SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

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Brent Dill is Back (awful.systems)

submitted 1 week ago by CinnasVerses@awful.systems to c/sneerclub@awful.systems

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Brent Dill has appeared on YouTube and was invited to a weekend event by a VibeCamp organizer. There is a 2 hour 39 minute twitter video about how he was supposedly wronged, and a lot of tweets back and forth about the specifics. Even his defenders say that a lot of messed up things happened in Bay Area LessWrong including lying and sexual / emotional abuse.

I posted some quotes on the Stubsack. I don't know what to do because it looks like some messed up things happened between our friends and unnamed young people, and there were coverups, but the details will only be known if someone gets access to their email and text history and interviews them. Some of the same people are probably victims and perpetrators. We don't need all the details to tell anyone curious about them "these spaces are full of abusers, grifters, and cult recruiters and use a lot of drugs, stay away."

Stories about Dill putting his arm around people and telling them that they were the only two who saw what was really going on in society / their group house remind me of stories about Michael Vassar.

Dill once lived in Idaho where Aella grew up.

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[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There is a 2 hour 39 minute twitter video about how he was supposedly wronged,

The existence of a twitter video longer than Citizen Kane or 2001: A Space Odyssey as a thing in the universe means that we are all, in some percentage, wronged.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 2 points 6 days ago

The video maker says that he doesn't "want to have to censor my slurs for YouTube."

[–] ivyastrix@awful.systems 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

hello friends some extra info here:

the person in question (not Brent) is a former organizer, the two stories are either that he did something bad (possibly sexual harassment?) or that the main Vibecamp founder pushed him out, I've seen some google docs hinting at the latter but as with everything in this ouroboros of awfulness impossible to really say what happened

brent's original cancellation dates back to early MIRI, the author of that video was careless with one of the codenames such that if you know a few things about the person you can tie them to a real life identity

the two loose possibilities (i've learned to not really trust anyone unless they have actual documentation) are that brent raped someone (possibly underage? this part i'm not 100% sure on) or the victim wanted to cover for her actual rapist and blamed brent

i find the latter really highly unlikely but that's the scoop

[–] CinnasVerses@awful.systems 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The alleged victims from that time don't seem to want to go public except one who is still on twitter and one who took her own life (and the Mittenscautious blog posts and the mainstream media articles on sexism in EA and LessWrong). I would not recommend putting anyone who was prominent at MIRI or CFAR or the related parties and group homes in the 2010s in a position of responsibility.

Edit / CFAR's take after they were forced to expel Brent was that "we believe that Brent routinely manipulated those around him, and that he physically, sexually, and emotionally abused at least two of his partners." Their updates and the blog posts by 'Mittenscautious' seem as close as we can get to what he was accused of by insiders without a lot of archive-diving.