I want to come out and say that I no longer think it is to the advantage of the effective altruist community to be generally involved in politics, and I believe that now more than ever the EA community should do what is best for the core social and economic functions of the EA community rather than burning itself on the nation's drama of the year. The downsides of associating with politics worse than I'd appreciated, and the potential benefits of political engagement are lower than I'd estimated. I have realized this partly through personal experience - for instance, how much of my youth I spent working on this website instead of doing better things.
That said, I am keeping this website up as an archive and giving it minor updates, because it may be an antidote to some toxic political opinions held by other people in and adjacent to the EA community, and because I still think my policy platform counts as a useful research product.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is wrongFor all the complicated arguments about the war, a sound judgment can be made with two very simple points. First, the vast majority of people living in the directly affected territories - Ukraine proper, excluding Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk which were already under Russian governance - are very much opposed to the invasion (and even if one were to include all people in those other territories, a very large majority of residents of de jure Ukraine would still oppose the invasion). Second, claims that the invasion prevents genocide against the minority are baseless; in reality, the Russian military is guilty of the mass murder and repression of Ukrainians.. The citizens of Russia should refuse to support this immoral and counterproductive war, Ukrainians are justified in fighting back, and other countries must collaborate with sanctions on Russia and abundant lethal military aid to Ukraine, aiming to kill as many Russian soldiers as possible and impoverish as many Russian civilians as possible until their war effort collapses.
We must allow every Uyghur in China to immigrate as a refugee from persecution.