4 ms·

You might see the issue if you're familiar with the case of Scott Alexander or how hard they went after the CEOs of Coinbase and Kraken. Why did they get the hi

by memish 4y ago

You might see the issue if you're familiar with the case of Scott Alexander or how hard they went after the CEOs of Coinbase and Kraken. Why did they get the hit piece treatment but SBF didn't, even now. Neither of them misused and lost billions of dollars of customer funds. SBF unambiguously did. He was even lying about it all the way up until last week, saying that a competitor was going after them with false rumors. Saying FTX is fine. Assets are fine. https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-removes-assets-are-fine-flood-from-twitter https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried... Yet they are treating him with kid gloves and using a sympathetic lens. "his ambitions exceeded his grasp"

whimsicalism 4y ago
My guess is that SBF would also not be treated with kid gloves if he professed a belief that white people were biologically intellectually superior to black people, re: Scott Alexander. Definitely agree that he is being treated nicely (likely due to being a democratic donor) compared to other crypto folks.
- laserlight 4y ago
  Do you have a pointer to where Scott Alexander told so?
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    It's pretty clear to me reading what he says that there is sort of a wink, wink nudge nudge black people are intellectually inferior. I think there are screenshots of his emails out there saying it much more explicitly though, don't have them offhand.
    - reducesuffering 4y ago
      His latest words on that type of topic speak for themselves: "This is far enough from my field that I would usually defer to expert consensus, but all the studies I can find which try to assess expert consensus seem crazy. A while ago, I freaked out upon finding a study that seemed to show most expert scientists in the field agreed with Murray's thesis in 1987 - about three times as many said the gap was due to a combination of genetics and environment as said it was just environment. Then I freaked out again when I found another study (here is the most recent version, from 2020) showing basically the same thing (about four times as many say it’s a combination of genetics and environment compared to just environment). I can't find any expert surveys giving the expected result that they all agree this is dumb and definitely 100% environment and we can move on (I'd be very relieved if anybody could find those, or if they could explain why the ones I found were fake studies or fake experts or a biased sample, or explain how I'm misreading them or that they otherwise shouldn't be trusted. If you have thoughts on this, please send me an email). I've vacillated back and forth on how to think about this question so many times, and right now my personal probability estimate is "I am still freaking out about this, go away go away go away". And I understand I have at least two potentially irresolveable biases on this question: one, I'm a white person in a country with a long history of promoting white supremacy; and two, if I lean in favor then everyone will hate me, and use it as a bludgeon against anyone I have ever associated with, and I will die alone in a ditch and maybe deserve it. So the best I can do is try to route around this issue when considering important questions. This is sometimes hard, but the basic principle is that I'm far less sure of any of it than I am sure that all human beings are morally equal and deserve to have a good life and get treated with respect regardless of academic achievement." https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-cult-of-smart https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-cult-o...
      - whimsicalism 4y ago
- waqf 4y ago
  'Kid gloves' are fine gloves made from the skin of a baby goat. Not from … whatever you thought.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    Haha not sure what I thought - I guess that you would treat children more carefully/kindly than they might deserve. (and you would have special gloves to do so??)
  - unbalancedevh 4y ago
    To "treat someone with kid gloves" means to treat them gently or with special consideration.
    - whimsicalism 4y ago
      I originally had a typo that said "kiddy gloves", which doesn't make any sense
- Siira 4y ago
  Even assuming your slander and its presuppositions, professing a racist belief is worse than stealing billions in NYT’s books.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    It's not slander unless it is false, and it is not false. And yes, the second part of your comment was what my comment was alluding to. My guess is that they will treat someone who stole billions of dollars less poorly than they do someone espousing beliefs in the biological intellectual superiority of white people over black people. You are reading a value judgement into my comment that I never made, my comment is entirely descriptive and non-normative.

by memish 4y ago

whimsicalism 4y ago

My guess is that SBF would also not be treated with kid gloves if he professed a belief that white people were biologically intellectually superior to black people, re: Scott Alexander. Definitely agree that he is being treated nicely (likely due to being a democratic donor) compared to other crypto folks.

laserlight 4y ago
Do you have a pointer to where Scott Alexander told so?
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  It's pretty clear to me reading what he says that there is sort of a wink, wink nudge nudge black people are intellectually inferior. I think there are screenshots of his emails out there saying it much more explicitly though, don't have them offhand.
  - reducesuffering 4y ago
    His latest words on that type of topic speak for themselves: "This is far enough from my field that I would usually defer to expert consensus, but all the studies I can find which try to assess expert consensus seem crazy. A while ago, I freaked out upon finding a study that seemed to show most expert scientists in the field agreed with Murray's thesis in 1987 - about three times as many said the gap was due to a combination of genetics and environment as said it was just environment. Then I freaked out again when I found another study (here is the most recent version, from 2020) showing basically the same thing (about four times as many say it’s a combination of genetics and environment compared to just environment). I can't find any expert surveys giving the expected result that they all agree this is dumb and definitely 100% environment and we can move on (I'd be very relieved if anybody could find those, or if they could explain why the ones I found were fake studies or fake experts or a biased sample, or explain how I'm misreading them or that they otherwise shouldn't be trusted. If you have thoughts on this, please send me an email). I've vacillated back and forth on how to think about this question so many times, and right now my personal probability estimate is "I am still freaking out about this, go away go away go away". And I understand I have at least two potentially irresolveable biases on this question: one, I'm a white person in a country with a long history of promoting white supremacy; and two, if I lean in favor then everyone will hate me, and use it as a bludgeon against anyone I have ever associated with, and I will die alone in a ditch and maybe deserve it. So the best I can do is try to route around this issue when considering important questions. This is sometimes hard, but the basic principle is that I'm far less sure of any of it than I am sure that all human beings are morally equal and deserve to have a good life and get treated with respect regardless of academic achievement." https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-cult-of-smart https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-cult-o...
    - whimsicalism 4y ago
waqf 4y ago
'Kid gloves' are fine gloves made from the skin of a baby goat. Not from … whatever you thought.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  Haha not sure what I thought - I guess that you would treat children more carefully/kindly than they might deserve. (and you would have special gloves to do so??)
- unbalancedevh 4y ago
  To "treat someone with kid gloves" means to treat them gently or with special consideration.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    I originally had a typo that said "kiddy gloves", which doesn't make any sense
Siira 4y ago
Even assuming your slander and its presuppositions, professing a racist belief is worse than stealing billions in NYT’s books.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  It's not slander unless it is false, and it is not false. And yes, the second part of your comment was what my comment was alluding to. My guess is that they will treat someone who stole billions of dollars less poorly than they do someone espousing beliefs in the biological intellectual superiority of white people over black people. You are reading a value judgement into my comment that I never made, my comment is entirely descriptive and non-normative.