Your argument that you would effectively be forced into becoming an anti-animal advocate if you convincingly wrote up your views—sorry I don’t really buy it.
OK so he says he would primarily be “known” as an anti-animal advocate not “become” one.
This is especially the case because If I did a good job at this I might end up primarily known for being an anti-animal advocate
But he then also says the following (bold emphasis mine):
I also expect that, again, conditional on doing a good job of this, I would need to spend a lot of time as a representative of this position: responding to the best counter arguments, evaluating new information as it comes up, people wanting me to participate in debates, animal advocates thinking that changing my mind is really very important for making progress toward their goals. These are similarly not where I want to put my time and energy, either for altruistic reasons personal enjoyment.
I’m struggling to see how what I said isn’t accurate. Maybe Jeff should have said “I would feel compelled to” rather than “I would need to”.
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.
I don’t think this is what Jeff said.
OK so he says he would primarily be “known” as an anti-animal advocate not “become” one.
But he then also says the following (bold emphasis mine):
I’m struggling to see how what I said isn’t accurate. Maybe Jeff should have said “I would feel compelled to” rather than “I would need to”.
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.