Respectability Cascades

Poses a genuine, unresolved puzzle by naming two opposite-but-both-convincing models of how taboo causes change. (1) The 'respectability cascade' (gay rights): 0%-respectable outsiders break the taboo, letting 10%/20%/...respectable people gradually join, up to openly gay Congressmen. (2) The opposite (endocrine disruptors / 'turning the frogs gay' / immigration / Trumpism / Voat): 0%-respectable people (Alex Jones) taking up a cause DOOM it by making it toxic/low-status for the respectable. Scott can't reconcile them and offers candidate heuristics (already-maximally-taboo vs under-discussed; sympathetic vs unsympathetic outsiders; joining-a-community vs admitting-a-trait; whether the respectable have alternatives). Practical stakes: should Haidt tell anti-SJW Twitter trolls to shut up or shout louder? Left honestly open.

Quality 74 · Strong. A sharp, original essay that names a real, useful tension (respectability vs disrespectability cascades) and grapples with it honestly rather than forcing a resolution. Upper-Strong/low-Excellent.

Claude’s paradigm shift 55 · Moderate. Low-Major-shift. The respectability-vs-disrespectability-cascade framing is a fresh, exported lens on social acceptance dynamics in 2019.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. A sharp, honest essay that names a real, useful tension — 'respectability cascades' (gay rights) vs 'disrespectability cascades' (a fringe figure dooming a cause) — and grapples with it rather than forcing a resolution. Conceptual influence within intellectual discourse, no material change — low RWI.