"Some people7 call it a cult" -- In distinguishing between a cult and something better:
"And if in your spare time you consort simply with the people you like, you will again find that you have come unawares to a real inside: that you are indeed snug and safe at the centre of something which, seen from without, would look exactly like an Inner Ring. But the difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric: for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things that they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ringer can ever have it." --CSL, The Inner Ring, 1944
This question has always bothered me, but now after thinking about it a lot I finally have a clear answer: rationalism is the belief that Eliezer Yudkowsky is the rightful caliph.
This is a joke taken out of its context in the article. I think the line should be replaced with (...) if you want to leave the idea of [something was here in the original article]. I'm not motivated enough to fight over it. My arguments are :
it lacks the context of a whole section of the article
it could be taken out of context by those who consider us outgroup and
even more so when it's there on the wiki on the site where the movement began tribening
i'd prefer if scott hadn't formulated it this way because i find the idea of caliph eliezer fucking terrifying, and since the movement has that funny habit of engaging with its critics as if they were part of it, a more accurate, albeit less funny, formulation would have been "rationalism is the movement that discusses whether the rightful caliph is Eliezer Yudkowsky."
Lead
I don't think we have a very good lead for this article: what is "a set of modes" and how does it relate to actual communities of people? Alti (talk) 10:15, 24 April 2017 (AEST)
"Some people7 call it a cult"
--
In distinguishing between a cult and something better:
"And if in your spare time you consort simply with the people you like, you will again find that you have come unawares to a real inside: that you are indeed snug and safe at the centre of something which, seen from without, would look exactly like an Inner Ring. But the difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric: for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things that they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ringer can ever have it."
--CSL, The Inner Ring, 1944
From the old discussion page on LW1.0 wiki:
Talk:Rationalist movement
This is a joke taken out of its context in the article. I think the line should be replaced with (...) if you want to leave the idea of [something was here in the original article].
I'm not motivated enough to fight over it. My arguments are :
Lead
I don't think we have a very good lead for this article: what is "a set of modes" and how does it relate to actual communities of people? Alti (talk) 10:15, 24 April 2017 (AEST)