Scott Alexander

I don't think someone who was milking right-wingers as a cynical grift would have gone so far as to trust their recommendations on what to take for his cancer.

I think Adams became a sincere right-winger and so was willing to listen to right-wing medical advice.

But I agree that it was written sloppily and sort of suggests he was an ivermectin true believer.

He wasn't and I apologise for that.

I later realized I didn't need to read tea leaves about this.

He says very explicitly in one of his books that yes, after getting attacked by too many left-wing trolls, he decided to commit to fully joining the right wing.

Quote, If you want to see the world more clearly, avoid joining a tribe.

But if you're going to war, leave your clear thinking behind and join a tribe.

Scott writes, After I made some of these arguments to Leo, he said, End quote.

Scott writes, This is fair criticism.

I tried listening to a couple of his shows and they had a different, friendlier tone than his books, interviews and tweets.

Arguably, Adams thought of formal written communication as a place to do manipulation and verbal communication as a cozier spot where he could relate to people normally and explain all the manipulation he was doing.

Ashwin V. writes, quote, This was a response to my claim that Adams, quote, Several people, including Ashwin, objected that Adams didn't see anyone as lesser.

nor think of manipulation as demeaning.

For example, Nutter Just, quote, My impression was Scott believed everyone was like this, even himself, which is why he believed self-affirmations worked.

It's you manipulating your dumb self.

End quote.

Again, I'll half apologize.

I regret my exact framing, lesser humans, which I think was unnecessarily inflammatory since it implies he was sort of thinking in those terms.

But I think he was doing a bad thing, which requires that on some philosophical level he has to be treating other people as his lessers in an unacceptable way, even if he wasn't consciously thinking that they were.