Well, this site often deals with fringe stuff. Take Lisp, for example. It is a fringe language, no matter how zealous its advocates are. So is Haskell. But

Well, this site often deals with fringe stuff. Take Lisp, for example. It is a fringe language, no matter how zealous its advocates are. So is Haskell. But you see articles about them posted here far out of proportion to their real-world use and impact. And I disagree that "most of their assumptions go unchallenged". I see challenges to the assumptions of lesswrong, e/acc, and other such stuff often here. (Maybe less often than is warranted, but still fairly often.) "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - often attributed to Aristotle, but apparently not actually from him. Still a good thought. We can post about this stuff, and discuss it, without buying it. I agree with your pushbacks.