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Notes -
Effective altruism is full of utopians, radicals, and iconoclasts. One of its founding assumptions is that the traditional model of charity—such as that practiced by churches—is awfully inefficient. It is a movement which likes to look for twenty-dollar bills lying on the sidewalk. Also, it’s centered on California. Of course it’s full of liberals!
So why is this a bad thing?
Compared to the average charity, I expect one favored by EAs is probably more transparent and less likely to waste your donation on something you didn’t want. Look at GiveWell, which specifically avoids recommending efficient charities if it can’t be sure that they’re transparent. Donate to one of their top picks, and you can have high confidence that your money is actually going to preventing whatever horrible disease or deficiency it claims to target.
Or consider Scott’s kidney donation train. More people donated kidneys which wouldn’t otherwise have been donated. I don’t see how encouraging that can possibly be perceived as advancing liberal interests.
I guess I’m left asking: what does “substantial confrontation” look like to you? What should someone do differently, once armed with the knowledge that some liberals also like efficient charity?
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