We reject fear of condemnation, charity to the ruling class, and ignorance of forbidden knowledge.

To understand the Three Mutations of Dark Rationality, consider political discussion forums.

In general, there are two types of tolerable political discussion boards: rationalist boards where moderation and discourse is intelligent, well-reasoned, transparent, and civilized, and anti-power boards which may lack those things but which care little for the average person's "sentiments," the things put on the TV by the ruling class, the projects advanced by the <600 people who control 2/3 of the US economy. Boards where you find skepticism of those people typically replace the current civic religion with an irrational dogma of their own -- this dogma then becomes the new unquestionable dogma, and the ruling class are replaced by some janitor in a basement somewhere. Obey or be purged, forever and without warning.

In contrast, rationalist-type forums try to replace the current civic religion with an explicitly rational dogma, derived from sources like LessWrong, SSC, etc. In my experience, this leads to a more usable experience than the pure anti-ruling-class boards. Even when there are flaws in the rules, there is a culture of humility -- rules tend to be transparent, bans are often temporary, and moderators often at least try to appear to be doing things for the sake of good discourse.

These moderators, in reality, however, are often more or less totally uncritical of some version of the irrational civic religion. In general, this is derived from ignorance, temperament, and too much charity for the ruling class. As such, Dark Rationality represents a new development in "rationalist" family tree -- we are a strain which have no fear of any condemnation from outsiders, we give no charity to those who give orders (it is assumed that anyone with power or influence is a status seeking lying parasite, in line with Hanson's Elephant in the Brain), and we are ever-vigilant about our knowledge of power and of "dark topics" which power forbids the study of.

We have arrived at these three mutations because it has become clear that fear of the ruling class, charity towards their massive, society organizing lies, and the corresponding ignorance about those lies leads to a pseudo-rationality, a hollow nerdiness which attracts cowards who just want to feel smart, who want to LARP ...

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