(Epistemic status: rather uncertain and tentative)
In the non-EA world, I tend to view special interest groups with some skepticism, and cheap/performative signaling by individuals with even more skepticism. But maybe EA needs a little more of both when it comes to “governance/internal politics” (G/IP) matters.
The norm here seems to be that, if you’re not happy about something, you should write a post—or at least a long substantive comment—about that. In other words, EA norms point toward relatively direct, high-involvement G/IP engagement compared to (e.g.) voting in a democratic republic. There’s a lot to be said for EA’s norms, especially as applied to more object-level disagreements. But there are also some real downsides, which I think were somewhat on display during the Manifest discussions:
Individuals with strong feelings on an issue are disproportionately likely to find high-cost methods of engagement worth using. This is a double-edged sword, as it will usually make the discussion a warped reflection of overall community sentiment. Outlier views will seem more prominent, while moderate views may be less likely to be expressed compared to their prevalence in the population.
High-cost engagement is . . . costly, and takes away from other things people might be writing about (or doing off-Forum). In the major “drama” threads, I think there comes a point at which no real progress is being made but we keep posting.
In contrast, special interest groups can be a more efficient way of developing norms and influencing “policy.” Advocacy organizations (e.g., gun-rights/gun-control groups in the US) can make more sophisticated arguments than individual members would have time to prepare. People who want to promote those positions can give time and resources to the advocacy organization, as well as publicly or privately endorsing the group by joining. This is low to moderate cost engagement, but it allows the resulting G/IP matter to reflect the overall community viewpoint more accurately than a world in which relatively high-cost engagement predominates. Although it doesn’t happen in electoral politics, one could imagine a world in which a few champions for each side conducted more of a dialogue than the free-for-all that is a hot Forum comment section.
Moreover, even cheap/performative signaling has its uses from a psychological perspective. People tend to feel better if they feel they’ve had a reasonable chance to express their views. Many have a felt need to distance themselves from things in their community that they find problematic—whether that be what they perceive as attempted censorship or as racism. I think that can be a relatively healthy way of reducing ~ cognitive dissonance between “X is not in accord with my values” and “I perceive that people in my community are doing X / that many in my community support X.”
In many cases, it seems desirable to enable this benefit at minimal cost. I submit that the major problem with people posting the meme de jour on their Meta profile / on X is that they think that doing so has somehow accomplished much of anything external to them. The inaccurate belief that posting something to your friends actually does something to combat the effects of global poverty can reduce the motivation to actually do something meaningful like donate to an effective charity. But if there is no effective action for the individual to take (e.g., because the Forum thread on the controversial topic has reached the point of no further meaningful progress being made), then this substitution effect may be good. Better that the person do something cheap and externally ineffective than something expensive and internally ineffective.
(Epistemic status: rather uncertain and tentative)
In the non-EA world, I tend to view special interest groups with some skepticism, and cheap/performative signaling by individuals with even more skepticism. But maybe EA needs a little more of both when it comes to “governance/internal politics” (G/IP) matters.
The norm here seems to be that, if you’re not happy about something, you should write a post—or at least a long substantive comment—about that. In other words, EA norms point toward relatively direct, high-involvement G/IP engagement compared to (e.g.) voting in a democratic republic. There’s a lot to be said for EA’s norms, especially as applied to more object-level disagreements. But there are also some real downsides, which I think were somewhat on display during the Manifest discussions:
Individuals with strong feelings on an issue are disproportionately likely to find high-cost methods of engagement worth using. This is a double-edged sword, as it will usually make the discussion a warped reflection of overall community sentiment. Outlier views will seem more prominent, while moderate views may be less likely to be expressed compared to their prevalence in the population.
High-cost engagement is . . . costly, and takes away from other things people might be writing about (or doing off-Forum). In the major “drama” threads, I think there comes a point at which no real progress is being made but we keep posting.
In contrast, special interest groups can be a more efficient way of developing norms and influencing “policy.” Advocacy organizations (e.g., gun-rights/gun-control groups in the US) can make more sophisticated arguments than individual members would have time to prepare. People who want to promote those positions can give time and resources to the advocacy organization, as well as publicly or privately endorsing the group by joining. This is low to moderate cost engagement, but it allows the resulting G/IP matter to reflect the overall community viewpoint more accurately than a world in which relatively high-cost engagement predominates. Although it doesn’t happen in electoral politics, one could imagine a world in which a few champions for each side conducted more of a dialogue than the free-for-all that is a hot Forum comment section.
Moreover, even cheap/performative signaling has its uses from a psychological perspective. People tend to feel better if they feel they’ve had a reasonable chance to express their views. Many have a felt need to distance themselves from things in their community that they find problematic—whether that be what they perceive as attempted censorship or as racism. I think that can be a relatively healthy way of reducing ~ cognitive dissonance between “X is not in accord with my values” and “I perceive that people in my community are doing X / that many in my community support X.”
In many cases, it seems desirable to enable this benefit at minimal cost. I submit that the major problem with people posting the meme de jour on their Meta profile / on X is that they think that doing so has somehow accomplished much of anything external to them. The inaccurate belief that posting something to your friends actually does something to combat the effects of global poverty can reduce the motivation to actually do something meaningful like donate to an effective charity. But if there is no effective action for the individual to take (e.g., because the Forum thread on the controversial topic has reached the point of no further meaningful progress being made), then this substitution effect may be good. Better that the person do something cheap and externally ineffective than something expensive and internally ineffective.