andrewducker | Interesting Links for 25-11-2022

Following the link to Scott's explanations of his actions, he's admitting that he's largely convinced by "HBD" (Human Biodiversity -> "people are diverse", but as "scientific racism", rather than, say, neurodiversity), and also that he wants to encourage the spread of (Neo-)Reactionary thought, which you can read about here and is about as lovely as you'd expect.

Another astonishingly ugly thing. Was never quite comfortable with a lot of that stuff, glad they 'outed' themselves to confirm that I am really just not interested in that movement.

That article seems to attribute most of this to a guy called Moldbug, whom I've only ever previously heard of through Scott Alexander's posts, of whom Scott's opinion seems to be that he finds Moldbug fascinating but mostly disagrees with him.

If, as accused in various deep-down places in #5, Scott A. is secretly pushing eugenics and scientific racism, my reading of his posts is that he's doing so secretly enough that it doesn't come across. Scientific racism is a stupid philosophy characterized by jumping to entirely unwarranted conclusions in a way that Scott A. doesn't. I've read The Bell Curve, which is scientific racism, and the difference seems pretty obvious to me.

(I read The Bell Curve, by the way, in response to a conversation with friends who said it wasn't racist. I wanted to see for myself. I came back afterwards and told them that yes it is, and why.)

It is deeply saddening to read that about Scott: I found him a very engaging and entertaining conversationalist at the Pembury but...

Yes this does seem to be true.

I regret that I have recommended and promoted his work.

Interesting Links for 25-11-2022

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