-[TODO: NYT affair and Brennan link, prelude to pronouns post
- * Cade Metz's story came out, and it was pretty bad in the ways you'd expect
- * notably, the Charles Murray guilt-by-association was a reach on the part of the reporter
- * What's particularly weird is that if you actually read Scott's work (e.g. "High School Science Project", he's obviously sympathetic to genetic explanations; it's _possible_ for Jews to be smart for genetic reasons but the black/white gap to be fake and environmental
- * Scott's denial doesn't go into this, of course
- * Brennan email leak
- * my comment on bullies and heresy / my Twitter comment on lying
- * Yudkowsky reopens the conversation?! Why?!
+On 13 February 2021, ["Silicon Valley's Safe Space"](https://archive.ph/zW6oX), the _New York Times_ piece on _Slate Star Codex_ came out. It was ... pretty lame? (In contrast to a vicious hit piece that one might concede was competently done for all of its mendacity.) Metz did a mediocre job of explaining what our robot cult is about, while [pushing hard on the subtext](https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=5310) to make us look racist and sexist, occasionally resorting to odd constructions that are surpising to read from someone who has been a professional writer for decades. ("It was nominally a blog", Metz wrote of _Slate Star Codex_. ["Nominally"](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominally)?) The article's claim that Alexander "wrote in a wordy, often roundabout way that left many wondering what he really believed" seemed to me more like a critique of the "many"'s reading comprehension, rather than Alexander's writing.