This is somewhat reassuring, as it suggests that he doesn’t fully understand how cultural critiques of LW affect the perception of LW more broadly;
This. On Reddit (which isn't actually mainstream common knowledge per se, but I still find it encouraging and indicative that the common sense perspective is winning out) whenever I see the topic of lesswrong or AI Doom come up on unrelated subreddits, I'll see a bunch of top upvoted comments mentioning the cult spin offs or that the main thinker's biggest achievement is Harry Potter fanfic or Roko's Basilisk or any of the other easily comprehensible indicators that these are not serious thinkers with legitimate thoughts.