Nice quote, and very relevant—thanks for sharing! A general worry is that EA is often framed as inherently critical—as being sceptical of typical ways of doing good, as debunking and criticising ineffective attempts at altruism etc. - and this will mean we naturally end up using a lot of negative words.
I think there’s some evidence that being critical outside of a group can make people within the group feel closer to each other—which makes sense, because it strengthens the feeling of “us” versus “them.” But doing this with EA seems actively harmful, both because we want to attract as many people to be part of the “group” as possible, and because it’s unclear exactly where the line of the “group” lies, so we inevitably end up being critical of each other too.
Nice quote, and very relevant—thanks for sharing! A general worry is that EA is often framed as inherently critical—as being sceptical of typical ways of doing good, as debunking and criticising ineffective attempts at altruism etc. - and this will mean we naturally end up using a lot of negative words.
I think there’s some evidence that being critical outside of a group can make people within the group feel closer to each other—which makes sense, because it strengthens the feeling of “us” versus “them.” But doing this with EA seems actively harmful, both because we want to attract as many people to be part of the “group” as possible, and because it’s unclear exactly where the line of the “group” lies, so we inevitably end up being critical of each other too.