This post was originally intended to be published as part of Draft Amnesty Week, but I have opted not to use that tag, as I strongly endorse this post and its contents. This post was also mostly written before I read CEA's response to sexual harassment by Fran, but it feels even more important in light of her piece. I find it difficult to read her experience and not come away feeling even stronger about what I wrote below.

When I was in high school, I used to get into debates about whether or not it mattered if people referred to themselves as a 'feminist'. My mom, in the hope she might avert me becoming a Jordan Peterson acolyte^[1], bought me a copy of We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — which I read while pacing the length of my basement.

I do call myself a feminist now, just like I call myself an effective altruist, and while I didn't know about malaria nets or precipices back then, my views on the core questions at the heart of feminism have remained unchanged (I think equality is really good and important, unsurprisingly). And, while I stand by my teenage self, I do feel a bit of embarrassment that I was too concerned with abstract philosophical arguments to just refer to myself as what I was — a feminist (perhaps this is why I'll never be able to bring myself to saying I'm 'EA adjacent').

***

William MacAskill defines one of effective altruism's core features as "Tentatively impartial and welfarist" — you can find his full definition here, but rereading it years later I find it interesting that an alarming number of people in in this community are impartial and welfarist up until the point it’s in relation to sexism. 

I think effective altruism is #Good, and the community has been an important part of my life — both socially (the number of weddings I've been invited to as a result of EA keeps going up), but more importantly for my own impact. I've given away thousands of dollars to effective charities I am certain I wouldn't have otherwise done. I like the people in the community, and I feel like I have grown and developed as a person as a result of their influence. Many of them are role models to me.

But I do think we need to look at our community, and be brutally honest (in the way they can only teach you to be over on Lesswrong) — effective altruism, and all the adjacent communities, has a sexism problem.

It is baffling, and frustrating, to me that sexism can be so pervasive within our community. In a visceral and emotional way it feels completely irrelevant whether or not EA does better or worse on the number of sexual harassment cases, a defense I sometimes hear. We are not merely trying to ‘be as good as the average community’ — we are trying to do the best we can, and for over a decade our community has been writing about our moral imperative to do so. What I love about this community is how much dedication and talent is directed at improving the world in the best possible ways, not just settling for the negligible impact so many charities unfortunately have. It would be absurd to imagine an EA community that settled for PlayPumps International as our bar — and so, regardless of how our community compares to any other, I find it absurd to suggest that we should settle or accept sexism within our community either. 

I have heard — in private conversations, and from time to time on twitter — people say things like ‘well, sure, but was the perpetrator autistic’ or ‘what if this makes it harder for men to date’. I feel like a certain former EA spokesperson when I hear this stuff — like seriously guys, what the f-. 

Our movement is predicated on consequentialism, outcomes exist regardless of intent, regardless of neurodivergence — it doesn’t help someone who's suffering if when you harmed them you had but only the best intentions. That person is still harmed. For some reason I see too many in this community, or adjacent ones, unable to accept that people (including men) must face consequences for their harmful actions, regardless of intent or neurodivergence. 

In the years since FTX and the ‘TIME Magazine article’ I have heard numerous people preach the importance of good governance — of virtue ethics, of deontic principles — and I agree with all of that, but EAG talks and tweets aren’t enough to make it so — we have to put it into practice. If we mean what we say, then it isn’t acceptable to merely pay lip service, our actions have to reflect these values as well. 

Some behavior is actually just unacceptable, and sometimes people in this community respond in unacceptable ways when that unacceptable behavior is reported. I think we should not shy away from calling things what they are — from seeing the truth — and the response, norms, behaviors, exhibited by some in this community are sexist. That’s the fact of the matter. Empathy for perpetrators (again, usually men), no matter what, at any cost, is neither effective nor altruistic. It’s a culture of sexism.

Sometimes, to me, it feels like people love to say ‘I’m EA adjacent’ because they are scared of taking responsibility for the community. No one wants the baggage of crypto scams or sexual harassment scandals, even if they’ll take the benefits that come from community infrastructure — but just because you keep your identity small doesn’t mean these things go away. If you exist and participate in EA/Rationalist/Vibecamp spaces you actively shape the norms of the community, and you have a responsibility to call out unacceptable behavior. It doesn’t matter if you call yourself an EA or not, you still have a responsibility to stop sexism when you see it, and to treat all others with respect.

And I don't even want to imply that this is an exclusively gendered thing, men can be abused and harassed as well. I feel lucky, and cared for, that when I have spoken about harms done to me no one has immediately questioned what I said, asked if the other person was neurodivergent, or proposed we poll the broader public for their takes^[2]. I think we should expect that kind of response to be extended to everyone in the community, not just me.

For me, part of the journey I experienced with effective altruism was a broadening of my empathy — I think people thousands of miles away, animals on factory farms, and those who are not yet born all deserve our concern. I find it frustrating, and demoralizing, when I see this empathy stop in others as soon as harassment or sexism comes up. Again, we should be honest, and I believe that the fact of the matter is some people want a culture that protects harassers, because they (especially some men) empathize too much with the person being accused of bad behavior, and far too little with the person who has suffered. That feels deeply antithetical to the ideals of the effective altruism community, and we should it out as the contradiction it is.

And I have witnessed, especially in online spaces, the norms and epistemic tools common to the EA/rationalist spaces used as a way to doubt and put down those who have been harmed. We can’t be selectively truth seeking — we have a responsibility to kindness and respectful communication, regardless of the topic or the participants. We should not let the jargon or epistemic tools of these communities be used to put down other people — again, this feels antithetical to the values we all strive to embody. 

***

I look up to my mom a lot, which I don't think she knows — but one day I hope I can be someone like her. I hope, if she were to ever read the forum, or go to an EA conference, my behavior in these spaces would make her proud. I hope that I have carried myself with empathy and compassion.

I think sometimes I am too hard on myself, but when I look back now on how I was as a young(er) EA I have a lot of pride for how I carried myself. I admire how much I'd speak up about things, and as baffling as it would have been to past Max, I sometimes wish I was more like him. Something that used to cause me trouble^[3] was how much I'd speak my mind — but speaking up is a core part of creating a better culture, and I hope I continue to call out things that I view as unacceptable. 

I want to be a part of a movement that values truth, radical empathy, and good. Maybe it doesn’t truly matter if I call myself a feminist or if I call myself EA-adjacent — but regardless, sexism has no place in our community, and I hope to behave in a way that makes it so. I believe we all have a responsibility to leave the world better than we found — perhaps by donating or perhaps through direct work — and I similarly believe we are all responsible for creating a culture that is free from harassment. 

1. ^{^}

    Let the record show I was never into Jordan Peterson, though I did once watch a debate between him and Sam Harris, which did not leave me with a particularly positive view of Peterson

2. ^{^}

    I remember after only just joining the online EA-adjacent community a few months prior watching this specific event unfold (to date myself, this is around when Qualy first started tweeting)

3. ^{^}

    Mostly in the sense of annoying my high school teachers, or getting into debates with my classmates — though one time in 8th grade a classmates did lightly try to cancel me for being too philosophical during a discussion group