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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4079 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 7, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The most important thing isn't really whether they're woke in the sense of feel obligated to post a statement, it's what they actually do with the money, so I probably wouldn't worry about that too much, as long as they spend pretty much all the money on what they're nominally for? I haven't looked in particular, but given that they're on givewell, I assume they're pretty good at making use of the money.

That said, by all means, prefer ones that more clearly stick to your values.

I do wonder what areas effective altruism is blind to. The fact that Open Philanthropy funded criminal justice reform significantly decreases my trust in their work overall, though I would imagine they would do far better on average than the default of not doing the math and hoping you end up somewhere effective. Based purely on vibes, GiveWell seems less likely to do things like that.

I agree with for the most part. Works matter more than intentions.

But it's hard for me. Would you donate to a Wahhabi charity that spent 80% of funds deworming in Africa but occasionally sent their staff on an expensive junket to a meeting of religious clerics? That's the question I'm wrestling with right now.

The fact that Open Philanthropy funded criminal justice reform significantly decreases my trust in their work overall

Were they the ones who were like "we ran the numbers and the most effective donation is giving to Democrats in swing states" or something? Motivated reasoning has no limits, so I think it's imperative to understand the people who make the calculations in addition to the calculations themselves.

I don't actually know. I do know that some enormous donors heavily tied to effective altruism (Dustin Moskovitz, SBF) spent a lot of money on democrats, but I don't know that it was through the EA-tied funds?

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