Thanks for that Icake.
Thats brilliant.
Some key highlights about cult features I think are really relevant to this discussion about left v right (editted a bit for brevity):
Lifton identified eight psychological themes underpinning thought reform—which is to say the ideological coercion (or, more colloquially, “brainwashing”) that happens in cults as well as totalitarian states.
The first is “milieu control,” the severing of communication with those who challenge the group’s beliefs.
No one is told not to communicate with outsiders or read opposing views—they don’t have to be. Followers may even occasionally make a point of checking out the opposing views of “TERFs” (a term of abuse that stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”) to prove they can refute them, but the act is a charade. A dutiful scroll through a “TERF” essay is “reading” in quote marks, with a mind fully shut. Opening one’s thinking to opposing views would not only throw into question the group’s ideology, but jeopardize the follower’s treasured sense of belonging and purpose. The follower identifies so completely with the group that challenges to it are perceived as an existential assault—even “violence,” as trans activists will claim.
“The demand for purity” also stands out among Lifton’s criteria. The group drums into the follower the idea that she or he is guilty or unworthy in some way, and can only hope to alleviate this feeling of culpability by embarking on a futile pursuit of perfection.
“Loading the language” and “sacred science,” two more of Lifton’s criteria, could have been written with trans activism in mind. The group’s dogmas are cast as the latest frontier in scientific knowledge and cannot be questioned.
Lifton noted that thought reform is characterized by a reliance on the “thought-terminating cliché” and transformation of language. New words convey the group’s insights while existing words are given new meaning. “Non-binary,” “cishet,” “genderqueer,” and “genderfluid” are just the beginning of today’s new lexicon.
Proceeding down Lifton’s eight-point list: Under the headings of “doctrine over person” and “dispensing of existence,” we get some of his most chilling observations. The doctrine prevails over any individual human’s life, which becomes essentially expendable. If an individual’s experience contradicts the group’s doctrine, that person’s reality must be manipulated so the doctrine is vindicated. And so detransitioners, whose harrowing personal accounts impugn trans ideology, are shrugged away with some version of the explanation, “They were obviously never really trans to begin with.” Even though this directly contradicts a core tenet of trans ideology—“If someone says they’re trans, believe them”—the sanctity of the doctrine is nominally affirmed and the individual is disappeared. The media silencing of detransitioners and desisters is one of the most disturbing reflections of the obeisance commanded by trans activists, never mind the women, men, and children who suffer as a result of their dogmas.
Every totalitarian or authoritarian group or movement—and cults are crystallized authoritarianism—coheres in opposition to a group that it hates. This was the particular insight of the Frankfurt School, some of whose intellects observed in The Authoritarian Personality that “[the] authoritarian must [their emphasis], out of an inner necessity, turn his aggression against out-groups.”
What is troubling here about someone labelling FWR as more right wing than the rest of MN because of what they are quoting? Even though they say they are GC.
Because they are STILL displaying a hell of a lot of the above, with verbotten media outlets and talk of purity of thought. I've had another one tonight on another thread (see the other delightful poster who called rude on the Gigi thread). There is a thought terminating cliche within the trope about 'the Daily Heil'. Again verbotten books which must be burned.
And in the last couple of days we've had doctrine over person and dispensing of existence with the lovely Michael Crick and the ThunderGodess saying that women are expedible. Michael Crick being a renowned leftie journalist formally of the Beeb and C4. Someone you'd REALLY expect better from, given his career and the principles of journalistic intigrity.
Without the Times and Newsnight (yep Newsnight is somehow now right wing) where would the stuff about the Tavistock be? Or is the Cass Review somehow a Right Wing Propaganda move too?
The sad truth is that sometime the right are say things worthwhile and somethings the left say things that are worthwhile. If you are too stupid to realise this, you miss half the worthwhile stuff there is and we all end up poorer for it.
Tribalism in politics is the most toxic thing in politics. Thats NOT the culture war. This predates the 'culture war'. My lecturer back in 1996 was talking about this dynamic when he told the young me to remove my own prejudices and get my head out of my arse and LISTEN to views and opinions you might not always agree with, because one in a while they might actually have a valid point.