On the subject of people opening discussions about whether LW is a cult, I’d like to suggest that while it is useful to notice, that metric alone is not enough to determine whether LW has become a cult: We could easily wind up constantly opening discussions about whether LW is a cult, patting ourselves on the back for having opened the discussion at all, and then ending the discussion.
Incidentally on a somewhat unrelated note about cultishness, I don’t know how other LWers feel about it, but when I personally think about the subject I feel a really, really strong pull towards concluding outright that LW is not a cult and calling it settled, both because it feels less scary and takes less work than having to constantly guard against cultishness (reading some of EYs writing on how cultishness is something that needs to be constantly guarded against terrified me). I doubt I’m the only one to feel that way so it’s something I thought would be good to mention.
On the subject of people opening discussions about whether LW is a cult, I’d like to suggest that while it is useful to notice, that metric alone is not enough to determine whether LW has become a cult: We could easily wind up constantly opening discussions about whether LW is a cult, patting ourselves on the back for having opened the discussion at all, and then ending the discussion.
Incidentally on a somewhat unrelated note about cultishness, I don’t know how other LWers feel about it, but when I personally think about the subject I feel a really, really strong pull towards concluding outright that LW is not a cult and calling it settled, both because it feels less scary and takes less work than having to constantly guard against cultishness (reading some of EYs writing on how cultishness is something that needs to be constantly guarded against terrified me). I doubt I’m the only one to feel that way so it’s something I thought would be good to mention.