> I think Scott's fear (rightly or wrongly) isn't that his own opinions will be his downfall, but that those politically on his own side will attack him for pro

> I think Scott's fear (rightly or wrongly) isn't that his own opinions will be his downfall, but that those politically on his own side will attack him for providing a platform to the enemy. I think he sees himself in the same position as Steve Hsu, who was just forced out of his position at Michigan State despite Scott's attempt at public support. The were various criticisms of Hsu, but the main ones seemed to be that he provided a platform for people with unacceptable opinions (Stefan Molyneaux, Ron Unz). I don't think these two are active on SSC, but given anonymous handles, they might turn out to be. Others with bad reputations (Steve Sailer comes to mind) post there civilly, and are treated with respect. I think indisputably there exist some people who consider this to be grounds for "cancellation". The thing about "cancellation" is that it doesn't work if there's nothing there to start with. No one can really dispute that there is at least one frighteningly racist piece of work and at least one frighteningly sexist piece of work we can all point to from SSC. > Others think that the ideas are too dangerous to be discussed I'm very mixed on this. One the one hand, the idea that there is forbidden knowledge is anathema to me. On the other, my timeline has someone in it who essentially argues that he learned "the Bell Curve" is correct because Scott argued for it and he trusts "the smart people" who have read it to conclude it is correct and not racist [0]. We have to accept that, however indirect, that is harm to this individual. They've been recruited into an argument for the genetic superiority of a "white" brain by someone who's irresponsibly laid that argument out. So perhaps there are no forbidden ideas, but there are ideas where it's irresponsible to discuss them without the adequate context of 25+ years of debunking and counter-examples. Especially when homed in a country with a famously inadequate primary education system and a history curricula that barely covers the civil war, let alone anything happening after WW2. [0]: In the interests of not dogpiling a confused individual, I will not share a link to this tweet. You can find it on my timeline if you look, but I really encourage you to leave that person alone for now. They're a victim in my opinion.