no subject

[firecat]

Via silveradept, some really interesting writing about the intersection between ethics, effectiveness, and charitable donations.

"Against Swooping In: When effective altruism proves to be less than effective, and also rife with political problems by Kate Manne

Comments

[kore]

That is a NEAT essay. //signs up for the substack

I'm also reminded of criticisms of the Red Cross and FEMA during Katrina, and some programs designed to "help" poor people which, like the deworming idea, didn't help (or even made things worse).

[firecat]

It seems to happen a lot. I think helping other people is a good idea, and I wouldn't want people to conclude from stuff like this that they ought to stop doing it altogether. But maybe trying to find some magically perfect way to do it isn't a good focus.

[shanaqui]

I missed it when silveradept posted it, so I'm just reading it now -- thanks for highlighting it. I'm going to have to do some reading around, clearly; my course at LSHTM (and the WHO) still state as fact the symptoms of stunting, anaemia, etc, that the essay (and linked meta-analysis) discredit. Iiiinteresting.

[sabotabby]

That is a really good article.

So...in addition, Effective Altruism is a cult and a grift. It's on the thin edge of the LessWrong ideology, which is a rabbit hole that leads to greedy billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Gates for whom charity-washing is a way to get tax breaks and influence the politics of nations, and neoreactionary movements whose goal is to replace democracy with "enlightened despots." In this essay I will

[firecat]

This in particular made me sit up and go "YEAH":

I can’t help but reflect grimly on the fact that, like philosophy in general, the effective altruism movement is worryingly white male-dominated. And there’s a lesson to be learned here about the dangers of a certain masculine technocratic arrogance and white savior complex and their intersection.

[sabotabby]

That was the point I was fairly certain I'd agree with the entire article.

[heartonsnow]

I am so tired by this is my pet subject so I will leave the tab open and read tomorrow.

[heartonsnow]

I was not expecting it to be so worm-heavy but interesting all the same.

often in UK, charities are run like companies with people being paid well to create adverts and admin.

The recipitents are often seen as the "product"

[silveradept]

I also got linked to The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics recently, which also seems to be on the Effective Altruism train, and seems to mostly land on "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," although it also seems to be doing a lot of downplaying the knock-on effects of various entities taking action. So that might help as an example of the thinking alongside.

[firecat]

Thank you!