For people reading the article, do read the top comment by Scott Alexander. It provides what seems to me like a grounded summary and opinion on the events.
"EDIT/UPDATE: I got a chance to talk to Vassar, who disagrees with my assessment above. We're still trying to figure out the details, but so far, we agree that there was a cluster of related psychoses around 2017, all of which were in the same broad part of the rationalist social graph. Features of that part were - it contained a lot of trans women, a lot of math-y people, and some people who had been influenced by Vassar, although Vassar himself may not have been a central member. We are still trying to trace the exact chain of who had problems first and how those problems spread. One central node was a person called Olivia who apparently claimed she was deliberately trying to cause breakdowns in other people she was close to. Other people don't seem to have been directly linked to Olivia, so something else must have been going on. I still suspect that Vassar unwittingly came up with some ideas that other people, including Olivia and Ziz, then spread. Vassar still denies this and is going to try to explain a more complete story to me when I have more time."
Now, I may be crazy and I'll proudly admit to "infinitely corrupt", but, geeze, I'm glad I'm not that crazy.
I further note that "years ago" as mentioned in the various posts and comments is ~2017, or as those of us who are no longer in our 20s like to think of it, "last Thursday."
"EDIT/UPDATE: I got a chance to talk to Vassar, who disagrees with my assessment above. We're still trying to figure out the details, but so far, we agree that there was a cluster of related psychoses around 2017, all of which were in the same broad part of the rationalist social graph. Features of that part were - it contained a lot of trans women, a lot of math-y people, and some people who had been influenced by Vassar, although Vassar himself may not have been a central member. We are still trying to trace the exact chain of who had problems first and how those problems spread. One central node was a person called Olivia who apparently claimed she was deliberately trying to cause breakdowns in other people she was close to. Other people don't seem to have been directly linked to Olivia, so something else must have been going on. I still suspect that Vassar unwittingly came up with some ideas that other people, including Olivia and Ziz, then spread. Vassar still denies this and is going to try to explain a more complete story to me when I have more time."
Now, I may be crazy and I'll proudly admit to "infinitely corrupt", but, geeze, I'm glad I'm not that crazy.
I further note that "years ago" as mentioned in the various posts and comments is ~2017, or as those of us who are no longer in our 20s like to think of it, "last Thursday."