Another Trigger For Creating This Blog: Doxxing, Cancel Culture, and Censorship
I created this blog in part because I decided I’ve had enough.
Of several different, but connected things.
There was one incident recently that kind of pushed me over the edge in terms of my complacency.
I was trying to decide what I should do about it (my inaction and silence) since. I was having some trouble doing my artwork at times as a result of the internal turmoil.
The “last straw” incident for me was hearing “Scott Alexander” was going to be doxxed by the NYT and he deleted his valuable, and at times, brilliant blog as a result. Which of course was their goal in writing the “mostly positive” article on him and revealing his real name.
This has got to stop, I thought.
This hit me personally as I was debating recently wether or not to post a link on my Facebook page to his long 2014 essay, I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup. It was one of the most thought provoking things I have ever read. I have been re-reading and reflecting on it for 4 years. I didn’t think most would have the patience and intellectual integrity to read the whole thing and reflect on it and re-read it as necessary. It’s that kind of thing.
It has been a help to me, being center-right on the political spectrum, in understanding the left’s moral panic and increasing irrationality (TDS) since 2016 (Scott is a psychologist). I thought it was a brilliant piece anyone would benefit from, regardless of ones’ political views. I didn’t want to touch on “political” issues on my art oriented Facebook page as politics tends to be divisive. But the piece gets to the heart of why politics is so divisive as it deals with in-group bias and out-group hatred (cognitive biases and the lack of critical thinking skills were more triggers for me starting this blog – see first 2 blog posts). And boy have we seen a lot of THAT the last few years.
Oh well.
It’s simply gone now.
And everything else he has written.
Down the memory hole.
For me, it’s like a friend dying.
More like a masterpiece by an irreplaceable person, say a Matisse painting, destroyed in a deliberately created fire by someone who hated him and his work. It adds evil to the loss.
This was done by the NYT on purpose.
Damn.
I’ve had enough of these Marxist “woke” purges, euphemistically called “cancel culture” (that has a nicer sound to it than bigotry toward, and intolerance of, an ideological out-group).
Scott’s explanation of the situation is here, the only thing left on his site:
https://slatestarcodex.com
Scott says the attempted doxxing threatens his life and livelihood as he has received death threats and, he says, “I’ve had dissatisfied blog readers call my work pretending to be dissatisfied patients in order to get me fired.”
“I can tolerate anything except the outgroup” indeed.
I will post a link to an archived copy of the essay by Scott in a future post.