Thanks for the comment! I agree with your points—there are definitely elements of EA, whether they’re core to EA or just cultural norms within the community, that bear stronger resemblances to cult characteristics.
My main point in this post was to explore why someone who hasn’t interacted with EA before (and might not be aware of most of the things you mentioned) might still get a cult impression. I didn’t mean to claim that the Google search results for “altruism” are the most commonreason why people come away with a cult impression. Rather, I think that they might explain a few perplexing cases of cult impressions that occur before people become more familiar with EA. I should have made this distinction clearer, thanks for pointing it out :)
Thanks for the comment! I agree with your points—there are definitely elements of EA, whether they’re core to EA or just cultural norms within the community, that bear stronger resemblances to cult characteristics.
My main point in this post was to explore why someone who hasn’t interacted with EA before (and might not be aware of most of the things you mentioned) might still get a cult impression. I didn’t mean to claim that the Google search results for “altruism” are the most common reason why people come away with a cult impression. Rather, I think that they might explain a few perplexing cases of cult impressions that occur before people become more familiar with EA. I should have made this distinction clearer, thanks for pointing it out :)