My apologies but I had to strong downvote because this is the sort of content that I want to stay far away from the forum. I would have maybe given a weak downvote or maybe even none if:
it was nonpartisan, nonpolarized, and neutral
there was a transcript of the video (I watched only a couple minutes, too long)
there was a specific theory of change with an expected value calculation for a given amount of resources to improve a specific problem
it compared this to other possible uses of those resources within the same or different cause areas
Hey Dony, looking back at it, I can see why this appears partisan even though that was not my intention. My post was not meant to demonize my compatriots who happen to vote Republican or identify as conservative. It was meant to educate and bring awareness to an EA cause area.
I definitely could’ve used a better term than “Donald Trump supporters” in my first paragraph as not all of his supporters want to commit election fraud.
However, facts are facts. Regardless of someone’s politics, acknowledging the undermining of liberal democracy is necessary, especially when there are such detrimental consequences.
As I said, protecting liberal democracy isn’t one of my main interests or expertise so I don’t have the background to do a specific theory of change with an expected value calculation.
I appreciate the feedback and will learn from this post.
Jeffrey—I think getting involved in this sort of partisan political issue is extremely dangerous for the EA movement, in terms of our movement-building, public relations, outreach, and image.
I thought our remit in EA was to focus on large-scale, tractable, neglected problems.
Partisan political squabbles between the US Democratic and Republican parties are moderate in scale, but they’re very far from tractable or neglected.
This is not necessarily between Democrats and Republicans—there’s a split within the Republican party too.
“Dangerous for EA” is a consideration, but a bad enough threat for democracy, assuming this is one, can still be a stronger consideration.
I’m not educated enough on American politics to know if the assumption is correct. But on a global scale, it certainly looks like democracy is backsliding (and has been for decades). It’s true locally here in Israel, it’s true in several European countries, and it looks like it’s true on average in the world in general, going by Freedom House democracy scores.
The current US political situation is very complex, volatile, emotional, and polarized. There are very low levels of trust in public schools, newspapers, congress, TV news, the presidency, big tech companies, etc.
From the Left’s point of view, Trump supporters are a major threat to democracy.
From the Right’s point of view, the liberal media/academia/big tech hegemony is a major threat to democracy.
For EA to wade into the most polarized and volatile American political landscape I’ve ever seen, seems foolish—and there’s no way we could get involved without upsetting tens of millions of highly passionate voters.
Hey Geoffrey, looking back at it, I can see why this appears partisan even though that was not my intention. My post was not meant to demonize my compatriots who happen to vote Republican or identify as conservative. It was meant to educate and bring awareness to an EA cause area, protecting liberal democracy.
According to the 80k hyperlink I included in my post, it is a pressing issue. This is a large-scale issue as the United States is arguably the most influential geopolitical power in the world and has cultural and political influence around the globe on ensuring or protecting liberal democracies. (I’m not taking a side on whether US intervention in bringing liberal democracies is a net good or net bad, but history and the present (Ukraine) have shown how impactful U.S. involvement can be.)
I definitely could’ve used a better term than “Donald Trump supporters” in my first paragraph as not all of his supporters want to commit election fraud.
However, facts are facts. Regardless of someone’s politics, acknowledging the undermining of liberal democracy is necessary, especially when there are such detrimental consequences.
I appreciate your constructive criticism and will take it into account in future posts and edit this post to make it seem less partisan.
My apologies but I had to strong downvote because this is the sort of content that I want to stay far away from the forum. I would have maybe given a weak downvote or maybe even none if:
it was nonpartisan, nonpolarized, and neutral
there was a transcript of the video (I watched only a couple minutes, too long)
there was a specific theory of change with an expected value calculation for a given amount of resources to improve a specific problem
it compared this to other possible uses of those resources within the same or different cause areas
(Here is an example of a post from today that seems somewhat more neutral and specific, though still not as mechanistic as I’d like, but I only skimmed it: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FtHhC7CfN4r5xD3Lm/easy-fixing-voting)
Hey Dony, looking back at it, I can see why this appears partisan even though that was not my intention. My post was not meant to demonize my compatriots who happen to vote Republican or identify as conservative. It was meant to educate and bring awareness to an EA cause area.
I definitely could’ve used a better term than “Donald Trump supporters” in my first paragraph as not all of his supporters want to commit election fraud.
However, facts are facts. Regardless of someone’s politics, acknowledging the undermining of liberal democracy is necessary, especially when there are such detrimental consequences.
As I said, protecting liberal democracy isn’t one of my main interests or expertise so I don’t have the background to do a specific theory of change with an expected value calculation.
I appreciate the feedback and will learn from this post.
Jeffrey—I think getting involved in this sort of partisan political issue is extremely dangerous for the EA movement, in terms of our movement-building, public relations, outreach, and image.
I thought our remit in EA was to focus on large-scale, tractable, neglected problems.
Partisan political squabbles between the US Democratic and Republican parties are moderate in scale, but they’re very far from tractable or neglected.
This is not necessarily between Democrats and Republicans—there’s a split within the Republican party too.
“Dangerous for EA” is a consideration, but a bad enough threat for democracy, assuming this is one, can still be a stronger consideration.
I’m not educated enough on American politics to know if the assumption is correct. But on a global scale, it certainly looks like democracy is backsliding (and has been for decades). It’s true locally here in Israel, it’s true in several European countries, and it looks like it’s true on average in the world in general, going by Freedom House democracy scores.
Guy—thanks for your comment.
The current US political situation is very complex, volatile, emotional, and polarized. There are very low levels of trust in public schools, newspapers, congress, TV news, the presidency, big tech companies, etc.
From the Left’s point of view, Trump supporters are a major threat to democracy.
From the Right’s point of view, the liberal media/academia/big tech hegemony is a major threat to democracy.
For EA to wade into the most polarized and volatile American political landscape I’ve ever seen, seems foolish—and there’s no way we could get involved without upsetting tens of millions of highly passionate voters.
Hey Geoffrey, looking back at it, I can see why this appears partisan even though that was not my intention. My post was not meant to demonize my compatriots who happen to vote Republican or identify as conservative. It was meant to educate and bring awareness to an EA cause area, protecting liberal democracy.
According to the 80k hyperlink I included in my post, it is a pressing issue. This is a large-scale issue as the United States is arguably the most influential geopolitical power in the world and has cultural and political influence around the globe on ensuring or protecting liberal democracies. (I’m not taking a side on whether US intervention in bringing liberal democracies is a net good or net bad, but history and the present (Ukraine) have shown how impactful U.S. involvement can be.)
I definitely could’ve used a better term than “Donald Trump supporters” in my first paragraph as not all of his supporters want to commit election fraud.
However, facts are facts. Regardless of someone’s politics, acknowledging the undermining of liberal democracy is necessary, especially when there are such detrimental consequences.
I appreciate your constructive criticism and will take it into account in future posts and edit this post to make it seem less partisan.