I don't know if these statistics are even kept, but the current social environment in the US feels like a ripe breeding ground for cults. I've had so many people in the past couple years be like "I just want to farm with my friends and family and get away from all this".
It has become a bit of a meme lately. I think there's something to be said about a malaise era leading to an uptick in erratic behavior.
But at the risk of sounding smug and condescending, as someone who actually bought 10 acres "to get away from it all", I get the sense that the type of people in this saga would pack up pretty quick after a little taste. Lesswrongers aren't exactly known for pragmatism, which is sorta the only mindset that works. There's all this work that you don't know you don't know about. I just fell down the rabbit hole of the ziz lore and goddamn do these people sound inept. Like they couldn't even fix their RV to get off their landlord's property. Lots of quasi-intellectual masturbatory posting and not a lot of skills.
All that is to say I'm not super worried about any of these cults really taking off. Logistics remain challenging.
