Being fooled and being a fool are two different things with two different meanings. Being misled by someone who is skilled at and highly incentivized to mislead people doesn’t make someone definitionally naive or bad at reasoning.
It certainly isn’t a good outcome for EA either way, and I don’t want us prematurely absolving ourselves of any responsibility we may end up holding. I just want to be as clear-thinking about this as possible, so we can best mend ourselves moving forward.
I agree with you.
However, the alternative isn’t any better for fostering the EA Community:
Given that SBF is a fraud, that
Makes anybody who took his money either a criminal, or a fool.
It’s only natural that whichever EA public figure that took his money tries to avoid the “fool” label, but… that’s what conmen do: They fool people.
Makes anybody who gave him money, a fool.
This is really damning, because people might begin associating the EA community and the EA causes themselves to fraud.
In a sense, it’s better for the EA causes for people to believe that the SBF fraud was propelled by a misguided fanaticism of SBF himself.
Being fooled and being a fool are two different things with two different meanings. Being misled by someone who is skilled at and highly incentivized to mislead people doesn’t make someone definitionally naive or bad at reasoning.
It certainly isn’t a good outcome for EA either way, and I don’t want us prematurely absolving ourselves of any responsibility we may end up holding. I just want to be as clear-thinking about this as possible, so we can best mend ourselves moving forward.