[constantcrying]

I do not think this is convincing in any way. And I very much dislike people assigning cynical motivations for the moral preferences of others.

Any activity can be described this way. "Working in a soup kitchen?" "I bet you are doing this because it makes you feel superior to all the others who do not volunteer, right? And also, you feel less guilty seeing homeless people now, after all you are already doing something, so there is no reason to feel obligated to them aswell".

I am sure that there are many entirely sincere EA enthusiasts, wanting nothing more than see their money be used to better the lives of others. Spending time organizing, fundraising, optimizing charity, doing outreach, some of it might even be "hard work", done gladly without receiving any praise or compensation. On the other hand a friend of mine is regularly getting up at 2am to drag the injured, freezing, decrepit and mentally ill into a place where they can get some semblance of help. To me it is clear who is actually more deserving of respect and who does more to improve the lives of people.

If everything you have is money, all problem look like they are solved by spending.

[chubot]

I’m ok with people working in soup kitchens or buying mosquito nets “feeling superior”

What disturbs me is crypto scammers and the uninformed spouting off about “AI alignment” buying influence within the government, with stolen money

Also people who are either dishonest or comically aware of conflicts of interest, pretending they’re above it because they’re “rational”.

Eg the AI alignment stuff is mostly funded by corporations and is part of their marketing arm