I don’t think so. Normally I’m not a fan of reacting to the news, but here’s the thing. This event could very well turn into a catastrophic risk for EA in the PR realm, and the consequences for things like EA and quantitative thinking could be disastrous. It certainly makes sense to bring in PR resources now.
Certainly makes sense to bring in PR resources, but let’s be clear that much worse ethical scandals than “One rich guy who donated to this turned out to have committed fraud” have frequently failed to destroy social movements. This will probably hurt EA, but is unlikely to permanently ruin its reputation unless it leads EAs to disaffiliate themselves from the movement to avoid negative PR—i.e. if most of its supporters are more concerned about optics and signaling than doing good.
The only way EA can be destroyed is if EAs, not non-EAs, abandon it.
I don’t think so. Normally I’m not a fan of reacting to the news, but here’s the thing. This event could very well turn into a catastrophic risk for EA in the PR realm, and the consequences for things like EA and quantitative thinking could be disastrous. It certainly makes sense to bring in PR resources now.
Certainly makes sense to bring in PR resources, but let’s be clear that much worse ethical scandals than “One rich guy who donated to this turned out to have committed fraud” have frequently failed to destroy social movements. This will probably hurt EA, but is unlikely to permanently ruin its reputation unless it leads EAs to disaffiliate themselves from the movement to avoid negative PR—i.e. if most of its supporters are more concerned about optics and signaling than doing good.
The only way EA can be destroyed is if EAs, not non-EAs, abandon it.