"There is nothing cool about joining or starting a cult, no matter how lonely or disenchanted you feel. You’re better off going to church or synagogue, traveling the world, writing a book, reading a book, or joining The Cultural Futurist as a paid member so you can attend my book clubs and salons."
Nice one.
Don't join THOSE cults, join the state-sanctioned ones, or, better still, MINE! 😂
I thought you were casting a spell on me here. I see what you did. 😁❤️👏 Great piece. The doc I saw on these San Fran sex cults was gross and they are milking those dudes for money and you're right the women that help them are icky af.
Thank you so much, Jessica! I hope that we can at least raise awareness of this kind of thing. That’s what I was seeking to do here. So many people are still trapped.
The official distinction between what officially passes for "cult" and any group membership, seems to me, is more a matter of finesse than anything else.
Abrahamic religions seem pretty cultish to me, as a non-Abrahamic, when I face a throng of cult members mumbling about Jesus, God , the Lord, and so on.
As to whether your offering is cultic, it was a joke, but a joke on all identity/thought memberships.
Ps. We are all members of cults one way or another.
No, I want to be accurate here. We are not all members of cults. If our thoughts belong to ourselves, we are free agents. If our thoughts belong to someone else, we are not. It is absurd to say that we are all members of cults. This is postmodern wordplay.
Going to a church once a week or so is not a cult. 50+ years ago I was in a cult for a few years. A real cult takes your personal experience and erases it in favour of an all encompassing world view that is unquestioned by anyone in the cult. I can go to an RC church, or Anglican etc and be a leftie or a rightie, be straight or gay, be a biz type or on welfare. The rest of my week is more or less untouched by my church. That isn’t the case with a real cult. I am not defending churches by the way. In Canada they are devoid of meaning, mostly. But they aren’t cults.
I was born into an infamous cult (the children of god, yeah a Californian sex cult of the 60s to the 90s). My parents had fun I didn’t. I grew up a Swiss-Italian kid with a Native American biological dad speaking west coast American in Europe. It was kind of hilarious now that I think about it.
We make baristas without chests and expect of them the ability to resist becoming cult leaders. We laugh at religious craft and are shocked to find enslaving esoterica advocating for blood and boredom. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful, only for them to be used by dull wenches in vain ritual orgies.
"It was once referred to as Satantic Ritual Abuse."
I believe SRA was (actually, probably IS, present tense) something far more pernicious and systematic than old dudes in pseudo cults social-pressure raping wannabe cult members.
It was the deliberate, systematic, recorded, infliction of PAIN and ABUSE on SMALL CHILDREN combined with symbol and word pattern drilling, adding to that the use of drugs to enhance the process.
Any sex cult must be populated by people who can’t get laid. Because sex is ubiquitous. You wanna get laid? Laughably easy. And I am a very average looking guy. A friend deejayed at a kink sex club. He said everyone was unattractive. They weren’t there because they were into kink. Not really. They were there because even stupid kink sex is better than no sex.
Do you see these cults as primarily an upper middle class or lower lower class phenomena? As someone not in either the hip urban or the juggalo scene, I’ve struggle to see such cults and the Silicon Valley sex dungeon scene always seemed as foreign as it did gross.
It takes a very specific set of personality traits to be a cult leader; similarly, it takes a certain set of personality traits to be susceptible to cults. The most influential cult leaders are those who can quickly identify their targets, remove them from any support structures that would be the voice of reason, and the cult leader then convinces their followers that they are the only way and everything else is wrong. The biggest problem when trying to discuss these issues online is the constant need to turn everything into a punchline. Sometimes out of boredom and sometimes as a coping mechanism, and sometimes to mask ignorance on a topic. Real cults follow a recognizable pattern that needs to be called out. The problem is all the noise in the conversation.
In another comment you say we are not all members of cults. But I point to the word culture and insist that Like Dawkin's viral memetics , we are indeed prone to serve certain groupings of ideas and that our shared inclination to do so is what culture is.
All cults are not defined by the abuse of the servant by the guru. And many have a centralized idea that is practically alive on its own as a natural offshoot of the neurology of humanity.
Cults of love, sex, painting, writing, working out, running, tennis, scholarship of the Greek Mythos, origami, you name it - and there is a human tendency with a culture built around it.
Is every sex cult bad? Only if you don't like std's but otherwise they might be harmless. Emphasis on "might be". See Dr. Ruth Westheimer recently RIP.
I am not arguing any of what you wrote in the article, it sounds more accurate than I'd even like to know about. People performing petty reproductive strategies by deception and cheap control mechanisms.
Sex, money, fame, power. The usual suspects and why do we tolerate them more when they speak gibberish?
While I was writing this facebook took down my link to the article and said I posted spam. I have sought review.
I dunno Rachel, you tell me on the one hand hip city culture is full of these bizarre sex cults and all other sorts of derangement, and on the other hand lament that so many people are choosing to opt out in favor of a life of solitude in the hinterlands. I don't see the narrow path between these two extremes.
Seems to me it's burning down and the best thing to do is preserve what can be preserved in a place far removed from the fires. When the dust settles our great-great grandchildren will either have the tools they need to reboot or they won't. I say do what we can to make sure their great-great grandchildren can find their destiny in the stars. Everything unnecessary to that can be left behind, so it falls on us to figure out what is necessary. If a few thousand are each 1% right about what is necessary, and do a good job preserving it, they'll have what they need.
"There is nothing cool about joining or starting a cult, no matter how lonely or disenchanted you feel. You’re better off going to church or synagogue, traveling the world, writing a book, reading a book, or joining The Cultural Futurist as a paid member so you can attend my book clubs and salons."
Nice one.
Don't join THOSE cults, join the state-sanctioned ones, or, better still, MINE! 😂
The Cultural Futurist isn't a cult, but if you'd like to pretend like it is one in order to join, I'm in no place to stop you.
I thought you were casting a spell on me here. I see what you did. 😁❤️👏 Great piece. The doc I saw on these San Fran sex cults was gross and they are milking those dudes for money and you're right the women that help them are icky af.
Thank you so much, Jessica! I hope that we can at least raise awareness of this kind of thing. That’s what I was seeking to do here. So many people are still trapped.
It starts with the lobster dominance stuff. The metrics of the male to female ratio.
Let me put it to you this way:
The official distinction between what officially passes for "cult" and any group membership, seems to me, is more a matter of finesse than anything else.
Abrahamic religions seem pretty cultish to me, as a non-Abrahamic, when I face a throng of cult members mumbling about Jesus, God , the Lord, and so on.
As to whether your offering is cultic, it was a joke, but a joke on all identity/thought memberships.
Ps. We are all members of cults one way or another.
No, I want to be accurate here. We are not all members of cults. If our thoughts belong to ourselves, we are free agents. If our thoughts belong to someone else, we are not. It is absurd to say that we are all members of cults. This is postmodern wordplay.
The dangers of cognitive capacity and our ability to tell stories to ourselves.
Going to a church once a week or so is not a cult. 50+ years ago I was in a cult for a few years. A real cult takes your personal experience and erases it in favour of an all encompassing world view that is unquestioned by anyone in the cult. I can go to an RC church, or Anglican etc and be a leftie or a rightie, be straight or gay, be a biz type or on welfare. The rest of my week is more or less untouched by my church. That isn’t the case with a real cult. I am not defending churches by the way. In Canada they are devoid of meaning, mostly. But they aren’t cults.
I didn’t say that churches were cults. I clearly sated that it would be better to go to church than to join a cult.
I was responding to Maelstrom actually. You didn’t.
You didn’t call churches cults.
So, an updated, revised cult.
Just because it accepts modern identity denominations and lifestyles it doesn't mean it's any less of a cult.
It just means they got smarter about it.
I was born into an infamous cult (the children of god, yeah a Californian sex cult of the 60s to the 90s). My parents had fun I didn’t. I grew up a Swiss-Italian kid with a Native American biological dad speaking west coast American in Europe. It was kind of hilarious now that I think about it.
I remember learning about cults as a tween and thinking, "Can I start a cult that doesn't end up in orgies, torture, or mass suicide?"
Turns out, they're not called cults at that point. They're called nonprofits.
How’s the non-profit faring?
No money as per usual and everyone keeps asking to marry me 🥲
We make baristas without chests and expect of them the ability to resist becoming cult leaders. We laugh at religious craft and are shocked to find enslaving esoterica advocating for blood and boredom. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful, only for them to be used by dull wenches in vain ritual orgies.
It’s a damn shame
"It was once referred to as Satantic Ritual Abuse."
I believe SRA was (actually, probably IS, present tense) something far more pernicious and systematic than old dudes in pseudo cults social-pressure raping wannabe cult members.
It was the deliberate, systematic, recorded, infliction of PAIN and ABUSE on SMALL CHILDREN combined with symbol and word pattern drilling, adding to that the use of drugs to enhance the process.
You are correct. I was only scratching the surface. Thank you for clarifying this.
Any sex cult must be populated by people who can’t get laid. Because sex is ubiquitous. You wanna get laid? Laughably easy. And I am a very average looking guy. A friend deejayed at a kink sex club. He said everyone was unattractive. They weren’t there because they were into kink. Not really. They were there because even stupid kink sex is better than no sex.
I know far too well how true this statement is having been to a few of those parties as a model.
This is a shame. I'll have to channel my infantile desire to control into podcasting instead.
Do you see these cults as primarily an upper middle class or lower lower class phenomena? As someone not in either the hip urban or the juggalo scene, I’ve struggle to see such cults and the Silicon Valley sex dungeon scene always seemed as foreign as it did gross.
I'd say it really varies by demographic. Different groups of people will go for different bait, even if it's all the same general type of hook.
Both.
I am a one person cult...anti-everything.
Me too!
“Eyes nailed shut”
Haha you are so funny. 👏
It was too appropriate.
I could never be a barista; I lack the skill set. Cult leader, well, is an exciting opportunity for limitless growth and profit!
Here we go again.
It takes a very specific set of personality traits to be a cult leader; similarly, it takes a certain set of personality traits to be susceptible to cults. The most influential cult leaders are those who can quickly identify their targets, remove them from any support structures that would be the voice of reason, and the cult leader then convinces their followers that they are the only way and everything else is wrong. The biggest problem when trying to discuss these issues online is the constant need to turn everything into a punchline. Sometimes out of boredom and sometimes as a coping mechanism, and sometimes to mask ignorance on a topic. Real cults follow a recognizable pattern that needs to be called out. The problem is all the noise in the conversation.
So happy that someone understood my article. Thank you!
Thanks for the pointers
Wish me luck
It's simply feminization of everything.
Some cycle in which men are weak and women run everything. And it sucks.
Anyway, tru religion is based on sacrifice, the degree of literalism matters not. Sacrifice is masculine, indulgence is feminine.
What does this have to do with my article?
Amazing. This has helped me think more clearly about an issue I've been researching. Let's see what crystallized!
In another comment you say we are not all members of cults. But I point to the word culture and insist that Like Dawkin's viral memetics , we are indeed prone to serve certain groupings of ideas and that our shared inclination to do so is what culture is.
All cults are not defined by the abuse of the servant by the guru. And many have a centralized idea that is practically alive on its own as a natural offshoot of the neurology of humanity.
Cults of love, sex, painting, writing, working out, running, tennis, scholarship of the Greek Mythos, origami, you name it - and there is a human tendency with a culture built around it.
Is every sex cult bad? Only if you don't like std's but otherwise they might be harmless. Emphasis on "might be". See Dr. Ruth Westheimer recently RIP.
I am not arguing any of what you wrote in the article, it sounds more accurate than I'd even like to know about. People performing petty reproductive strategies by deception and cheap control mechanisms.
Sex, money, fame, power. The usual suspects and why do we tolerate them more when they speak gibberish?
While I was writing this facebook took down my link to the article and said I posted spam. I have sought review.
I dunno Rachel, you tell me on the one hand hip city culture is full of these bizarre sex cults and all other sorts of derangement, and on the other hand lament that so many people are choosing to opt out in favor of a life of solitude in the hinterlands. I don't see the narrow path between these two extremes.
Seems to me it's burning down and the best thing to do is preserve what can be preserved in a place far removed from the fires. When the dust settles our great-great grandchildren will either have the tools they need to reboot or they won't. I say do what we can to make sure their great-great grandchildren can find their destiny in the stars. Everything unnecessary to that can be left behind, so it falls on us to figure out what is necessary. If a few thousand are each 1% right about what is necessary, and do a good job preserving it, they'll have what they need.
Authoritarian followers, authoritarian leaders. Who's programmed to need a Great Fearless Leader or Great Holy Cause?
Free ebook on authoritarian followers:
https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/
Authoritarian leaders (not free)(will read when i have time)
https://wwnorton.com/books/strongmen