Also...
> they gave off some (not all) of the vibes of a cult
...after describing his visit with an atmosphere that sounds extremely cult-like.
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At least one cult originates from the Rationalist movement, the Zizians [1]. A cult that straight up murdered at least four people. And while the Zizian belief system is certainly more extreme then mainstream Rationalist beliefs, it's not that much more extreme.
For more info, the Behind the Bastards podcast [2] did a pretty good series on how the Zizians sprung up out of the Bay area Rationalist scene. I'd highly recommend giving it a listen if you want a non-rationalist perspective on the Rationalist movement.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zizians [2]: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...
There's a lot more than one of them. Leverage Research was the one before Zizians.
Those are only named cults though; they just love self-organizing into such patterns. Of course, living in group homes is a "rational" response to Bay Area rents.
The podcast Behind the Bastards described Rationalism not as a cult but as the fertile soil which is perfect for growing cults, leading to the development of cults like the Zizians (who both the Rationalists and Zizians are at pains to emphasize their mutual hostility to one another, but if you're not part of either movement, it's pretty clear how Rationalism can lead to something like the Zizians).
I don't think that podcast has very in-depth observations. It's just another iteration of east coast culture media people who used to be on Twitter a lot, isn't it?
> the fertile soil which is perfect for growing cults
This is true but it's not rationalism, it's just that they're from Berkeley. As far as I can tell if you live in Berkeley you just end up joining a cult.
I lived in Berkeley for a decade and there weren't many people I would say were in a cult. It's actually quite the opposite. There's way more willingness to be weird and do your own thing there.
Most of the rationalists I met in the Bay Area moved there specifically to be closer to the community.
No, Guru Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote an essay about how people asking "This isn’t a cult, is it?" bugs him, so it's fine actually. https://www.readthesequences.com/Cultish-Countercultishness
Hank Hill: Are y'all with the cult?
Cult member: It's not a cult! It's an organization that promotes love and..
Hank Hill: This is it.
Does this quote make more sense in context? I don't watch the show.
It makes perfect sense as a comment, seeing the clip from the show doesn't add anything.
I think i'm seeing it now. "This is it" implies Hank is actually looking for the cult in question, something that I guess seems odd to me without knowing the plot of the episode.
Thanks for clarifying though! Oh wait, you didn't.
Extreme eagerness to disavow accusations of cultishness ... doth the lady protest too much perhaps? My hobby is occasionally compared to a cult. The typical reaction of an adherent to this accusation is generally "Heh, yeah, totally a cult."
Edit: Oh, but you call him "Guru" ... so on reflection you were probably (?) making the same point... (whoosh, sorry).
> Extreme eagerness to disavow accusations of cultishness ... doth the lady protest too much perhaps?
You don't understand how anxious the rationalist community was around that time. We're not talking self-assured confident people here. These articles were written primarily to calm down people who were panickedly asking "we're not a cult, are we" approximately every five minutes.