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> So here's my pitch to you: effective altruism is the altruism that raises your status the most

Effective altruism brings opportunities for status, for sure.

But that doesn’t mean trying to help people effectively is a bad thing.

Would you walk past a child drowning in a shallow pond, when you could easily intervene and save them?

Based on how this gets operationalized in argumentation, 99% of people would not. Being confronted with Singer led me to reject ethics, not to become more ethical.

If you're caught on camera saving the child, and become famous doing it, then your status has been raised! If the child goes on to be the next Hitler, are you responsible?

I'm not serious about the above, of course, but one can tie theirself in knots overthinking the moral consequences of every action. Which is, I believe, a critique that works equally well against both EA and anti-EA.

Do the right thing. If you fuck that up, try to learn and do the right thing tomorrow. Don't overthink it.

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