B: “LOL first world problems. Look at children in Africa and then tell me how bad you have it.”
Forgive me, but I actually think there’s a somewhat valid argument to be made along these lines. After having the thoughts that this post outlines, my response to social justice arguments are now something like “Oh, someone’s preferences aren’t being achieved. Well, I can’t please everyone all of the time, but I’ll try to keep their preferences in mind.” Doing stuff beyond changing my own behavior does have opportunity costs, and part of the reason I shared these thoughts is because once I had them, they allowed me to spend less cognitive bandwidth thinking about social justice issues (while also decreasing my overall resistance to hearing others’ complaints).
In the US, people often complain about how “special interest” or “lobbying” groups have so much influence on the government. Special interest groups work to achieve the preferences of US citizens, but they tend to work towards achieving the preferences of small groups of citizens that have really strong preferences. If a large group of citizens shares a weaker preference, or is poorly coordinated, it’s less likely they’ll have a powerful special interest group. In the same way, I’d prefer not to devote my time and energy to problems just because they involve group conflicts and are inherently interesting for that reason. Currently I estimate that there are more efficient ways for me to manufacture utility.
The validity of the argument depends on context. Sometimes it is: “sorry, I can’t help you now, because all my resources go to higher-priority cases”. Sometimes it is: “meh, I don’t care… but I can use a comparison with this other case (that I am not really contributing to) to make you seem pathetic”.
In other words, if someone says: “I don’t care about your problems, the children in Africa have it worse”, and the person does contribute to a charity for African children, then the response is valid (although we could discuss the optimum way to say the same message).
If someone says: “I don’t care about your problems, the children in Africa have it worse”, and the person does nothing to help children in Africa (or anyone else), then it’s just a convenient excuse and a move to gain relative status at the other person’s expense.
Forgive me, but I actually think there’s a somewhat valid argument to be made along these lines.
Of course it is. But so is “children in Africa have it really bad, so why are you bothering to buy Christmas presents instead of helping them?”
Unfortunately, past a certain point it just comes down to “hey, can we try being less of a dick to each other all the time?”, which everyone can agree with but which no one actually seems to be able to resolve into actual strategy.
Of course it is. But so is “children in Africa have it really bad, so why are you bothering to buy Christmas presents instead of helping them?”
I’m not a complete altruist. I do care more about the people I know than random other people. I don’t care about people more just because they live in the same country as me, though.
I think Ragen Chastain does a pretty good job of not being a dick.
She believes that people should work on the causes they care most about, and let other people work on the causes they care most about. She can be harsh about people she thinks are seriously wrong, but she doesn’t attack people for not being quite right.
Forgive me, but I actually think there’s a somewhat valid argument to be made along these lines. After having the thoughts that this post outlines, my response to social justice arguments are now something like “Oh, someone’s preferences aren’t being achieved. Well, I can’t please everyone all of the time, but I’ll try to keep their preferences in mind.” Doing stuff beyond changing my own behavior does have opportunity costs, and part of the reason I shared these thoughts is because once I had them, they allowed me to spend less cognitive bandwidth thinking about social justice issues (while also decreasing my overall resistance to hearing others’ complaints).
In the US, people often complain about how “special interest” or “lobbying” groups have so much influence on the government. Special interest groups work to achieve the preferences of US citizens, but they tend to work towards achieving the preferences of small groups of citizens that have really strong preferences. If a large group of citizens shares a weaker preference, or is poorly coordinated, it’s less likely they’ll have a powerful special interest group. In the same way, I’d prefer not to devote my time and energy to problems just because they involve group conflicts and are inherently interesting for that reason. Currently I estimate that there are more efficient ways for me to manufacture utility.
The validity of the argument depends on context. Sometimes it is: “sorry, I can’t help you now, because all my resources go to higher-priority cases”. Sometimes it is: “meh, I don’t care… but I can use a comparison with this other case (that I am not really contributing to) to make you seem pathetic”.
In other words, if someone says: “I don’t care about your problems, the children in Africa have it worse”, and the person does contribute to a charity for African children, then the response is valid (although we could discuss the optimum way to say the same message).
If someone says: “I don’t care about your problems, the children in Africa have it worse”, and the person does nothing to help children in Africa (or anyone else), then it’s just a convenient excuse and a move to gain relative status at the other person’s expense.
Of course it is. But so is “children in Africa have it really bad, so why are you bothering to buy Christmas presents instead of helping them?”
Unfortunately, past a certain point it just comes down to “hey, can we try being less of a dick to each other all the time?”, which everyone can agree with but which no one actually seems to be able to resolve into actual strategy.
I’m not a complete altruist. I do care more about the people I know than random other people. I don’t care about people more just because they live in the same country as me, though.
I think Ragen Chastain does a pretty good job of not being a dick.
She believes that people should work on the causes they care most about, and let other people work on the causes they care most about. She can be harsh about people she thinks are seriously wrong, but she doesn’t attack people for not being quite right.