The case for the fleshman

According to LessWrong, we should distinguish between three versions of any ideology. The strawman is deliberately weak—easy to dismiss. The steelman is the strongest, most charitable interpretation—an intellectual ideal. But actual movements are held by typical believers, not philosophers. That's the fleshman: what the median believer actually thinks, neither caricature nor ideal. This matters because movements act. A political idea might start as rigorous scholarship, go viral on social media with a simplified slogan, and then inspire policies even the original author rejects. Steelmanning tells you the idea works in theory. The fleshman tells you what the movement will actually do—and that's where real-world harms or benefits materialize. Identifying the fleshman requires hard empirical work, not pure reasoning. You must observe actual believers and navigate social media bias. But the author argues that ignoring the fleshman entirely—relying only on steelmanning—risks accidentally making your opponents sound more reasonable than they are. Better to estimate the real median belief than assume the strongest version represents most adherents.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton