TCS Is Bad

This post is worrying to me.

I have some things to say that are similar to things that Elliot has said about TCS. It’s not a “coincidence”. I have followed TCS for a long time, I have read Elliot’s writing on TCS over the years, and I am writing about it now partly because TCS has started to become active again over the last couple of years.

I don’t think that the things I have to say are plagiarizing Elliot, even though some of them are similar to things Elliot has said. I am not sure what you think is plagiarism in that blog: you didn’t state any specifics.

It is also worrying to me that you are speculating on the identity of an anon. I am an anon. I don’t want people speculating on my identity. I understand that I might not be able to stop CritRats or current TCSers from speculating on my identity, if I say something that bothers them. They might try to guess who I am and try to smear me in some way. But I don’t want people on this forum to be speculating on my identity: I want to be able to write here, including in unbounded, without people naming who they think I may or may not be, who I sound like, etc.

I have also noticed in the past that people who say something that sounds kind of like Elliot’s opinion will often be accused of being Elliot sock-puppets. This has been happening for many years. It is odd, and I think it is used in a way to delegitimize Elliot’s views: they are so bad/weird that obviously no other real person could think similar things. I don’t know if that’s what you mean here, but I could see CritRats or TCS people saying that any good/ difficult-to-answer TCS criticism is obviously Elliot sock-puppets, so needn’t be engaged with or taken seriously (and in fact, should probably just be ghosted and not replied to at all, as they are currently doing with Elliot).