My guess is there’s something ideological or emotional behind these kind of EA critiques,
Something I’ve come across while looking into/responding to EA criticism over the last few months is that a lot of EA critics seem to absolutely hate EA[1], like with an absolutely burning zeal. And I’m not really sure why or what to do with it—feels like it’s an underexplored question/phenomenon for sure.
This is a meta-level point, but I’d be very, very wary of giving any help to Hanania if he attempts (even sincerely) to position himself publicly as a friend of EA. He was outed as having moved in genuinely and unambiguously white supremacist political circles for years a while ago. And while I accept that repentance is possible, and he claims to have changed (and probably has become less bad), I do not trust someone at all who had to have this be exposed rather than publicly owning up and denouncing his (allegedly) past views of his own accord, especially since he referred to being exposed as some sort of somehow unfair attempt of critics to discredit him.
Whilst he has abandoned violent fascism (he says) he also seems still quite racist. It’s not very long since he last referred to some black people he didn’t like on twitter as “these animals” or something along those lines. (I can’t recall what the black people in question had allegedly done: EDIT: not that I think anything they’d done could really make that ok, I just don’t want someone to say I’m being unfair to say “black people” and not “black people who had done X”) I don’t think I am wildly out there in seeing him as still racist. Matt Yglesias, who no one could accuse of being mindlessly woke in all cases, reacted to Hanania’s exposure as an (allegedly ex-) Nazi by saying that it was hardly news that Hanania is racist: https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1687551506738786304?lang=en-GB
I’m actually finishing up an article on this exact topic!
I’ll explain more there, but I think the major reason is this: If Leif Weinar didn’t hate EA, hewouldn’t have bothered to write the article. You need a reason to do things, and hatred is one of the most motivating ones.
I’m not sure you have to do anything with it, generally groups that suggests money/influence should be shifted from A to B will get a negative response from the people it may affect or people who disagree with that direction of change. I tend to find energy spent on ideological EA critics is less valuable than good faith critics/people who are just looking for resources to help themselves to more good.
Something I’ve come across while looking into/responding to EA criticism over the last few months is that a lot of EA critics seem to absolutely hate EA[1], like with an absolutely burning zeal. And I’m not really sure why or what to do with it—feels like it’s an underexplored question/phenomenon for sure.
Or at least, what they perceive EA/EAs to be
Hanania gives some interesting arguments for why here: https://www.richardhanania.com/p/effective-altruism-thinks-youre-hitler
This is a meta-level point, but I’d be very, very wary of giving any help to Hanania if he attempts (even sincerely) to position himself publicly as a friend of EA. He was outed as having moved in genuinely and unambiguously white supremacist political circles for years a while ago. And while I accept that repentance is possible, and he claims to have changed (and probably has become less bad), I do not trust someone at all who had to have this be exposed rather than publicly owning up and denouncing his (allegedly) past views of his own accord, especially since he referred to being exposed as some sort of somehow unfair attempt of critics to discredit him.
Whilst he has abandoned violent fascism (he says) he also seems still quite racist. It’s not very long since he last referred to some black people he didn’t like on twitter as “these animals” or something along those lines. (I can’t recall what the black people in question had allegedly done: EDIT: not that I think anything they’d done could really make that ok, I just don’t want someone to say I’m being unfair to say “black people” and not “black people who had done X”) I don’t think I am wildly out there in seeing him as still racist. Matt Yglesias, who no one could accuse of being mindlessly woke in all cases, reacted to Hanania’s exposure as an (allegedly ex-) Nazi by saying that it was hardly news that Hanania is racist: https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1687551506738786304?lang=en-GB
https://twitter.com/letsgomathias/status/1687543615692636160 (Just so people can get a sense of how very bad his views at least were, and could still be.)
I’m actually finishing up an article on this exact topic!
I’ll explain more there, but I think the major reason is this: If Leif Weinar didn’t hate EA, he wouldn’t have bothered to write the article. You need a reason to do things, and hatred is one of the most motivating ones.
It’s also not a new thing—The Elitist Philanthropy of So-Called Effective Altruism—from 2013.
I’m not sure you have to do anything with it, generally groups that suggests money/influence should be shifted from A to B will get a negative response from the people it may affect or people who disagree with that direction of change. I tend to find energy spent on ideological EA critics is less valuable than good faith critics/people who are just looking for resources to help themselves to more good.