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NeitherMaleNorFemale comments on Eliezer Yudkowsky Facts - Less Wrong
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Posts like this reinforce the suspicion that LessWrong is a personality cult.
I disagree. This entire thread is so obviously a joke, one could only take it as evidence if they've already decided what they want to believe and are just looking for arguments.
It does show that EY is a popular figure around here, since nobody goes around starting Chuck Norris threads about random people, but that's hardly evidence for a cult. Hell, in the case of Norris himself, it's the opposite.
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/01/how-good-are-laughs.html
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/07/laughter.html
I find these "jokes" pretty creepy myself. The facts about Chuck Norris is that he's a washed up actor selling exercise equipment. I think Chuck Norris jokes/stories are a modern internet version of Paul Bunyan stories in American folklore or bogatyr stories in Russian folklore. There is danger here -- I don't think these stories are about humor.
What are they about, if not humor?
I think they're mostly about humour, but there's a non-negligible part of “yay Eliezer Yudkowsky!” thrown in.
It's a castle of humour built on the foundation “yay Eliezer Yudkowsky!” It's a very elaborate castle, and every now and then someone still adds another turret, but none of it would exist without that foundation.
I think "tall tales" and such fill a need to create larger than life heroes and epics about them. This may have something to do with our primate nature: we need the Other to fling poop at, but also a kind of paragon tribal representation to idolize.
Idolatry is a dangerous stance, even if it is a natural stance for us to assume.