I agree that mixing politics and EA is potentially bad, especially if there's a partisan slant overall. This felt like a bad idea back when Rob Wiblin was posting to Facebook daily about how strategic efforts to stop Trump were competitive with standard EA charities. But it also feels like a bad idea to do what you've done in this post, as I know from your post history that you're reliably conservative, and notice that that's affected how I System-1-feel about what you've written here.

So: my gut feels the same about you pushing for these ideas as it feels about others pushing for the ideas you're pushing against. I wish that everyone could just stop bringing politics into EA.

(I anticipate a counter to what I've said here along the lines of, "but he's just trying to make EA more politically neutral". Fair, but it's obvious by his tone and wording that he has other motives, and that these are obvious enough to enough people that I expect this to cause many people's guts to notice these motives and politically infect their own feelings.)

Lumifer being Lumifer at everyone

My condolences.

This is especially helpful! I think I developed the habit of washing my hands so much while working in an insufficiently safe chemistry lab, with lots of students who were less than safe.

You don't actually need clean hands until you start preparing food, so to say.

Hearing this does provide me with some needed system 1 verification that I'm allowed to be less paranoid. I treat myself as I must have clean hands for doing anything that won't get them dirty.

I've experimented with chaining various events, too, and that's a good strategy. One thing I might try in the future is doing chains of things where I need clean hands, and sneaking in a couple things that sound like they might get my hands dirty, but actually wouldn't, like having tea. Like a sort of exposure therapy, maybe.

Thanks!

here is some mushy emotional verification

Yes yes yes, you are the best LessWronger. Thanks for that, and hugs if you like. <3

I've noticed that I've become quite handicapped by the fact that I get weakly triggered by having to interact with things that aren't, but could plausibly be, dirty. This fear goes away once I wash my hands, but I've found that I'm wasting lots of time washing my hands, and that I've stopped e.g. gratitude journaling because I have to pick up a pen to journal, and the pen might be dirty and I'd have to wash my hands after, which hurts me because I seem to get lots out of gratitude journaling. I've also stopped drinking tea (which I enjoy) because, even though I clean my microwave and sink handles often enough, it's possible that a roommate touched them with dirty hands, which means that I'd have to wash my hands after, which sounds effortful, and that knowing that having to wash my hands would require effort makes getting up to have tea much harder.

I won't go on, but I assure you that my system 1 is making a bigger deal of this cluster of cleanliness-related things than it should.

Mostly, I'm looking for suggestions, and also mushy emotional verificatioin that, while I'm not being bad, it's not necessary to be so paranoid.

It's not so much the case that I have unanswered factual questions about cleanliness, with the exception that I am unsure if (say) touching a doorknob, then touching my phone, then washing my hands and touching phone again makes them dirty. I will say that my System 1 thinks that my hands are always either in a binary "dirty" or "not dirty", which is perhaps a bit silly.

Anyhow, thank you all very much. It seems like having to interact with dirty things on a daily basis might have acted as some sort of exposure therapy, but it seems like I've just gotten more System 1-paranoid over time. Suggestions are quite welcome. <3

It doesn't help your case that you're the main one posting in these threads. Just post in the bragging thread that's already posted monthly. Thanks.

Like pimgd, $3900 is a lot of money for me. Even if I'd get a discount to the CFAR workshop for being an EA, I might do just as well to continue studying materials from past CFAR workshops as I come across them, rather than attending a workshop in person.

I feel like I don't deserve a scholarship to CFAR, since I'm a fraud and a bad person (yes, I know, impostor syndrome). When people have bragged about getting scholarships to CFAR, though, I've felt sad, since I feel like I would have been honored, rather than proud, to accept such charity, if I were in their position. I guess that I'm not really as keen on donating to CFAR anymore for similar reasons--why donate to CFAR rather than spending money on myself, if I value (say) fitness gear that will help me live longer more than saving up for CFAR, and saving up for CFAR for myself more than helping someone whose personality rubs me the wrong way attend a workshop?

Um, thank you very much for entertaining my unkind rant. <3

I have a rationalist/rationalist-adjacent friend who would love a book recommendation on how to be good at dating and relationships. Their specific scenario is that they already have a stable relationship, but they're relatively new to having relationships in general, and are looking for lots of general advice.

Since the sanity waterline here is pretty high, I though I'd ask if anyone had any recommendations or not. If not, I'll just point them to this LW post, though having a bit more material to read through might suit them well.

Thanks!

Everything in this chain of comments has now been proven true in my particular case. Thank you for the advice. This bit sums it up pretty well:

Instead of simply cutting contact you can tell your parents how you want to be treated. As long as they are willing to act that way you interact with them. If they don't then you don't and you retry after half a year.

Clearly explicitly communicating your personal boundaries isn't easy but it's a very important skill. It's a challenge that provides a lot of personal growth.

Thanks to everyone for the responses! I enjoyed reading everyone's comments, and this response in particular was very helpful.