[timmaxw]

Yeah. I agree with most of what David Gerard writes, but this attack on Scott Alexander was weak. The "54 billion lives" thing was obviously a joke.

[davidgerard]

I don't accept that as an excuse - because if it is a "joke", then it's one that only works if they say this stuff all the time seriously.

It's the species of "it's a joke!" that's serious until someone calls them out on it, then they retreat to claiming it was just a joke.