ACX
Book Review: The New Sultan
Scott Alexander reviews a book on Erdogan's rise to power in Turkey, analyzing the factors that led to democratic backsliding and considering lessons for other democracies.
51 min read 7,803 words
A thread through the archive
Islam
Essays tagged “Islam”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on Islam
7 essaysSSC
[ACC Entry] Are Islam And Liberal Democracy Compatible?
The post examines the compatibility of Islam and liberal democracy by analyzing six Muslim-majority countries, finding a wide spectrum of outcomes and concluding that Islam often acts as an obstacle to liberal democracy.
99 min read 15,303 words
SSC
Selection bias and atheist stereotypes
Scott Alexander explores how selection bias might create the stereotype of angry, vocal atheists, and speculates on how this concept might apply to other groups.
4 min read 620 words
LW
Offense versus harm minimization
Scott uses a thought experiment about aliens making British people sensitive to salmon photos to argue that causing offense should be viewed through a consequentialist harm-minimization framework rather than a deontological blame-assignment framework.
17 min read 2,604 words
LW
Help, help, I'm being oppressed!
Scott analyzes why multiple groups in America simultaneously claim persecution, identifying psychological motivations behind these claims and warning against the rhetorical trick of presenting oneself as both persecuted underdog and inevitable winner.
11 min read 1,640 words
LW
The Power of Positivist Thinking
Scott defends a 'soft positivism' in which meaningful statements can be reduced to testable claims, and argues that statements that resist such reduction, like 'Islam is a religion of peace', often smuggle in emotion and prejudice.
18 min read 2,712 words
LW
Talking Snakes: A Cautionary Tale
Scott uses a conversation with a Muslim woman who found evolution absurd to show that the absurdity heuristic, as used in Bill Maher's "talking snake" argument, is a bad way to dismiss beliefs.
6 min read 844 words