there was this... compartmentalization...And it seemed like the best thing I could realistically have

Exactly! I tend to affiliate with different friends/groups for different reasons. It tends to be easier to find friends for normal, low-risk goals (living well, studying) than for weird, high-risk goals (getting very rich, ending death), and with any friend there tends to be points of disagreement. My understanding is this is a challenge for most adult city-dwellers.

One other approach (also implemeted by EY) is to slowly change his friends' beliefs to more closely agree with his own.

If the goal is simply acceptance, a successful strategy seems to be to use higher status/value in some areas to make up for a tendency to share "weird" thoughts in other areas. In other words, attract friends who will acknowledge and support the rationalist self-improvement even though they don't take that path themselves, by providing value/fun/leadership in other areas.

Good luck with the meetups/tribe!