I agree that the term, whether neartermist or not-longtermist, does not describe a natural category. But I think the latter does a better job at communicating that. The way I hear it, “not-longtermist” sounds like “not that part of idea-space”, whereas neartermist sounds like an actual view people may hold that relates to how we should prioritise the nearterm versus the longterm. So I think your point actually supports one of David’s alternative suggested terms.
And though you say you don’t think we need a term for it at all, the fact that the term “neartermist” has caught on suggests otherwise. If it wasn’t helpful, people wouldn’t use it. However, perhaps you didn’t just mean that we didn’t need one, but that we shouldn’t use one at all. I’d disagree with that too because it seems to me reasonable in many cases to want to distinguish longtermism with other worldviews EAs often have (i.e., it seems fair to me to say that Open Philanthropy’s internal structure is divided on longtermist/not-longtermist lines).
Agree and I don’t think it’s a natural category. I just don’t want it to be called “neartermism”
I agree that the term, whether neartermist or not-longtermist, does not describe a natural category. But I think the latter does a better job at communicating that. The way I hear it, “not-longtermist” sounds like “not that part of idea-space”, whereas neartermist sounds like an actual view people may hold that relates to how we should prioritise the nearterm versus the longterm. So I think your point actually supports one of David’s alternative suggested terms.
And though you say you don’t think we need a term for it at all, the fact that the term “neartermist” has caught on suggests otherwise. If it wasn’t helpful, people wouldn’t use it. However, perhaps you didn’t just mean that we didn’t need one, but that we shouldn’t use one at all. I’d disagree with that too because it seems to me reasonable in many cases to want to distinguish longtermism with other worldviews EAs often have (i.e., it seems fair to me to say that Open Philanthropy’s internal structure is divided on longtermist/not-longtermist lines).
Also, cool image!