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Tripitaka comments on Why effective altruists should do Charity Science’s Christmas fundraiser - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: tog 01 December 2015 11:59PM

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Tags: effective-altruism

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Comment author: Fluttershy 02 December 2015 11:02:16AM *  4 points [-]

Since I sort of danced my around making the point I wanted to make, here's what I'd meant to say more bluntly:

  1. Are EAs unknowingly offending large swaths of the population when they proselytize too loudly?
  2. I think that people's social circles are more homogeneous than they might predict, such that EAs tend to be friends with an incredibly large number of potential EAs, and relatively few people incompatible with EA.
  3. Statement 2) can be the case even if there are very few potential EAs in the world.

Edit to add:

  1. The fact that people on the EA forums and elsewhere keep posting about how fun and easy running a fundraiser is makes me question if I'm living on the same planet as you all.
Comment author: Tripitaka 02 December 2015 11:09:47AM 2 points [-]

1) Yours is not the first account of being offended I have heard. Unfortunately it makes sense. Everyone thinks of themselves as "being a nice person", even if the only money they give to charity is a dollar a week to the homeless.

Pursuing the much loftier goal of eg. giving 10% attacks this fundamental identity basis; and since there is no argumentative recourse, they can only react on the emotional level. Its an immune response.

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