The Nonlinear Library EA - EA should unequivocally condemn race science by JSc
Aug 1, 2024
18:50
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EA should unequivocally condemn race science, published by JSc on August 1, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
I wrote an initial draft of this post much closer to the Manifest controversy earlier this summer. Although I got sidetracked and it took a while to finish, I still think this is a conversation worth having; perhaps it would even be better to have it now since calmer heads have had time to prevail.
I can't in good faith deny being an effective altruist. I've worked at EA organizations, I believe many of the core tenants of the movement, and thinking about optimizing my impact by EA lights has guided every major career decision I've made since early 2021. And yet I am ashamed to identify myself as such in polite society.
Someone at a party recently guessed that I was an EA after I said I was interested in animal welfare litigation or maybe AI governance; I laughed awkwardly, said yeah maybe you could see it that way, and changed the subject. I find it quite strange to be in a position of having to downplay my affiliation with a movement that aims to unselfishly do as much as possible to help others, regardless of where or when they may live. Are altruism and far-reaching compassion not virtues?
This shame comes in large part from a deeply troubling trend I've noticed over the last few years in EA. This trend is towards acceptance or toleration of race science ("human biodiversity" as some have tried to rebrand it), or otherwise racist incidents. Some notable instances in this trend include:
The community's refusal to distance itself from, or at the very least strongly condemn the actions of Nick Bostrom after an old email came to light where he used the n-word and said "I like that sentence and think that it is true" in regards to the statement that "blacks are more stupid than whites," followed by an evasive, defensive apology.
FLI's apparent sending of a letter intent to a far-right Swedish foundation that has promoted holocaust denial.[1]
And now, most recently, many EAs' defense of Manifest hosting Richard Hanania, who
pseudonymously wrote about his opposition to interracial marriage, cited neo-Nazis, and expressed views indicating that he didn't think Black people could govern themselves.[2]
I'm not here to quibble about each individual instance listed above (and most were extensively litigated on the forum at the time). Maybe you think one or even all of the examples I gave has an innocent explanation. But if you find yourself thinking this way, you're still left having to answer the deeply uncomfortable question of why EA has to keep explaining these incidents.
I have been even more disturbed by the EA forum's response.[3] Many have either leapt to outright defend those who seemed to espouse racist views or urged us to view their speech in the most possible favorable light without consideration of the negative effects of their language.
Other communities that I have been a part of (online or otherwise) have not had repeated race-science related scandals. It is not a coincidence that we are having this conversation for the fourth or fifth time in the last few years. I spend a lot of this post defending my viewpoint, but I honestly think this is not a particularly hard or complicated problem; part of me is indignant that we even need to have this conversation. I view these conversations with deep frustration.
What, exactly, do we have to gain by tolerating the musings of racist edgelords? We pride ourselves on having identified the most pressing problems in the world, problems that are neglected to the deep peril of those living and to be born; human and non-human alike. Racial differences in IQ is not one of those problems. It has nothing to do with solving those problems.
Talking about racial differences in IQ is at best a costly distraction and at ...
I wrote an initial draft of this post much closer to the Manifest controversy earlier this summer. Although I got sidetracked and it took a while to finish, I still think this is a conversation worth having; perhaps it would even be better to have it now since calmer heads have had time to prevail.
I can't in good faith deny being an effective altruist. I've worked at EA organizations, I believe many of the core tenants of the movement, and thinking about optimizing my impact by EA lights has guided every major career decision I've made since early 2021. And yet I am ashamed to identify myself as such in polite society.
Someone at a party recently guessed that I was an EA after I said I was interested in animal welfare litigation or maybe AI governance; I laughed awkwardly, said yeah maybe you could see it that way, and changed the subject. I find it quite strange to be in a position of having to downplay my affiliation with a movement that aims to unselfishly do as much as possible to help others, regardless of where or when they may live. Are altruism and far-reaching compassion not virtues?
This shame comes in large part from a deeply troubling trend I've noticed over the last few years in EA. This trend is towards acceptance or toleration of race science ("human biodiversity" as some have tried to rebrand it), or otherwise racist incidents. Some notable instances in this trend include:
The community's refusal to distance itself from, or at the very least strongly condemn the actions of Nick Bostrom after an old email came to light where he used the n-word and said "I like that sentence and think that it is true" in regards to the statement that "blacks are more stupid than whites," followed by an evasive, defensive apology.
FLI's apparent sending of a letter intent to a far-right Swedish foundation that has promoted holocaust denial.[1]
And now, most recently, many EAs' defense of Manifest hosting Richard Hanania, who
pseudonymously wrote about his opposition to interracial marriage, cited neo-Nazis, and expressed views indicating that he didn't think Black people could govern themselves.[2]
I'm not here to quibble about each individual instance listed above (and most were extensively litigated on the forum at the time). Maybe you think one or even all of the examples I gave has an innocent explanation. But if you find yourself thinking this way, you're still left having to answer the deeply uncomfortable question of why EA has to keep explaining these incidents.
I have been even more disturbed by the EA forum's response.[3] Many have either leapt to outright defend those who seemed to espouse racist views or urged us to view their speech in the most possible favorable light without consideration of the negative effects of their language.
Other communities that I have been a part of (online or otherwise) have not had repeated race-science related scandals. It is not a coincidence that we are having this conversation for the fourth or fifth time in the last few years. I spend a lot of this post defending my viewpoint, but I honestly think this is not a particularly hard or complicated problem; part of me is indignant that we even need to have this conversation. I view these conversations with deep frustration.
What, exactly, do we have to gain by tolerating the musings of racist edgelords? We pride ourselves on having identified the most pressing problems in the world, problems that are neglected to the deep peril of those living and to be born; human and non-human alike. Racial differences in IQ is not one of those problems. It has nothing to do with solving those problems.
Talking about racial differences in IQ is at best a costly distraction and at ...