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“The sober truth is that religions are the most stable and strongest organizations in the entire world,” he says. “Say I’m a cult, and I’ll joke that my cult is

“The sober truth is that religions are the most stable and strongest organizations in the entire world,” he says. “Say I’m a cult, and I’ll joke that my cult is better than your cult because it tells people to eat healthy food and go to bed on time.” -Bryan Johnson in https://www.menshealth.com/health/a63664080/bryan-johnson-dont-die-summit/ https://www.menshealth.com/health/a63664080/bryan-johnson-do... And hey, he has a point. His following is fanatical about stuff like... going to bed early, exercising and eating right.

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
> His following is fanatical about stuff like... going to bed early, exercising and eating right. But that's the point. If he had just posted lots of articles about going to bed early, exercising and eating right, nobody would give a shit. People know about him because he spends millions of dollars a year on his own personal health, has reached "uncanny valley" level in terms of his appearance, and makes truly bizarre posts comparing the "quality" and duration of his nighttime erections to his teenage son's. So tired of this world where people think stuff like this is something to emulate.
ecuaflo 2y ago
But not about masking, and subsequently contracting covid, hurting his health more than any of his therapies have helped. https://x.com/lauramiers/status/1846199554288292232 https://x.com/lauramiers/status/1846199554288292232
- brailsafe 2y ago
  What's the significance of those tweets? He got covid? Who's she supposed to be?
- idopmstuff 2y ago
  What evidence do you have that he wasn't masking? That tweet doesn't seem to make any mention about masking, and there are definitely shots of him masking while traveling in his Netflix doc (which is well post-Covid). Also, those tweets seem pretty nonsensical - she quotes him posting about how he actively acknowledges Covid is very damaging and then attacks him for unrelated things that he does? Seems like those are just the tweets of someone who's a little nuts and hates the rich.
bambax 2y ago
> my cult is better than your cult That's not possible, because I don't have a cult. That's the point. All cults are bad, they can't be ranked.
- pfannkuchen 2y ago
  Cults are ideology startups. Most start ups fail. Doesn’t mean they all will.
  - butter999 2y ago
    Cults are scams designed to entrap and abuse people. Everything else is window dressing; their ideological positions will ultimately be changed or abandoned to consolidate the cult leader's power (ie Synanon spent years espousing a commitment to nonviolence, only to turn on a dime and begin arming themselves and carrying out assaults). They're not the nucleolus of "successful" ideologies any more than pyramid schemes are the nucleolus of successful businesses. Some of them will succeed in that they survive and spread, some of what they preach will be reasonable, common sense stuff. But ultimately they're an engine to abuse people and they will create much more misery than anything else.
    - pfannkuchen 2y ago
      How do you know it’s window dressing though? Like there are some people out there who legitimately believe some pretty crazy things, and they have some framing that convinced themselves so it is convincing to some other crazy adjacent people as well. I accept that some cults are what you say, but I doubt that all are. Probing question. Do you consider LDS to be a cult? I think you would find its characteristics in the beginning to be abusive in the cult abuse sense. Like the founder is like yeah, Space Jesus said that all these dozens of women should have sex with me exclusively from a young age. But most don’t consider it to be a cult today. Did it transition from bad cult to not a cult? Or is this what the lifecycle of all successful religions looks like?
      - butter999 2y ago

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago

> His following is fanatical about stuff like... going to bed early, exercising and eating right. But that's the point. If he had just posted lots of articles about going to bed early, exercising and eating right, nobody would give a shit. People know about him because he spends millions of dollars a year on his own personal health, has reached "uncanny valley" level in terms of his appearance, and makes truly bizarre posts comparing the "quality" and duration of his nighttime erections to his teenage son's. So tired of this world where people think stuff like this is something to emulate.

ecuaflo 2y ago

But not about masking, and subsequently contracting covid, hurting his health more than any of his therapies have helped. https://x.com/lauramiers/status/1846199554288292232 https://x.com/lauramiers/status/1846199554288292232

brailsafe 2y ago
What's the significance of those tweets? He got covid? Who's she supposed to be?
idopmstuff 2y ago
What evidence do you have that he wasn't masking? That tweet doesn't seem to make any mention about masking, and there are definitely shots of him masking while traveling in his Netflix doc (which is well post-Covid). Also, those tweets seem pretty nonsensical - she quotes him posting about how he actively acknowledges Covid is very damaging and then attacks him for unrelated things that he does? Seems like those are just the tweets of someone who's a little nuts and hates the rich.

bambax 2y ago

> my cult is better than your cult That's not possible, because I don't have a cult. That's the point. All cults are bad, they can't be ranked.

pfannkuchen 2y ago
Cults are ideology startups. Most start ups fail. Doesn’t mean they all will.
- butter999 2y ago
  Cults are scams designed to entrap and abuse people. Everything else is window dressing; their ideological positions will ultimately be changed or abandoned to consolidate the cult leader's power (ie Synanon spent years espousing a commitment to nonviolence, only to turn on a dime and begin arming themselves and carrying out assaults). They're not the nucleolus of "successful" ideologies any more than pyramid schemes are the nucleolus of successful businesses. Some of them will succeed in that they survive and spread, some of what they preach will be reasonable, common sense stuff. But ultimately they're an engine to abuse people and they will create much more misery than anything else.
  - pfannkuchen 2y ago
    How do you know it’s window dressing though? Like there are some people out there who legitimately believe some pretty crazy things, and they have some framing that convinced themselves so it is convincing to some other crazy adjacent people as well. I accept that some cults are what you say, but I doubt that all are. Probing question. Do you consider LDS to be a cult? I think you would find its characteristics in the beginning to be abusive in the cult abuse sense. Like the founder is like yeah, Space Jesus said that all these dozens of women should have sex with me exclusively from a young age. But most don’t consider it to be a cult today. Did it transition from bad cult to not a cult? Or is this what the lifecycle of all successful religions looks like?
    - butter999 2y ago