mitoticcephalopod:

habitualshaker:

the entire idea of “what should i do with my life to provide the maximum marginal utility to society” is very un-empirical and reliant on speculation and counterfactual reasoning and there’s this weird paternalistic, Eurocentric attitude running through it all. it just seems like its proponents are trying to portray themselves as perfectly rational, dispassionate moral beings without actually examining their white, western ideological underpinnings. in short: 100% ideology, 0% materialism

Um. I’m not sure where you got that impression?

From what I’ve seen about effective altruism, it is all about providing people with mosquito netting to help prevent the spread of malaria, and provide a real test of universal basic income in Kenya.

Also, how on earth is effective altruism “un-empirical”? Literally the entire point of effective altruism is finding the most effective method of being altruistic. And from what I’ve seen, people take that very seriously.

How is it imperialistic to help people not catch infectious diseases and offer them money with literally no strings attached? Tbh that sounds like the opposite of imperialism.