“The Effective Altruist Approach to Politics (Effective Altruism Definitions Sequence)” by ozymandias

A not entirely inaccurate gloss on the effective altruist approach to politics is that it's absurdly progressive:

Source: 2022 Effective Altruism Survey.

But I think the overwhelmingly left and center-left nature of effective altruism hides a number of ways that effective altruists differ from many (but not all) people on the left.

Liberalism

Effective altruists are liberals in the political philosophy sense. “Liberalism” is a loose term that refers to a wide variety of beliefs, many of which disagree with each other. Common themes in liberal political thought include:

• Economic freedom (markets, private property).
• Political freedom (civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, bodily autonomy, privacy).
• Rule of law (equality under the law, clear and consistently applied legal rules).
• Consent of the governed (democracy).

Liberalism is the dominant political ideology in the developed world, so much so that even quite illiberal viewpoints feel the need [...]

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Outline:

(00:44) Liberalism

(03:13) Economics

(08:00) Positive-Sum

(10:35) Technocratic

(14:05) Incrementalist

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First published:

August 22nd, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/iWijgEnYPExRAAJrR/the-effective-altruist-approach-to-politics-effective

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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