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Religious, political and social movements that can be called cults

acbytesla

Penultimate Amazing
acbytesla
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
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smartcooky said:
RECOGNIZE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTS

1. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving
2. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders
3. Dishonoring the family unit
4. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
5. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
6. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
7. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies, and persecutions.
8. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
9. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
10. The group/leader is always right.
11. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

Ordinary Islam is not a cult (although extreme Islamic organizations such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban could be classified as cults.)

Christianity is not a cult (although extreme Christian groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church, and the LDS Church could be classified as cults.)

BLM is not a cult

Antifa is not a cult

However..
Scientology is a child trafficking cult
Branch Davidians are an apocalyptic cult
NXIVM (Nexiam) was a sex cult
Jonestown was a religious cult
And the Republican Party are well on their way to being a political cult, with Trump as their Deity - their God-King.
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I beg to differ on Christianity not being a cult.


Posted By: jimbob
 
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Hercules56 said:
I encountered some Christian groups that definitely had cultish attributes.
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Catholic Church tortured and killed millions of people of other faiths including other Christian denominations. If it isn't a cult, I don't know what is.
 
acbytesla said:
Catholic Church tortured and killed millions of people of other faiths including other Christian denominations. If it isn't a cult, I don't know what is.
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You don't know what is.

Those are very bad things but they are not definitive of being a cult.

That said, early christianity was certainly a cult, and some Catholic parishes are definitely cults and many christian churches in small town America are definitely cults.
 
CarbShark said:
You don't know what is.

Those are very bad things but they are not definitive of being a cult.

That said, early christianity was certainly a cult, and some Catholic parishes are definitely cults and many christian churches in small town America are definitely cults.
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I still disagree. But this is the wrong thread for this discussion.
 
I honestly read that list of cult characteristics and instantly thought of progressives. Half the list has been demonstrated in this thread..

Anyway, some new proposals, grocery price controls, 25k housing subsidy for first time buyers and expanded child tax credit back to 3600 per child, plus 6000 for new baby's. Price controls on food scare me a bit as it is a delicate market and tinkering beyond the outlier cases could cause more harm than good.

The housing subsidy seems like it would be absorbed into higher prices on homes. The child tax credit increase im on board with, was popular policy already and not something Republicans can push back on much with Vances views. Hopefully more info to come soon.

Eta: This site breaks the info we have down well and has the tax implications for each portion. 1.7 trillion $ deficit increase. Just so the cost is clear going in.
 
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rdwight said:
I honestly read that list of cult characteristics and instantly thought of progressives. Half the list has been demonstrated in this thread..

Anyway, some new proposals, grocery price controls, 25k housing subsidy for first time buyers and expanded child tax credit back to 3600 per child, plus 6000 for new baby's. Price controls on food scare me a bit as it is a delicate market and tinkering beyond the outlier cases could cause more harm than good.
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So the market is always correct? That sellers should be able to charge whatever the market will bear? Is that what you're saying?
 
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rdwight said:
I honestly read that list of cult characteristics and instantly thought of progressives. Half the list has been demonstrated in this thread..
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Yeah, I noticed all the cultlike support for Harris who meets the criteria for NPD, is a verified sexual abuser, is a pathological liar, has been convicted of 35 felonies with more likely coming if she doesn't get elected, and has several mental health officials, including a close relative, saying she's sociopath. I noticed the cultish support for Harris who can't talk about anything except what a victim she is, the size of the crowd she attracts, and how much she is allowed to grab the genitals of anyone she wants because she's a celebrity. It's really disgusting.
 
Christianity is automatically a Cult if it becomes the by far dominant religion - it's a proto cult as long as there are socially acceptable alternatives.

The same is not true of BLM or Antifa, which are minority groups by definition and who would cease to be if there was no longer any need for them
 
Stacyhs said:
Yeah, I noticed all the cultlike support for Harris who meets the criteria for NPD, is a verified sexual abuser, is a pathological liar, has been convicted of 35 felonies with more likely coming if she doesn't get elected, and has several mental health officials, including a close relative, saying she's sociopath. I noticed the cultish support for Harris who can't talk about anything except what a victim she is, the size of the crowd she attracts, and how much she is allowed to grab the genitals of anyone she wants because she's a celebrity. It's really disgusting.
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Yes, the contrast is obvious.

However, there is a cult of personality that seems to be inevitable to all candidates in Amarican elections: How amazing their personalities are always supposed to be as opposed to what they can actually be expected to do once in office: Kamala Harris is the bringer of joy, for instance. (And it's not that I'm not somewhat relieved that it probably won't be Trump again!) And Tim Walz is the embodiment of the All-American dad, the regular-Joe kind of guy.

I still have no idea what they are going to do about global warming. Did they make it unambiguously clear anywhere? And I also know that, once elected, they'll be free to change (whatever they claimed to be) their minds and offer nothing but poor excuses for, for instance, letting fracking continue and increasing (or doing nothing about) drilling and fossil fuel production and consumption. I am not saying that this is what they'll do. I am saying that this is the option they have, handed over to them by the people who believe that they embody everything that is good and decent.

And people will be so much more willing to accept any deviation from what the candidates promised (if they ever promised anything specific) because they appeared to be so honest and straightforward.
You know, the inherent personality cult of representative democracy.
 
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