Yeah, ‘cult’ is a vague term often overused. Yeah, a lot of rationality norms can be viewed as cultish.
How would you suggest referring to an ‘actual’ cult—or, if you prefer not to use that term at all, how would you suggest we describe something like scientology or nxivm? Obviously those are quite extreme, but I’m wondering if there is ‘any’ degree of group-controlling traits that you would be comfortable assigning the word cult to? Or if I refer to scientology as a cult, do you consider this an out-grouping power move used to distance people from scientology’s perspective?
Yeah, ‘cult’ is a vague term often overused. Yeah, a lot of rationality norms can be viewed as cultish.
How would you suggest referring to an ‘actual’ cult—or, if you prefer not to use that term at all, how would you suggest we describe something like scientology or nxivm? Obviously those are quite extreme, but I’m wondering if there is ‘any’ degree of group-controlling traits that you would be comfortable assigning the word cult to? Or if I refer to scientology as a cult, do you consider this an out-grouping power move used to distance people from scientology’s perspective?
This strikes me as an obviously good question and I’m surprised it hasn’t been answered.