I think the least contentious argument is that ‘an introduction’ should introduce people to the ideas in the area, not just the ideas that the introducer thinks are most plausible. Eg a curriculum on political ideology wouldn’t focus nearly exclusively on ‘your favourite ideology’. A thoughtful educator would include arguments for and against their position and do their best to steelman. Even if your favourite ideology was communism and you were doing ‘an intro to communism’ you would still expect it not just to focus on your favourite strand of communism. Hence, I would have had more sympathy with (the original incarnation) if billed as “an intro to longtermism”.
But, further, there can be good reasons to do things for symbolic or coalition reasons. To think otherwise implies a rather naive understanding of politics and human interaction. If you want people to support you—you can frame this in terms of moral trade, if you want—sometimes you also need to support to include them. The way I’d like EA to work is “this is what I believe matters most, but if you disagree because of A, B, C, then you should talk to my friend”. This strikes me as coalitional moral trade that benefits all the actors individually (by their own lights). An alternative, and more or less what 80k had been proposing was, is “this is what I believe, but I’m not going to tell what the alternatives are or what you should do if you disagree”. This isn’t an engagement in moral trade.
I’m pretty worried about a scenario where the different parts of the EA world believe (rightly or wrongly) that others aren’t engaging in moral trade and so decide to embark on ‘moral trade wars’ against each other instead.
I think the least contentious argument is that ‘an introduction’ should introduce people to the ideas in the area, not just the ideas that the introducer thinks are most plausible. Eg a curriculum on political ideology wouldn’t focus nearly exclusively on ‘your favourite ideology’. A thoughtful educator would include arguments for and against their position and do their best to steelman. Even if your favourite ideology was communism and you were doing ‘an intro to communism’ you would still expect it not just to focus on your favourite strand of communism. Hence, I would have had more sympathy with (the original incarnation) if billed as “an intro to longtermism”.
But, further, there can be good reasons to do things for symbolic or coalition reasons. To think otherwise implies a rather naive understanding of politics and human interaction. If you want people to support you—you can frame this in terms of moral trade, if you want—sometimes you also need to support to include them. The way I’d like EA to work is “this is what I believe matters most, but if you disagree because of A, B, C, then you should talk to my friend”. This strikes me as coalitional moral trade that benefits all the actors individually (by their own lights). An alternative, and more or less what 80k had been proposing was, is “this is what I believe, but I’m not going to tell what the alternatives are or what you should do if you disagree”. This isn’t an engagement in moral trade.
I’m pretty worried about a scenario where the different parts of the EA world believe (rightly or wrongly) that others aren’t engaging in moral trade and so decide to embark on ‘moral trade wars’ against each other instead.