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[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

[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.