Abstract as written by the author on r/philosophy:
The problem with effective altruism and longtermism isn’t that they are funded by morally dubious capitalists or that they are sanction harmful acts for the greater good; it’s that they are naive about how power can be abused and how knowledge can reflect the interests of the powerful.
Their coziness with arbitrary power so long as it is effective makes it vulnerable to ‘the despotism trap’ where the ends justify the means.
“Effective Altruism, Longtermism, and the Problem of Arbitrary Power” by Gwilym David Blunt
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Abstract as written by the author on r/philosophy:
The problem with effective altruism and longtermism isn’t that they are funded by morally dubious capitalists or that they are sanction harmful acts for the greater good; it’s that they are naive about how power can be abused and how knowledge can reflect the interests of the powerful.
Their coziness with arbitrary power so long as it is effective makes it vulnerable to ‘the despotism trap’ where the ends justify the means.