Can't fix the problem because doing so would unravel everything we call society.

Is this actually a defining characteristic? I didn’t think cults were defined so narrowly. I understood cults to simply be highly insular groups with extreme views. Like the Flat Earth Society would a cult, though I don’t think they feel imminent danger or are willing to lay down their lives.

Does society have those things, inherently? A touchy question

Is there a cult that doesn't have those things? I've yet to find one. It seems to me that cults are similar not to general society, but to fascist societies

Yes. Indeed. Thoughts and behavior are inherited in ways exactly the same as evolution but transmitted through various forms of learning and writing, etc. instead of through genetic material.

Saying it with a sneer does not really add anything.

That's only true in part.

Cults typically play on combinations of specific aspects of psychology, and generally a given cult will only "work" on certain people.

The same is true for parenting and education. Not all children can be effectively parented (or cultily-parented to take your view for a moment) by their specific parents, and certainly not all children can be indoctrinated, let alone educated as intended in a given environment.

Further, I think it's wise to add in these cases that a thing can be systematic and be explained in an organized manner to appear as if it's organized and systematic on purpose, and even designed by specific individuals, when none of that is actually the case. Otherwise we only-humans tend to start looking for someone to blame, effectively hallucinating.

And in many cases the problem you describe can be fixed without unraveling society and _already is being fixed automatically in many ways_. But that also requires going into lots of details to discuss; the generalities alone, while exciting or fear-inducing in isolation, tend to resolve down to too much hand-waving.

A lot of good people are out there working their @$$ses off helping people work together to improve society, bringing the best parts forward while leaving this unwanted stuff behind us.

That’s not some grand observation, any middle schooler can see the obvious reason why they’re similar.

It's only a cult because he merely raised hundreds of millions. If he made it to billions it'd be an inspiring business success story.

"Billionaire Bezos' Amazon warehouse employees depend on food stamps in 9 states. The report said 70% of food stamp recipients who work at the United States' second-largest employer and other chain retailers like Walmart work full time."

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/4k-bezos-amazon-wareh...

With Amazon it’s purely transactional. Amazon isn’t promising anything but money to their warehouse workers.

With Moon’s cult, the cult defined their follower’s world view.

You have to be able to recognize the degrees of things and accurately measure problems and improvements.

Hyperbole means nobody that disagrees with you will even spend a second paying attention to you and the people who are on your side are weakened substantially because it’s easy to dismiss them by comparing them to you.

You are not helping. You are the problem.

The argument of somebody who is heavily invested.

If he made it to trillions and had millions of followers, he'd be called a president.

If he made it to trillions and had billions of followers, he'd be called Jesus.

I'm not a huge fan of the Latter Day Saints, but for a large and important chunk of their religion's existence, they were not only called a cult, but persecuted as one.

2. I didn't claim this defines a cult, I'm pointing out a key difference.

(See: literally any thread about RTO, or grad school, or starup culture vs corporate culture, and so on.)

And Ted Patrick! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzlNrWlakmA

Cults are fascinating- some appear to be by opportunists, and others true believers, but all are dangerous. I feel that the word cult is sometimes given a bad name, and it is overlooked in the word culture, yet I think it is a great way to examine modern-day dictatorships and nuclear powers, which still use some some of that power (maybe not so much in the west) to broadcast a cult of personality.

"“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’ Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them… But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” – Matthew 13:11-14, 16"

Though I have to say, what is in the ten commandments isn't the most terrible advice. :)

1. https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/17635/was-judais...

2. https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3574984/jewis...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJfm71I0OyU

No thanks.

> His primary conversational tactic is to overwhelm. He can go on 20-minute unbroken monologues, especially if the subject turns to his victimhood. Everyone in his past, from his defense attorneys to his own mother, is “corrupt” or “biased.” He firmly believes that he, Felicia, Isabella, and Talia have been poisoned — and are still being poisoned. “We’ve suffered so much, and we’re still suffering so much,” he says.

Has anyone here met anyone like this irl?