ACX
Highlights From The Comments On Scott Adams
Scott responds to comments on his Scott Adams obituary, defending his mixed tone while making some updates based on feedback about Adams' podcast reach and influence.
59 min read 9,104 words
A thread through the archive
racism
Essays tagged “racism”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on racism
17 essaysACX
Lifeboat Games And Backscratchers Clubs
Scott Alexander uses thought experiments to explore how people form coalitions and support networks, relating these to real-world social and political dynamics.
21 min read 3,120 words
SSC
Response To Current Affairs On Against Murderism
Scott Alexander defends his 'Against Murderism' post against Nathan Robinson's criticism, arguing that Robinson misrepresented his arguments and ignored key parts of the original post.
12 min read 1,750 words
SSC
Conflict Vs. Mistake
Scott Alexander explores the conflict vs. mistake theory dichotomy in politics, reflecting on his own mistake theory bias and considering the merits of conflict theory.
19 min read 2,885 words
SSC
Against Murderism
Scott Alexander critiques the concept of 'racism' as an oversimplified explanation for complex issues, arguing for a more nuanced approach to understanding and addressing societal problems.
42 min read 6,392 words
SSC
Dogs And Wolves: In Defense Of Some Past Posts
Scott Alexander defends his past writings on Trump, emphasizing his consistent criticism of Trump while refuting accusations that he underestimated Trump's racism or missed hidden signals.
8 min read 1,148 words
SSC
Framing For Light Instead Of Heat
Scott Alexander argues that framing issues like racial bias in the justice system as 'racism' can be counterproductive, and suggests more precise terminology to focus on actual problems and solutions.
18 min read 2,737 words
SSC
I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup
Scott Alexander examines political tribalism in America, arguing that people often claim tolerance while harboring strong prejudices against their outgroups.
60 min read 9,226 words
SSC
Social Justice And Words, Words, Words
Scott Alexander critiques social justice terminology, arguing that words like 'privilege' and 'racism' are used as weapons rather than tools for understanding.
27 min read 4,178 words
SSC
Someone Writes An Anti-Racist FAQ
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Anti-Racialist Q&A', praising its approach to arguing against racism and its display of epistemic virtue.
4 min read 499 words
SSC
Social Psychology Is A Flamethrower
Scott argues that social psychology is often misused in political discourse, presenting counterintuitive claims to demonstrate how easily it can be manipulated to support various agendas.
23 min read 3,415 words
SSC
Social Justice For The Highly-Demanding-Of-Rigor
Scott presents evidence for the reality and high economic costs of racial and gender discrimination, arguing that fighting prejudice is important and potentially effective.
17 min read 2,509 words
SSC
Arguments About Male Violence Prove Too Much
Scott Alexander argues that generalizing male violence to all men is problematic, drawing parallels with racist generalizations about crime.
23 min read 3,418 words
LW
Cleaning up the "Worst Argument" essay
Scott Alexander introduces 'Guilt by Association' as a fallacy where people judge things negatively based on category membership rather than actual shared features, using examples like calling MLK a 'criminal' or abortion 'murder' to illustrate when this reasoning fails.
11 min read 1,683 words
LW
Missing the Trees for the Forest
Scott argues that people make better decisions when evaluating issues in isolation rather than viewing them as symbols of larger political narratives, using examples from the Duke lacrosse case, environmental regulation debates, and gender politics to illustrate how overarching narratives distort judgment of individual cases.
15 min read 2,221 words
LW
The Implicit Association Test
Scott explains the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which measures unconscious associations by testing reaction times when categorizing concepts, and argues it's better understood as measuring distances in conceptual space rather than as a simple test for prejudice.
15 min read 2,183 words
LW
Bogus Pipeline, Bona Fide Pipeline
Scott explains two psychological techniques for detecting hidden attitudes: the Bogus Pipeline (a fake lie detector that reduces conscious lying) and the Bona Fide Pipeline (a reaction-time computer test that measures unconscious associations).
8 min read 1,112 words