Qiaochu_Yuan’s argument was that debates over abortion are privileged questions (discussed disproportionately to the value of answering them).
I added that while this is true in regards to the specific nature of the questions, the underlying moral uncertainty that the questions represent (faced by the US population—lesswrong is pretty settled here) is one that is valuable to discuss for the population at large because it effects how they behave.
Givewell isn’t worrying about moral uncertainty—they’ve already settled approximately on utilitarianism. Not so for the rest of the population.
We are talking about the mainstream US here.
Qiaochu_Yuan’s argument was that debates over abortion are privileged questions (discussed disproportionately to the value of answering them).
I added that while this is true in regards to the specific nature of the questions, the underlying moral uncertainty that the questions represent (faced by the US population—lesswrong is pretty settled here) is one that is valuable to discuss for the population at large because it effects how they behave.
Givewell isn’t worrying about moral uncertainty—they’ve already settled approximately on utilitarianism. Not so for the rest of the population.