no moral alternative
let me briefly write more about this since it's received (expected) significant pushback from my mutuals.
to me the core of effective altruism is "how can we be good at doing good?". that is what i view as having no moral alternative.
what the fuck is good? great question. we should probably argue about that too. but if ur not sincerely making an effort to action whatever ur definition is then ur wasting energy and time. altruism as currently done is clearly not achieving goals that the individuals participating in it truly want to achieve, it's globally misaligned.
is current EA culture and widely accepted EA cause areas *the truth*? probably not. i've seen the issues with EA culture first-hand, the neurosis and nerd snipes. the culture probably leads to some of the worst quality of life for some of the people most deserving of happiness. the cause areas involve some true nonsense (animism, shrimp). on the other hand i remain firmly in the ai safety camp, which comes from weird people thinking about weird problems way before there's clear evidence they're relevant. and for more concrete examples of why that's important, see the EA efforts towards pandemic prep over the 2010's.
still, obviously no one wants to live in a community where everyone around them is willing to backstab and steal in the name of global utility optimization and the children's hospitals lay rotting bc there's more cheaply savable children two thousand miles away. global utilitarianism might be a good axiology, but it's impossible for humans to implement as a local morality. keep ur virtue ethics, keep ur deontology, keep treating ur friends and neighbors with love and kindness and surrounding urselves with people who do the same. make sure ur life is full and happy and not sacrificed in the name of any cause. that doesn't mean u can't *also* strive for doing well during those times u choose to spend energy on helping humanity as a whole.
u can see the issues with effective altruism as an instantiated philosophy and culture while still recognizing the moral effort as critical.
im saying nothing that scott hasn't already said at greater length and in clearer words, but i feel it bears repeating.
@tenobruseffective altruism has no moral alternative.