I think its important to not simplify political pluralism down to simply party politics, particularly in one country, so I’m simply not sure this simple left-right axis can at all accurately conceptualise the politics of the space and I think if we are to fully capitalise on the politics of this space and how to diversify them, we really need to look more expansively.
Addressing your question directly, I firstly don’t claim to know or have all the answers, although I can think of places it would definitely be useful. One potential example would be to develop a political philosophy of xrisk reduction based on Burkeian ideas, which I think may be a useful addition to an ‘agents of doom’ agenda. I’m sure other intellectual currents in conseravtive thought could also be useful, particularly given how inherently conservative the idea of XRisk reduction is (eg see Mitchell and Chaudrey’s paper, and I actually agree this inherent conseravtivism is problematic) and so conservatives ought to have a lot to say about xrisk reduction.
In the post, you say “Much of existential risk reduction is political[19], so diverse and broad based coalitions can give us a useful political basis for action. Many different types of existential risk may have similar political causes[20], and a pluralistic community may open up new avenues for collaboration with those whom we each have common cause[21].” It does seem strange not to say in the main post that apparently almost all EAs would vote probably vote Labour or Democrat, so clearly something is amiss here by your own lights
I do basically agree that we should have people who we would say are on the right (hence my suggestion) and I can see why my previous comment may come across dismissive (apologies), I just don’t agree that breaking it down to party politics(eg Republican) or left-right given how broad it is is necessarily that useful.
(Again, please remember I’m not just talking about EA but ERS, but I think your point still applies)
I think its important to not simplify political pluralism down to simply party politics, particularly in one country, so I’m simply not sure this simple left-right axis can at all accurately conceptualise the politics of the space and I think if we are to fully capitalise on the politics of this space and how to diversify them, we really need to look more expansively.
Addressing your question directly, I firstly don’t claim to know or have all the answers, although I can think of places it would definitely be useful. One potential example would be to develop a political philosophy of xrisk reduction based on Burkeian ideas, which I think may be a useful addition to an ‘agents of doom’ agenda. I’m sure other intellectual currents in conseravtive thought could also be useful, particularly given how inherently conservative the idea of XRisk reduction is (eg see Mitchell and Chaudrey’s paper, and I actually agree this inherent conseravtivism is problematic) and so conservatives ought to have a lot to say about xrisk reduction.
In the post, you say “Much of existential risk reduction is political[19], so diverse and broad based coalitions can give us a useful political basis for action. Many different types of existential risk may have similar political causes[20], and a pluralistic community may open up new avenues for collaboration with those whom we each have common cause[21].” It does seem strange not to say in the main post that apparently almost all EAs would vote probably vote Labour or Democrat, so clearly something is amiss here by your own lights
I do basically agree that we should have people who we would say are on the right (hence my suggestion) and I can see why my previous comment may come across dismissive (apologies), I just don’t agree that breaking it down to party politics(eg Republican) or left-right given how broad it is is necessarily that useful. (Again, please remember I’m not just talking about EA but ERS, but I think your point still applies)
I just wanted to say thanks for taking the question seriously, even though you don’t fully endorse the frame!
what’s the inherent conservatism of xrisk reduction, or the version that’s salient to you, or to Mitchell/Chaudrey? I know of a few approaches. I guess Mitchell/Chaudrey might plausibly think the “everyone dying bad” frame solves the whiteness problem (i.e. someone like Ord throws in a bunch of extra stuff on top which you could accuse of a kind of WEIRD supremacy / insufficiently anticapitalist / etc). I remain slightly confused why “positive longtermism and negative longtermism” have not been adopted since I’m frequently aggressively reminded that it’s a source of cruxes for different people.