I would strongly encourage all readers to contact, e.g., a professor whose work focuses on white supremacy and ask them about Beckstead’s passage. Indeed, give them the whole chapter to read. That’s what I did. That’s actually how I came to this conclusion.
I think ‘white supremacy’ is, unfortunately, a pretty loaded term in a culture war, which will almost necessarily lead to people talking past each other. [“I’m not the KKK!” → “I wasn’t saying you’re like the KKK, I’m saying that you’re perpetuating a system of injustice.”]
I think that often when this accusation is levied, it’s done by someone who is trying to being less selfish against someone who is probably being more selfish. For example, if I were to talk about immigration restrictions as being white supremacist because they structurally benefit (more white) citizens at the expense of (less white) non-citizens, you could see how the label might fit (even tho it might not, at all, be the frame chosen by the immigration restrictionist side, especially in a place like France which has done quite a lot to detach citizenship and race), and also how someone interested in fairness might immediately lean towards the side paying for the transfer instead of receiving it.
I think this is probably not the case here, where I think Bostrom and Beckstead and others have identified moral patients who we could help if we chose to, and people interested in social justice have identified moral patients who we could help if we chose to, and so both sides are pushing against selfishness and towards a more fair, more equal future; the question is how to compare the two, and I think terms of abuse probably won’t help.
I think ‘white supremacy’ is, unfortunately, a pretty loaded term in a culture war, which will almost necessarily lead to people talking past each other. [“I’m not the KKK!” → “I wasn’t saying you’re like the KKK, I’m saying that you’re perpetuating a system of injustice.”]
I think that often when this accusation is levied, it’s done by someone who is trying to being less selfish against someone who is probably being more selfish. For example, if I were to talk about immigration restrictions as being white supremacist because they structurally benefit (more white) citizens at the expense of (less white) non-citizens, you could see how the label might fit (even tho it might not, at all, be the frame chosen by the immigration restrictionist side, especially in a place like France which has done quite a lot to detach citizenship and race), and also how someone interested in fairness might immediately lean towards the side paying for the transfer instead of receiving it.
I think this is probably not the case here, where I think Bostrom and Beckstead and others have identified moral patients who we could help if we chose to, and people interested in social justice have identified moral patients who we could help if we chose to, and so both sides are pushing against selfishness and towards a more fair, more equal future; the question is how to compare the two, and I think terms of abuse probably won’t help.