That might be right—but then wouldn’t it be a major problem for EA if it were unable to discuss rationally one of the most important factors determining whether it achieved its goals? This election is likely to have huge implications not only for how (or whether) the world manages a number of x-risks to a minimally satisfactory extent, but also for many other core EA concerns such as international development, and probably farm animals too (a right-wing politician with a deregulatory agenda, for whom ‘animals’ is a favourite insult, is scarcely going to have their welfare at heart).
I think difficult to discuss rationally, and unable to discuss rationally are two completely different things that it’s important not to conflate. It just seems very obviously true that posts on US politics are more likely to lead to drama, fighting, etc. There are definitely EAs who are capable of having productive and civil conversations about politics, I’ve enjoyed several such, and find EAs much better for this than most groups. But public online forums are a hard medium to have such discussions. And I think the moderating team have correctly labelled any such posts as difficult to discuss rationally. Whether you agree with making them less visible is up to you, I personally think it’s fairly reasonable
I disagree that it is “difficult to discuss rationally”. I agree that most discussions of political issues outside of this forum are emotionally driven, soldier mentality, ad hominem etc.
But EA forum participants have shown great restraint and depth in discussing a range of sensitive topics (as you acknowledge). I think we could provide a strong example of how this is done.
I guess the filtering should weigh the risk of things getting uncivil against the importance of the topic/area. Hot button social issues and things coming close to personal drama seem to have low importance. Politics seems to be high importance, to me.
It sounds like you agree it’s difficult, you just think EA Forum participants will successfully rise to the challenge?
Which idk, maybe, maybe not, seems high variance—I’m less optimistic than you. And making things personal blog posts makes them less visible to new forum users (hidden by default, I think?) but not to more familiar users who opt in to seeing personal blog posts, which seems great for higher quality conversations. So yeah, idk, ultimately the level of filtering here is very mild and I would guess net good
I need to consider the visibility of the personal blog posts. If they are really ~invisible one possibility could be combining politics with the community section.
I don’t think the benefits would outweigh the enormous costs, no. I think there is space in EA for election discussion, and indeed things like the Personal Blogposts are a decent fit for that, as are other spaces that are higher trust (like sessions at EA Global). It’s not like this topic is banned, its just disincentivized, which seems very reasonable to me.
I’m hesitant to support giving the moderators license to decide which discussions of which candidates should get default front-page visibility. There are also possible legal implications to selective elevation of explicitly partisan political content to default visibility in light of EVF US’s status as a 501(c)(3) charity and the limitations on partisan political activity that come with that status.
That might be right—but then wouldn’t it be a major problem for EA if it were unable to discuss rationally one of the most important factors determining whether it achieved its goals? This election is likely to have huge implications not only for how (or whether) the world manages a number of x-risks to a minimally satisfactory extent, but also for many other core EA concerns such as international development, and probably farm animals too (a right-wing politician with a deregulatory agenda, for whom ‘animals’ is a favourite insult, is scarcely going to have their welfare at heart).
I think difficult to discuss rationally, and unable to discuss rationally are two completely different things that it’s important not to conflate. It just seems very obviously true that posts on US politics are more likely to lead to drama, fighting, etc. There are definitely EAs who are capable of having productive and civil conversations about politics, I’ve enjoyed several such, and find EAs much better for this than most groups. But public online forums are a hard medium to have such discussions. And I think the moderating team have correctly labelled any such posts as difficult to discuss rationally. Whether you agree with making them less visible is up to you, I personally think it’s fairly reasonable
I disagree that it is “difficult to discuss rationally”. I agree that most discussions of political issues outside of this forum are emotionally driven, soldier mentality, ad hominem etc.
But EA forum participants have shown great restraint and depth in discussing a range of sensitive topics (as you acknowledge). I think we could provide a strong example of how this is done.
I guess the filtering should weigh the risk of things getting uncivil against the importance of the topic/area. Hot button social issues and things coming close to personal drama seem to have low importance. Politics seems to be high importance, to me.
It sounds like you agree it’s difficult, you just think EA Forum participants will successfully rise to the challenge?
Which idk, maybe, maybe not, seems high variance—I’m less optimistic than you. And making things personal blog posts makes them less visible to new forum users (hidden by default, I think?) but not to more familiar users who opt in to seeing personal blog posts, which seems great for higher quality conversations. So yeah, idk, ultimately the level of filtering here is very mild and I would guess net good
I need to consider the visibility of the personal blog posts. If they are really ~invisible one possibility could be combining politics with the community section.
I don’t think the benefits would outweigh the enormous costs, no. I think there is space in EA for election discussion, and indeed things like the Personal Blogposts are a decent fit for that, as are other spaces that are higher trust (like sessions at EA Global). It’s not like this topic is banned, its just disincentivized, which seems very reasonable to me.
FWIW my impression is that EAG events are not generally considered to be a good fit for election discussion.
I’m hesitant to support giving the moderators license to decide which discussions of which candidates should get default front-page visibility. There are also possible legal implications to selective elevation of explicitly partisan political content to default visibility in light of EVF US’s status as a 501(c)(3) charity and the limitations on partisan political activity that come with that status.
Are there even allegations of selective moderation of political content?