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I love Eigenrobot’s writing, but daamn so cynical.

I think if you put 300m people together who are this cynical about man’s wish to do good vs man’s wish to gain money and status, and let them run a country, you get the US of A.

One day I hope that even an American manages to Do Some Good without being shot down by the local regressive left for not Doing Good Enough and simultaneously by the libertarian right for just doing it for status and book sales.

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I think there’s a huge survival bias that the people who do good for status are all over the media and people who don’t, aren’t.

There is definite survivorship bias; I suspect it's so strong that virtually all "do-gooding" you see on social media is for gaining status. It makes me extremely cynical of charities; perhaps just trying to do good "in the small" for the people around you is the best that one can do.

The corollary to your observation is that the do-gooding you don't see on social media is likely not for gaining status. Does that also make you extremely cynical of charities?

I messed up the wording on the above comment - I'm only skeptical of all the "performative charity" that you see on social medial.

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