You’re gonna get downvoted because this is HN but really this article is clickbait designed to exploit a growing epistemological crisis in the west. The author is just describing a group with a history and traditions. While cults are also groups with tradition and sometimes history it’s well disingenuous to say THAT is their defining feature.
EDIT: I’d just like to be clear that Academia has definitely got serious issues. But a person who establishes PhD level credentials in Marxist social analysis at the top of the article sure does spew a ton of words about material conditions without ever naming capitalism as the issue and instead blames “academia.” Oh, professors and grad students are terribly overworked but also they are administering a cult?
EDIT: I’d just like to be clear that Academia has definitely got serious issues. But a person who establishes PhD level credentials in Marxist social analysis at the top of the article sure does spew a ton of words about material conditions without ever naming capitalism as the issue and instead blames “academia.” Oh, professors and grad students are terribly overworked but also they are administering a cult?