Against The Concept Of Telescopic Altruism

Against The Concept Of Telescopic Altruism

From Astral Codex Ten Podcast by Jeremiah

April 21, 2026 · 11 min

About this episode

The episode critiques the concept of telescopic altruism and discusses the implications of caring for distant versus local issues.

I. "Telescopic altruism" is a supposed tendency for some people to ignore those close to them in favor of those further away. Like its cousin "virtue signaling", it usually gets used to own the libs. Some lib cares about people in Gaza - why? Shouldn't she be thinking about her friends and neighbors instead? The only possible explanation is that she's an evil person who hates everyone around her, but manages to feel superior to decent people by pretending to "care" about foreigners who she'll never meet. This collapses upon five seconds' thought. Okay, so the lib is angry about the Israeli military killing 50,000 people in Gaza. Do you think she would be angry if the Israeli military killed 50,000 of her neighbors? Probably yes? Then what's the problem? "But vegetarians care about animals more than humans!" Okay, yeah, they sure do get mad about a billion pigs kept for their entire lives in cages too small to turn around in, then murdered and eaten. Do you think they'd care if a billion of their closest friends were kept for their entire lives in cages too small to turn around in, then murdered and eaten? I dunno, seems bad. Maybe there is some possible comparison where some…

People in this episode

Host: Jeremiah

Topics covered

  • altruism
  • ethics
  • social issues
  • politics
  • humanitarianism

Keywords

  • telescopic altruism
  • virtue signaling
  • Gaza
  • Israel
  • opioid crisis
  • ethics
  • social justice

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Gaza, Israel, America

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