The history goes back further, to "Politics is the mind killer", a classic post from Eliezer Yudkowsky on lesswrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JE

The history goes back further, to "Politics is the mind killer", a classic post from Eliezer Yudkowsky on lesswrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JEt2Tt8f/politics-is-the-mind-killer https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JEt2Tt8f/politics-i... But politics exists, much real stuff happens there, and also, it's great entertainment. It's also great training, if you don't succumb to bad thinking. It's better doing in company of people who try to be civil and use logic, even if it usually barely works. Resolving this tension is part of Scott's writing from very early on. This is not just image clean-up, it's dealing with a difficult situation.