EA - Why People Use Burner Accounts: A Commentary on Blacklists, the EA "Inner Circle", and Funding by BurnerExplainer

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Why People Use Burner Accounts: A Commentary on Blacklists, the EA "Inner Circle", and Funding, published by BurnerExplainer on February 8, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I wanted to offer a different perspective on this post on why people use burner accounts from someone who has used one previously. This is not intended to be a rebuttal of the arguments made there. It is meant to add to the public discourse and made more sense as a separate post than a comment.I hope that any upvotes/downvotes are given based on the effort you think I put in offering a different perspective instead of whether you agree/disagree with my comments (NB: I think there should be separate upvote/downvote agree/disagree buttons for forum posts too).DisclaimerNote that...I used a burner account in early 2021 after finding myself unhappy with the EA Community.I've been visiting the EA Forums weekly since and occasionally still going to EAGs.I work at an EA organisation that receives significant funding from Open Philanthropy.Reasons for Using BurnersThe two biggest reasons for using burners are the potential operation of blacklists and funding. I'll use them together (with anecdotes and some evidence) to make an overarching point at the end, so read all the way through.BlacklistsUnfortunately, some EA groups and organisations use blacklists (this seems more common in the Bay Area).Note that this is difficult to prove as...I'd have to directly ask them, "Are you using a blacklist? I've heard X rumour that seems to suggest this", and they're very unlikely to say yes (if they are) as it's not in their interests.I don't want to be seen as a "troublemaker" by suggesting an organisation is using a blacklist when I have a strong reason to believe they are. If they operate a blacklist, I'd likely be blacklisted from events for being a "troublemaker".What makes me think blacklists are used is anecdotes. The instance that I've heard the most (and therefore feel the most comfortable describing) about was through someone at EAG London 2022 who told me about someone else who was not invited to a rationality retreat in the Bay Area, despite all others in the same position at the organisation they worked at being invited.The individual believed it was because they gave a brief talk about the importance of diversity at a previous retreat, and this Bay Area rationality organiser (running this new retreat) was attending the previous retreat, was in the audience during the talk, and didn't believe diversity to be important.Note that this may match priors people have about EA being predominantly male, white, and ultimately lacking in diversity (also highlighted in the recent TIME article).The individual asked the organiser why they weren't invited when everyone else in the same position was invited. The organiser ignored their questions.When they asked a different Bay Area rationality organiser, they were told that their talk on diversity may have been "epistemically weak" and "not truth-seeking" enough.These are common terms used amongst Bay Area rationalists and even some funders.When I searched the term truth-seeking on the EA Forums, I found this comment by a funder who was later asked by the OP of the post what "truth-seeking" meant.Anecdotally, a friend of mine was rejected by the Open Philanthropy Undergraduate Scholarship the grantmaker saying they weren't "truth-seeking enough" as their feedback.Strong Personal Opinion: I think the problem here is rationality. It provides a camouflage of formalism, dignity, and an intellectual high ground for when you want to be an absolute asshole, justify contrarian views, and quickly dismiss other people's opinions. By contrarian, in this case, I mean where you think diversity is not important when most of Western society and the media do...