Takes a lot less than public cancellation to harm your career. I know powerful people who enthusiastically support my work now who would’ve been hesitant to work with me if they knew I was an EA because they’ve had bad experiences with other EAs. I think I could survive that now bc they’ve known me long enough to forgive me for it (keeping in mind that I have merely been silent, not lied about it), but if they’d googled me and learned it the day they met me, I’d be significantly less effective.
As for the collective action problem, I would first note that silence is not actually preference falsification. “Silence is complicity” is a false thing people like to say, but in reality you can’t verbal diarrhea out everything you believe, even if you try, because you’d spend your whole life doing that and never get any work done. Everyone always has to maintain some level of silence about their beliefs due to time limits if nothing else. Even for actual falsification, it only creates susceptibility to pressure if your falsification also fools the people who share your actual preferences. But if you’re on here posting anonymously then they’re not being fooled about the number of allies they have.
Additionally, just realistically here, I’d bet a ton of money that the difference in my impact by using my weirdness points to get work done instead of be a public EA is A LOT more than positive impact that would come from some marginally interested potential EA knowing that I’m an EA.
Takes a lot less than public cancellation to harm your career. I know powerful people who enthusiastically support my work now who would’ve been hesitant to work with me if they knew I was an EA because they’ve had bad experiences with other EAs. I think I could survive that now bc they’ve known me long enough to forgive me for it (keeping in mind that I have merely been silent, not lied about it), but if they’d googled me and learned it the day they met me, I’d be significantly less effective.
As for the collective action problem, I would first note that silence is not actually preference falsification. “Silence is complicity” is a false thing people like to say, but in reality you can’t verbal diarrhea out everything you believe, even if you try, because you’d spend your whole life doing that and never get any work done. Everyone always has to maintain some level of silence about their beliefs due to time limits if nothing else. Even for actual falsification, it only creates susceptibility to pressure if your falsification also fools the people who share your actual preferences. But if you’re on here posting anonymously then they’re not being fooled about the number of allies they have.
Additionally, just realistically here, I’d bet a ton of money that the difference in my impact by using my weirdness points to get work done instead of be a public EA is A LOT more than positive impact that would come from some marginally interested potential EA knowing that I’m an EA.