Of all the academic, activist, and Silicon Valley-type communties I belong to, EA is the most inclusive to (US) conservative ideas. It’s not a very high compliment, but still. The strong free market bent of EA takes most of its members away from mainstream liberal economic policies, i.e. being in favor of globalization (though this issue keeps switching sides). And people tend not to feel any shame about supporting a “conservative” policy if they arrived at it through reason and evidence.
What I do notice is contempt for the culture of American conservatism, beyond even equating it with racism and sexism. Aesthetic horror at the use of guns and big trucks, derision at the idea that anyone could believe Fundamentalist Christianity, considering suburban or rural family-centered life to be lame, condescendingly asserting that the majority of conservatives vote outside of their interests (read: because they are too dumb and driven by fear and hatred to see that we know what’s best for them), everything to do with Trump...
I think the cultural stuff is a big blindspot in EA and the most significant way in which we lack needed diversity, but I’m very hopeful that with essays like this, EAs will be open to looking at conservatives differently. And I hope so, because, stripped of culture war baggage, we could use their perspective.
Of all the academic, activist, and Silicon Valley-type communties I belong to, EA is the most inclusive to (US) conservative ideas. It’s not a very high compliment, but still. The strong free market bent of EA takes most of its members away from mainstream liberal economic policies, i.e. being in favor of globalization (though this issue keeps switching sides). And people tend not to feel any shame about supporting a “conservative” policy if they arrived at it through reason and evidence.
What I do notice is contempt for the culture of American conservatism, beyond even equating it with racism and sexism. Aesthetic horror at the use of guns and big trucks, derision at the idea that anyone could believe Fundamentalist Christianity, considering suburban or rural family-centered life to be lame, condescendingly asserting that the majority of conservatives vote outside of their interests (read: because they are too dumb and driven by fear and hatred to see that we know what’s best for them), everything to do with Trump...
I think the cultural stuff is a big blindspot in EA and the most significant way in which we lack needed diversity, but I’m very hopeful that with essays like this, EAs will be open to looking at conservatives differently. And I hope so, because, stripped of culture war baggage, we could use their perspective.