while not a particularly novel observation anymore, he notices here how nerd society has recreated parallels to trad rituals such as confession & communal meaning-making, even while nominally seeking to do away w/ the old; does this indicate that people crave such practices?
i've long felt similarly about the discussed nerd-society practices of (what I see as) forced intimacy, strategic boundary erosion, culty social dynamics. throws up real Chesterton-esque red flags for me; perhaps peoples natural psychic immune systems resistance to such, is good?