Controversial intellectuals

There are some intellectuals where, if you’ve heard about them in the press, it is disproportionately likely that you read a hit piece that is trying to convince you they are Bad People with Bad Motivations rather than a measured exploration of their views. If you default to trusting these depictions, then you’ll default to assuming that these intellectuals are actually bad, when they may, in fact, have interesting and valuable things to say. Here are some figures I once assumed were uninteresting and perhaps evil due to having only heard about them via the press, but now considering interesting and probably good. * Roger Scruton * [[Sam Harris]] * Peter Thiel * Dominic Cummings * Jordan Peterson