[FRIAM] YAC - yet another cult

[Marcus Daniels]

There seems to be a spiritual aspect to adopting beliefs in absence of evidence, or especially in situations where contrary evidence is available.  Guru following could just be a motivated way to gain a sense of belonging and escape the weight of admitting that life is so uncertain.  Liberal churches can be overt about the desire to facilitate community even with relatively little dogma.   It isn't even the case that religions have all that carefully of constructed unfalsifiable belief systems either.   So, it isn't just a matter of doing the faith exercise -- usually religions demand a little more and make sketchy commitments to observable facts that require apology at some point.   (Like becoming initiated in an organized crime family.)

I've never found the criticism of atheism as being too strong of a truth claim (a belief) convincing.  Atheism (or nihilism) are more assertions about classes of unproductive behaviors that don't facilitate getting to the bottom of things.  Atheism is a caution against adopting a class of beliefs.   It is a meta rule for knowledge acquisition.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 3:31 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] YAC - yet another cult

Yeah, cult and religion are fuzzy concepts. But I like the way it's characterized in the Gurometer:

2. Cultishness
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19PKXFn3qrzWr6nx622g9cEzyNBow0svQs_dN4fP3hjY/edit


On 7/18/22 15:00, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> I have never been clear on the difference between a cult and a religion besides inertia.  (I started watching Under the Banner of Heaven, and that checks the boxes for me.)
> 
> Somewhat relatedly, was looking at the Berkeley PD budget and noticed that they pulled back 23 sworn officers after George Floyd murder.   That would seem to be a smart political calculation because they didn't give up the positions, they just deferred them.   And in San Francisco, I was wondering what all the fuss was about with the DA, given that the crime numbers are in some dimensions improved.   https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crime-dashboard
> 
> The loudmouths here are all conservatives and reactionary types, like everywhere.  Say the world is dangerous enough times, and people start believing it.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 1:59 PM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: [FRIAM] YAC - yet another cult
> 
> Triggered by this article:
> 
> Abortion Rights Activists Call New Group Leading Protests a Front for a Far-Left Cult https://theintercept.com/2022/07/14/rise-up-4-abortion-rights-protests-revcom/
> 
> I spent my insomnia from 01:30-03:00 trying to find a complete criticism of RevComm. I largely failed. But the RationalWiki provides a good quick take:
> 
> Revolutionary Communist Party (US)
> https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Communist_Party_(US)
> --

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