Now, maybe the worry is that while longtermists are doing good stuff now, they might eventually do terrible things for the sake of the long-term future
Longtermists have (past-tense) done bad things. The worry is now evidenced by a track record. It’s not some theoretical worry about the future. Are we still not able to admit this as a movement?
Things done under the guise of longtermism:
Political lobbying for crypto done in the name of “pandemic prevention”
Gabe Bankman-Fried’s plans to purchase the island nation of Nauru
The Longtermism castle
Connections to various far-right projects
SBF’s funding of Praxis Society
FLI’s grant offer to a pro-nazi group
Far right personalities connecting their ideologies to longtermism
I can’t even begin to estimate the harm done by SBF’s political interference, succesfully electing his crypto-friendly candidates to the world’s most powerful institution of democracy, the US House. Permanently altering the course of world history, ending the careers of some very promising principled candidates who refused to take big money.
That is insane that you can embed a OWID chart into a forum reply 😂