V_V’s comments do serve as datapoints towards what elements can look cultish to outsiders even though, I agree with you,such a thing would be unfair as pretty much every community does these things.
V_V’s utterances about what looks cultish are generally useless in regards to talking about ideas: trying to shame us into not having certain ideas, just because they look bad is rather a circular and useless argument. (and frankly “transhumanism” “cryonics”, “AI apocalypse” bring to mind the low status of an SF geek, not the low status of a cult, so V_V’s words miss doubly the mark in this respect)
On the other hand practices like marriage ceremonies and cohabitations pattern-match more, and so it’s something to be careful about from a Public Relations perspective. But it’s not as if I’m sure whether they’re a net positive or a net negative all things considered; so consider my words to be hesitant and uncertain, not really sharing into V_V’s criticism...
On the other hand practices like marriage ceremonies and cohabitations pattern-match more, and so it’s something to be careful about from a Public Relations perspective.
Pattern matching and public relations are both interesting and important and using V_V as an outsider datapoint while doing so would produce unreliable results.
V_V’s comments do serve as datapoints towards what elements can look cultish to outsiders even though, I agree with you,such a thing would be unfair as pretty much every community does these things.
I do not model V_V as someone whose utterances can be considered representative of outsiders.
V_V’s utterances about what looks cultish are generally useless in regards to talking about ideas: trying to shame us into not having certain ideas, just because they look bad is rather a circular and useless argument. (and frankly “transhumanism” “cryonics”, “AI apocalypse” bring to mind the low status of an SF geek, not the low status of a cult, so V_V’s words miss doubly the mark in this respect)
On the other hand practices like marriage ceremonies and cohabitations pattern-match more, and so it’s something to be careful about from a Public Relations perspective. But it’s not as if I’m sure whether they’re a net positive or a net negative all things considered; so consider my words to be hesitant and uncertain, not really sharing into V_V’s criticism...
Pattern matching and public relations are both interesting and important and using V_V as an outsider datapoint while doing so would produce unreliable results.