A week ago I attended LessOnline, a rationalist blogging conference featuring many people I’ve known for years—Scott Alexander, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Zvi Mowshowitz, Sarah Constantin, Carl…
“You’re Scott Aaronson?! The quantum physicist who’s always getting into arguments on the Internet, and who’s essentially always right, but who sustains an unreasonable amount of psychic damage in the process?”
And then everybody clapped.
(This is extra funny because he lost friends over the gaza genocide debate when his leftwing (and Jewish) friend told him ‘well we do have power over them’ re the protesting students, to which he has a good Rationalist replied with ‘FUCK YOU’. He himself describes the situation slightly differently, but he has shown he doesn’t always have the best ability to understand others in these kinds of emotional moment, and he cannot fathom he might be wrong (and that is how you end up stealing from the tip jar)).
E: And so much references to ‘the sneerers’ and our arguments again, he promised he would stop reading our shit because it is unhealthy for him. But looking at the arguments, I’m happy to see that he has indeed not read our stuff. The I in TESCREAL/TREACLES(*) stands for Incel.
Also, while the Rationalists are not incels, what does the name of your blog stand for Scott? (E: wanted to edit in a link but can’t find the explainer page, wonder if he read it again and went ‘wow yeah I get why people think that isn’t great’ and deleted it (I did find this congrats on being consistently wrong)).
*: still think these are dumb abbreviations, but not letting that get in the way of a dumb joke.
My Grand Unified Theory of Scott Aaronson is that he doesn’t have a theory of mind. On subjects far less incendiary than Zionism, he simply fails to recognize that people who share his background or interests can think differently than he does.
“I’m a rationalist because they let me put “quantum computer scientist (not physicist) who’s always right (despite the suffering of fools)” on my nametag”
The name of his blog was a reference that he thinks he was born in the wrong time, because in Shtetls people of his clear high intelligence would be assigned a wife (and get high social status).
Here is Sneerclub talking about it a while back. Dec 2022 is apparently 2 years ago for reddit.
E: Do note I can’t recall where he wrote about this, so I might be misremembering, or taking what we said in hyperbole about it for the real thing.
E2: unrelated to the blog name, I did think of incels/untitled/this kind of stuff like the troubles of lonely nerds/NDs not getting dating and going to the wrong places when I read the last part of this question Dr NerdLove answered, the ‘to be perfectly blunt’ part. And just how common the ‘you can’t be mad at me now’ thing is.
Re bonus findings: anybody who uses an argument like ‘a man faces genetic oblivion’ like that is way further right than they think they are. That he wrote this before the rise of the whole manosphere stuff (who also had a weird obsession with this, prob why they aligned with the stormfront people so easily (who worry about genetic oblivion of people with their skin color (while excluding Jewish people)) should be extra concerning. I hope it was just a youthful folly, and not something expressed near his kids(*). (While I point to the manosphere shits, there is also a big fantasy/sf element(**), where this is made seemingly important, which makes lonely nerds way more at risk of all of this, see Mickey Rourkes weird shit in the movie immortals (or better, do not it sucks, here is a link to a description of the scene, but be warned)).
*: and to be clear I see no reason why he has this was written years before he met his wife, which he seems to be in a loving, understanding and happy relationship with. See my musings about manosphere/nerd shit more as a jumping off point to talk about it than an accusation. (Think the ‘not as left as you think you are’ thing holds however).
**: That in Crusader Kings 3 for example, a kid being revealed as having a different father does not disinherit them (it just gives them a ‘disputed heritage’ trait) seems to trip a lot of people up. The player can disinherit them, but that comes at a renown cost (but you can do that for almost all children).
Also I love that the conversation almost certainly started with a comment about how everyone assumes they’d be the in the king’s court the cast majority of people would have been some variant of peasant farmer for the vast majority of history. But somehow he still would have totally been the Chief Rabbi, given the most beautiful woman, and generally be a king. I wasn’t there obviously but either he missed the point or they all missed the point. Even when talking specifically about how you can’t choose the circumstances of your birth or their consequences he still can’t imagine himself not being the king.
this is low hanging fruit but: yeah absolutely rancid takes on the middle east from scootson. who would have thought he would produce such nuance-free, fascist opinions about geopolitics?
““I would’ve been the chief rabbi of my shtetl,” I said. “All day long, I’d debate questions like how much restitution you’d have to pay if your ox gored your neighbor’s sheep. And for this, I’d get an arranged marriage with the most beautiful girl in town.””
And then everybody clapped.
(This is extra funny because he lost friends over the gaza genocide debate when his leftwing (and Jewish) friend told him ‘well we do have power over them’ re the protesting students, to which he has a good Rationalist replied with ‘FUCK YOU’. He himself describes the situation slightly differently, but he has shown he doesn’t always have the best ability to understand others in these kinds of emotional moment, and he cannot fathom he might be wrong (and that is how you end up stealing from the tip jar)).
E: And so much references to ‘the sneerers’ and our arguments again, he promised he would stop reading our shit because it is unhealthy for him. But looking at the arguments, I’m happy to see that he has indeed not read our stuff. The I in TESCREAL/TREACLES(*) stands for Incel.
Also, while the Rationalists are not incels, what does the name of your blog stand for Scott? (E: wanted to edit in a link but can’t find the explainer page, wonder if he read it again and went ‘wow yeah I get why people think that isn’t great’ and deleted it (I did find this congrats on being consistently wrong)).
*: still think these are dumb abbreviations, but not letting that get in the way of a dumb joke.
My Grand Unified Theory of Scott Aaronson is that he doesn’t have a theory of mind. On subjects far less incendiary than Zionism, he simply fails to recognize that people who share his background or interests can think differently than he does.
“I’m a rationalist because they let me put “quantum computer scientist (not physicist) who’s always right (despite the suffering of fools)” on my nametag”
So what does the name of his blog stand for?
The name of his blog was a reference that he thinks he was born in the wrong time, because in Shtetls people of his clear high intelligence would be assigned a wife (and get high social status).
Here is Sneerclub talking about it a while back. Dec 2022 is apparently 2 years ago for reddit.
E: Do note I can’t recall where he wrote about this, so I might be misremembering, or taking what we said in hyperbole about it for the real thing.
E2: unrelated to the blog name, I did think of incels/untitled/this kind of stuff like the troubles of lonely nerds/NDs not getting dating and going to the wrong places when I read the last part of this question Dr NerdLove answered, the ‘to be perfectly blunt’ part. And just how common the ‘you can’t be mad at me now’ thing is.
This appears to be the explainer: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=476 , also referenced here: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=5769
Edit: bonus cursed findings: https://web.archive.org/web/20071006184928/http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=260
Re bonus findings: anybody who uses an argument like ‘a man faces genetic oblivion’ like that is way further right than they think they are. That he wrote this before the rise of the whole manosphere stuff (who also had a weird obsession with this, prob why they aligned with the stormfront people so easily (who worry about genetic oblivion of people with their skin color (while excluding Jewish people)) should be extra concerning. I hope it was just a youthful folly, and not something expressed near his kids(*). (While I point to the manosphere shits, there is also a big fantasy/sf element(**), where this is made seemingly important, which makes lonely nerds way more at risk of all of this, see Mickey Rourkes weird shit in the movie immortals (or better, do not it sucks, here is a link to a description of the scene, but be warned)).
*: and to be clear I see no reason why he has this was written years before he met his wife, which he seems to be in a loving, understanding and happy relationship with. See my musings about manosphere/nerd shit more as a jumping off point to talk about it than an accusation. (Think the ‘not as left as you think you are’ thing holds however).
**: That in Crusader Kings 3 for example, a kid being revealed as having a different father does not disinherit them (it just gives them a ‘disputed heritage’ trait) seems to trip a lot of people up. The player can disinherit them, but that comes at a renown cost (but you can do that for almost all children).
Well found.
Also I love that the conversation almost certainly started with a comment about how everyone assumes they’d be the in the king’s court the cast majority of people would have been some variant of peasant farmer for the vast majority of history. But somehow he still would have totally been the Chief Rabbi, given the most beautiful woman, and generally be a king. I wasn’t there obviously but either he missed the point or they all missed the point. Even when talking specifically about how you can’t choose the circumstances of your birth or their consequences he still can’t imagine himself not being the king.
this is low hanging fruit but: yeah absolutely rancid takes on the middle east from scootson. who would have thought he would produce such nuance-free, fascist opinions about geopolitics?
Ah right yes, thanks.