Because of the particular historical moment in which we live, we end up facing pressure from progressives, because—whatever our _object-level_ beliefs about (say) [sex, race, and class differences](/2020/Apr/book-review-human-diversity/)—and however much many of us would prefer not to talk about them—on the _meta_ level, our creed requires us to admit _it's an empirical question_, not a moral one—and that [empirical questions have no privileged reason to admit convenient answers](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sYgv4eYH82JEsTD34/beyond-the-reach-of-god).
-I view this conflict as entirely incidental, nothing to do with American politics or "the left" in particular. In a Christian theocracy, our analogues would get in trouble for beliefs about evolution; in the old Soviet Union, our analogues would get in trouble for [thinking about market economics](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/24/book-review-red-plenty/) (as a positive technical discipline, adjacent to game theory, not yoked to a particular normative agenda).
+I view this conflict as entirely incidental, something that [would happen in some form in any place and time](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cKrgy7hLdszkse2pq/archimedes-s-chronophone), rather than having to do with American politics or "the left" in particular. In a Christian theocracy, our analogues would get in trouble for beliefs about evolution; in the old Soviet Union, our analogues would get in trouble for [thinking about market economics](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/24/book-review-red-plenty/) (as a positive technical discipline, adjacent to game theory, not yoked to a particular normative agenda).
-https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3376
-https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/
+Incidental or not, the conflict is real, and everyone smart knows it—even if it's not easy to _prove_ that everyone smart knows it, because everyone smart is very careful what they say in public. Scott Aaronson wrote of [the Kolmogorov Option](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3376) (which Scott Alexander aptly renamed [Kolmorogov complicity](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/): serve the cause of Truth by cultivating a bubble that focuses on truths that won't get you in trouble with the local political authorities. This after the Soviet mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov, who _knew better than to pick fights he couldn't win_.
+
+Becuase of the conflict, and because we happen to have to a _wildly_ disproportionate number of _people like me_ around, I think being "pro-trans" ended up being part of the community's "shield" against external political pressure, of the sort that perked up after [the February 2021 _New York Times_ hit piece about Alexander's blog](https://archive.is/0Ghdl). (The _magnitude_ of heat brought on by the recent _Times_ piece and its aftermath was new, but the underlying dynamics had been present for years.)
+
+Jacob Falkovich notes, ["The two demographics most over-represented in the SlateStarCodex readership according to the surveys are transgender people and Ph.D. holders."](https://twitter.com/yashkaf/status/1275524303430262790) Aaronson notes (in commentary on the _Times_ article) "the rationalist community's legendary openness to alternative gender identities and sexualities" as something that would have "complicated the picture" of our portrayal as anti-feminist.
+
+Even the hater–critics grudgingly concede that "... Not Man for the Categories" is to Alexander's credit:
+
+
+
+I _should_ be sympathetic to the argument, which makes a lot of sense.
+
+https://otherlife.co/respectability-is-not-worth-it-reply-to-slatestarcodex/
[Leeroy Jenkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeroy_Jenkins) Option.
People use trans as political cover;
+(Look at all the damage the _other_ Harry Potter author did to her mainstream legacy.)
+
+nothing left to lose
+
[It would have been harder to recruit me]
-https://twitter.com/yashkaf/status/1275524303430262790
-> "Who cares about a blog for male nerd know-it-alls?"
-> The two demographics most over-represented in the SlateStarCodex readership according to the surveys are transgender people and Ph.D. holders.
https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=5310
-> Another thing that would've complicated the picture: the rationalist community’s legendary openness to alternative gender identities and sexualities]
Someone asked me: "If we randomized half the people at [OpenAI](https://openai.com/) to use trans pronouns one way, and the other half to use it the other way, do you think they would end up with significantly different productivity?"
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff