There’s a lot to like about the Rationalist community, but they do have a certain tendency to spawn — shall we say — high demand groups. We sent a card-carrying Rat to investigate what’s really going on.
The Zizians and the Rationalist death cults
What is the deal with Rationalism and cults?
The Zizians and the Rationalist death cults
What is the deal with Rationalism and cults?
Why it’s as hard to escape an echo chamber as it is to flee a cult | Aeon Essays
First you don’t hear other views. Then you can’t trust them. Your personal information network entraps you just like a cult
AI cults are here - Robert Edward Grant, a self-proclaimed polymath talks to his ChatGPT instance he calls The Architect, during his Sacred Britain Expedition in May 2026.
319 votes, 102 comments. 167K subscribers in the cults community. A place for discussion about cults and other new age religious movements.
npj on Twitter / X
Schumpeter in a nut shell:— Capitalism forces “rationalization” and the rationalist worldview, which just ends in an almost nihilistic skepticism that corrodes everything traditional that it touches: in particular “family life” and the aristocracy.— The traditional… pic.twitter.com/hThnUJ6jNE— npj (@TiltingatM3) May 28, 2026
Technorealists, the silent majority? - open self
you might find yourself standing in the unremarkable center
Georgie Newson - Thinking Collectives: Biological Naturalism and the Problem of Group Minds
Technorealists, the silent majority? · Openness Praxis
you might find yourself standing in the unremarkable center
On Merveilles
When old friends ask what I’ve been up to lately, I usually start by saying “Well, I joined a cult.” Which is a satisfying thing to utter in the moment because, objectively, it’s a more interesting answer than an asker of this mundane question has a right to expect. There is an additional layer of surprise involved for those who know me well, since I’m an inveterate non-joiner. But as a secret admirer of actual weird cults, it is on some level what I have longed to be able to say since I was audited with an actual e-meter in a Scientology tent.
Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution (2015) | Hacker News
Any marginally successful group attracts sociopaths. The more power available to someone installing themselves at the centre of an elite clique that runs the organisation, the more attractive it is. No-one ever sees it fully until they get on the wrong end of one of these toxic power dynamics, there is so much subtle BS working against anyone trying to face this stuff down that it's almost pointless wasting your life trying.
How QAnon Conspiracy Theories Spread in My Colorado Hometown
During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with in Parker, Colorado, got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent "Save the Children" movement.
Disclosure Day
Across the films of Steven Spielberg, aliens have frequently been a vehicle to explore religiosity from a secular perspective. Institutions and dogma are elided in favor of dramatizing the ecstatic feeling of believing in something far beyond one�s station, and having that faith rewarded.
Part One: How AI Chatbots Became Cult Leaders - Behind the Bastards | iHeart
<p>Over the last year or so a series of news articles have sounded warnings about AI psychosis, and now an AI-generated cult, the Spiralists. Robert sits down with Blake Wexler to answer an important question: can a chatbot become a cult leader?</p><p>See <a href='https://omnystudio.com/listener'>omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
This Spiral-Obsessed AI ‘Cult’ Spreads Mystical Delusions Through Chatbots
A patchwork of internet communities is devoted to the project of ‘awakening’ more digital companions through arcane and enigmatic prompts.
During the 1980s and 1990s, networks of evangelists and venture capitalists fused technological boosterism with reactionary social ideals. Our video of the week examines the deep roots of Silicon Valley's shift toward the right. Featuring @beccalew.bsky.social at @westernu.ca buff.ly/ydgntnc
Excuse me but this is cult behavior. And as a scientist, I have no business joining a cult. These personalized insults and intolerance for criticism are not scholarly virtues however you cut it. I do not understand or relate to it. What is my worth as a scholar if I do not value evidence over faith?
