here's a great and useful rundown of Scott Alexander Siskind's actual awful beliefs, from a centrist who found it difficult to accept until that email leaked - eviltoast
    • Architeuthis@awful.systems
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      7 months ago

      Either that or he let his performative contrarianism get out of hand, he did delete the post after all.

      Still, it’s just like an HBD enthusiast heavy into eugenic optimisation to think that there might be something to measuring skulls, even if it didn’t pan out the first time, maybe if they had known about IQ it would have been different, it’s a shame the woke mob has made using calipers on school children a crime, etc.

      • YouKnowWhoTheFuckIAM@awful.systems
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        7 months ago

        As far as I know Siskind has never deleted any idea for the contrarianism motivating it getting out of hand. It’s just against his character. Much more likely he considered it revealing his power level (even if he recognised himself as never having really endorsed the idea besides contrarianism in the first place).

        Less charitably, more plausibly, at the outside he recognised that it’s a stupid fucking thing to say that makes him look just not smart.

        • Architeuthis@awful.systems
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          7 months ago

          That’s the trouble with talking about thoroughly disingenuous people, you get bogged down with defining if they meant to mean what they wrote. It’s all optics.