3 ms·

He seems to get more hate than more mainstream people on the more centrist side of that split... Granted, they do all get hate, and your description does resona

He seems to get more hate than more mainstream people on the more centrist side of that split... Granted, they do all get hate, and your description does resonate. But he still seems to be an outlier.

Karrot_Kream 1y ago
He was considered a core, visible member of the rationalist community from well before the split. For better or for worse he is considered a figurehead of the movement. With the acrimony of the split there was no way he was going to escape unscathed no matter which side he ended up on just by sheer visibility of his writing.
- sanderjd 1y ago
  But it's not rationalists mad about this split who seem to have outsized vitriol for him. It seems to me that it's people who were not involved in that community to begin with.
  - Karrot_Kream 1y ago
    My read has always been that the angry folks were always rationalist adjacent even if they weren't rationalists themselves. There's a lot of people in my IRL network, for example, who are 1-3 degrees of separation from Scott or Yud but have never posted about them or in the rationalist blogspace at all.
homefree 1y ago
Progressives reserve the greatest hate for those they consider “traitors” - it’s why they also hate Ritchie Torres.
- sanderjd 1y ago
  This doesn't really track with respect to Scott Alexander though? He hasn't ever been a progressive, so how is he a traitor?
  - homefree 1y ago
    In the schism the other person replying to you is talking about, Scott didn’t go fully into the far left progressive ideology when it happened so therefore he’s a traitor since he should “know better”. One tenant of the progressive thinking is if you know their argument then you must agree with them because they’re “right”. So you’re either ignorant or evil - there’s no room for smart people that just think they’re wrong. They know Scott isn’t ignorant so therefore he must be evil. My other comment got flag killed because I mentioned the core group I think is responsible for this kind of thinking within that community.
    - homefree 1y ago
      They also flag killed my root level reply to you for this thread, it's an insufferable group.

Karrot_Kream 1y ago

He was considered a core, visible member of the rationalist community from well before the split. For better or for worse he is considered a figurehead of the movement. With the acrimony of the split there was no way he was going to escape unscathed no matter which side he ended up on just by sheer visibility of his writing.

sanderjd 1y ago
But it's not rationalists mad about this split who seem to have outsized vitriol for him. It seems to me that it's people who were not involved in that community to begin with.
- Karrot_Kream 1y ago
  My read has always been that the angry folks were always rationalist adjacent even if they weren't rationalists themselves. There's a lot of people in my IRL network, for example, who are 1-3 degrees of separation from Scott or Yud but have never posted about them or in the rationalist blogspace at all.

homefree 1y ago

Progressives reserve the greatest hate for those they consider “traitors” - it’s why they also hate Ritchie Torres.

sanderjd 1y ago
This doesn't really track with respect to Scott Alexander though? He hasn't ever been a progressive, so how is he a traitor?
- homefree 1y ago
  In the schism the other person replying to you is talking about, Scott didn’t go fully into the far left progressive ideology when it happened so therefore he’s a traitor since he should “know better”. One tenant of the progressive thinking is if you know their argument then you must agree with them because they’re “right”. So you’re either ignorant or evil - there’s no room for smart people that just think they’re wrong. They know Scott isn’t ignorant so therefore he must be evil. My other comment got flag killed because I mentioned the core group I think is responsible for this kind of thinking within that community.
  - homefree 1y ago
    They also flag killed my root level reply to you for this thread, it's an insufferable group.