#serious policy discussion

So I will often challenge people on the long-term effects of policy on future generations and people have begun to notice. There is a train of thought that policy-making should focus on short-term impacts and that future generations can go fuck themselves.

I don't usually talk about things like long-termism because it's pretty niche and it's one of those ideals that has origins in the lesswrong community. I no longer associate with the community and closely related ones like effective altruism, but their ideals have been very influential on my thinking and approach. Now that we have some famous cults forming from branch off organizations and Sam Bankman Fried being associated with it, I just don't mention or engage with the less wrong community. I also have philosophical differences of belief with them, due to them being retards who actually care about avoiding cognito hazards and encourage a conservative approach to technological advancement.

Anyway, longtermism is popular in these communities and I mention them so you know where to look to engage with thinkers who promote the ideology and to learn more about the ideology itself.

essentially most of us would agree that a trolley heading towards 5 people and we have the option to throw a fat guy over a bridge to stop the trolley from killing the 5 people, we would agree that is a good thing.

Well there is more future people on the planet than current people. We have like what? 7 billion, well there are trillions of future people and when making a policy position it is more ethical to make a decision that positively effects those 10 trillion people than to in the short term care about the effects on a mere 7 billion or so.

Peter Thiel I believe understands longtermism and so does JD Vance as an associate of Theil's which is why you will occasionally see him slip and talk about how those with children will normally support better policies, all else being equal. This belief comes from the belief that we should be willing to make some sacrifices in this generation if it makes the lives of trillions of future people better.

This philosophy is objectively correct unless you are a piece of shit who answers the trolley problem wrong. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/the-case-for-longtermism.html