My roommate is the chapter organizer for our city’s Humane League Changemakers, inspired down that path because of involvement with effective altruism and having gone to previous EA Globals. He got a form letter rejection from EA Global saying he should learn more about EA and reapply in the future. Make it make sense.
gkcv
Karma: 46
This is cribbing a bit from Sam[]zdat’s summary of Hoffer’s “The True Believer”, but in brief: I’m skeptical of pushes to make EA more normal because normal people don’t join social movements or intentional communities. Alternative lifestyles like polyamory, atheism and veganism are already largely drawing from people who are alienated from mainstream society enough to start doing things differently. High tolerance for weirdness + a desire to sacrifice in favor of the cause enables abuse in EA, sure. It also enables abuse and grift in your local anarchist co-op, your local BLM circle, probably even your local fusion dance scene.
Joining a demanding community or cause is something that is most appealing to people who are already having trouble fitting into society. That fact creates a lot of problems in any kind of intentional community or cause—I will always be the first to admit this. But not tolerating weirdness probably means paying the price of not really having a movement at all.