In what ways to you think the TESCREAL arguments are wrong?
> the notion that the needs of non-existant people in a possible distant future we know nothing about, somehow outranks the needs of real people today, is utterly absurd.
And as far as I can tell, that's one of the most coherent parts of the TESCREAL package. Apparently it also includes goals to transcend mortality or humanity, at which points you've definitely lost touch with any meaningful form of morality.
I don't pretend to understand everything that TESCREAL is about, but that's at least partially because much of it strikes me as utter SciFi bullshit that's completely unhinged from reality. And that's not even getting into some of the deeply racist eugenics stuff I've come across.
If there's any real meaningful value in EA, all the other stuff is distracting from it. Get back to fixing poverty, inequality and animal cruelty. But there seems to be so much billionaire grift involved in it by now, that anything that threatens their elevated position (which by itself is a threat to humanity) is unlikely to find approval with the big money that's now behind it.
It took 250 years for the US to go from the constitution to ICE detention centers and banned journalists, but it only took EA 15 years to go from 'donating to the poor' to 'sacrificing real present humans for the sake of future theoretical humans'.
There’s nothing new about ICE detention centers and you should read up on previous presidents and their relationship with journalists. In particular check out Obama. See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-obama-administration-mos...
But that we look at it differently today has nothing to do with any particular party or who is in power (that has little relation to the parties of today), but with the fact that we live today, and have a tendency to glorify the past. (And there's definitely an attempt to whitewash history, ignore all the terrible things the US has done and pretend the US was always great and perfect.)
But there's also the belief that over time, we should be learning and doing better, and we wouldn't do those terrible things of the past anymore. So the shock when they do happen is real. And the current US government is pretty explicit about wanting to bring back all the horrors of the past.