Ozden comment contains great (but predictable) points.
He also packs in his self-interested argument, into this extremely important/sensitive heated discussion:
I think our experiences differ on animal issues as when groups /movements professionalise, as has been happening over the past decade for animal welfare, the likelihood that men will abuse their positions of power increases dramatically. At the more grassroots level, power imbalances often aren’t stark enough to lead the types of issues that came out in the animal movement a few years back. EA has also been undergoing this professionalisation and consolidation of power, and seems like the article above highlights the negative consequences of that.
Don’t have a lot of time to explain, but this isn’t true, it’s almost the opposite.
The power structures in distributed movements exist and are controlled in different ways, sometimes producing pretty bad behavior but with more dubious leadership/management.
DxE, for example, had an almost existential problem with sexual misconduct/abuse. This was probably connected to second-tier leaders and the distributed, chapter-like system, as opposed to Wayne actively courting it.
When I spoke to Wayne (and the subsequent leadership), they pointed to reforms such as central sexual harassment policies and enforcing a better culture. While I don’t know how substantive these reforms were, something like this would be probably involved in a true solution. Being “top down” helps a lot, as well as having a professionalized staff/leadership to execute this.
Don’t have time to put in an essay, but there’s a much longer thread here about distributed movement and power, and also a separate thread here about sexual harassment and animal advocacy. On the latter point, we got multiple layers of a nightmarish “motte and bailey” that is ongoing—we’re approaching the point of non-viability in attaching EA to us.
Incredibly, these articles aren’t in the top 5 things I would need to communicate to EAs right now.
On the plus side, Ozden’s comment did produce a great thread by Lauren Maria, who is a thoughtful and brilliant leader.
Ozden comment contains great (but predictable) points.
He also packs in his self-interested argument, into this extremely important/sensitive heated discussion:
Don’t have a lot of time to explain, but this isn’t true, it’s almost the opposite.
The power structures in distributed movements exist and are controlled in different ways, sometimes producing pretty bad behavior but with more dubious leadership/management.
DxE, for example, had an almost existential problem with sexual misconduct/abuse. This was probably connected to second-tier leaders and the distributed, chapter-like system, as opposed to Wayne actively courting it.
When I spoke to Wayne (and the subsequent leadership), they pointed to reforms such as central sexual harassment policies and enforcing a better culture. While I don’t know how substantive these reforms were, something like this would be probably involved in a true solution. Being “top down” helps a lot, as well as having a professionalized staff/leadership to execute this.
Don’t have time to put in an essay, but there’s a much longer thread here about distributed movement and power, and also a separate thread here about sexual harassment and animal advocacy. On the latter point, we got multiple layers of a nightmarish “motte and bailey” that is ongoing—we’re approaching the point of non-viability in attaching EA to us.
Incredibly, these articles aren’t in the top 5 things I would need to communicate to EAs right now.
On the plus side, Ozden’s comment did produce a great thread by Lauren Maria, who is a thoughtful and brilliant leader.