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By inviting people like Yarvin to speak a clear signal is sent: people with bigoted beliefs are welcome in the conference. This makes the minorities Yarvin rail

by gizmo 11y ago

By inviting people like Yarvin to speak a clear signal is sent: people with bigoted beliefs are welcome in the conference. This makes the minorities Yarvin rails against feel unwelcome. There is no opting out of this kind of signaling. Either the conference is welcoming to marginalized groups in tech (and therefore shuns people who are intolerant), or the inverse. So the best option is to tell neoreactionaries to get lost. This means we lose out on a potentially meritorious technical talk, but finding a replacement speaker isn't that difficult.

devalier 11y ago
This makes the minorities Yarvin rails against feel unwelcome. According to Urban Dictionary, "to rail" means in this context means: "To irrationally attack someone verbally, with intent to destroy their reputation, belief, persona, or work." Moldbug does not does not irrationally want to attack/destroy minorities in general. Heck, he is more for affirmative action than many mainstream conservatives are. His philosophy of passivism is less likely to cause intolerance than many other political writings. He explicitly says there is no reason to judge a specific person by race. But that is all beside the point. There are always some views in society which are so vile that we ostracize those who hold them. But can we agree that there should be a process by which these specific unacceptable views are defined, and offenders have the ability to recant and edit or censor his blog to get back in the good graces of society? Every sane society will have such a process.
Ologn 11y ago
Absolutely. More than one out of eight Americans is black. So if you look at Strange Loop's dozens of speakers for 2015, you'd expect on the basis of random statistics that at least one of eight was black. Of course, this is not the case. With regards to Strange Loop, blacks are already marginalized. The organizers could have done one better and invited prolifically racist speakers to speak at this Cisco-sponsored event. They thankfully chose not to. Strange Loop is already a conference which marginalizes blacks. Inviting openly racist speakers would just underline that.
- gizmo 11y ago
  I agree about your point about black people being very marginalized, but Strange Loop is -- as far as I can tell -- making a serious effort to have a diverse group of speakers: http://www.thestrangeloop.com/2015/sessions.html http://www.thestrangeloop.com/2015/sessions.html
clarkm 11y ago
I don't buy this. I think it's entirely possible to give someone a platform to express their views on a specific topic without implying that you endorse their views on all other matters. For example, the NYT invited Putin to write an Op-Ed column on Syria: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-cau... Does that mean they tacitly endorse Putin's past statements on LGBT rights? Of course not.

by gizmo 11y ago

devalier 11y ago

This makes the minorities Yarvin rails against feel unwelcome. According to Urban Dictionary, "to rail" means in this context means: "To irrationally attack someone verbally, with intent to destroy their reputation, belief, persona, or work." Moldbug does not does not irrationally want to attack/destroy minorities in general. Heck, he is more for affirmative action than many mainstream conservatives are. His philosophy of passivism is less likely to cause intolerance than many other political writings. He explicitly says there is no reason to judge a specific person by race. But that is all beside the point. There are always some views in society which are so vile that we ostracize those who hold them. But can we agree that there should be a process by which these specific unacceptable views are defined, and offenders have the ability to recant and edit or censor his blog to get back in the good graces of society? Every sane society will have such a process.

Ologn 11y ago

Absolutely. More than one out of eight Americans is black. So if you look at Strange Loop's dozens of speakers for 2015, you'd expect on the basis of random statistics that at least one of eight was black. Of course, this is not the case. With regards to Strange Loop, blacks are already marginalized. The organizers could have done one better and invited prolifically racist speakers to speak at this Cisco-sponsored event. They thankfully chose not to. Strange Loop is already a conference which marginalizes blacks. Inviting openly racist speakers would just underline that.

gizmo 11y ago
I agree about your point about black people being very marginalized, but Strange Loop is -- as far as I can tell -- making a serious effort to have a diverse group of speakers: http://www.thestrangeloop.com/2015/sessions.html http://www.thestrangeloop.com/2015/sessions.html

clarkm 11y ago

I don't buy this. I think it's entirely possible to give someone a platform to express their views on a specific topic without implying that you endorse their views on all other matters. For example, the NYT invited Putin to write an Op-Ed column on Syria: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-cau... Does that mean they tacitly endorse Putin's past statements on LGBT rights? Of course not.