I think you're overstating the power of the cult here. Minority sexuality and self-identity were there in the first place, and such perspectives are already marginalized. Cults do, indeed, prey on the marginalized.
In this misattribution you are participating in said marginalization. You should entertain the idea that some people naturally don't feel congruent with the socially-normative performance of their heterosexual reproductive role, and try not to feel personally threatened by this fact of life.
Silicon Valley with "mission driven" companies can be pretty cult-like (ask folks who worked at Facebook, Apple, and Linden Lab, for example.) And plenty of cis-people are in the so-called "rationalist cults," and many of them are not welcoming places for trans people.
The alienation that a lot of trans femmes face in the Valley is vulnerability the cults use, the same way the Moonies preyed on undergrads at college campuses during the 1980s.
Heck, even the Zizian's and related groups are using lot of the same frippery as the Scientologists, with slightly different names: instead of an "auditor" going after your "engrams," the victim's now trying to "gain root" on their mind to drive out the "demons."
> By the same token, the ability to dismiss an argument with a “that sounds nuts,” without needing recourse to a point-by-point rebuttal, is anathema to the rationalist project. But it’s a pretty important skill to have if you want to avoid joining cults.
From the article on which we are commenting.
I agree that it is not coincidental that such people are over-represented both in Rationalist spaces, and in the groups under discussion.
I think you're overstating the power of the cult here. Minority sexuality and self-identity were there in the first place, and such perspectives are already marginalized. Cults do, indeed, prey on the marginalized.
In this misattribution you are participating in said marginalization. You should entertain the idea that some people naturally don't feel congruent with the socially-normative performance of their heterosexual reproductive role, and try not to feel personally threatened by this fact of life.
Silicon Valley with "mission driven" companies can be pretty cult-like (ask folks who worked at Facebook, Apple, and Linden Lab, for example.) And plenty of cis-people are in the so-called "rationalist cults," and many of them are not welcoming places for trans people.
The alienation that a lot of trans femmes face in the Valley is vulnerability the cults use, the same way the Moonies preyed on undergrads at college campuses during the 1980s.
Heck, even the Zizian's and related groups are using lot of the same frippery as the Scientologists, with slightly different names: instead of an "auditor" going after your "engrams," the victim's now trying to "gain root" on their mind to drive out the "demons."
> By the same token, the ability to dismiss an argument with a “that sounds nuts,” without needing recourse to a point-by-point rebuttal, is anathema to the rationalist project. But it’s a pretty important skill to have if you want to avoid joining cults.
From the article on which we are commenting.
I agree that it is not coincidental that such people are over-represented both in Rationalist spaces, and in the groups under discussion.