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I Am Deleting the Blog

slatestarcodex.com

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Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#821

Post by chillacy »

frobozz wrote: post #246
chillacy wrote: post #14

This is a tragedy, Scott Alexander is such a thoughtful writer. I wish journalists would come up with some professional standards and make the title licensed, like doctor or lawyer. Right now we all recognize how important journalism is but journalists themselves run the gamut from ethical investigative journalists to clickbait manufacturers. Imagine if journalists also had to adhere to the equivalent of attorney cli…

Licensing only works if you have to be in a certain jurisdiction to operate in it. Given that more "journalism" is online, if Murdoch or the Barclay Brothers or whoever don't like the restrictions of your licence, they can just employ journalists somewhere else. If they need boots on the ground, they can employ independent contractors. How do you prevent independent journalists selling pieces to certain outlets witho…

Doctors were once upon a time not very highly trained, medicine was a crapshoot, now things have changed. I'm sure it was a tremendous upheaval at the time. That it's a lot of work doesn't mean it can't be done.

A more interesting argument against doing this is considering the tradeoffs if implemented:

* e.g. the AMA has pretty successfully restricted the supply of doctors and driven the prices of medicine up,

* people are so paranoid about giving medical or legal advice they have to say things like "I'm not a doctor but... I'm not a lawyer but..."

etc.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#822

Post by lliamander »

entropyneur wrote: post #495
gringoDan wrote: post #394

Reading this made me think of two essays I've recently revisited. 1. The Sound of Silence, by Jessica Livingston Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves because the downside risk of being attacked for (misinterpretations of) their opinions are too high. People are wary of sharing useful information outside of trusted circles, which serves to consolidate power with insiders – those…

I love "What You Can't Say" and have incorporated the conformist test into my moral compass. But I think the shift to use of shame for society regulation is a positive development. I'd much rather be downvoted on HN or called names on Twitter than beaten up or deprived of freedom. But maybe that's just me.

It's not simply being called names (though that can cause some level of psychological distress). The big concern is economic consequences. People are losing their jobs, losing access to the platforms their customers are using, being canceled by payment services, etc.

There's also some level of physical safety concerns as well, but (as of yet) that's not as big of a concern.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#823

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

neonate wrote: post #816
maxwelljoslyn wrote: post #21

I clicked on this expecting it to be Scott Alexander blogging about somebody else getting doxxed. I flipped like a boat when I realized what I was reading. Holy shit! I was just in SSC's Open Thread a few hours ago opening comment permalinks in tabs to respond to them. That NYT writer should be fired. I hope Scott recovers soon. SSC is my favorite place on the Web.

Fired? Let's not repeat the same mistakes we're complaining about. How about: that NYT writer should be persuaded and treated empathetically. It's not the writer anyhow. It's the editor and probably a policy, though I'm sure they'd have no trouble bending their policy if they wanted to. https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/he95ak/blog...

Please see my revised position in a comment to 'rachelshu.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23611133

That said: I don't understand how I'm repeating a mistake here. "Cancel culture" has become a problem because people get fired from their day jobs (or suffer other consequences) for opinions not pertaining to their day jobs, which are expressed outside their work hours.

In contrast, the NYT writer engaged in crappy professional conduct.

I agree that the writer is not the root problem. I've changed my mind about whether firing should happen; other solutions addressing journalistic incentives, or this journalist's team, or whatever, would probably go further.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#824

Post by bachmeier »

derefr wrote: post #727
mshron wrote: post #642

I am genuinely baffled how Scott Alexander's post has turned into hundreds and hundreds of comments on cancel culture, as if it was anything near the #1 reason why he'd be in danger if his name was revealed. Being famous is dangerous in every era, doubly so in an era where anybody unhinged basically has access to the same level of information you used to need a private investigator to get. Tim Ferris said it well: "T…

> I am genuinely baffled how Scott Alexander's post has turned into hundreds and hundreds of comments on cancel culture, as if it was anything near the #1 reason why he'd be in danger if his name was revealed. People in comments sections (doesn’t matter which) don’t really “react to” or “engage with” the article very often. What they’re really doing is being reminded by the article of some thought that’s been affecti…

> People in comments sections (doesn’t matter which) don’t really “react to” or “engage with” the article very often. What they’re really doing is being reminded by the article of some thought that’s been affecting them in their own lives lately—which they then hold forth about.

Don't want to go off on a tangent, but HN trains its users to do that by posting one article after another that's behind a paywall. Of course there will be comments vaguely related to the article when you've created a culture of commenting without reading.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#825

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

maxwelljoslyn wrote: post #21

I clicked on this expecting it to be Scott Alexander blogging about somebody else getting doxxed. I flipped like a boat when I realized what I was reading. Holy shit! I was just in SSC's Open Thread a few hours ago opening comment permalinks in tabs to respond to them. That NYT writer should be fired. I hope Scott recovers soon. SSC is my favorite place on the Web.

Response to my own comment because I can't edit it:

Scott Alexander has been giving more information in the SSC subreddit, including the comment I've quoted below. Having read what he has to say, I've changed my mind, and don't think the journalist should be fired.

https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/he95ak/blog...

> I honestly got the impression that the reporter liked my blog and wanted to write a nice story about it.

> When I told him I didn't want my real name in the article, he talked to his editor and said the editor said it was NYT policy all articles must include real names.

> I got the impression he felt bad about it but had spent weeks writing the article and wasn't going to throw out all that work just for my sake.

> When I threatened to take down the blog, I think he did the decision-theoretically correct move of not giving in to threats.

> Overall I think this is a story about the NYT having overly strict real-name policies that unfortunately put a guy in a bad situation.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#826

Post by coffeemaniac »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #777
alecbenzer wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication being that the NYT wants to use real names to drive clicks and appease advertisers?

It’s multi-faceted. In some cases NYT (or any news org of any prevailing political inclination) might want to expose real names to exercise control or rally people to cancel someone. Other times it might be more mundane, just wanting a better angle for the story or more solid corroborative details. In the case of SSC I really worry that NYT would be trying to exercise control. They probably like many things written o…

The modern left is constantly diving into the statistics of these topics, and if you think they're not it probably signals more that you're just not a part of that discussion. If you've let your conclusions be influenced by SSC and other reactionary blogs I'd urge you to check out some leftist spaces and ask around.

There's a lot of nuance, and more importantly, a lot of disagreement even in those spaces on these very issues.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#828

Post by Smaug123 »

csharptwdec19 wrote: post #664
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The father of one of my neighbours recently died in a house fire. It was a tragic accident, nothing sinister. The whole family could be described as boringly average with nothing of note about them. The family refused all requests for interviews from the media. That didn't stop the Irish Independent (big national paper here) from publishing gory headlines about the families pain. They also managed to source family ph…

Doesn't the UK have strong laws about libel and slander? Or do they not apply to Ireland?

The Republic of Ireland is situated on the island of Ireland, which is itself one of the archipelago known as the British Isles (a term which is offensive to certain people from the Republic). Other entities which sit on the British Isles include the Isle of Man and the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", comprising four nations (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). Great Britain is one of the British Isles, and it contains most of Wales, Scotland, and England.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#829

Post by lliamander »

mshron wrote: post #642

I am genuinely baffled how Scott Alexander's post has turned into hundreds and hundreds of comments on cancel culture, as if it was anything near the #1 reason why he'd be in danger if his name was revealed. Being famous is dangerous in every era, doubly so in an era where anybody unhinged basically has access to the same level of information you used to need a private investigator to get. Tim Ferris said it well: "T…

The NYT has previously respected the anonymity of others, including an ISIS fighter[0]. That the NYT has a blanket policy about publishing real names is possible, but certainly suspicious.

> Tim Ferris said it well: "The point is this: you don’t need to do anything wrong to get death threats, rape threats, etc. You just need a big enough audience."

True, but a big part of why Scott has such a big audience is his willingness to write about the problems of cancel culture, and cancel culture would almost certainly come after him if he is doxxed.

[0]https://twitter.com/AlanMCole/status/1275446136375898114

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