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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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The problem is that the entire point of EA is to stop making decisions using base human impulses and think for a second or two about what's actually going to do the most good. Hence bednets, hence deworming, hence "I care about the suffering of shrimp", hence "annihilate all existence so there's no possibility of suffering", etc. This is a movement that via memes such as "80,000 hours", "the giving what we can pledge", and "earning to give" asks people to redirect nontrivial chunks of their lifetime earning capacity, which those people could have instead used to improve their own lives, or the lives of their families, friends and local communities.

Any redirection of the movement away from this mission is waste by its own definition. That its elites have decided to screw around with polyamory instead of doing the maximally-effective thing in the world reminds me more of a new-age religious sex cult than a movement genuinely interested in improving the world.

Needs a website not a movement. And maybe stop before the annihilate everybody bit.

Yeah, but ordinary people can see the benefit of bednets or deworming programmes, while worrying about the mental agonies of the shrimp equivalent of Camus is too out there.

Any redirection of the movement away from this mission is waste by its own definition. That its elites have decided to screw around with polyamory instead of doing the maximally-effective thing in the world reminds me more of a new-age religious sex cult than a movement genuinely interested in improving the world.

I'm not sure the two are as in tension as you say here.

You need psychological levers to get people to do things. If a poly EA makes himself more datable by supporting the mission of the organization, then isn't that a good thing for the mission?

It's a bit unsurprising to me that humans are not 100% rational utility-maximizers. Of course we didn't evolve that way, so at best you're throwing the goals of utility maximization on top of a bunch of pre-programmed survival and reproduction protocols.

Maybe it's a little sad if EA doesn't function on the backs of enlightened utilitarian saints, but if it's fulfilling its mission, getting money and resources where they need to go on the backs of nerdy, horny guys trying to show how virtuous they are, I don't actually see that as a dramatic take down of the movement. Many people in this thread seem to have a weird assumption that if people are trying to get laid, the actual work isn't getting done, but if the social structure is based around showing proof or good work, conscientiousness and lives saved/changed then I don't see how the two goals are in tension at all. Guys do good, get laid, and everyone is happy, right?

The only problem is the optics at that point.

That its elites have decided to screw around with polyamory instead of doing the maximally-effective thing in the world reminds me more of a new-age religious sex cult than a movement genuinely interested in improving the world.

There is a certain irony in "deny base human impulses: apply rationality" quickly falling into "have as much sex as possible," which is probably the most base human impulse. But then again I've long recommended that actions be constantly scrutinized against lofty, if laudable, mission statements. Individual humans, even in groups, are quite fallible creatures, which is something that I respect religion for recognizing: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

As Eric Cartman put it in a slightly different context: "Hippies! They're everywhere! They wanna save Earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad."

Hippies, at least, had no problem endorsing sex. Even heterosexual sex. With people who smell bad and perhaps weren't in the best physical condition.

Ironically, I suppose Charles Manson would be a dark example of someone who lured followers of a cause in with the promise of sex and then managed to leverage them towards a non-sex goal. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that EA ended up being the opposite.

SBF needs to get a peace sign tattooed on the back of his head in prison, for symmetry.