I think there’s an inherent limitation to the number of conservatives that EA can appeal to, because the fundamental values of EA are strongly in the liberal tradition. For example, if you believe the five foundations theory of moral values (which I think has at least a grain of truth to it), conservatives value tradition, authority and purity far more than liberals or leftists do: and in EA these values are (correctly, imo) not included as specific endgoals. An EA and a conservative might still end up agreeing on preserving certain traditions, but the EA will be doing so as a means to an end of increasing the general happiness of the population, not as a goal in of itself.
Even if you’re skeptical of these models of values, you can just look at a bunch of cultural factors that would be offputting to the run-of the mill conservative: EA is respectful of LGBT people including respecting transgender individuals and their pronouns, they have a large population of vegans and vegetarians, they say you should care about far off Africans just as much as your own neighbours.
As a result of this, when EA and adjacent groups tries to be welcoming to conservatives, they don’t end up getting your trump-voting uncle: they get unusual conservatives, such as mencius moldbug and the obsessive race-IQ people (the manifest conference had a ton of these). These are a small group of people and are by no means the majority, but even their presence in the general vicinity of EA is enough to disgust and deter many people from the movement.
This puts EA in the worst of both worlds politically: the group of people that are comfortable with tolerating both trans people and scientific racists is miniscule, and it seriously hampers the ability to expand beyond the Sam Harris demographic. I think a better plan is to not compromise on progressive values, but be welcoming to differences on the economic front.
I think people should stop thinking of conservatives as racist/sexist/bigoted. I’m not a conservative (I’m a libertarian) but I know a few EAs who are and they are silent about it until you get to know them well. I haven’t found them to be transphobic (they respect trans pronouns). I haven’t found them to be racist (they donate significantly to Africans). The majority are vegan (at least, i don’t know about all of them).
One thing EA could do is push the progressiveness a bit less. The vast majority of the world would laugh at the fact that at EAG, people try to get you to wear a pin with your pronoun and are a bit repulsed at how “in your face” the polyamorous stuff is. For me, it’s normal since I’m from Canada but it wont be for most of the world (and even about half of America). Nearl all of latin American, most of asia (where the majority of the world live) etc. would be described as “conservative” by this standard and we shouldn’t be turning them off unnecessarily.
I think there’s an inherent limitation to the number of conservatives that EA can appeal to, because the fundamental values of EA are strongly in the liberal tradition. For example, if you believe the five foundations theory of moral values (which I think has at least a grain of truth to it), conservatives value tradition, authority and purity far more than liberals or leftists do: and in EA these values are (correctly, imo) not included as specific endgoals. An EA and a conservative might still end up agreeing on preserving certain traditions, but the EA will be doing so as a means to an end of increasing the general happiness of the population, not as a goal in of itself.
Even if you’re skeptical of these models of values, you can just look at a bunch of cultural factors that would be offputting to the run-of the mill conservative: EA is respectful of LGBT people including respecting transgender individuals and their pronouns, they have a large population of vegans and vegetarians, they say you should care about far off Africans just as much as your own neighbours.
As a result of this, when EA and adjacent groups tries to be welcoming to conservatives, they don’t end up getting your trump-voting uncle: they get unusual conservatives, such as mencius moldbug and the obsessive race-IQ people (the manifest conference had a ton of these). These are a small group of people and are by no means the majority, but even their presence in the general vicinity of EA is enough to disgust and deter many people from the movement.
This puts EA in the worst of both worlds politically: the group of people that are comfortable with tolerating both trans people and scientific racists is miniscule, and it seriously hampers the ability to expand beyond the Sam Harris demographic. I think a better plan is to not compromise on progressive values, but be welcoming to differences on the economic front.
I think people should stop thinking of conservatives as racist/sexist/bigoted. I’m not a conservative (I’m a libertarian) but I know a few EAs who are and they are silent about it until you get to know them well. I haven’t found them to be transphobic (they respect trans pronouns). I haven’t found them to be racist (they donate significantly to Africans). The majority are vegan (at least, i don’t know about all of them).
One thing EA could do is push the progressiveness a bit less. The vast majority of the world would laugh at the fact that at EAG, people try to get you to wear a pin with your pronoun and are a bit repulsed at how “in your face” the polyamorous stuff is. For me, it’s normal since I’m from Canada but it wont be for most of the world (and even about half of America). Nearl all of latin American, most of asia (where the majority of the world live) etc. would be described as “conservative” by this standard and we shouldn’t be turning them off unnecessarily.