The local Effective Altruism chapter had a stand at the university hobby fair.
Last time I read their charity guide spam email for student clubs, they were still mostly into the relatively benign end of EA stuff, listing some charities they had deemed most effective by some methodology. My curiosity got the best of me and I went to talk to them. I wanted to find out if they’d started pushing seedier stuff and whether the people at the stand were aware of the dark side of TESCREAL.
They seemed to have gotten into AI risk stuff, which was not surprising. Also, they seemed to be unaware of most of the incidents and critics I referred to, mostly only knowing about the FTX debacle.
They invited me to attend their AI risk discussion event, saying (as TREACLES adjacents always do) that they love hearing criticism and different points of view and so on.
On one hand, EA is not super big here and most of their members and prospectively interested participants are probably not that invested in the movement yet. This could be an opportunity to spread awareness of the dark side of EA and its adjacent movements and maybe prevent some people from falling for the cult stuff.
On the other hand, acting as the spokesman for the opposing case is a big responsibility and the preparation is a lot of work. I’m slightly worried that pushing back at the event might escalate into a public debate or even worse, some kind of Ben Shapiro style affair where I’m DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC by some guy with a microphone and a primed audience. Also, dealing with these people is usually just plain exhausting.
So, I’m feeling conflicted and would like some advice from the best possible source: random people on the internet. Do y’all think it’s a good idea to go? Do you think it’s a terrible idea?
Like any IRL situation it’s probably more pertinent to read the room and be present, rather than theorycraft about what might happen.
That being said, my gut says this: there are going to be a large share of TREACLES peoples in the crowd. Here’s my argument.
This isn’t the scientology personality test phase of EA, it’s the private seminar phase before they teach you xenu phase, except their proselytisers aren’t nearly as charismatic/well trained in conversion.
I think the most viable targets for any detreacling would be any friends or tagger-ons to the event. Sorta like how if you are arguing on the internet, you don’t really hope to change the other party’s mind; you’re more hoping to sway anyone who comes along and reads the thread.
I’d go, personally, if only for the spectacle.
i’d concur - you will change 0 minds whatever you say. You may introduce seeds of doubt for later. You will get evangelists testing the slogans they’ve been taught on you in real time.
it’s important to remember what happens when these folks try to debate SneerClub — no minds are changed, they get to jack off to their own slogans and memes, and eventually they get pissed off because we won’t take them seriously
I recommend showing up for a laugh; come as someone satisfying their own curiosity who’s not taking any of this shit too seriously, but don’t engage. if any folks there are receptive to skepticism, they’ll find you (and likewise, if the crowd is too hostile to listen, you’ll find that out very quickly too)