Betterment and Praxis

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The community for cool things you've done out in the real world, or are doing in the real world!

Covers things like volunteer work, community gardens, political activism, organizing clubs and communities in your public circles, and all the information surrounding how to do that stuff. Also covers self-help and betterment, because to help your community it helps to help yourself!

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So like, what do we do? Political burnout. (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago by EthicalAI@beehaw.org to c/betterment@beehaw.org

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I think I’m having a bit of an autistic burnout moment over politics. I’m moving a lot more left over the years but just don’t feel like I can do anything. I have 2 years left on a work contract and it would be killer to lose that job, but also I want to help people in ways where quitting might be the best option. I want to learn about politics and history more, but I also don’t want to stress about it because I don’t feel like it changes things that much. Id like a community that talks about these feelings and I feel like this should be that community for me. Let’s just chat about it.

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[–] AngularAloe@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I don't have the answers here, but it's quite an assumption to say that EA is most efficient and following another method would be "sacrificing" potential. EA has some major glaring flaws.

[–] beerd@beehaw.org 0 points 2 years ago (6 children)

I might be ignorant on this, but i would assume that EA is most efficient/effective by definition ( Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis" ). Of course how some may implement it is an other question. What flaws are you thinking of?

[–] AngularAloe@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's based/relies on utilitarianism for its moral framework, and I'm just decidedly not a utilitarian. I consider relationships, rights, and motives to matter when judging something.
The whole "earn to give" thing is just a disastrous concept, most publicly in giving cover to things like FTX.
It lacks any theory of power or overall social or economic change. Singer on this issue:

[–] beerd@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I think utilitarianism is too diverse to just put EA in that box and therefore say its bad. I agree that it could be used as a cover, but for most people it just means finding the best way to help with their limited resources. I agree that it probably wont make systematic changes, but that requires a level of capital that is unavailable for the average person anyway, who can probably make a more significant change in this regard using their voice and vote, while directing their modest resources to where it can already make significant improvement.

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