I appreciate it when people take the time to read and summarize material for me.
To me this article doesn’t feel like an attempt to summarize the views of different authors. It only refers to the criteria put forward by one author (Robert Jay Lifton).
The last good article on this topic on LW was written by Gwern. In it he writes:
Researching this was very difficult because the relevant religious studies area, while apparently completely repudiating most public beliefs about the subject [...]
Viliam presents the old narrative as the rational way to think about the subject when the prior art on LW happens to be that the beliefs associated with the narrative have been debunked by studies. Viliam doesn’t attempt to reference any empiric evidence for why we should accept the narrative but simply presents it uncritically.
The last good article on this topic on LW was written by Gwern. In it he writes:
Researching this was very difficult because the relevant religious studies area, while apparently completely repudiating most public beliefs about the subject [...]
I’m not sure how Gwern’s article is supposed to be taken as a criticism of this post. Its main thrust seems to be that the bulk of “New Religious Movements” do not actually share the “red flags” and “brainwashing” that OP is discussing here—that these are mostly “outdated clichés” as someone else said. And this may well be right, but when we do see groups that clearly use these mechanisms in the real world, it seems quite justified to regard these as exploitative, even when most “new religions” are not.
I appreciate it when people take the time to read and summarize material for me.
To me this article doesn’t feel like an attempt to summarize the views of different authors. It only refers to the criteria put forward by one author (Robert Jay Lifton).
The last good article on this topic on LW was written by Gwern. In it he writes:
Viliam presents the old narrative as the rational way to think about the subject when the prior art on LW happens to be that the beliefs associated with the narrative have been debunked by studies. Viliam doesn’t attempt to reference any empiric evidence for why we should accept the narrative but simply presents it uncritically.
I’m not sure how Gwern’s article is supposed to be taken as a criticism of this post. Its main thrust seems to be that the bulk of “New Religious Movements” do not actually share the “red flags” and “brainwashing” that OP is discussing here—that these are mostly “outdated clichés” as someone else said. And this may well be right, but when we do see groups that clearly use these mechanisms in the real world, it seems quite justified to regard these as exploitative, even when most “new religions” are not.