One quick reason for thinking that academic philosophy norms should apply to the “institutional critique” is that it appears in works of academic philosophy. If people like Crary et al are just acting as private political actors, I guess they can say whatever they want on whatever flimsy basis they want. But insofar as they’re writing philosophy papers (and books published by academic presses) arguing for the institutional critique as a serious objection to Effective Altruism, I’m claiming that they haven’t done a competent job of arguing for their thesis.
One quick reason for thinking that academic philosophy norms should apply to the “institutional critique” is that it appears in works of academic philosophy. If people like Crary et al are just acting as private political actors, I guess they can say whatever they want on whatever flimsy basis they want. But insofar as they’re writing philosophy papers (and books published by academic presses) arguing for the institutional critique as a serious objection to Effective Altruism, I’m claiming that they haven’t done a competent job of arguing for their thesis.