I admire your consistency and refusal to be evasive about unfortunate implications. Upvoted. This is where conversations about social justice should have began.
Yeah, agreed about where the conversation should start.
I have struggled for years about what I want to say about maximizing net aggregated benefits vs minimizing net inequality in cases where tradeoffs are necessary. I am not really happy with any of my answers.
In practice, I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit where reducing inequality increases net aggregated benefits, so I don’t consider it a critical question right this minute, but it’s likely to be at some point.
I have struggled for years about what I want to say about maximizing net aggregated benefits vs minimizing net inequality in cases where tradeoffs are necessary.
My provisional solution for this: I want to maximize net aggregated benefits. I don’t want to minimize net inequality per se, but a useful heuristic is that if X is worse off than Y, then you can probably get more net aggregated benefits per unit resources by helping X (or refraining from harming X) than by helping Y (or refraining for harming Y).
Yeah, I’ve considered this. It doesn’t work for me, because I do seem to want to minimize inequality (in addition to maximizing benefit), and simply ignoring one of my wants is unsatisfying.
That said, I’m not exactly sure why I want to minimize inequality. I’m pretty sure I don’t just value equality for its own sake, for example, though some people claim they do.
One answer that often seems plausible to me is because I am aware that inequalities create an environment that facilitates various kinds of abuse, and what I actually want is to minimize those abuses; a system of inequality among agents who can be relied upon not to abuse one another would be all right with me.
Another answer that often seems plausible to me is because I want everyone to like me, and I’m convinced that inequalities foster resentment.
Other answers pop up from time to time. (And of course there’s always the potential confusion between wanting X and wanting to signal membership in a class characterized by wanting X.)
I get the sense that you think I disagree with TheOtherDave’s statement above, particularly:
reducing the net inequality is not the only thing I want to do, for precisely this reason [harming X seems morally repugnant].
But it is a thing I want to do. And as a consequence, I don’t treat actions that benefit Y the same way as actions that improve X’s situation, and I don’t treat actions that harm Y the same way as actions that harm X.
If you are willing, can you identify what I say that makes you think that. For example, if you think I’ve been mindkilled or such, feel free to tell me so.
The “consistency and refusal to be evasive about unfortunate implications”, if you’re taking that as a jibe, wasn’t directed at you (or anybody here on Less Wrong, for that matter), but rather the Dark Arts that currently constitute the majority of social justice conversations.
To be honest, I’m uncertain whether or not the line of conversation here parallels the line of conversation you and I were having (although it’s possible I’ve lost track of another line of conversation—searched, couldn’t find one). Our conversation drifted considerably in purpose, my apologies for that.
I was attempting to ascertain whether your belief was that social disapproval could correct a natural violent tendency in males, or whether your belief was that social approval/lack of social disapproval was creating a violent tendency in males. Probably would have been simpler to ask, in retrospect; my debate skills were largely honed with people who don’t know what they believe, and asking such questions tends to commit them to the answers. My apologies.
I admire your consistency and refusal to be evasive about unfortunate implications. Upvoted. This is where conversations about social justice should have began.
Yeah, agreed about where the conversation should start.
I have struggled for years about what I want to say about maximizing net aggregated benefits vs minimizing net inequality in cases where tradeoffs are necessary. I am not really happy with any of my answers.
In practice, I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit where reducing inequality increases net aggregated benefits, so I don’t consider it a critical question right this minute, but it’s likely to be at some point.
There are even more actions that will increase both net aggregate benefits and inequality.
(nods) That’s true.
My provisional solution for this: I want to maximize net aggregated benefits. I don’t want to minimize net inequality per se, but a useful heuristic is that if X is worse off than Y, then you can probably get more net aggregated benefits per unit resources by helping X (or refraining from harming X) than by helping Y (or refraining for harming Y).
Yeah, I’ve considered this. It doesn’t work for me, because I do seem to want to minimize inequality (in addition to maximizing benefit), and simply ignoring one of my wants is unsatisfying.
That said, I’m not exactly sure why I want to minimize inequality. I’m pretty sure I don’t just value equality for its own sake, for example, though some people claim they do.
One answer that often seems plausible to me is because I am aware that inequalities create an environment that facilitates various kinds of abuse, and what I actually want is to minimize those abuses; a system of inequality among agents who can be relied upon not to abuse one another would be all right with me.
Another answer that often seems plausible to me is because I want everyone to like me, and I’m convinced that inequalities foster resentment.
Other answers pop up from time to time. (And of course there’s always the potential confusion between wanting X and wanting to signal membership in a class characterized by wanting X.)
Crocker’s Rules
I get the sense that you think I disagree with TheOtherDave’s statement above, particularly:
If you are willing, can you identify what I say that makes you think that. For example, if you think I’ve been mindkilled or such, feel free to tell me so.
The “consistency and refusal to be evasive about unfortunate implications”, if you’re taking that as a jibe, wasn’t directed at you (or anybody here on Less Wrong, for that matter), but rather the Dark Arts that currently constitute the majority of social justice conversations.
To be honest, I’m uncertain whether or not the line of conversation here parallels the line of conversation you and I were having (although it’s possible I’ve lost track of another line of conversation—searched, couldn’t find one). Our conversation drifted considerably in purpose, my apologies for that.
I was attempting to ascertain whether your belief was that social disapproval could correct a natural violent tendency in males, or whether your belief was that social approval/lack of social disapproval was creating a violent tendency in males. Probably would have been simpler to ask, in retrospect; my debate skills were largely honed with people who don’t know what they believe, and asking such questions tends to commit them to the answers. My apologies.
No problem.
To answer your question, I suspect that social approval / lack of social disapproval creates most tendencies. At least on the margins.