I now see why people call LessWrong a cult. From inside it’s not obvious, particularly since I interact with the community only through the internet and don’t live anywhere near in-person rationalist communities, and don’t work at any EA organization; but from this outside perspective, yeah, it kinda looks like a cult. The inevitable outcome of putting one idea above everything else is gradual trashing of everything else in life, including basic decency—particularly when heterosexual males are involved. Now, if rationalists truly aim for rationality, they will coordinate to fix the problem; but… I have my doubts about how likely that is.
I very much understand the frustration, but I’ll ask, as someone also not directly adjacent to any of this either, what would you have me and others like me do? There’s no shortage of anger and frustration in any discussion like this, but I don’t see any policy suggestions floating around that sound like they might work and aren’t already being tried (or at least any suggestion that there’s countermeasures that should be deployed and haven’t been).
I now see why people call LessWrong a cult. From inside it’s not obvious, particularly since I interact with the community only through the internet and don’t live anywhere near in-person rationalist communities, and don’t work at any EA organization; but from this outside perspective, yeah, it kinda looks like a cult. The inevitable outcome of putting one idea above everything else is gradual trashing of everything else in life, including basic decency—particularly when heterosexual males are involved. Now, if rationalists truly aim for rationality, they will coordinate to fix the problem; but… I have my doubts about how likely that is.
I very much understand the frustration, but I’ll ask, as someone also not directly adjacent to any of this either, what would you have me and others like me do? There’s no shortage of anger and frustration in any discussion like this, but I don’t see any policy suggestions floating around that sound like they might work and aren’t already being tried (or at least any suggestion that there’s countermeasures that should be deployed and haven’t been).