Effective Altruism Thinks You're Hitler

Scott Alexander recently defended Effective Altruism from its attackers, who these days are coming from all directions. I agree with his article, and would emphasize the true moral atrocity of factory farming, which EAs are correct to focus on as everyone else ignores it. What is lacking from his piece though is a good psychological theory of why everyone hates EAs, and I think Scott’s defense of the movement actually demonstrates much of the problem. As he points out, hostility to it can’t simply be a rational reaction to the actions of SBF, since people of all ideologies often commit fraud, and it is unclear why his crimes in particular should discredit an entire movement. Moreover, EAs have done a lot of things that even their critics would have to acknowledge are good. So what’s going on here? I think EAs miss just how much their ideology offends people by its very nature. The surface-level criticisms are of course mostly ridiculous and not even consistent with one another; EAs are

Scott Alexander recently defended Effective Altruism from its attackers, who these days are coming from all directions. I agree with his article, and would emphasize the true moral atrocity of factory farming, which EAs are correct to focus on as everyone else ignores it. What is lacking from his piece though is a good psychological theory of why everyone hates EAs, and I think Scott’s defense of the movement actually demonstrates much of the problem. As he points out, hostility to it can’t simply be a rational reaction to the actions of SBF, since people of all ideologies often commit fraud,