I only got through about a fifth of this piece before losing interest, but it immediately reminded me of this old post from SlateStarCodex.
slatestarcodex.com/2015/03/25/is-…
slatestarcodex.com/2015/03/25/is-…
I get the move here. It’s one of the oldest ones in anthropology of religion: this thing has authoritative texts, revered teachers, unquestioned beliefs, complex taboos, and mechanisms of excommunication. Therefore it is/is like a religion.
You can do it with anything. Sports fandom, political partisanship, pop culture, high art, etc. The central ideas are supple enough and simple enough that they graft onto virtually everything. More of a parlour trick than alchemy, only the gullible will be impressed.
Hell, here’s someone doing the same thing to the IDW and associated skeptics. All the trappings of a religious cult, but what is really being demonstrated here? Not much. It’s guilt by association.
medium.com/s/greatescape/…
medium.com/s/greatescape/…
What are we dealing with here? Culture. If you like that culture, it’s Enlightenent. If you don’t, it’s mysticism. But there’s no real analysis taking place. Just a very long winded way of being insulting.
