To my eyes “be known as an anti-animal advocate” is a much lower bar than “be an anti-animal advocate.”
For example I think some people will (still!) consider me an “anti-climate change advocate” (or “anti-anti-climate change advocate?”) due to a fairly short post I wrote 5+ years ago. I would, from their perspective, take actions consistent with that view (eg I’d be willing to defend my position if challenged, describe ways in which I’ve updated, etc). Moreover, it is not implausible that from their perspective, this is the most important thing I do (since they don’t interact with me at other times, and/or they might think my other actions are useless in either direction).
However, by my lights (and I expect by the lights of e.g. the median EA Forum reader) this would be a bad characterization. I don’t view arguing against climate change interventions as an important aspect of my life, nor do I believe my views on the matter as particularly outside of academic consensus.
Hence the distinction between “known as” vs “become.”
It’s the only part of my comment that argues Jeff was effectively saying he would have to “be” an animal advocate, which is exactly what you’re arguing against.
So I guess my best reply is just to point you back to that...
I guess I still don’t think of “I would need to spend a lot of time as a representative of this position” as being an anti-animal advocate. I spend a lot of time disagreeing with people on many different issues and yet I’d consider myself an advocate for only a tiny minority of them.
Put another way, I view the time spent as just one of the costs of being known as an anti-animal advocate, rather than being one.
To my eyes “be known as an anti-animal advocate” is a much lower bar than “be an anti-animal advocate.”
For example I think some people will (still!) consider me an “anti-climate change advocate” (or “anti-anti-climate change advocate?”) due to a fairly short post I wrote 5+ years ago. I would, from their perspective, take actions consistent with that view (eg I’d be willing to defend my position if challenged, describe ways in which I’ve updated, etc). Moreover, it is not implausible that from their perspective, this is the most important thing I do (since they don’t interact with me at other times, and/or they might think my other actions are useless in either direction).
However, by my lights (and I expect by the lights of e.g. the median EA Forum reader) this would be a bad characterization. I don’t view arguing against climate change interventions as an important aspect of my life, nor do I believe my views on the matter as particularly outside of academic consensus.
Hence the distinction between “known as” vs “become.”
You seem to have ignored the bit I made in bold in my previous comment
I don’t think there is or ought to be an expectation to respond to every subpart of a comment in a reply
It’s the only part of my comment that argues Jeff was effectively saying he would have to “be” an animal advocate, which is exactly what you’re arguing against.
So I guess my best reply is just to point you back to that...
Oh well, was nice chatting.
I guess I still don’t think of “I would need to spend a lot of time as a representative of this position” as being an anti-animal advocate. I spend a lot of time disagreeing with people on many different issues and yet I’d consider myself an advocate for only a tiny minority of them.
Put another way, I view the time spent as just one of the costs of being known as an anti-animal advocate, rather than being one.