Scott Alexander

I learned I should never tell that story.

Scott writes, I think some of Adam's manipulations seem closer to the bad cases than the good ones.

He wrote about the moment he decided to use his persuasion powers to convince America to elect Trump.

One day when he was doing his Dispassionate Observer Act, he heard about Hillary's estate tax plan and realised it would cost his estate lots of money.

He had no principled stance against it.

Quote, You can argue whether an estate tax is fair or unfair, but fairness is an argument for idiots and children.

End quote.

But concluded that, quote, This was personal.

This was also the day I decided to move from observer to persuader.

Scott writes, To vote against their own interests or beliefs, in order to enrich him personally.

Footnote, Adams does try to defend this, saying that, quote, I earned my money through hard work, and I already paid taxes on it, end quote.

But I don't understand what he means by saying this just a few sentences after he says that you shouldn't debate fairness because that's for children.

And in that context, it doesn't really feel very exonerating.

Back to the text.

I think this requires some sort of standpoint where you consider their agency and interests less important than your own.

And that's why I described him as wanting to manipulate, quote, lesser humans.

This coexists with him often being very nice, with many people saying his podcast helped them to become better people, etc.

Janie Says Yay writes, quote, This is how Alexander describes Coffee with Scott Adams, one of the most influential online shows.

Here quoting Scott, The commenter goes on, Some community?

CWSA was one of the first long-running online interactive alternative news shows.