All about cults

[Binglebong]

A very interesting starting point about cults.

Please do not suggest anything is a cults or thread will get removed

This is basically but the description if cults is suggestive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4w95452eeo

The thing we're not talking about doesn't have a charismatic and authoritarian leader but apart from that there are lots of similarities. I found this section especially striking and especially the last part about barriers to exit:

While cults can be hard to spot, Jenkinson and Montell note some "red flags" people can look for:
One possible indicator Jenkinson highlights is "love bombing" - a manipulation tactic that sees abusers use affection and declarations of love as a way of gaining power and control.
Another common theme is promising "answers to life's very complex problems", like climate change or the meaning of existence, the psychotherapist adds.
Montell says the combination of mantras, buzzwords and nicknames for insiders and outsiders of the group, as well as language that elicits a strong reaction while encouraging us not to ask further questions, can be indicators.
The linguist adds that certain texts being "off-limits" in the group can also be a warning sign.
The most "extreme" trait of a cult for Montell is a "high barrier to exit", meaning group members being made to feel they might lose their identity or friendships, or fear retaliation, if they leave the group.

Biggest cult ive come across is mumsnet.

How do you see mumsnet wrt the article?

Thanks for posting this OP, I saw it on BBC news yesterday but didn't have time to read it as I was driving pretty much all day, I came back to read it today and couldn't find it. I think more needs to be done to dismantle these sort of cults across the board, the damage they do is incredible.

I’m now wondering who FWR’s charismatic leader is. Arabella Scott would be excellent, Nauticaunt for absolute reliability, Boiled Beetle on the creative industry side, ICake for the humour, Cariadlet for the literacy….

It’s soooo hard to pick!

(Sorry that was in response to @cofffeeee)

I'd like to include @Datun and @Helleofabore, but mostly @Ereshkigalangcleg because I've always loved her username..!

Biggest cult ive come across is mumsnet

I've never been 'love bombed' before. Looking forward to it😀
Do I need to book a time slot somewhere?

The cult leaders are a bit more Machiavellian. Martine Rothblatt and the Pritzkers are important figures that Jennifer Bilek has written about.

Don’t forget RTB for insightful (or inciting) commentary and context.

I love you!

I agree, that bit stuck out to me too.

The thing we're not talking about doesn't have a charismatic and authoritarian leader but apart from that there are lots of similarities.

No single leader but we do see a lot who position themselves as such. Naming no names but social media has made it possible to have a wide following and become an authority.

I would be interested to know the difference that modern tech has made to cults. Easier to find victims I imagine but people may be a bit more worldly wise.

Aww 🥰 thank you!

I thought I was on Scotsnet for a moment there:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/scotsnet/5302220-cults-near-aberdeen-would-you-live-there

I'm not sure we need to have charismatic leaders. If you're familiar with the far left, I wouldn't say that Gerry Healy or James Robertson or Ted Grant were particularly charismatic, but they still gathered cults around themselves.

I still think the most prophetic novel of the past 30 years is Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. Maybe the film is better in some ways but the book gives you lots to think about. It's many things but, from one angle at least, it's about a mentally ill man who accidentally starts a cult.

It's easy for us to feel superior to people in the 70s who were running off to join Scientology or the Moonies or the Summit Lighthouse. We think we're wiser now, but I don't think we are. I think the same impulses are there, they'll just spread in different ways.

I agree there does seem to be some very cult like behaviours on display all across the West at the moment. Group Think, Hive Mind, Social Contagion, Mass Hysteria, they could all fit, maybe because of social media they've all merged into one and gone viral.

I'll vote whoever brings the Tunnock's in as MN's charismatic leader. 😁

We lost a family member to a cult over 30 years ago. They haven’t been see since (not even by their kids).

frankly it was no great loss.

People are looking for a bit of order and reassurance in a chaotic world. The decline of mainstream religion might play some part? The old left was full of lapsed Catholics, Methodists and non observant Jews. Including me of course!

Two of my siblings have filled up the aching void with conspiracy stuff. I agree @SionnachRuadh that you don't necessarily need a charismatic leader but it helps to get the ball rolling surely.

If confused and vulnerable kids are looking for a sense of belonging today , the Children of God won't cut it - although they love bombed me in the 70s. There are cool new tribes with prettier costumes

Has anyone listened to the podcast "was I in a cult"? They basically give ex-cult members a chance to tell their story, often pointing out the more ridiculous side with a wry smile. Both the hosts have been in cults (one grew up as a morman, the other was in an acting cult) and they cover everything from the big hitters - children of God being a particularly upsetting one - to much smaller ones like yoga or acting cults. It's really fascinating and I have often thought about the parallels to other things that we're not talking about.
Recently they seem to have had more cult stories that happened during the pandemic - people looking for certainty in weird, uncertain times

Acting cults?

Yeh, I know, it's quite weird. Essentially, from what I can remember, she started going to acting lessons, then got sucked in to more and more and was paying through the nose for the privilege. Her life became entirely about the classes she was attending on an almost daily basis to the exclusion of her former life. The "leader" was acting like a sort of guru and the followers really though she was the only person who could help them. Possibly one of the looser interpretations of cult but does fall into the description. I'll try to find the episode

https://podyssey.fm/podcast/itunes1582863762-Was-I-In-A-Cult

Second one down on this list is one of the acting cults. I've a feeling there might have been more than one episode? They all blur into one after a while!

I think there's a general trend for people to take
nuanced and complex situations and simplify them into goodies vs baddies and pick a side.

It's happened with the trans issue, and, if you look at the conversation on the terrible situation in Gaza in the Conflict in the Middle East section you can see the same thing happening there.

I don't think its cult like behaviour exactly, it's more like tribal behaviour, where people feel part of a group that thinks a particular way so uncritically accept anything that agrees with their group and immediately reject anything that goes against it.

One of the best books on this is Counterfeit Dreams by Jefferson Hawkins. There are a bunch of books on Scientology, but Hawkins is particularly useful because he wasn't raised in the group but joined as an adult - essentially as a burned out hippie at the end of the 60s who was disillusioned by the failures of the Summer of Love and the peace movement, and looking for something new. He ended up spending 36 years in the group and rose to become their marketing guru.

Different Scientology defectors have their own perspectives and experiences, but Hawkins' book works really well as an illustration of how highly intelligent people can believe completely irrational things and participate in abusive environments.

In fact there's some evidence that highly intelligent, or maybe better to say highly educated people might be more prone to confirmation bias and magical thinking than people who rely on common sense. Like the old (Orwell?) line that there are some things so absurd only an intellectual could believe them.