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As this disaster of a year comes to an end, I’m looking for ways to cap it off w/ generosity. I was inspired by @samharrisorg’s talk w/ @willmacaskill abt effective altruism & I’d like to share some thoughts. Hope you’ll read. /thread https://samharris.org/podcasts/228-doing-good/
The pandemic has killed too many of our fellow citizens, & left the rest of us w/ plenty of reasons to feel depressed. The good news is that giving comes with a “helper’s high” & who doesn’t love to get high? https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-giving-is-good-for-your-health/
Charitable giving can improve your mood, lower stress, & maybe even make you live longer. These are perfectly selfish reasons for donating this season. YOU DESERVE TO FEEL GOOD. So why not give?
& if you want to get all Geordi La Forge & get your giving engine running at maximum efficiency, if you want the most life-saving bang for your buck, the Effective Altruism movement has plenty of resources to guide you. https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/
Charities are like origami; the best are a thousand fold better than the worst. Check out @willmacaskill & @tobyordoxford's organization @givingwhatwecan or @givewell for guidance.
That said, I think it’s OK to not be maximally efficient. It’s OK to want to feel good by supporting a cause close to your heart. Something is better than nothing, & there is a world of things that matter right now.
I wouldn’t blame you for putting COVID relief at the top of your list. For the top charities tackling the pandemic, check out Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=7779
The Georgia senate runoffs are happening Jan 5th, & they’ll determine whether or not the Biden administration can make real progress against urgent problems like climate change, wealth inequality, & Mitch McConnell.
You don’t have to go through all the trouble of being @staceyabrams. She’s already doing that! You could just donate to @fairfightaction, her voting rights org. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/georgiasenate
Or you could donate directly to democratic candidates @Ossoff & @ReverendWarnock, who incidentally would be excellent sitcom co-stars. (Just saying, now that @VeepHBO is over, I’d definitely watch a show called #NockOff)
You can support them directly at:
@ReverendWarnock:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/warnock-for-georgia_web
@Ossoff: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_hp_ossoff
@ReverendWarnock:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/warnock-for-georgia_web
@Ossoff: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_hp_ossoff
If it came naturally to us to recognize each other’s humanity, we wouldn’t need charitable organizations to prod our empathy & stir us to action. But alas, what comes naturally to us humans is, ironically, dehumanization.
Encouraging philanthropy isn’t just about urgent causes--like eradicating malaria & Facebook-- but the meta goal of training ourselves to be better at seeing each other’s humanity.
One way to really internalize the power of acknowledging someone’s humanity is to have it stripped from you in a decade-long campaign of international dehumanization--I don’t recommend it! There are better ways!
One charity which has made this kind of humanization its explicit goal is The Frederick Douglass Project for Justice. I’m honored to sit on the board of the @douglassproject, whose mission is to humanize the incarcerated. https://douglassproject.networkforgood.com/
How we choose to allocate our limited resources is a complicated question, & I would argue that total lives saved shouldn’t be the only factor we consider. How sexy a cause is matters a lot, because let’s face it, most of us are lazy except when we’re horny.
& it’s a fortunate thing that injustice is such a sexy cause, because failures of justice, like wrongful convictions, don’t just ruin individual lives, they destroy faith in the system itself.
The number of innocent people in prison hardly compares to those dying of malaria, but overturning wrongful convictions has far-reaching implications for racial justice, for the rule of law, & for a vision of a just social contract worth exporting to the world.
So please consider supporting your LOCAL Innocence Project. Almost every state has one, & they ALL need help. My hometown Innocence Project can be found at https://wainnocenceproject.org . Message me & I’d be happy to point you to your local project.
If you’re strapped for cash, use your voice! Promote the causes that matter to you. I’m proud that so many of the stories I’ve told this year, through @crimestorymedia, & on my podcast, #LABYRINTHS, feature people & issues worth supporting.
Our 1st episode dealt w/ the cruise ship experience, & if you’ve ever enjoyed (or hated) a cruise, please consider the climate impact of these massive boats. Check out @givinggreenE for recs on the best charities to fight climate change. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lost-at-sea/id1494368441?i=1000494968242
In Ep 2, @manunderbridge & I talked w/ @AndrewYang about the many problems humanity is facing. His foundation, @HumanityForward, is providing direct aid to families during the pandemic. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/money-is-winning-humans-are-losing-andrew-yang/id1494368441?i=1000495764801
We talked w/ @TarraSimmons5 about her journey from homelessness, drug addiction, & prison, to becoming the first felon elected to office in WA State. You can support her organization, Civil Survival, at http://civilsurvival.org https://apple.co/2J9yl09
We sat down w/ @Gladwell to hash out the long half-life of prejudice, the problem of violent crime, & police brutality. Check out #CampaignZero https://apple.co/37CcdEZ
I talked with @sjgeimer about the legal & media-driven trauma that resulted from her rape by Roman Polanski. We can do better in supporting victims of sexual assault. I urge you to check out @RAINN https://apple.co/3rchb3j
We talked w/ @WaitButWhy about political polarization & tribal rage. I urge you to support http://civilpolitics.org , which is run by @JonHaidt, @MattMotyl, & Ravi Iyer, & uses data to better understand moral psychology & improve intergroup dialogue. https://apple.co/3mIxrFv
In Ep 7, @yasmohammedxx took us on a harrowing journey of her escape from the patriarchal shackles of fundamentalist Islam. You can support her work helping exmuslims at http://FreeHeartsFreeMinds.com . Also check out @SarahTheHaider & http://exmuslims.org https://apple.co/3pbrrqt
Author @JonRonson told us abt the time he was tailed by the secret rulers of the world. W/ conspiracies run amok this year, I urge you to remain skeptical & support @snopes & http://lesswrong.com , founded by @ESYudkowsky https://apple.co/3rkJCfc
I spoke w/ 2 parents struggling w/ the consequences of a sting operation that labeled their son a child predator, despite his never having harmed anyone. It’s morally complicated turf, & I urge you to learn more at http://cage.fyi https://apple.co/3pd6hbM
#DaveNavarro took us through the trauma of his mother’s murder, & got into some unorthodox methods of wellbeing, like psychedelics. Oregon just legalized psilocybin, which shows promising benefits to alleviate anxiety, depression, & PTSD. Support @MAPS. https://apple.co/2WBKy0U
This year, I’m supporting all the orgs I’ve listed above, either financially or by spreading the word. If you’re broke, shout out a cause that matters; maybe @JeffBezos will notice? Sorry, I meant @MacKenzieScott, who is astoundingly generous: https://n.pr/3mIEQVj
But isn’t this just virtue signaling, you might ask? As @samharrisorg points out in the podcast at the top of this thread, virtue signaling can have positive knock-on effects. Don’t hide your charity. Make it public. & hopefully more people will follow in your generosity.
Lastly, I want to say that it’s REALLY hard to figure out the best way to use what resources you have to make a real impact. There’s a ton of room for disagreement, & you might think that some of the charities I mentioned are worthless, or even counterproductive. That’s OK!
Let’s have these disagreements! Better that we argue about how best to be generous than to argue about whether we should give at all.
So many people have helped me over the last decade plus. Without your generosity, I wouldn’t be free, safe, healthy, & happy. I very well could still be in an Italian prison. You showed me how selfless & beautiful humans could be towards each other. Thank you.
If you like my list of charities in this thread, please reshare! & if you have suggestions for orgs worthy of support, please let me know! Happy holidays, everyone!
/fin
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