My read:
“Zizian ideology” is a cross between rationalist ideas (the historical importance of AI, a warped version timeless decision theory, that more is possible with regards to mental tech) and radical leftist/anarchist ideas (the state and broader society are basically evil oppressive systems, strategic violence is morally justified, veganism), plus some homegrown ideas (all the hemisphere stuff, the undead types, etc).
That mix of ideas is compelling primarily to people who are already deeply invested in both rationality ideas and leftist / social justice ideas, an demographic which is predominantly trans women.
Further, I guess there’s a lot of bigoted / oppressive societal dynamics that are more evident to trans people than they are to, say, me, because they have more direct experience with those dynamics. If you personally feel marginalized and oppressed by society, it’s an easier sell that society is broadly an oppressive system.
Plus very straightforward social network effects, where I think many trans rationalists tend to hang out with other trans rationalist (for normal “people like to hang out to people they relate to” reasons), and so this group initially formed from that social sub-network.
My model is that Sam Altman regarded the EA world as a memetic threat, early on, and took actions to defuse that threat by paying lip service / taking openphil money / hiring prominent AI safety people for AI safety teams.
Like, possibly the EAs could have crea ed a widespread vibe that building AGI is a cartoon evil thing to do, sort of the way many people think of working for a tobacco company or an oil company.
Then, after ChatGPT, OpenAI was a much bigger fish than the EAs or the rationalists, and he began taking moves to extricate himself from them.