There may have been a time when EA’s should have stayed out of politics. This isn’t it.
There may been times when we should separate our EA discussions from political opinions—even if we feel strongly about political questions, we should keep those opinions away from our EA discussions.
Today, we do not have that luxury. We need to get our hands dirty.
Many of us care deeply about the world, yet for fear of being called “partisan” do not dare to point out the obvious FACT that there is one party which currently is standing for everything that EA’s oppose.
I have written this before, and I got a lot of downvotes, but I will say it again.
By far the most effective, impactful think the EA movement could do would be to find a way to stop Donald Trump and his cronies destroying so much.
I fully accept that EA’s should include and listen to both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. But Republicans, even more than Democrats, should be putting their necks on the line to stop Trump destroying their party in addition to destroying the US.
There is no coherent way that anyone could be an EA and a Trump supporter.
Stopping Trump destroying the US, destroying AI Governance, destroying global aid, destroying climate-action, … is the single most important task in the world right now.
Those of us outside the US need our US colleagues, EA’s and non-EA’s, to do what you can. We need to push our own politicians not to be such pathetic walk-over appeasers too, and we’re working on that.
So yes, we need to start engaging in politics, at least until this emergency is over.
There may have been a time when EA’s should have stayed out of politics. This isn’t it.
There may been times when we should separate our EA discussions from political opinions—even if we feel strongly about political questions, we should keep those opinions away from our EA discussions.
Today, we do not have that luxury. We need to get our hands dirty.
Many of us care deeply about the world, yet for fear of being called “partisan” do not dare to point out the obvious FACT that there is one party which currently is standing for everything that EA’s oppose.
I have written this before, and I got a lot of downvotes, but I will say it again.
By far the most effective, impactful think the EA movement could do would be to find a way to stop Donald Trump and his cronies destroying so much.
I fully accept that EA’s should include and listen to both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. But Republicans, even more than Democrats, should be putting their necks on the line to stop Trump destroying their party in addition to destroying the US.
There is no coherent way that anyone could be an EA and a Trump supporter.
Stopping Trump destroying the US, destroying AI Governance, destroying global aid, destroying climate-action, … is the single most important task in the world right now.
Those of us outside the US need our US colleagues, EA’s and non-EA’s, to do what you can. We need to push our own politicians not to be such pathetic walk-over appeasers too, and we’re working on that.
So yes, we need to start engaging in politics, at least until this emergency is over.