There was a thread on LW about potential information hazards[0] - in particular, a kind created by the special flavor of decision theory which was being developed there. This was one of the &quot;peculiar out there&quot; kind of stuff LW people like to play with. Here comes Roko, who says that he created a potential hazardous piece of information - a thing that if you know it, you&#x27;re fucked - that could lead to people suffering, and then <i>posts it right there</i>. Eliezer deleted the comment, claiming Roko is being irresponsible (and wrong, but still irresponsible if he believed that what he posted was a hazard), and the topic of what became known as Roko&#x27;s basilisk was banned from discussion for some time.<p>Eliezer&#x27;s argument was that Roko behaved unethically by posting something he claimed to believe will hurt people who will read it. That&#x27;s irrelevant to whether the post itself was an information hazard or not. Eliezer actually later claimed it wasn&#x27;t, that Roko was wrong. But the whole situation ended up being used to prove the point that LW people are loonies who invent and believe crazy things.<p>Hence my analogy, in which one person is rightfully angry at another, but ends up being painted as having issues instead.<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.lesswrong.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Information_hazard" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki.lesswrong.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Information_hazard</a>