I thought I was providing a modestly valuable service to EAs by linkposting these things—they seemed relevant to current EA debates, and it’s generally good to see what those outside the movement are saying, to prevent it from becoming too inward-looking. But it doesn’t really seem to be valued so I’m not going to bother anymore. All these comments are on the level of ‘is a linkpost a good thing or not’. No-one is saying what they think about the actual content of the video, which is what would have been interesting to me. I feel alienated. And bored.
What is interesting, though, is that it appears to be an example of ‘kill the messenger’ syndrome. People don’t appear to like negative things being brought to their attention, and instead of dealing with/responding to the problem/content itself (e.g. what this prominent and well-respected YouTuber says about longtermism, the EA movement, Bostrom’s early racism and later apology, the conflict between scientists and bureaucrats at FHI, etc.; or the timing of shutting such an institute at a crucial point in the development of AI regulation) they avoid dealing with their discomfort at the problem by deflecting it towards criticising the message-bearer instead.
It’s interesting, albeit somewhat dispiriting, to see this psychological principle, known since ancient times, still alive and kicking amongst some 21st members of the EA forum.
I think there are some members who near-flexively downvote criticism . . . and they tend to vote on the earlier side. In contrast, your potential upvoters are probably not going to upvote without either watching the video or at least reading a good summary.
I do think video is often a bigger ask, as people can’t really skim it like they can an article. If people don’t want to watch, that is their perogative, maybe their loss. As for the meta-commentary, someone asked why you were getting downvotes, which invited that commentary in.
I thought I was providing a modestly valuable service to EAs by linkposting these things—they seemed relevant to current EA debates, and it’s generally good to see what those outside the movement are saying, to prevent it from becoming too inward-looking. But it doesn’t really seem to be valued so I’m not going to bother anymore. All these comments are on the level of ‘is a linkpost a good thing or not’. No-one is saying what they think about the actual content of the video, which is what would have been interesting to me. I feel alienated. And bored.
What is interesting, though, is that it appears to be an example of ‘kill the messenger’ syndrome. People don’t appear to like negative things being brought to their attention, and instead of dealing with/responding to the problem/content itself (e.g. what this prominent and well-respected YouTuber says about longtermism, the EA movement, Bostrom’s early racism and later apology, the conflict between scientists and bureaucrats at FHI, etc.; or the timing of shutting such an institute at a crucial point in the development of AI regulation) they avoid dealing with their discomfort at the problem by deflecting it towards criticising the message-bearer instead.
It’s interesting, albeit somewhat dispiriting, to see this psychological principle, known since ancient times, still alive and kicking amongst some 21st members of the EA forum.
I think there are some members who near-flexively downvote criticism . . . and they tend to vote on the earlier side. In contrast, your potential upvoters are probably not going to upvote without either watching the video or at least reading a good summary.
I do think video is often a bigger ask, as people can’t really skim it like they can an article. If people don’t want to watch, that is their perogative, maybe their loss. As for the meta-commentary, someone asked why you were getting downvotes, which invited that commentary in.