I want to suggest a more general version of Ajeya’s views which is:
If someone did want to put time and effort into creating the resources to promote something akin to “broad effective altruism” they could focus their effort in two ways:
on research and advocacy that does not add to (and possibly detracts attention from) the “narrow effective altruism” movement.
on research and advocacy that benefits the effective altruism movement.
EXAMPLES
Eg. Researching what is the best arts charity in the UK.
Not useful as it is very unlikely that anyone who does take a cause neutral approach to charity would want to give to a UK arts charity.
There is a risk of misleading, for example if you google effective altruism and a bunch of materials on UK arts comes up first.
Eg. Researching general principles of how to evaluate charities. Researching climate change solutions. Researching systemic change charities.
These would all expand the scope of EA research and writings, might produce plausible candidates for the best charity/cause, and at the same time act to attract more people into the movement.
Consider climate change. It is a problem that at some point this century humanity has to solve (unlike UK arts) and it is also a cause many non-EAs care about strongly
CONCLUSION
So if there was at least some effort put into any “broad effective altruism” expansion I would strongly recommend starting with finding ways to expand the movement that are simultaneously useful areas for us to be considering in more detail.
(That said, FWIW I am very wary of attempts to expanding to have a “broad effective altruism” for some of the reasons mentioned by others)
I want to suggest a more general version of Ajeya’s views which is:
If someone did want to put time and effort into creating the resources to promote something akin to “broad effective altruism” they could focus their effort in two ways:
on research and advocacy that does not add to (and possibly detracts attention from) the “narrow effective altruism” movement.
on research and advocacy that benefits the effective altruism movement.
EXAMPLES
Eg. Researching what is the best arts charity in the UK. Not useful as it is very unlikely that anyone who does take a cause neutral approach to charity would want to give to a UK arts charity. There is a risk of misleading, for example if you google effective altruism and a bunch of materials on UK arts comes up first.
Eg. Researching general principles of how to evaluate charities. Researching climate change solutions. Researching systemic change charities. These would all expand the scope of EA research and writings, might produce plausible candidates for the best charity/cause, and at the same time act to attract more people into the movement. Consider climate change. It is a problem that at some point this century humanity has to solve (unlike UK arts) and it is also a cause many non-EAs care about strongly
CONCLUSION
So if there was at least some effort put into any “broad effective altruism” expansion I would strongly recommend starting with finding ways to expand the movement that are simultaneously useful areas for us to be considering in more detail.
(That said, FWIW I am very wary of attempts to expanding to have a “broad effective altruism” for some of the reasons mentioned by others)