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drethelin comments on The Power of Reinforcement - Less Wrong
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_bombing
This is getting creepy.
If this genuinely looks like love bombing then it could be an indication that you need more affection in your life to recalibratethe the base rate.
LWers do many cultish things, but I think it's safe to say that's not one of them.
How many?
At least 3:
Specifically: foster a distrust of what outsiders say, quotes a lot of stuff by a self-appointed charismatic leader, and emphasize a single solution (rationality) for a large number of problems.
Notable also are the large number of cultish things LWers don't do, such as aggressive recruiting (or really, any recruiting at all).
I wouldn't exactly call Eliezer a self appointed leader. The community basically accreted around him. If he disavowed being the leader, I think we'd say he was being dishonest or fooling himself.
Not that this is a distinction from cults, the same would probably be true of most of them, I just think it's not quite accurate as a characterization.
Oh, also I think most cult leaders probably have more charisma off the internet.
Oh, probably. I hear Luke has more real-life charisma... Though he kind of kills the "fosters a distrust of outside sources" with the amount he cites outside sources.
Quite a lot of charisma, but nothing near the level a cult leader would need to pull off a personality cult. (Although he could probably make up for this if he really wanted to by spending a few weeks reading up research on cult formation then applying it systematically as a 'how to' guide.)
I would like to see Lukeprog post an article on that topic. It would be fascinating.
Fascinating but suboptimal signalling.
You realize that almost all people express appreciation or displeasure routinely, right? It's a normal and reasonable part of human interaction, and it's a skill that someone can try to improve without needing to feel too conflicted. Love bombing is far more extreme than anything that this post even touched on. So, while we're linking to things, here's one:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/md/cultish_countercultishness/
Love bombing is just a tool -- its morality depends on how it is used. In a typical situation it is used to ruin the person's natural resistance towards groups that exploit them; that is obviously evil.
A different thing would be to use love bombing with the person's explicit consent, as a reinforcement for things the person values, and for nothing else. Preferably for a limited time specified in advance. It could be a great tool to overcome akrasia.
That sounds even more creepy. I like it.