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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3700 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I agree with for the most part. Works matter more than intentions.

But it's hard for me. Would you donate to a Wahhabi charity that spent 80% of funds deworming in Africa but occasionally sent their staff on an expensive junket to a meeting of religious clerics? That's the question I'm wrestling with right now.

The fact that Open Philanthropy funded criminal justice reform significantly decreases my trust in their work overall

Were they the ones who were like "we ran the numbers and the most effective donation is giving to Democrats in swing states" or something? Motivated reasoning has no limits, so I think it's imperative to understand the people who make the calculations in addition to the calculations themselves.

I don't actually know. I do know that some enormous donors heavily tied to effective altruism (Dustin Moskovitz, SBF) spent a lot of money on democrats, but I don't know that it was through the EA-tied funds?

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