He isn't basically running a cult, he is literally running a cult where he teaches people a new philosophy of thought that causes them to realize they should logically move into a group home in Berkeley and join a polycule - ie a high engagement alternate sexual practice that's extremely difficult to leave.
This shouldn't be surprising though (it should "conform to your priors") because that's just what people in Berkeley do, they start hippie sex cults. When they're not inventing nuclear weapons and blocking new housing projects.
Usually comes in the form of biographies of young tech workers with an aside about how they logiced their girlfriends into open relationships and then got depressed because they got broken up with. There's at least one of these in the New Yorker.
This shouldn't be surprising though (it should "conform to your priors") because that's just what people in Berkeley do, they start hippie sex cults. When they're not inventing nuclear weapons and blocking new housing projects.