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chill-course-criticism · 4 years ago

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The Cult Indoctrination Tactics of Chillcourse

I feel the need to start this post off by stating that I do not think Chillcourse/Chillmeds is a cult. There is no evidence of it being an actual cult, nor would it be productive to do so. However, the server moderators do show some cult-like behaviors and do so enough that it is somewhat concerning.

Again, I am not trying to say that anyone is part of or have created a cult, more so just pointing out that the server as a whole does show many behaviors associated with cults.

Everything behavior called cult-ish in any way is comparable to accounts from former cult members or psychologists. I am also only pointing out tactics that I have personally seen or ones that are proven.

This post focusses on the cult indoctrination steps that the Chillcourse moderators exhibit. More cult-like behaviors will be discussed in (a) later post(s).

I would also like to add that the server and its mods do not use or explicitly show all of the cult indoctrination steps. However, all of the commonly known steps will be listed to make it more clear how many tactics are used by server moderators.

All of the tactics listed below the cut are said to be used by cults by psychologists, as well as former cult members.

Step 1: Invitation to a Non-Threatening Event

Inviting someone to a non-threatening event is one of the behaviors that, on their own, do not mean anything sinister. It can be a friendly or professional gesture without other indoctrination tactics coming into play afterward. However, since there are a few more indoctrination tactics used alongside this one with the server mods, there is a reason to bring this up.

The invitation is often something like being invited to coffee or possibly dinner. It is seemingly the best way to get the possible recruit comfortable with the recruiter. Something this safe also makes it more likely that they will join the cult, seeing as they are not being shown the more concerning behavior off the bat, such as cutting off loved ones or cult rituals.

In regards to Chillcourse, this means the server link that was formerly in Dirk’s bio. Because everyone seems to be so friendly, someone who does not know the things that have happened in the server will likely see this as non-threatening and something fun and inviting. The link becomes even more inviting when you consider the number of anons that Dirk has gotten saying that they were anxious to join the server, where he replied that the server was friendly and that they have no reason to worry.

You could also somewhat consider the number of times that Dirk said that his followers could always reach out to him as another invitation. With the number of anons that he received that stated that they wanted to talk to him but were anxious about it, Dirk got to make that point a lot.

However, there is currently no proof that anyone who reaches out to Dirk via DMs is invited to the server in their conversation, meaning that it is likely less functional as a way to get people to join the server. While that does not mean that people who talk to him are not more likely to join the server, just that there is no proof, which means that this cannot fully be considered the invitation.

Whichever one of these you consider to be the main invitation, though it is primarily the former, this is very clearly similar to what many cults do to begin enticing new members- a simple invitation to something that, without context, is not harmful or scary.

Step 2: Love-Bombing

Love-Bombing is a tactic used by both cults and abusers as a way to get either recruits or targets of abuse to either join the cult or not leave the abuser or make the victim feel as though they owe. Like the first point, this is also another tactic that, on its own, can be completely innocent, as showing excessive amounts of affection can be how one displays emotion. However, when mixed with other cult-like or abusive tactics, love-bombing can be a red flag.

Love-Bombing, in regards to cults, is the tactic or showing a prospective recruit with love, gifts, and other forms of affection. The love-bombing often starts at the event from the first point. In regards to the server, this can often mean anons who express anxiety about joining the server.

Love-Bombing is often one of the longest-running tactics and may only end when one starts showing a lack of faith, belief, loyalty, or whatever the cult wants. It may also end when the cult leader or leaders feels the need to maintain a higher level of control over a said member or members. There are also situations where love-bombing ends when one seems loyal to the cult and unlikely to leave.

In regards to the Chillcourse server, love-bombing comes in multiple forms. It often comes in regards to compliments on discourse posts, selfies, and artwork. However, it rarely seems to go far over the line of an acceptable amount of compliments or affection. The fact that most of the excessive praise, which can often be for minor things, mostly comes from moderators, rather than other members, seems to indicate at least some level of love-bombing within the server.

Despite the more normal amount of compliments and the lack of gifts, this seems to be love-bombing rather than ordinary kindness. I say this because the compliments often stop when a member falls out of favor with the moderators.

Compliments immediately drop of fand often turn into insults, even if said member is still in the server.

The sudden shift in treatment shows up in situations where Chillcourse critical blogs pop up and, even if the mods know that the blog runner is still in the server, said person ends up being insulted somewhat regularly. These insults can range from attacks on intelligence to challenging what people believe because of their stances on the server members to attacking the character of the blog runner. There are a few other types of insults that do come up, but these three are seemingly the most common.

The sudden switch in treatment for someone based on how the moderators feel about them makes it seem like all of the kindness and compliments are love-bombing and not wholly innocent.

Step 3: Dangling a Prize in Front of You

Dangling some form of a prize in front of a possible recruit is one of the big tactics that start to get people to begin to join the cult, rather than interact with members. It is at this point when the recruiter or other members bring up a prize or positive thing for the possible recruit to gain, so long as they join the cult. This prize can be something like enlightenment, getting rid of a decidedly negative (not always truly negative) trait, or even just a community.

Because I have not seen any proof of mods or server members directly holding a prize in front of people, this is going to be one of the somewhat more speculative sections. However, there have been a few things that I have seen that seem similar enough to justify it existing as more than just a listed step.

To an extent, the server is the prize. More specifically than that, the community that the server offers is the prize. Chillcourse is one of or the biggest transmed specific (and possibly even transmed safe) servers from Tumblr. Because of this, Chillcourse is the only way to find that kind of community. That community is the prize in this situation.

The reason I specified that the prize is the community gained through the server rather than the server as a whole is because the server could be seen more as the non-threatening event, with the link being the invitation.

To get into a little more detail on how the community can be the prize. Along with my other point, the server is also one of the most well-known servers that do not allow tucutes, inclusionists, or the like. Because of that, it is one of the only places where transmed and exclusionist views are accepted, especially one that is accessible from Tumblr.

Because of this, it seems very enticing to transmeds and exclusionists on Tumblr, especially considering the number of blogs on Tumblr and servers advertised on Tumblr that are not safe for them at all. All of this makes it easy to get in new transmeds and exclusionists who are looking for a community where they will not be judged or harassed.

Step 4: Extracting an Agreement That You Want the Prize

Extracting an agreement that one wants the prize is another one of the first steps that are hard to come back from and plunge a recruit deeper into the cult. The tactic is traditionally the recruiter asking if the prospective member wants the prize. Because the said prize is enticing, this is often the easiest step.

This tactic is one of the ones that are not used by the server moderators. It is only included in this list to show the number of tactics they use in comparison to the ones that they do not.

Step 5: Shutting Down Dissent by Threatening to Withhold the Prize

Shutting down dissent by threatening to withhold the prize is a tactic used to keep cult members within the cult. This tactic comes into play when the cult leaders start to ask new members to begin going through with somewhat extreme tasks. These tasks may include rituals or cutting off family members. If one expresses concern about these tasks, leaders often say that failing to go through with them will keep the member from achieving the prize.

Considering that the server does not seem to be a legitimate cult, this segment is going to be another one of the less concrete ones. However, there are enough accounts from members, be they current or former, that show them feeling as though something similar to this was happening that this tactic does seem to be in use somewhat.

Many members have stated that they felt as they might have their community taken away from them if they did the wrong thing. In this situation, the wrong thing could be something as simple as disagreeing with the mods on a non-server regulated issue or calling out ignorance.

There were also situations where members ended up getting kicked out of the server or treated poorly by the mods for disagreeing with them on something or even bringing up concerns.

Step 6: Establishment of Guilt

Establishing guilt among members is a crucial tactic to keep cult members under control. The tactic usually entails the leader saying that they have done a lot for the members and that the members will only be happy if they admit that they will always be in debt to the leader. Of course, this is not the only way that the tactic comes into play; it is just one of the most common.

Though the Chillcourse moderators have not said that the members are indebted to them, some of them, especially Dirk, do establish guilt in server members in a few other ways.

One of the primary ways this happened was in regards to Dirk's OCD and how the server organization was. There were times that the organization of channels was said to be something that triggered the OCD or anxiety of some members.

Every time this would happen, Dirk would say that the channels were that way because of his OCD. Whether he meant for it to every time or not, this did spark guilt in at least a few server members. The guilting became worse when the complaint started to come from criticism blogs, which caused the following argument to end up being a blanket argument against everyone, rather than just criticism blogs.

Instead of just saying that the channels are the way that they are because of Dirk's OCD, he started to call anyone who brought up the channel organization ableist for not knowing or remembering that he has OCD.

There was also another way that Dirk specifically would establish guilt among server members. There were times when different people would criticize Dirk for many reasons. Whenever this happened, he would often go to the server and talk about everyone hating him, sometimes including former friends of him.

On its own, this would cause some server members to feel guilty for making Dirk feel bad about himself, even if they had done nothing wrong or he had done something that deserved some form of criticism.

There were also instances where this would also involve Dirk saying things that implied that he felt as though anyone who had even slight problems with him or actions that he did were awful people or responsible for his poor mental state in some way. This was accompanied by him saying that he was constantly being backstabbed by close friends, disregarding how close any of these people actually were to him and what they had done.

Step 7: Carrot and Stick

The carrot and stick tactic used by cults is one of the more simple ones and yet another tactic that might seem somewhat harmless when used on its own. Simply put, this tactic is the use of rewarding or praising what the cult sees as positive behavior and punishing what it sees as negative behavior.

In regards to Chillcourse, this comes in a few forms. One of the most common examples of this is mods and members showering other server members with praise when they make what the server as the whole finds to be a good discourse post or argument.

There are also times when members would disagree with the majority on an opinion that was not an opinion regulated by the server, which would cause many other members to dogpile them for it, during which none of the moderators would stop it and would even sometimes join in.

Combined with how quickly the moderators and some members will turn on the runners of criticism blogs, including ones whom they know have remained in the server.

Step 8: Control of Identity, Information, and Environment

The tactic of controlling the environment and identities of members, as well as restricting the flow of information is one of the main ways cults keep their members under their control.

In the case of Chillcourse, this tactic is a little harder to call out. The reason for this being that some of the control of information and environment could be a way to keep the server safe for transmeds, rather than to restrict members' knowledge of other points of view. However, there is still some evidence of moderators, primarily Dirk, using this tactic within the server.

One of the biggest instances of information and the environment being controlled is in the server rules, specifically the second rule. The rule in question used to read, "No tucutes, MOGAI, mspec(not including bi), neopronouns, inclusionists, so on. No conflicting identities like 'nb boy' 'he/him lesbian', etc. The full acronym is LGBT. Q word is a slur."

This means that any stances that are against the ones that the mod hold are not allowed. That rule causes the restriction of the flow of information, as well as the environment within the server.

Recently, the rule has changed, though not to something that does not restrict information somewhat. Since the change in rules, the new version reads, "We do not allow tucutes, pro-mogai, pro-mspec, inclusionists, or pro-neopronoun. People neutral on the topics are allowed as long as they are respectful."

The new version of the rule, though slightly looser when it comes to people who are not set on the same stances as the mods, it still does not allow anyone who does not have the same opinions as the mods.

There are more, often more minor, instances of the mods controlling the information within the server. However, the rule above is the most prominent example and the text that caused every other instance of this.

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