University is a great time to learn about politics and political activism. You can make a difference and learn useful skills by getting involved in campus activism. One of those skills is deciding which causes to get involved with.
If I ran a campus EA group, I’d probably encourage members to get involved in other campus activities (including political activism) but remain neutral* as a group. This not only makes the group more welcoming to a wide variety of people, but it also encourages people to think through different political causes for themselves rather than deferring their decision to what “EA leaders” think.
*To some extent everything is political. I would not be neutral about preventing bullying and harassment at EA meetups or things like that—I’m talking about remaining neural about controversial party political topics here.
This approach is compelling and you make a good case for it, but I think what Lynch said about how not supporting a movement can feel like opposing it is significant here. On our university campus, supporting a movement like Black Lives Matter seems obvious, so when you refuse to, it makes it looks like you have an ideological reason not to.
Others may disagree, but here’s my take:
University is a great time to learn about politics and political activism. You can make a difference and learn useful skills by getting involved in campus activism. One of those skills is deciding which causes to get involved with.
If I ran a campus EA group, I’d probably encourage members to get involved in other campus activities (including political activism) but remain neutral* as a group. This not only makes the group more welcoming to a wide variety of people, but it also encourages people to think through different political causes for themselves rather than deferring their decision to what “EA leaders” think.
*To some extent everything is political. I would not be neutral about preventing bullying and harassment at EA meetups or things like that—I’m talking about remaining neural about controversial party political topics here.
This approach is compelling and you make a good case for it, but I think what Lynch said about how not supporting a movement can feel like opposing it is significant here. On our university campus, supporting a movement like Black Lives Matter seems obvious, so when you refuse to, it makes it looks like you have an ideological reason not to.