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Nick Beckstead, noted longtermist and "effective altruist,” just comes out and says it: "But it now seems more plausible to me that saving a life in a rich country is substantially more important than saving a life in a poor country, other things being equal."

Indeed, 2013 dissertation says this: "To use an example from chapter 1, ripple from saving lives in poor countries may be substantially smaller than the ripple effects of saving lives in rich countries, though this consideration shouldn’t normally get much weight in deciding which lives to save."

You seem to think I am a very stupid person who has never read any philosophy or philosophy graduate-level work, which, lol

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No, I poked around your website and I do not believe you are a stupid person. (Again, kudos.) I was not aware of your philosophical background (why would I be?) My point stands. Isn't basically all philosophy in the English analytic tradition cold sounding in part? Or do I misunderstand you?

I concede that there is a problem if large numbers of influential people (or small numbers with a lot of influence) believe the stupid version of Beckstead's argument (ie we should care overwhelming about long-long term). In Josh's thread I asked whether that was the case (using fewer characters).