LockheedTheDragon

"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Rules and leaders are needed, but they always have the chance of being misused. That why checks and balances are always needed.

You have the normal rules and norms, but what if you take them to an absurd level. Let's say your in a Club. It has a rule that only members allowed and every member has to dress nice and be clean and presentable at all times inside. Well one member falls into the food table, getting food all over them and breaking their leg. Does the manager of the Club demand the person who fell get up and leave immediately? After all they are no longer clean and presentable. Well a reasonable Club would care more about having the person not move and getting emergency services in there. A cult would demand they get up and leave. The emergency personnel wouldn't be allowed inside anyway since they are not members.

I see the parallel because I see cults as normal behaviors taken to the extreme.

A philosophy group could turn into a cult. A lot of cults start out as going against whatever everyone else is doing/thinking.

I agree. Science is a tool, people don't believe in science. You use science. You don't believe in gravity you accept it and our current understanding of it. Which may change as our tools to measure and understand our environment get better.

Atheism isn't really a community either. The atheism community is more people who lack a belief in a god who banded together in various areas to protect themselves and others against having religious things forced onto them. Now an atheist group could turn into a cult because once you have a group systems of control can take over and it could turn into an authoritarian group.

Any group can become a cult, because cults are systems of control. Loosely organized groups are going to have a harder time becoming one, but sporting club which probably have rules and hierarchies, a soup kitchen is probably a nonprofit so would need rules and leaders. Artistic communities may have rules to use the space. Any group can become authoritarian if they get structured enough.

AA could be a cult. Synanon which was a drug rehab organization became a cult. A lot of cults start out as positive and affirmative groups.

I think of cults as more of systems of control. MLMs, jobs (Theranos), large-group awareness training (nxivm), political groups (Maga), exercise groups (CrossFit), fandoms, book clubs, families, online groups, etc can all be cults.

I suggest the podcast IndoctriNation⁠ by Rachel Bernstein to see many ways these "systems of control" as she calls them can manifest.

I personally think that cult behavior is just normal behavior taken to the extreme so there really isn't an opposite. Maybe being alone with no relationships.

The various types of groups we are on family, friends, work, recreational, etc have various controls on how you act and speak. This isn't necessarily bad. You probably want to be a little different with family than with your hobby group. I explained the broader meaning of cults to my Dad and he said the Marines have those aspects. I think an important part to know if a group is probably fine is if you can leave with no issues. If there are consequences to leaving the group that's a huge red flag.

I suggest looking at the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. Which is a useful tool to check if a group is a cult. You can read up on problems with this tool, but it's still a good starting point.

Edit: No one joins a cult. They join groups for positive reasons and then those groups either turn into cults or as they get deeper into the group the control parts are introduced.

We all probably brushed up against cults without knowing. You could go to an exercise/spiritual/hobby/other group and what you don't know is if you had gotten more involved and took the special classes, or volunteered and became a part of the in group you could have become a part of a cult.

Bloody, but just because when I had a period I would say things like "I'm on my bloody period!"

That means the real estate company The Catholic Church will need a new mascot/leader.

There has been other comic book adaptation of his work with various success. One important aspect is the art style, some styles just clash and distract from the story others enhance and some are just there. I suggest doing an image search "Discworld graphic novel" to get an idea. I think a great adaptation of a work makes you wonder how the images where conveyed in prose, since the image and words flow in such a way that can only be done in comic book form. It actually makes you want to go back and read the original.

I think Slauderhouse Five graphic novel does a great job of this.

Tech support is mostly turning things off and on since it fixes a lot of things. And I mean actually turning them off and on, not just turning the screen off and on. Then turning setting off and on. Lots of checking what should or shouldn't be on and trying it the other way.

Financial institutions are not as secure as you think.

Every once in a while I will see someone ask "We bank online why can't we vote online?" Banking is secure enough that the money the banks lose is less than the money they make. Also not all lose of funds will hurt the bank if the individual is scammed, since individuals are supposed to keep their accounts secure and not fall for scams.

Your bank is using old technology and Excel for a lot of internal records keeping. Most fraud detection is a cost to the bank not a money maker. Stopping money laundering, human trafficking, ect means the bank doesn't get that money and has to pay people to investigate it and shudder report to the government.

Like almost every other business out there they work off of poorly made or old tech and the lowest paid people are push to more work with less time and resources.