There are incentives against saying you’re doing altruistic things, but I don’t see how that makes there be incentives against just doing them. So I don’t quite follow how the psycho-Kremlinology makes you “never, ever do anything out of altruism”. Can’t you just do altruistic things, if you find in yourself some wish to do so, and then not talk to other people about them?
(Perhaps you don’t find any such wish in yourself, except in so far as you would like to raise your status through visible altruism. I agree that it might be better if that worked more effectively than it does.)
Feedback is useful. For example, if I contributed to a charity that you would happen to know is a scam, I would want you to tell me. If I donate secretly, I cannot learn.
There are incentives against saying you’re doing altruistic things, but I don’t see how that makes there be incentives against just doing them. So I don’t quite follow how the psycho-Kremlinology makes you “never, ever do anything out of altruism”. Can’t you just do altruistic things, if you find in yourself some wish to do so, and then not talk to other people about them?
(Perhaps you don’t find any such wish in yourself, except in so far as you would like to raise your status through visible altruism. I agree that it might be better if that worked more effectively than it does.)
Feedback is useful. For example, if I contributed to a charity that you would happen to know is a scam, I would want you to tell me. If I donate secretly, I cannot learn.