X-Git-Url: http://unremediatedgender.space/source?a=blobdiff_plain;f=content%2Fdrafts%2Fif-clarity-seems-like-death-to-them.md;h=e6a4904af0d7e54e0b75e00c9323baae07a5519f;hb=e23ece92b6a750f1c3672a1cc291d8dd065d2466;hp=587a8b6e168253d5df9397c422ed40299d7ec701;hpb=405544ed3be3910e3f656c74a76a335948b00bd1;p=Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git diff --git a/content/drafts/if-clarity-seems-like-death-to-them.md b/content/drafts/if-clarity-seems-like-death-to-them.md index 587a8b6..e6a4904 100644 --- a/content/drafts/if-clarity-seems-like-death-to-them.md +++ b/content/drafts/if-clarity-seems-like-death-to-them.md @@ -267,14 +267,33 @@ I said that for me and my selfish perspective, the main outcome was finally shat ------- -[TODO: Michael Vassar and the theory of optimal gossip - * Michael's "position" in the community, already not what it once was, was getting debased even further - * Berkeley REACH investigation; I asked what the charges were; they say it's not a court; I say _I_ don't feel safe in a place that bans Michael for no good reason - * Kelsey says in Discord that Michael is trying to get re-included - * I email her with quotes trying to argue that that's not his game - * She doesn't find the quotes convincing, because she thinks Vassar is a liar - * (sleep?!?) - * I call Ben to the stand, then Sarah ("You're a great prosecutor", I say in the channel) +Michael's reputation in "the community", already not what it once was, continued to be debased even further. + +The local community center, the Berkeley REACH,[^reach-acronym-expansion] was conducting an investigation as to whether to exclude Michael (which was mostly moot, as he didn't live in the Bay Area anyway). When I heard that the subcommittee was "very close to releasing a statement", I wrote to them: + +[^reach-acronym-expansion]: Rationality and Effective Altruism Community Hub + +> I've been collaborating with Michael a lot recently, and I'm happy to contribute whatever information I can to make the report more accurate. What are the charges? + +They replied: + +> To be clear, we are not a court of law addressing specific "charges." We're a subcommittee of the Berkeley REACH Panel tasked with making decisions that help keep the space and the community safe. + +I replied: + +> Allow me to rephrase my question about charges. What are the reasons that the safety of the space and the community require you to write a report about Michael? To be clear, a community that excludes Michael on inadequate evidence is one where _I_ feel unsafe. + +We arranged a call, during which I angrily testified that Michael was no threat to the safety of the space and the community—which would have been a bad idea if it were the cops, but in this context, I figured my political advocacy couldn't hurt. + +Concurrently, I got into an argument with Kelsey Piper about Michael, after she had written on Discord that her "impression of _Vassar_'s threatening schism is that it's fundamentally about Vassar threatening to stir shit up until people stop socially excluding him for his bad behavior". I didn't think that was what the schism was about (Subject: "Michael Vassar and the theory of optimal gossip"). + +In the course of litigating Michael's motivations (the details of which are not interesting enough to summarize), Kelsey mentioned that she thought Michael had done immense harm to me: that my models of the world and ability to reason were worse than they were a year ago. I thanked her for the concern, and asked her to be more specific. + +[TODO: social reality modeling ...] + +What Kelsey saw as "Zack is losing his ability to model other people and I'm worried about him", I think Ben and Jessica would see as "Zack is angry about living in [simulacrum level 3](http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/excerpts-from-a-larger-discussion-about-simulacra/) and we're worried about _everyone else_." + +[TODO— * Kelsey in meatspace tells me that Vassar has a benefactor that she can't name; I'm retarded enough to not infer that it's him and she was obfuscating for compliance ... ]