alt Hacker NewsThis seems like an ad hominem? "He has weird kinks, therefore his theories are incorrect." Should we investigate the sex lives of every Nobel Prize winner to figure out which prizes need to be rescinded?
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What you do in private is up to you. But when you're inviting members of your congregation to orgies in the congregation's compound, I think you earn the label. My admittedly third-hand understanding is that this is the dynamic people allude to. And even if you discredit the "sex" part, it has the hallmarks of a cult. A hermetic community committed to unfalsifiable beliefs about the coming apocalypse.
To be fair, I don't know if any of this applies to the parent story; I'm just replying to the sub-thread.
Lots of Nobel Prizes ought to be rescinded.
https://lexfridman.com/andrew-scull-transcript#the-ice-pick-...
The cult aspect is more salient. Ultimately the Atlantic piece comes down to controlling people, which is a little cult-like.
It's not ad hominem because ad hominem implies it's irrelevant to the discussion. This is very relevant. This is not about the private lives of these people. This is about a cult targeting and influencing all the high-profile safety people in a strategic industry, also weaponizing sex.
Americans may not be familiar with many similar organizations in the world but this is very common. But I'm sure we're all familiar with Epstein's organization.
When there is free sex, you are the product.
Such cults are mostly religious but since it's in SV and targets engineers, this one is secular. They seem to intellectually brainwash and control people and their careers. Typical cult leader is a charismatic self-taught, self-acclaimed "intellectual" lacking a proper education or a real career. A nobody suddenly becomes "the most important person" on Earth. Powerful public figures can't stop praising him, saying things like he should have a Nobel prize etc. All very typical and apply to this cult as well.