To respond to the Godwin example, if your reference class is “Germans in the 1930s”, I assert that there are far more altruistically effective actions one can take than “be a sincere reformist Nazi”, to a much greater extent than “become entirely vegan” is a more altruistic option than “reduce meat/egg consumption by 2/3″.
I agree that choosing the right reference class is difficult and subjective. The alternative of “imagine if you never existed” is interesting, but has the problem of the valley of bad rationality: people realize “I’ve already caused a carbon footprint and animal suffering” long before they realize “the amount of work it takes to offset more than I’ve caused is actually not that much”. That leaves them feeling like they’re deep in the Negative Zone for too long, with the risks I’ve mentioned.
To respond to the Godwin example, if your reference class is “Germans in the 1930s”, I assert that there are far more altruistically effective actions one can take than “be a sincere reformist Nazi”, to a much greater extent than “become entirely vegan” is a more altruistic option than “reduce meat/egg consumption by 2/3″.
I agree that choosing the right reference class is difficult and subjective. The alternative of “imagine if you never existed” is interesting, but has the problem of the valley of bad rationality: people realize “I’ve already caused a carbon footprint and animal suffering” long before they realize “the amount of work it takes to offset more than I’ve caused is actually not that much”. That leaves them feeling like they’re deep in the Negative Zone for too long, with the risks I’ve mentioned.