It feels to me as if the punchable thing is more “effective altruist” than “effective altruism”.
That is: if you say e.g. “I am interested in Effective Altruism”, you’re saying that you want to do altruism effectively (or to know how to, whether or not you actually do it, or something like that), and that seems pretty unobjectionable. Whereas if you say “I am an Effective Altruist”, you’re claiming that you actually are doing altruism effectively, and that’s more likely to raise hackles. [EDITED much later to add:] You’re also implicitly claiming that other people aren’t doing altruism effectively, which is also pretty hackle-raising.
But terms like “aspiring effective altruist” are super-clumsy, and if the movement is called “effective altruism” then it’s inevitable that the people in it will start calling themselves “effective altruists”, which is indeed what has happened, and while inevitable it’s a shame.
None of this is much help for deciding whether a better name is needed, or choosing one if so. Except to suggest: consider explicitly how any given proposal sounds both as a name for the movement and as a term for the people in it.
(“Quantified” is less clunky than “quantifiable”, but “quantified altruist” doesn’t make much sense; “quantifiable altruist” kinda-sorta does but, again, clunky. I don’t have a better suggestion.)
It feels to me as if the punchable thing is more “effective altruist” than “effective altruism”.
That is: if you say e.g. “I am interested in Effective Altruism”, you’re saying that you want to do altruism effectively (or to know how to, whether or not you actually do it, or something like that), and that seems pretty unobjectionable. Whereas if you say “I am an Effective Altruist”, you’re claiming that you actually are doing altruism effectively, and that’s more likely to raise hackles. [EDITED much later to add:] You’re also implicitly claiming that other people aren’t doing altruism effectively, which is also pretty hackle-raising.
But terms like “aspiring effective altruist” are super-clumsy, and if the movement is called “effective altruism” then it’s inevitable that the people in it will start calling themselves “effective altruists”, which is indeed what has happened, and while inevitable it’s a shame.
None of this is much help for deciding whether a better name is needed, or choosing one if so. Except to suggest: consider explicitly how any given proposal sounds both as a name for the movement and as a term for the people in it.
(“Quantified” is less clunky than “quantifiable”, but “quantified altruist” doesn’t make much sense; “quantifiable altruist” kinda-sorta does but, again, clunky. I don’t have a better suggestion.)