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[ACC] When During Fetal Development Does Abortion Become Morally Wrong?
Two authors debate when abortion becomes morally wrong, presenting arguments for conception vs. fetal viability as the ethical cutoff point.
35 min read 5,387 words
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2,008 essaysSSC
[ACC] Will Automation Lead To Economic Crisis?
The post argues that automation and AI are unlikely to cause a sustained economic crisis, as new jobs will be created to replace those automated, though the benefits may primarily go to capital owners.
28 min read 4,312 words
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Addendum To “Economists On Education”
Scott Alexander argues that a New York Times article misrepresented economists' views on school vouchers, offering evidence and proposing a bet to prove the article was misleading.
7 min read 1,023 words
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Addendum To “Enormous Nutshell”: Competing Selectors
Scott Alexander explains a reactionary philosophy model distinguishing between culturally evolved (right-wing) and memetically evolved (left-wing) policies, exploring its implications and potential applications.
14 min read 2,073 words
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Addendum to “Targeting Meritocracy”
Scott Alexander revisits his 'Targeting Meritocracy' post, realizing the disagreements stemmed from different fundamental perspectives: mistake theory vs. conflict theory.
3 min read 322 words
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Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Scott Alexander examines the risks of Adderall use, analyzing medical, addiction, tolerance, and neurotoxicity concerns, concluding that the benefits outweigh the risks for well-informed patients.
48 min read 7,424 words
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Adult Neurogenesis – A Pointed Review
The post reviews research on adult neurogenesis, initially presenting evidence for its existence and importance, then reveals a new study suggesting it doesn't occur in humans, examining the implications of this potential field-wide error.
25 min read 3,742 words
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Adversarial Collaboration Contest 2019
Scott Alexander announces the second Adversarial Collaboration Contest, where people with opposing views collaborate on essays about controversial topics for prizes.
8 min read 1,236 words
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Adversarial Collaboration Contest: Loose Ends And Registration
Scott Alexander provides instructions for participants to connect, register for the adversarial collaboration contest, and mentions potential additional prizes.
3 min read 325 words
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Adversarial Collaboration Contest Results
Scott Alexander announces winners of the adversarial collaboration contest and shares participant feedback, while reflecting on potential issues with the format.
48 min read 7,418 words
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Adversarial Collaboration Update
Scott Alexander announces that the adversarial collaboration contest will proceed, lists the registered teams, and introduces a new rule for proposing topics.
2 min read 217 words
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Against Against Autism Cures
Scott Alexander critiques the autism rights movement's opposition to curing autism, arguing that severe cases cause immense suffering that justifies continued research into cures.
36 min read 5,500 words
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Against Against Billionaire Philanthropy
Scott Alexander argues against criticism of billionaire philanthropy, citing its efficiency, positive impact, and ability to support important causes that governments often neglect.
43 min read 6,551 words
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Against Against Pseudoaddiction
Scott Alexander argues that pseudoaddiction is a real and important concept, despite being widely denounced as pharma propaganda in the context of the opioid crisis.
37 min read 5,604 words
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Against Anton-Wilsonism
Scott criticizes the approach to mysticism popularized by Robert Anton Wilson, arguing it provides false rewards and promotes harmful dabbling instead of genuine practice.
10 min read 1,501 words
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Against Bravery Debates
Scott Alexander criticizes 'bravery debates' as toxic and unproductive, explaining psychological factors that lead to their persistence and recommending against engaging in them.
14 min read 2,138 words
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Against Dog Whistle-ism
Scott Alexander criticizes media tendencies to label politicians as racist or sexist based on ambiguous statements, arguing we should focus more on their stated positions and actions.
19 min read 2,832 words
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Against Individual IQ Worries
Scott Alexander argues that while IQ is valuable for research, it's not reliable for predicting individual success and shouldn't be a major personal concern.
18 min read 2,768 words
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Against Interminable Arguments
Scott Alexander examines the problem of endless, unproductive arguments in online communities and proposes ways to mitigate them while maintaining healthy discourse.
13 min read 1,861 words
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Against Lie Inflation
Scott Alexander argues against broadening the definitions of words like 'lie' and 'abuse', as it dilutes their meaning and reduces their usefulness in identifying problematic behavior.
14 min read 2,119 words
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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
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Against Overgendering Harassment
The post criticizes the gendered framing of sexual harassment, presenting statistics on male victims and female perpetrators, and argues for a more balanced approach to the issue.
15 min read 2,309 words
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Against Rat Park
Scott Alexander challenges the popular interpretation of the Rat Park study, arguing that addiction is not solely caused by poor environments and emphasizing genetic factors in addiction susceptibility.
17 min read 2,620 words
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Against Signal-Boosting As Doxxing
Scott Alexander critiques the practice of signal-boosting offensive tweets to harm someone's reputation, arguing it undermines free speech and creates dangerous precedents.
12 min read 1,798 words
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Against Tulip Subsidies
The post criticizes unnecessary college degree requirements in various professions and proposes an alternative to Bernie Sanders' free college tuition plan.
17 min read 2,483 words