It's been a big month. We've had updates from major orgs like GiveWell and MIRI, new evidence from GWWC about the impact of deworming, CSER is hiring for new postdocs and much more!
Welcome to April's open thread on the Effective Altruism Forum. Feel free to add other EA-relevant topics that have not appeared in recent posts.
Animal welfare ensures animals are taken care of, but isn't necessarily about ending carnism, i.e., eating animal flesh. Animal rights seeks to respect the rights of nonhuman animals, including the right to life and not to be killed by humans. This is merely my impression, not objective data, but in NY experience the majority of those in effective altruism who care about factory farming are for full animal rights, not merely animal welfare. There is also a contingent of utilitarians within effective altruism who primarily care about reducing and ending suffering. They may be willing to compromise in favor of animal welfare, and not full rights, but I'm not sure. They definitely don't seem a majority of those concerned with animal suffering within effective altruism.
Of course, only actual data on EAs could demonstrate the proportionate of utilitarians willing to compromise but this seems weird. To me it would seem utilitarianism all but commits you to accept "compromises&qu... (read more)