Thanks for the post Jonathan! I think this can be a good starting point for discussions around spreading longtermism. Personally, I like the use of “low-key longtermism” for internal use between people that are already familiar with longtermism, but I wouldn’t use it for massive outreach purposes. This is because the mentioned risk posed by info-hazard seems to outweigh the potential benefits of using the term longtermism. Also, since the term doesn’t add any information value to people that don’t already know what it is, I am even more certain that it’s best to leave the term behind when doing massive outreach. This post also shows some great examples of how the message of longtermism can be warped and misunderstood as a secular cult, adding another element of concern for longtermism outreach: How EA is perceived is crucial to its future trajectory—EA Forum (effectivealtruism.org).
My point is that I favor low-key longtermism outreach as long as the term longtermism is excluded.
I totally agree that it serves more as an internal strategic shorthand rather than as a part of communication. Ideally, no one outside core EA would need to know what “low-key longtermism” even refers to.
Thanks for the post Jonathan! I think this can be a good starting point for discussions around spreading longtermism. Personally, I like the use of “low-key longtermism” for internal use between people that are already familiar with longtermism, but I wouldn’t use it for massive outreach purposes. This is because the mentioned risk posed by info-hazard seems to outweigh the potential benefits of using the term longtermism. Also, since the term doesn’t add any information value to people that don’t already know what it is, I am even more certain that it’s best to leave the term behind when doing massive outreach. This post also shows some great examples of how the message of longtermism can be warped and misunderstood as a secular cult, adding another element of concern for longtermism outreach: How EA is perceived is crucial to its future trajectory—EA Forum (effectivealtruism.org).
My point is that I favor low-key longtermism outreach as long as the term longtermism is excluded.
I totally agree that it serves more as an internal strategic shorthand rather than as a part of communication. Ideally, no one outside core EA would need to know what “low-key longtermism” even refers to.