FWIW, I was always uneasy with SBF’s massive donations to (mostly) Democratic politicians, and with his determination to defeat Trump at any cost, by any means necessary. It just didn’t make sense in terms of EA reasoning, values, and priorities. It should have been a big red flag.
But I think the lack of political diversity in EA, and many EAs’ tacit agreement with SBF’s partisan political views, led too many EAs to think it was no big deal that SBF was mixing EA and politics in unprincipled and somewhat bizarre ways.
In the future, I think we should have stronger skepticism about anybody who tries to link EA to partisan political activism.
FWIW, I was always uneasy with SBF’s massive donations to (mostly) Democratic politicians, and with his determination to defeat Trump at any cost, by any means necessary. It just didn’t make sense in terms of EA reasoning, values, and priorities. It should have been a big red flag.
I thought it was not super consistent with EA but easily explained by Sam’s parents’ careers and values. I often expressed worry about how it would affect our epistemics for EAs to become politicians bankrolled by Sam or for the community as a whole to feel pressure not undermine political moves that they would have to make to succeed, but I gave him personally a pass for wanting to spend some of his seemingly unlimited funds on political stuff because I assumed he had strong beliefs about politics as a lever for good from his upbringing.
Duarte—I agree with your additional points here.
FWIW, I was always uneasy with SBF’s massive donations to (mostly) Democratic politicians, and with his determination to defeat Trump at any cost, by any means necessary. It just didn’t make sense in terms of EA reasoning, values, and priorities. It should have been a big red flag.
But I think the lack of political diversity in EA, and many EAs’ tacit agreement with SBF’s partisan political views, led too many EAs to think it was no big deal that SBF was mixing EA and politics in unprincipled and somewhat bizarre ways.
In the future, I think we should have stronger skepticism about anybody who tries to link EA to partisan political activism.
I thought it was not super consistent with EA but easily explained by Sam’s parents’ careers and values. I often expressed worry about how it would affect our epistemics for EAs to become politicians bankrolled by Sam or for the community as a whole to feel pressure not undermine political moves that they would have to make to succeed, but I gave him personally a pass for wanting to spend some of his seemingly unlimited funds on political stuff because I assumed he had strong beliefs about politics as a lever for good from his upbringing.