*[1]
Although ozymandias' post is based " partially on talking with conservative friends"
I don't see much discussion (in the post nor the comments) of ...
actual conversations with US conservatives/Republicans about EA and EA ideas ... reporting what their reactions were.[2]
Has anyone done this? Is there any source material? I'm particularly interested in...
- the USA (and maybe Canada),
- conservative university/college students and young people in the military/academies,
- students at non-elite schools,
- conservative-leaning students interested in politics and government careers
- talking to conservatives in groups and at organizations... maybe in meetings or focus groups.
Are there conservatives in many EA student groups? What parts of the EA message particular appeals to conservative students, and which aspects do they hate the most? Are they interested in particular cause areas, or careers, or earning-to-give?
(Note: I expect some of the work and outreach EA for Christians is doing may be relevant, but it's not quite the same.)
You care deeply about human life, and I think you are fighting for others, but the particular topic you linked to, might be difficult to talk about right now.
Is there another topic you wanted to discuss, or you think other conservatives here would share an interest in?
Maybe a topic, where once discussion starts, might be illuminating or build a bridge toward "conservative" thinking?
Sure! Conservatives and libertarians in the United States hail the separation of powers between the federal and state governments. The framers explicitly designed this separation of powers to stymie tyrannical actors:
The framers' intentions were for the vast majority of actual governance to take place at the state level, with the federal government's enumerated powers used primarily for foreign relations:
... (read more)Strong upvote. I would guess that another commonality between EAs and conservatives is not tending to resent the rich and their philanthropy, as many on the left do.
This was extremely informative and gave balanced and thoughtful perspectives, thanks!
Also, I don't mean to ignore it, but there's a big issue related to the document you linked and too hard to talk about (the bigness is not about the normal politics or recent SC actions; also no one asked, but I personally 1000% support abortion rights in the lefty/coastal liberal sense).
I’m curious if you have any friends who identify as “far right” or “alt-right”—do their views on EA substantially differ?
>There aren't any prominent conservative EAs (or at least none that I've heard of).
I feel like Tyler Cowen is reasonably libertarian/right of centre. I don't know if he would call himself an EA, but he has an account on the forum, under his full name. I feel like he's pretty well know, at least in these circles..