Be Nice, At Least Until You Can Coordinate Meanness

The source essay for 'be nice, at least until you can coordinate meanness.' Scott bans commenters who shame/attack others and defends it: 'be nice' alone fails (refusing the repeat-drunk-driver his license, vaccinating a screaming baby, arresting the tax-refusing rancher, revoking a predator-teacher's credential aren't 'nice' but are right). Meanness is sometimes necessary, but it's more excusable when COORDINATED — taxation vs arbitrary theft, court-administered libel law vs a beating in an alley. Coordinated meanness wins on two grounds: (1) safety/stability/predictability — you know the rules and can avoid punishment, even when justice isn't guaranteed; and (2) it's rarer — it needs 51% agreement, not one lunatic (the skinheads-petition vs skinheads-in-an-alley analogy). Safe spaces = coordinated meanness against group-norm-violators. Ends with two explicit SSC rules (argue for shaming policies, but don't shame commenters; argue against transgender philosophically, but don't misgender commenters).

Quality 78 · Excellent. Excellent floor. Installs a durable, widely-cited principle ('coordinate meanness') with a clear, load-bearing framework — the coordinated-vs-uncoordinated distinction, the safety-not-justice argument, and the 51%-vs-one-lunatic argument. Scored a notch above the application essay it later feeds (SSC-583, 76); held at the Excellent floor as a focused single-principle essay rather than a sweeping synthesis.

Claude’s paradigm shift 62 · Notable shift. Notable shift (62). An original coinage and principle (Scott's own), well-developed at publication — the coordinated/uncoordinated-meanness framing and the safety-vs-justice argument were genuinely fresh.

Real-world impact 3 · Moderate. Moderate (3). 'Be nice, at least until you can coordinate meanness' became a durable, oft-cited rationalist principle in norms/cancel-culture/free-speech discourse; influential within an educated subculture, no material/legal change.