I think reactions to this this 2020 comment by @Gregory Lewisđ¸ â which criticises Wayne Hsiung for his proposal to disrupt EAG SF 2015 over their decision to serve animals at the conference â is evidence of the way in which Benjamin Lay would have been treated by EAs.
Iâm sympathetic to both sides here.
On the one hand, your communityâs cohesiveness will be undermined if you donât punish people who deliberately and provactively violate your community norms and polarise your community in the pursuit of political goals. Iâm inclined to think that EAs talking about upholding norms like âhelpfulness, honesty, compromise, and friendlinessâ is more about protecting the EA community than actually being the best way to maximise the good with a given unit of resources, even in the long term.
On the other, I think disruptive and norm-breaking tactics like those deployed by Lay and Hsiung are a) justified under many circumstances and b) necessary for effecting social change. And I worry some EAs are too quick to dismiss radicals like Lay and Hsiung for reasons that are more aesthetic than anything else.
I think reactions to this this 2020 comment by @Gregory Lewisđ¸ â which criticises Wayne Hsiung for his proposal to disrupt EAG SF 2015 over their decision to serve animals at the conference â is evidence of the way in which Benjamin Lay would have been treated by EAs.
Iâm sympathetic to both sides here.
On the one hand, your communityâs cohesiveness will be undermined if you donât punish people who deliberately and provactively violate your community norms and polarise your community in the pursuit of political goals. Iâm inclined to think that EAs talking about upholding norms like âhelpfulness, honesty, compromise, and friendlinessâ is more about protecting the EA community than actually being the best way to maximise the good with a given unit of resources, even in the long term.
On the other, I think disruptive and norm-breaking tactics like those deployed by Lay and Hsiung are a) justified under many circumstances and b) necessary for effecting social change. And I worry some EAs are too quick to dismiss radicals like Lay and Hsiung for reasons that are more aesthetic than anything else.