All of Jonah Stephen Swersey's Comments + Replies
As someone with a background in classical conditioning, hypnosis, and a few assorted subjects...
YIKES.
Like, sure, the way I use it is more intimate, but throughout this whole article my thoughts kept rushing to, "Jesus, does Brittany know you're using aggressive and manipulative psychological techniques to train her? Is there informed consent? Is there any consent?" Like, if Brittany sees this article, do you expect her reaction to be, "Oh, cool, that's really fucking neat that you did that", or "Wait... you did what without telling me?!" Even ...
Like, if Brittany sees this article, do you expect her reaction to be…
Brittany saw the article because the first thing I did after writing it was send her a link. Here is her response.
Omg 😱 soooo funny 😁
Thanks sooo much for making this special piece. I love it 🥰
Someone was worried that I was not being treated with agency lmao
Someone stood up for me and said sauté asparagus was totally the norm lol
Hahahahahaha
It's definitely a wholesome piece
I feel soooo happy to see my food photos were so colorful
I should clarify upfront that I am not a rationalist, and am not a fan of LessWrong.
That said, I have some experience when it comes to... this sort of thing.
So when I was a little younger, I was the figurehead and leader of a sex cult. (Oddly enough, I did this without ever really understanding that it was, in fact, a sex cult. One of my best friends described this as a "Jerry Smith plot", which I found hilarious.) This cult was, in practice, a discord server focused around my erotic hypnosis work. I copied the model from another server that was defi... (read more)
There's a lot going on in this comment, but I note with interest that this is the first time I've seen someone weigh in on questions of cultish behavior from the perspective of a former cult leader.
I'm fascinated with the claim that if you take on the outer facade of a cult, you now have a strong incentive gradient to turn up the cultishness (maybe because you're now drawing in people who are looking for more of that, and driving away anyone who's put off by it). Obviously the claim needs more than one person's testimony, but it makes sense.
I wonder ... (read more)
I think from a world and historical perspective, dating subordinates is a very common thing. The American cult bundle of traits is much more specific and rare. For me, the first red flag is shared housing for followers of the idea. Any movement that does it is already kind of weird to me (including the rationalist movement). If there's also some kind of group psychological exercise, that takes it all the way to "nope" (again, including some parts of the rationalist movement).