I’d be interested to hear a case for moving from animal advocacy to politics. If your comparative advantage was in animal advocacy before the election, it’s not immediately obvious to me that switching makes sense.
In the short term, animal welfare concerns dominate human concerns, and your marginal contribution to animal welfare via politics is unclear: welfare reform in the US is happening mostly through corporate reform, and it’s dubious that progressive politics is even good for wild animals due to the possible harms of environmentalism.
Looking farther into the future, it’s not clear that engaging in politics is has become more effective on the margin than spreading anti-speciesism.
Politics is still a crowded space and it’s looking like many other progressives have been galvanized by this result.
The case is for defending the conditions under which it’s even possible to have a group of privileged people sitting around worrying about animal advocacy while the world is burning. To the extent that you think 1) Trump is a threat to democratic norms (as described e.g. by Julia Galef )/ risks nuclear war etc. and isn’t just a herald of more conservative policy, and 2) most liberals galvanized by the threat of Trump are worrying more about the latter than the former, there’s room for EAs to be galvanized by the threat of Trump in a more bipartisan way, as described e.g. by Paul Christiano.
(In general, my personal position on animal advocacy is that the long-term future of animals on Earth is determined almost entirely by how much humans have their shit together in the long run, and that I find it very difficult to justify working directly to save animals now relative to working to help humans get their shit more together.)
Trump may represent an increased threat to democratic norms and x-risk, but that doesn’t mean the marginal value of working in those areas has changed. Perhaps it has. We’d need to see concrete examples of how EAs who previously had a comparative advantage in helping animals now can do better by working on these other things.
my personal position on animal advocacy is that the long-term future of animals on Earth is determined almost entirely by how much humans have their shit together in the long run
This may be true of massive systemic changes for animals like the abolition of factory farming or large-scale humanitarian intervention in nature. But the past few years have shown that we can reduce a lot of suffering through corporate reform. Animal product alternatives are also very promising.
Also, “having our shit together in the long run” surely includes anti-speciesism (or at least much higher moral consideration for animals). Since EAs are some of the only people strategically working to spread anti-speciesism, it seems that this remains highly valuable on the margin.
Edited to add: It’s possible that helping animals has become more valuable on the margin, as many people (EA and otherwise) may think similarly to you and divert resources to politics. Many animal advocates still think humans come first. Just a speculation.
Also, “having our shit together in the long run” surely includes anti-speciesism (or at least much higher moral consideration for animals). Since EAs are some of the only people strategically working to spread anti-speciesism, it seems that this remains highly valuable on the margin.
I’d like to see an analysis of exactly what the opportunity costs are there, before endorsing one. This analysis has no differential analysis, and as such it reads “There are many important things being neglected. This is an important thing. Therefore it is the most important thing to do.”
...as such it reads “There are many important things being neglected. This is an important thing. Therefore it is the most important thing to do.”
I never meant to say that spreading anti-speciesism is the most important thing, just that it’s still very important and it’s not obvious that its relative value has changed with the election.
I’d be interested to hear a case for moving from animal advocacy to politics. If your comparative advantage was in animal advocacy before the election, it’s not immediately obvious to me that switching makes sense.
In the short term, animal welfare concerns dominate human concerns, and your marginal contribution to animal welfare via politics is unclear: welfare reform in the US is happening mostly through corporate reform, and it’s dubious that progressive politics is even good for wild animals due to the possible harms of environmentalism.
Looking farther into the future, it’s not clear that engaging in politics is has become more effective on the margin than spreading anti-speciesism.
Politics is still a crowded space and it’s looking like many other progressives have been galvanized by this result.
The case is for defending the conditions under which it’s even possible to have a group of privileged people sitting around worrying about animal advocacy while the world is burning. To the extent that you think 1) Trump is a threat to democratic norms (as described e.g. by Julia Galef )/ risks nuclear war etc. and isn’t just a herald of more conservative policy, and 2) most liberals galvanized by the threat of Trump are worrying more about the latter than the former, there’s room for EAs to be galvanized by the threat of Trump in a more bipartisan way, as described e.g. by Paul Christiano.
(In general, my personal position on animal advocacy is that the long-term future of animals on Earth is determined almost entirely by how much humans have their shit together in the long run, and that I find it very difficult to justify working directly to save animals now relative to working to help humans get their shit more together.)
Trump may represent an increased threat to democratic norms and x-risk, but that doesn’t mean the marginal value of working in those areas has changed. Perhaps it has. We’d need to see concrete examples of how EAs who previously had a comparative advantage in helping animals now can do better by working on these other things.
This may be true of massive systemic changes for animals like the abolition of factory farming or large-scale humanitarian intervention in nature. But the past few years have shown that we can reduce a lot of suffering through corporate reform. Animal product alternatives are also very promising.
Also, “having our shit together in the long run” surely includes anti-speciesism (or at least much higher moral consideration for animals). Since EAs are some of the only people strategically working to spread anti-speciesism, it seems that this remains highly valuable on the margin.
Edited to add: It’s possible that helping animals has become more valuable on the margin, as many people (EA and otherwise) may think similarly to you and divert resources to politics. Many animal advocates still think humans come first. Just a speculation.
I’d like to see an analysis of exactly what the opportunity costs are there, before endorsing one. This analysis has no differential analysis, and as such it reads “There are many important things being neglected. This is an important thing. Therefore it is the most important thing to do.”
I never meant to say that spreading anti-speciesism is the most important thing, just that it’s still very important and it’s not obvious that its relative value has changed with the election.