whatever you are thinking about while reading this is probably the cult you are in
So npm package management is legitimately a cult?
Maybe not NPM per se. But the cult of JAVASCRIPT ALL TEH THINGS!!! most certainly is. imho
We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
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Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#82One characteristic of cults is how they get defined and define themselves. They define themselves in conjunction with everyone "outside" but it goes further as "outside" itself gets defined partly by them and partly by others. For example, if a bunch of newspapers says "X organisation is a cult" then it provokes a kind of self-reinforcing reaction in the organisation to separate themselves more from those not in the group. The group becomes more strong by defining itself in comparison to those outside the group. A member of a group finds their membership and sense of belonging stronger when people outside the group separate them. Polarisation isolates the poles but it also strengthens them.
It's therefore kind of one sided to say that a cult isolates a member from the outside world, although they do actually do that. It also gives a potential path away from dangerous cults to be formed - it's about allowing groups to exist within ones life and allowing people to move around - a kind of tolerance for the other or the margins.
Outside of cults, 2 examples: A good example of the group solidification mechanism is in the parallel with US politics where people in either sides think it's the other side that polarises politics. "I'm not an extremist you are". There's also an example of Reddit about subreddits and communities. Reddit organisation labelled subreddits "communities" where before the labelling the people who visited subreddits didn't think of themselves as a community. "communities" were created to isolate certain problematic subreddits who indeed had a unique group identity. Quarantine was introduced at the same time to perform the isolation. Subreddits turned into communities by becoming identified as such from within and outside but also the communities own self-culture, moderation rules became stronger because they were labelled as such.
I can recommend Spying in Guru Land for a book about cults. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2487851.Spying_in_Guru_L...
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read carefully and compare the related sentences. For example: > They make you depend solely on others within the community for your every need... Is followed by: > We have partnerships with organizations that can connect you to schooling, work, housing, and medical care...
So cult == community? As a bit of a libertarian, this struck me as anti-Statist (i.e. modern secular states are basically cults)
Is there no libertarian community? In the sense of a group who think similarly and are suspicious and somewhat hostile to those who think differently?
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
So npm package management is legitimately a cult?
Maybe not NPM per se. But the cult of JAVASCRIPT ALL TEH THINGS!!! most certainly is. imho
Yet try mentioning this when a new js framework gets released and submitted on here and your comment gets flagged almost immediately. FREE YOURSELVES MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND COME TO THE LIGHT, FOR PYSCRIPT IS HERE TO SAVE YOU!
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#85Well, I'm only interested in the part where they provide free arbitrary meals on demand. The economics of that are intriguing, but, hey, since I'm clearly a poor soul to save, they can't deny me this right, right ?
Where do I sign up for your totally-not-a-cult thing ?
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, the rest could apply to just about anything, but this brief phrase near the end makes it pretty clear that it's about religion. That, and phrases like "the cult has left noticeable marks on you". Somehow all atheists (or at least the militant kind) seem to believe religious people are all deeply scarred and twisted, no matter how "watered-down from its original form" their "cult" may be.
The clever part about this writing is that it's so vague it applies to everyone. If you squint one way it's the group you are in. If you look sideways it's the group you dislike. It's brilliantly subversive and makes you think.
Yes - it's a Rorschach test.
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#87Very clever. The scariest monster remains unseen. I try to live my life being open to challenging and being challenged by anything. But there are some things — needing money, clothes, electricity — which are hard to escape. I’ll try and have another go though, I promise.
Except they're clearly talking about Christianity.
They are clearly talking about a tech corporation.
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#88This is a pointless article that baits the reader into thinking there is a point, as evidenced by the fact that you can read many comments here of people trying to extract meaning out of it and not find anything that is actually profound and not incredibly overwrought.
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you stand apart you will be preyed upon by those that do not. We are not designed or evolved or whatever to prowl alone, because it will always be in our nature to come together and some will exploit this. And so while you stand alone they will bring all their machinations to consume your very being. Would you really be that strong to stand alone against all those that would look to exploit you.
I think this is something else because reality tends to be the exact opposite. Instead it's small groups of well organized radicals using their organization to impact everybody else disproportionately. To stick with safe examples, look at the KKK. A quick search indicates they hit their peak popularity in the 1920s with some 4 million claimed members, which would be ~3% of society. But of course they had an outsized…
The enemy is never the one you see in front of your face. It's the voice behind you that's your true adversary. So stand side by side and block him out.
Re: We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
#90It's agile isn't it ....
If you had said Jira you might have gotten a better response. Agile is just the methodology, it's the implementation that causes suffering.
agile is synonymous with bad agile. If you really are doing good agile as a company you need to say how to be believed.