TL;DR Of Leftists, Leftists that focus on climate disruption and structural change are the most naturally EA-aligned .
Thanks for this post, it gives a lot of actionable specifics. This comes from someone that is one of those “a foot in both worlds.”
BTW: I worked a lot on sexual violence prevention and climate disruption in university. (Which I think was very utilitarian. I did BOTECs demonstrating sexual violence was the biggest issue affecting the student population, and working in the small scope of a university campus (bigger fish in a smaller pound) gave me a lot of useful policy and politics experience you don’t get working on national issues (small fish in big pound)).
A note to my EA peers:
Don’t let the more vocal reactionary camp of the Left distort your whole view of the community. There are multiple strains of Leftism. In my interactions with non-Leftist EAs, I’ve come across multiple EAs that seem to think Leftists are 90% this reactionary type. My very very very rough guess is that they constitute between 20-40%.
Potentially useful framework to identify low-hanging fruit leftists
I am going to suggest an oversimplified framework that can be helpful for identifying which Leftists/Progressives are most likely to appreciate EA.—A spectrum from reactionary to strategic.
I’ve seen Leftists all across this spectrum in my experience in activist circles. There is a reactionary faction that tends to overlap with the social justice camp that is very fired up about injustices on an identarian basis. My guess is that these are much more time-intensive converts.
The camp that I think is a low-hanging fruit is the camp that my friends and I occupy: strategic Leftists—these are systems thinkers that use a lot of utilitarian reasoning and will be disciplined in trying to reach those ends. My Leftist friends that are EA, EA-sympathetic, and who might become EA in the future are from this camp.
Here are the two highly visible things I would use to approximate where Leftists are on that spectrum:
Cause selection amongst Leftists causes
How much they engage (or don’t) in unconstructive culture war interactions
#1
Look for Leftists that prioritize climate disruption and structural change (i.e. money-in-politics, voting, and other government reforms) because they are likely making those choices based on considerations of existential risk (climate disruption) and return on investment/force-multiplier effect (structural change). A Leftist that isn’t trying to maximize impact and isn’t being strategic are likely the ones that, for example, are one month focused on gun control because of school shootings, the next month focused on pro-choice protests.
#2
Reactionary Leftists don’t restrain themselves from engaging in the culture war. They feel just and righteous engaging in interactions that likely polarize their opponent even farther from their position. Strategic Leftists know this hurts their agenda and will be more patient and deliberate in their language when engaging with a person with opposing views. They will also know to shift the focus from culture war issues to class/anti-establishment issues with Right-wing populists.
Note:
This is my working theory informed by my experiences. There is risk it is not generalizable and that the Leftists friend circle I am in is not representative.
I would be interested in working with anyone on trying to test this framework.
What Leftists can offer to EA
Good organizers.
They have learned to organize and build communities without a lot of money, as well as to thoughtfully build inclusive spaces (caveat: we have seen some of this go overboard to where identity trumps intellectual merit).
The value of politics
They understand how government is a force multiplier and that most things we care about eventually intersect, or are even bottlenecked by, government and politics.
This is why in university I chose to spend my time working on political stuff instead of engaging more with EA. EA has since grown more into appreciating the power of policy and politics, and thus EA needs more talent to scale into this space (and Lefties becoming EAs can help with this).
What EAs can offer to Leftists
A broader view of existential risk
i.e. things other than climate disruption
The divergence of justice and effectiveness
i.e. in most scenarios you are hurting your agenda through antagonism and shouting people down, even if the other people are engaging in soft bigotry. Leftists need to be more utilitarian in their interactions.
TL;DR Of Leftists, Leftists that focus on climate disruption and structural change are the most naturally EA-aligned .
Thanks for this post, it gives a lot of actionable specifics. This comes from someone that is one of those “a foot in both worlds.”
BTW: I worked a lot on sexual violence prevention and climate disruption in university. (Which I think was very utilitarian. I did BOTECs demonstrating sexual violence was the biggest issue affecting the student population, and working in the small scope of a university campus (bigger fish in a smaller pound) gave me a lot of useful policy and politics experience you don’t get working on national issues (small fish in big pound)).
A note to my EA peers:
Don’t let the more vocal reactionary camp of the Left distort your whole view of the community. There are multiple strains of Leftism. In my interactions with non-Leftist EAs, I’ve come across multiple EAs that seem to think Leftists are 90% this reactionary type. My very very very rough guess is that they constitute between 20-40%.
Potentially useful framework to identify low-hanging fruit leftists
I am going to suggest an oversimplified framework that can be helpful for identifying which Leftists/Progressives are most likely to appreciate EA.—A spectrum from reactionary to strategic.
I’ve seen Leftists all across this spectrum in my experience in activist circles. There is a reactionary faction that tends to overlap with the social justice camp that is very fired up about injustices on an identarian basis. My guess is that these are much more time-intensive converts.
The camp that I think is a low-hanging fruit is the camp that my friends and I occupy: strategic Leftists—these are systems thinkers that use a lot of utilitarian reasoning and will be disciplined in trying to reach those ends. My Leftist friends that are EA, EA-sympathetic, and who might become EA in the future are from this camp.
Here are the two highly visible things I would use to approximate where Leftists are on that spectrum:
Cause selection amongst Leftists causes
How much they engage (or don’t) in unconstructive culture war interactions
#1
Look for Leftists that prioritize climate disruption and structural change (i.e. money-in-politics, voting, and other government reforms) because they are likely making those choices based on considerations of existential risk (climate disruption) and return on investment/force-multiplier effect (structural change). A Leftist that isn’t trying to maximize impact and isn’t being strategic are likely the ones that, for example, are one month focused on gun control because of school shootings, the next month focused on pro-choice protests.
#2
Reactionary Leftists don’t restrain themselves from engaging in the culture war. They feel just and righteous engaging in interactions that likely polarize their opponent even farther from their position. Strategic Leftists know this hurts their agenda and will be more patient and deliberate in their language when engaging with a person with opposing views. They will also know to shift the focus from culture war issues to class/anti-establishment issues with Right-wing populists.
Note:
This is my working theory informed by my experiences. There is risk it is not generalizable and that the Leftists friend circle I am in is not representative.
I would be interested in working with anyone on trying to test this framework.
What Leftists can offer to EA
Good organizers.
They have learned to organize and build communities without a lot of money, as well as to thoughtfully build inclusive spaces (caveat: we have seen some of this go overboard to where identity trumps intellectual merit).
The value of politics
They understand how government is a force multiplier and that most things we care about eventually intersect, or are even bottlenecked by, government and politics.
This is why in university I chose to spend my time working on political stuff instead of engaging more with EA. EA has since grown more into appreciating the power of policy and politics, and thus EA needs more talent to scale into this space (and Lefties becoming EAs can help with this).
What EAs can offer to Leftists
A broader view of existential risk
i.e. things other than climate disruption
The divergence of justice and effectiveness
i.e. in most scenarios you are hurting your agenda through antagonism and shouting people down, even if the other people are engaging in soft bigotry. Leftists need to be more utilitarian in their interactions.