I’ll admit to having laughed along with the Twitter jokes, but I think you’re right that avoiding this would be a good norm to have and that the ill effects outweigh whatever fun/ingroupy camaraderie we might get from it. I’ll do my best to discourage it as a group leader and community member.
Halo effect and cultishness seem especially important: it’s crucial that we give the arguments of leaders (and attractive people, leaders or otherwise) the same degree of scrutiny as everyone else, and I remember a few newer EAs from my group who came to EAG and thought it was weird that SBF’s face was everywhere and that people were joking about his “beautiful face” having been on the cover of Forbes and such. I thought this was clearly in good fun but they thought it was cultish.
I’ll admit to having laughed along with the Twitter jokes, but I think you’re right that avoiding this would be a good norm to have and that the ill effects outweigh whatever fun/ingroupy camaraderie we might get from it. I’ll do my best to discourage it as a group leader and community member.
Halo effect and cultishness seem especially important: it’s crucial that we give the arguments of leaders (and attractive people, leaders or otherwise) the same degree of scrutiny as everyone else, and I remember a few newer EAs from my group who came to EAG and thought it was weird that SBF’s face was everywhere and that people were joking about his “beautiful face” having been on the cover of Forbes and such. I thought this was clearly in good fun but they thought it was cultish.