The Curious Case of Mencius Moldbug
June 11, 2015 5:59 AM Subscribe
Should a person be uninvited from a technical conference for his non-technical political views and writings? Computer scientist Curtis Yarvin applied to the Strangeloop conference, an annual meeting known among Silicon Valley thought leaders for its presentations on the cutting-edge of software innovation. His presentation on the experimental "Urbit" operating system was accepted. Then the real fun started. Yarvin's alter-ego, the maverick reactionary blogger "Mencius Moldbug" is known for his long-winded controversial writings. A few tweets later, the connection between Yarvin and Moldbug was made known to the organizers, and they rescinded the accepted talk: I am trying to create a conference where the focus is on the technology and the topics being presented. Ultimately, I decided that if Curtis was part of the program, his mere inclusion and/or presence would overshadow the content of his talk and become the focus.
This decision has generated substantial discussion online. Much of the debate has been taking place on Twitter, and in tech industry forums such as Hacker News.
Legal-political blogger Popehat jumped into the fray with a detailed post.
Several HN threads ensued.
Alex Miller's Statement on Curtis Yarvin and Strange Loop
A Strange Loop (about Curtis Yarvin Being Kicked Out of Strange Loop)
“A Statement with My View on Curtis Yarvin and Strange Loop”
Two Kinds of Freedom of Speech (or Strangeloop vs. Curtis Yarvin)
What is the right answer? Was the conference organizer swayed by political forces, or did he just want to avoid controversy? What would you do in the same situation?
This decision has generated substantial discussion online. Much of the debate has been taking place on Twitter, and in tech industry forums such as Hacker News.
Legal-political blogger Popehat jumped into the fray with a detailed post.
Several HN threads ensued.
Alex Miller's Statement on Curtis Yarvin and Strange Loop
A Strange Loop (about Curtis Yarvin Being Kicked Out of Strange Loop)
“A Statement with My View on Curtis Yarvin and Strange Loop”
Two Kinds of Freedom of Speech (or Strangeloop vs. Curtis Yarvin)
What is the right answer? Was the conference organizer swayed by political forces, or did he just want to avoid controversy? What would you do in the same situation?
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is not being received that well. We've talked about Moldbug before and frankly it feels like people are reticent to give this much more attention; also the bloggy "what do you think" coda is generally frowned upon here in posts. -- goodnewsfortheinsane
It's a mountain out of a molehill. It's Miller's conference.
You can spout Warglebargle all you want. But people can not invite you into your house because of that, even if they previously invited before they knew how warglebargley you were.
If it was a left-wing speaker at a conservative conference we wouldn't be having this conversation because this is just another manifestation of the authoritarian approach for conservative ideals.
So yeah, uninvite him, it's just peachy. Ann Coulter might have some great ideas in the realm of computer science, but I don't think she should be invited to speak at tech conferences. Or invited anywhere, but that's my personal bias speaking.
posted by Lord_Pall at 6:10 AM on June 11, 2015
You can spout Warglebargle all you want. But people can not invite you into your house because of that, even if they previously invited before they knew how warglebargley you were.
If it was a left-wing speaker at a conservative conference we wouldn't be having this conversation because this is just another manifestation of the authoritarian approach for conservative ideals.
So yeah, uninvite him, it's just peachy. Ann Coulter might have some great ideas in the realm of computer science, but I don't think she should be invited to speak at tech conferences. Or invited anywhere, but that's my personal bias speaking.
posted by Lord_Pall at 6:10 AM on June 11, 2015
No one has the right to be part of a private gathering (except of course for the right not to be excluded on the basis of some protected class status).
If your writings express shitty ideas and people don't want you around, they are right to exclude you.
posted by jayder at 6:10 AM on June 11, 2015
If your writings express shitty ideas and people don't want you around, they are right to exclude you.
posted by jayder at 6:10 AM on June 11, 2015
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Right in a moral sense?
Or "right" in a interwebs-nchan-outrage-ish sense?
posted by sammyo at 6:08 AM on June 11, 2015