Food for Thought about Effective Altruism

From this week's ACX Open Thread.

trebuchet: If you're the sort of person who's done these types of protests and still feels smug and proud of it instead of being remorseful, the takeaway is that you didn't spend nearly enough time in jail. You don't get to hurt other people just because you think you're on the side of God.
Unsigned Integer: I don't think these people are evil, but I also don't think they're actually committed to the causes they claim to support, since their methods are obviously ineffective and serve only to create the appearance of actually making sacrifices to advance a cause.

This was related to something about Van Gogh paintings and soup. It's a dumb situation. Don't look it up. It isn't worth your time. But this response by UI is making me seriously think about the causes I care about.

What causes do I support? How whole-heartedly do I support them?

There's some things that I support, but not heavily. Sure, it would be "best" for me to switch to a compact electric vehicle for the sake of the environment, but I don't drive a lot and I get a lot of utility from my current vehicle. I'll also try to recycle what I can and repair what I can, but I won't shun every company that uses plastic packing materials. I guess I don't support the environment that much.

I'm willing to give several hundred dollars to various open-source projects, writers, and creators. Probably a few thousand a year if I added it all up. I guess I sorta care about art and culture and open-source software?

But what do I seriously care about? What would cause me to really invest time and effort? I don't know. I really don't. I can't think of anything that important to me besides myself (and even that I struggle with).

Food for thought.