Sorry to hear that you had such a rough experience.
I agree that there can be downsides of being too trapped within an EA bubble and it seems worthwhile suggesting to people that after spending some extended time in the bay, they may benefit from getting away from it for a bit.
Regarding retreats, I think it can be beneficial for facilitators to try to act similarly to philosophy lecturers who are there to ensure you understand the arguments for and against more than trying to get you to agree with them.
I also think that it would be possible to create an alternate curriculum that encouraged more debate, perhaps by pairing up articles with others arguing the opposite position. However, producing such a resource would be a lot of work.
Sorry to hear that you had such a rough experience.
I agree that there can be downsides of being too trapped within an EA bubble and it seems worthwhile suggesting to people that after spending some extended time in the bay, they may benefit from getting away from it for a bit.
Regarding retreats, I think it can be beneficial for facilitators to try to act similarly to philosophy lecturers who are there to ensure you understand the arguments for and against more than trying to get you to agree with them.
I also think that it would be possible to create an alternate curriculum that encouraged more debate, perhaps by pairing up articles with others arguing the opposite position. However, producing such a resource would be a lot of work.