Nice catch there.

Took me until after i'd read it the second or third time, but once it's recognised, it seems fairly intuitive to me that it might have been intended.

Your own reaction seems like a good example of a much more productive reaction, but it does have some rather limiting contextual requirements.

I'm not sure i understand which reaction you mean. And my best (only?) guess on the contextual requirements is the context of this conversation on this platform (or: community), but i'm even less certain here, so i would like to ask you to please make both points more explicit.

Comment author: DaFranker 05 October 2012 05:30:17PM 0 points [-]

I actually do vaguely remember two studies which, if memory serves, did back this up. One of them was attempting to establish a correlation between the frequency + 'strength'(?) of these experiences and the ability to have or frequency of having female orgasms - as an apparent follow-up to an earlier study that had established certain "impressive" statistical numbers for the latter.

If I interpreted the numbers correctly, it would imply that it's usually on the order of 30% to 50% (depending on geographical location as correlated to social customs and culture).

I note that the above is probably not a very accurate picture of reality, since it's all from memory and I'm most likely applying all kinds of biases and heuristics to it subconsciously before accessing said memories.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 06:39:53PM -1 points [-]

attempting to establish a correlation between [...] and the ability to have or frequency of having [orgasms]

Sorry, there was some sort of malfunction that made me not appreciate the worth of that study in an overt way any longer after reading this part.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 October 2012 05:33:34PM 0 points [-]

"Pernicious" is an awesome word too rarely used.
That said, I don't find it more often used by feminists than by anyone else.
If you don't mind saying, what is your preferred language?

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 06:34:26PM 0 points [-]

If you don't mind saying, what is your preferred language?

I don't, but first you have to choose whether you want:

  1. the mathematician's answer only,

  2. the short answer, or

  3. the long answer.

(Lower-numbered answers are presumably included.)

Comment author: [deleted] 05 October 2012 05:00:09PM 0 points [-]

per definition an actual feminist's statements on feminism would pass an "ideological Turing test" that tests for feminism, excepting false negatives

Be careful with that by definition thing. I find it highly plausible that an ideologies own arguments could be interpreted as satire if there were impostor-suspicion (which the test would cause).

I feel like I can't say this without it being interpreted as a jab at feminism, but I think such a test where you arouse a bit of suspicion and then play back some arguments and see if they are accepted or accused of satire would be a good discriminator of something (I'm not sure what). What would it mean when an ideologies arguments can't be taken seriously unless you're sure the speaker is sincere?

Are you also interested in what i would suggest "submitting" to the test in this case specifically?

Yeah. I know I can't charitably describe the arguments for the idea that discrimination against historically privileged groups is not a thing, so I fall back on weak pattern matching. The statement above that started this seemed a plausible candidate, from what I know of feminism.

I'd be interested what real feminists would say on the issue, (and then whether that would be accepted by other feminists as representative of the ideology).

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 05:54:27PM 0 points [-]

I find it highly plausible that an ideologies own arguments could be interpreted as satire if there were impostor-suspicion (which the test would cause).

I was aware (though i didn't think it through to that it might be interpreted as satire). But the ideological Turing test has been described as a conversation with six candidates, so in this thought experiment the five other feminists would also be suspected, not just the one we're testing. (The readers i understand to initially have no reason to particularly suspect any of the six more than any other.)

And in a way, that one feminist doesn't differ from the other five. Indeed she could have equally well be selected as one of the five instead. (It is unclear to me whether we would tell the tested feminist that she is being tested.)

I feel like I can't say this without it being interpreted as a jab at feminism,

Well, personally, i love good jabs at feminism! And "good" here does not necessitate "nice".

but I think such a test where you arouse a bit of suspicion and then play back some arguments and see if they are accepted or accused of satire would be a good discriminator of something (I'm not sure what). What would it mean when an ideologies arguments can't be taken seriously unless you're sure the speaker is sincere?

You seem to leave out who the readers are supposed to be, and what kind of qualification about the ideology they would have to have. Ignoring that omission and assuming an arbitrarily "competent" reader, it would presumably mean that the ideology tends to be rather silly?

I know I can't charitably describe the arguments for the idea that discrimination against historically privileged groups is not a thing,

I think i also can't charitably describe arguments for that idea, as it hinges too much on something "historical". This is an inaccurate position to begin with, so the failure to argue well for it is not relevant. I mentioned some of this in an earlier comment. Quoting myself from there:

[...] i still believe that it would not pass, as i noted in my parens remark. This is because i think that none of "[institutional] power" or "prejudice" [against a group] can adequately be described as "historical disadvantage" alone. When they write "institutional power" as well as "power plus prejudice", they decidedly are not referring to something that lies purely in the past (indeed the present-day components are arguably the most important, though not the only interesting, ones) . The adjective "historical" in your usage seems to me to be incompatible to that.

This applies similarly to your wording regarding "historically privileged groups" (regardless that it is a variation on the "historical disadvantage").

I'd be interested what real feminists would say on the issue,

Well, it is said that there's one in my mind.

(and then whether that would be accepted by other feminists as representative of the ideology).

This is complicated by differing flavours of feminism, which i mentioned in your comment's parent (to handwave them away for the thought experiment).

I think that core statements i make about my feminism would usually be accepted "as representative of the ideology" (both feminism generally or my kind of feminism) by some people close to me, which happen to have similar ideological views. (How could that happen?!)

At the same time, it is plausible that lots of feminists would disagree. Hence claiming to be accepted "as representative of" the entirety of feminism might be very misleading then. Accepted by whom? Some majority of arbitrarily selected readers?

Anyway, when i initially wrote your comment's parent, i prepared my actual "submission" to the test already (but then decided to delay sending it). So here it is, adjusted:

[My] rationale for the 'one-sided' definition of sexism would be more along the lines of the mentioned "prejudice plus power", or "institutional power", or, say, "structures of kyriarchal (here incidentally also: patriarchal) domination which are frequently propagated by (plausibly subconscious) socio-cultural memetic effects which normalise/privilege particular traits".

I made up half of that last one, naturally. I consider this entire blurb relevant to the sexism definition because just "institutional power" seems too vague and hence could be misleading. The last one (my true one ?) traces more of the underlying ideology, or at least more explicitly.

Most feminists tend to be less verbose in a context like this.

Comment author: DaFranker 05 October 2012 04:07:58PM 2 points [-]

Well, some recent hindsight analysis (during the eridu radical-feminist debacle) allowed me to notice that it seems highly likely that nearly all female feminists I've encountered in person with common knowledge of such were mostly of the kind that had one or few strong very bad near-type personal experiences with men, or many small but memorable such near-type experiences. The kinds you'd probably expect from a stereotypical scenario of "The Father is Master and Law of the House" or a poor waitress working late shifts at a café on the same street corner as a strip club.

So in my case I probably wasn't dealing only with "feminists", but at the same time with individuals taken with a widespread personal fear or anger towards men, in nearly all the cases that produced these kinds of strong reactions. This might be due to statistical coincidence (not that particularly unlikely) or to some behavior that causes other types of feminists to not identify themselves as such when dealing with me, or to some other cause.

It may very well be that the A scenario you describe actually does happen to me sometimes, but with the other participant(s) simply not identifying themselves as feminists at all. If so, I either never ran them through my mental model of feminists for a pattern-matching, reverse-ideological-turing-test thinghy, or my model is sufficiently incorrect/imprecise that they actually failed said test.

In my personal (social) experiences, feminists overall are not as vicious most of the time =)

I kind of suspected this to be the case, because if the contrary were true, the feminist movement as a whole would be spectacularly self-hindering and shooting itself in the foot constantly, since such behavior as I've observed would basically cause very destructive conflict and wouldn't actually help further their goals.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 05:10:41PM 3 points [-]

allowed me to notice that it seems highly likely that nearly all female feminists I've encountered in person with common knowledge of such were mostly of the kind that had one or few strong very bad near-type personal experiences with men, or many small but memorable such near-type experiences.

Depending on how bad you consider "very bad" and how memorable you consider "memorable" as to make this "kind" be applicable to a woman, it might be the case that a significant part of all women (regardless whether feminist) are of this kind. There might even be studies or what backing such claims up, though right now i'm not inclined to search for any.

Comment author: DaFranker 05 October 2012 04:40:41PM 1 point [-]

Where can i find out what "near-type" means here? This appears important enough to postpone my reply to this part.

Near mode, Far mode - In rough vulgarization, Near mode is immediate observation and sensation, Far mode is abstract knowledge of something.

As for that last, yeah. I was merely spelling out my own reasoning. Saying something like that is exactly the kind of behavior I'd expect to cause the kind of reactions / treatment / behavior I've described in earlier posts.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 05:02:03PM 0 points [-]

In rough vulgarization, Near mode is immediate observation and sensation, Far mode is abstract knowledge of something.

Thanks.

Saying something like that is exactly the kind of behavior I'd expect to cause the kind of reactions / treatment / behavior I've described in earlier posts.

It's good to know that you know that. Your wording here might mildly suggest that you disagree with such reactions to that behaviour on some level, but i might just be imagining that. And either way it's not of much relevance.

Comment author: metaphysicist 05 October 2012 04:51:33PM 7 points [-]

Where can i find out what "near-type" means here?

It refers to "near-mode," which is jargon in construal-level theory for "construed concretely." So in context, it means direct and involving personal experience, as opposed to reading or discussing abstractly.

Robin Hanson applies construal-level theory speculatively in numerous posts at Overcoming Bias. A concise summary of construal-level theory can be found in my posting "Construal-level theory: Matching linguistic register to the case's granularity.".

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 04:58:04PM 1 point [-]

Thank you. For now i'll work with your explanation for this context specifically.

Comment author: DaFranker 05 October 2012 02:43:17PM 0 points [-]

"Overthrow", "Patriarchy", "pervasive", "pernicious", "subconscious motive", "you're wrong and harmful and won't even know how/why nor can stop it until you're part of us" (arguably not specific to radical feminism, lots of cults and ideological groups throw around this form of argument, but it doesn't seem present in non-radical feminist circles in my experience).

The rest is mostly a central accusatory behavior: Everyone is guilty and should feel such until they're perfect examples of ideal radical feminists. No matter how careful they are, if they're not the exact model of a radical feminist, they're doing tons of social damage.

Note that most of my impression of "radical feminism" comes from a few google searches, the whole debacle centered around eridu in Yvain's Worst Argument in the World article, and some fairly one-sided references that eridu gave, a few of which were scientific enough for me to take seriously. I'm probably not the best person to paint a clear picture of the ideology and I probably wouldn't pass an ideological turing test, but if you're looking for a "what most laypeople probably think", this might be pretty close.

Comment author: t-E 05 October 2012 04:54:39PM 0 points [-]

Thank you for this.

  • The term "patriarchy" is commonly used by feminists other than radical ones.

  • The term "pervasive" is commonly used by me (i'm also not a radical feminist), not only in reference to (traditional) sexism. And more on topic, i think i read it now and then from many non-radical feminists as well.

  • I had to look up a translation for "pernicious" in a dictionary. This indicates that before i rarely if ever read it at all, even in some content i read that's authored by self-described radical feminists. Interesting.

  • I'm not used to the combination "subconscious motive", but claims of something that can be (and is) called subconscious going on, and that this propagates sexism, are fairly common in my corners of feminism.

  • Stances such as "you're wrong and harmful [...]" are fairly common among various radical groups (here the term radical on its own instead of as in radical feminism only). In wider feminism they might indeed be less common, or at least less commonly expressed (to you).

  • I think your characterisation of the "central accusatory behaviour" is an understatement. Radical feminists as far as i can tell seem to share my opinion that an ideal rejection of (othering/normative) societal indoctrination is "impossible" to attain currently (or more precisely: impractical).

the whole debacle centered around eridu in Yvain's Worst Argument in the World article,

Ah, the debacle again (or was this comment written earlier than your other one i answered? eh). Still not inclined enough to search for the relevant content all on my own, though.

I'm probably not the best person to paint a clear picture of the ideology and I probably wouldn't pass an ideological turing test,

I assumed so. So that's exactly what interested me in my request.

but if you're looking for a "what most laypeople probably think", this might be pretty close.

I'm ambivalent about that. At first i thought your articulation, if inaccurate, seemed closer to the truth than "what most laypeople probably think". Rereading your text now i don't really find anything to support that, though. But it's interesting material for me nonetheless!

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