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Despite politics as a whole not being neglected, I’m surprised that there seems to be absolutely no effort from EA to improve the geopolitical situation of the world, along with the culture war.

To my surprise, it was a prominent LessWrong mod who made a post about the topic and considered it a strong priority for 2026.

Is it because EAs feel helpless in addressing this problem? Do they think it’s simply not neglected enough to be worth the impact? Are they avoiding it in order to survive politically with respect to AI? Do they consider it a problem at all?

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We tried earlier. Carrick Flynn received substantial support from EA and the result was mediocre, with criticisms of EA actually having a negative effect on his campaign, as people pointed out the connection to the "billionaires and techbros" who apparently fund EA and such.

Also, the head of RAND, Jason Matheny, is an EA, and there's some connections between EA and the American NatSec establishment. CSET for instance was funded partly by OpenPhil. There is a tendency among a lot of EAs is to try not to be partisan and mostly support effective governance and policy kind of things.

That being said, Dustin Moskovitz, the billionaire who is the main donor behind what was previously called Open Philanthropy and is now Coefficient Giving, has donated significantly and repeatedly to Democrats. OpenPhil has historically been by far the largest funder of EA stuff, particularly since SBF fell from grace, so Dustin's contributions can be seen tacitly as EA support for the Dems.

So, I don't think it's accurate to say EAs have made absolutely no effort on this front. We have, and it has stupidly backfired before and we're in this very awkward position politically where the whole TESCREAL controversy makes the EA brand tarnished to the Left, even though past surveys have shown that most rank and file EAs are centre-left to left. It's a frustrating situation.

So, I don't think it's accurate to say EAs have made absolutely no effort on this front.

Thanks for the comment. I’m aware of the situations you mentioned and did not say that EA had not previously put effort into things. In fact, my question is essentially “Has EA given up on politics (perhaps because things went poorly before)?”

Also, note that I am not exactly suggesting pushing for left-wing things. Generally remedying the situation may need to go beyond trying to get one person in elected office. In fact, I think that such a bet would be unambitious and fail to meet the moment.

Interesting question. Sorry not to answer directly, but some questions that would help clarify your question:

What is "the geopolitical situation of the world", and how does one improve it? Why is that plausibly one of the top most useful/cost-effective things one can do with their time/money?

(And who is this EA of which you speak? I haven't met them. EA is a community and a question, not a single hierarchical organisation. Although if you think there is something that is important and neglected, the Forum is a handy platform to make the case!)

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