I’m glad to hear I managed to provide a better summary of the thinking in that email than the previously-offered “he can’t prove them wrong himself so he has to

I’m glad to hear I managed to provide a better summary of the thinking in that email than the previously-offered “he can’t prove them wrong himself so he has to believe them”, that was my goal with that comment. I think I can sort of see how “I don’t believe in X, but the Xists who believe in it only do so because the anti-Xists are so mean to the Xists, so really it’s all the anti-Xists’ fault” sounds like a parody. On the other hand, though, I think if you take “only do so because” and replace it with “do so in large part because” it would be basically a correct description and one that SSC might even endorse himself.