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This is a great article.

I've been conscious of and annoyed by the symptoms of these spirals for years. I was aware that this was the effect of one-upping and a desire to demonstrate personal virtue, but I didn't have a name for this phenomenon or a very complete model of why people were interested in these types of communities.

The purity spiral! A nice name, and a model that seems to describe the situation very nicely.

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It's a lot like a religion. Purity tests, dogma, things you can't say, good vs evil, self-flagellation, original sin, kicking people out who don't conform...

Definitely a lot like religion. I really recommend the book "Christianity: the first three thousand years". Post historical crucifixion of Jesus the first few hundred years of Christianity sound like a purity spiral, monarchism, gnosticism, origenism.

The original church in Antioch first applied the word catholic to Christianity (καθολικός / katholikos) but was then later ejected from the western church in 1054 for not being catholic enough.

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