#cult tactic

[furiousgoldfish]

Abusive parents can sometimes create the 'us versus them' mentality inside of their family, where they convince you that anyone who isn't raising their child the exact way they are, is stupid, ignorant, spoiling their children and making selfish brats out of them.

They also convince you that the world inside of their house, and the world outside, are two different worlds, and only the outside is 'the real world', and it's a place you, according to them, know nothing about, and would never survive in. Outside world is at the same time filled with dangerous individuals, who would hurt you (unlike your parents, who also hurt you, but those outsiders would hurt you worse, apparently), and filled with stupid people who know nothing and are to be insulted and humiliated (abusive parents will often degrade homeless people, minorities, addicts and anyone they deem less worthy, and you'll be stuck in feeling like at least you're not them, but at the same time scared you'll become them, and then you'll be degraded just like that as well.)

In this 'us versus them' situation, your parents are the smartest, the only ones who know what the 'correct way to live is', and the 'correct way to raise children'. They'll tell you how you're supposed to think, behave, speak and act. Their words are the highest truth and not to be questioned or criticized; any criticism will be met with hostility and attacks, and insisting that any other way of thinking would convert them to the 'non desirables' (see above about the minorities and homeless people).

And the thing is, this is a tactic that cults use to make people unable to leave. Convincing people that the thinking and methods inside are vastly superior and better, that anyone outside who doesn't follow their methods is stupid, tainted, incapable of normal life, and that people outside are simultaneously stupid and wrong, but also dangerous, hateful, capable of doing intense harm to you, that's how the cults terrify people into belief that they can never live outside. That it's both dangerous and wrong to even want to.

If you feel scared and incredibly anxious of living outside of your parents home, and your parents have encouraged you to believe those things, you've been exposed to cult-level manipulation to prevent your escape.

[deservedgrace]

something that's really been bothering me lately is how the church i was a part of would like... repackage doctrine to make it sound nicer and more acceptable. like, the belief that all humans are evil by nature and deserve eternal torture for the crime of existing is inherently violent and cruel. but my church didn't frame it like that. they framed it as "yes we're ALL evil and wicked and we ALL deserve hell to atone for our sin (being human) BUT god loves you despite you not deserving love or happiness or anything good at all and all you have to do to avoid the pits of hell is accept jesus as your savior isn't that so amazing????" and they framed the crucifixion as this beautiful, selfless act of god by taking our place on the cross instead of "this all-powerful being who created all the rules decided that he required torture, death, and human sacrifice to be able to tolerate us". and it's not "women will be viewed as lesser than men" it's "women must submit to their husbands the same way we all must submit to god it's not dehumanizing it's holy and yes women have different roles but that doesn't make them lesser than and sure we don't have any women in leadership positions in the church and we would never even consider it, come on now that's ridiculous, but that's just because men are supposed to lead because men and women are different and created for different purposes it's just biology". and there are plenty others! i know that the reframing of everything is part of how they can even get people to accept the doctrine in the first place, but being on the outside of it is kind of horrifying. when you get down to the actual beliefs that are held without the distortions and manipulation, so many are violent, cruel, dehumanizing, abusive. but they distort and manipulate these beliefs to make them seem acceptable, morally correct, and redefine what love is and should look like.

[theonewhowails]

nari goes on field trips :]

[marisatomay]

always thinking about that tweet that’s like “taylor swift’s shenanigans and easter eggs are keeping millions of women from falling for qanon”

[fdelopera]

Me: "Stop reblogging scammers who are catfishing as Gazan civilians, and donate to Anera and Doctors Without Borders instead, because they are actually on the ground helping the Gazan people."

Hamasnik cult member antipalestine-bigotry: "uR a BiGoT iF yOu DoN't ReBlOg GoFuNdMe ScAmMerS!!!!!111!!"

.

BE SO FOR REAL RIGHT NOW.

You Hamasniks are DEPRAVED. You are guilt tripping each other into reblogging obvious catfishing scammers, and some of you are obviously donating to these scammers' gofundmes, AND BY DOING SO YOU ARE LETTING THESE SCAMMERS STEAL YOUR MONEY THAT SHOULD GO TO HELP THE GAZAN PEOPLE.

You are so committed to your USELESS virtue signaling that you are willing to STEAL FROM GAZAN CIVILIANS.

You are STEALING from the Palestinian people and trying to make yourselves look virtuous for doing it.

You are a VILE, DISGUSTING BIGOT. You are actively HARMING the Palestinian people.

I suggest that you change your blog name to "Palestine-Bigotry" because you are obviously so BIGOTED against the Palestinian people, and you view Palestinians with such contempt, that you are willing to STEAL from them to stroke your own depraved ego.

Get the fuck away from my blog, you bigot.

[blueiight]

Claudia has a fully fledged coming of age story and character arc: she has multiple love interests, multiple tiers of conflict within herself, between the world around her, the family she was adopted into, trying to find a place for herself whether its within the family as their daughter, then their sister, then another vampire in Daciana, the collective of the coven, and finally, with a companion Madeleine .. idk where theres this idea that she was “fridged” just bc her adopted parents realize they treated her bad

[rainedroptalks]

If there’s one thing Adaine and Kristen are probably great at, it’s casually saying the most batshit and concerning things from their childhood in random conversations

[espighty]

In celebration of the new update and new bishop content, allow me to share the first part of the fic I'm working on.

It takes place a bit after "Surely He Isn't That One-Note", and this section starts out immediately after Lamb wins the purgatory battle against Kallamar. I have yet to actually decide if Lamb was able to reason with him like they planned to, but this section will play out the same way no matter what route I decide on.

________________________________________

The Lamb immediately starts scanning the shivering, tangled mass of limbs in front of them, making mental notes of the wounds that need to be taken care of. They tentatively approach, so distracted by their checklist and the conversation they’ve planned out that they miss when Kallamar’s hand dips down into the ink pooled underneath him.

With a sharp, calculated flick of his wrist, The Lamb is blinded. They bleat in surprise, grabbing part of their cloak to wipe it away. Kallamar scrambles to stand, and his hand finds something sharp on the way up. It’s so marred by time and gore that he isn't sure what it used to be. Glass, crystal, weapon? It doesn't matter. He holds onto it so tightly that it hurts him, cutting into his palm and the long webbing between his fingers. The Lamb is saying something in between their pained hisses, but Kallamar can’t be bothered to listen to anything over the panicked thoughts jumbling through his head and the rush of adrenaline in his veins. With the speed and strength of a cornered animal, he jabs the fragment into The Lamb’s thigh. They double over. Kallamar tries to pull it back out, not to stab again but to have some means of defense, but the edge slides through the gash in his hand again and he deems it a lost cause. The Lamb blindly scrabbles to grip his wrist, but Kallamar easily twists himself out of their grasp. He shoves them aside and bolts out of the temple.

Outside is dark. The columns lining the path are crumbling, the crystal lanterns that adorned them long shattered. The ground is littered with shallow, long-stagnant puddles of dirty water and ichor and who knows what else. The air is dry, unnaturally so, a testament to how dilapidated and hellish his haven had become. One minute in and Kallamar can’t run anymore. He desperately wants to, he’d run until his heart burst if it meant getting out of this, but he just can’t. He had forgotten just how pathetic his mortal body was, he had forgotten just how much he hated it. Exhausted and desperate, he curls up behind a pillar, hoping against hope that The Lamb will just leave. They've stepped out of the temple by now, and again they’re yelling out something to him, but the exacts are drowned out by the rasping of his own gills. Kallamar realizes now just how dry his temple was, how dehydrated he is. Each breath feels like sandpaper scraping through his insides, he’s barely getting enough air to think straight, and if he doesn’t manage to quiet his breathing right now The Lamb will find him. Instinct and desperation take full control as his hand darts toward the nearest puddle, scooping up liquid that feels far too heavy and drips down his fingers far too slow. The moment the liquid makes contact with his gills, Kallamar starts spasming, his body expelling the mud and ichor cocktail with harsh, grating exhales. He’s made it so much worse, he’s so much louder now and he knows The Lamb can hear him. He can see the bright crimson light of the red crown creeping across the ground, stretching closer and closer. He’s going to die, he’s going to die and he isn’t even sure if it’ll be The Lamb that kills him or the sludge still dripping from his gills. His vision swims. The red light of death, his past and future murderer, looms from above.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With how easily the battle with Kallamar went, Lamb had thought the rest of the process would be just as simple. The stab wound in their leg and the ink (they have to keep reminding themselves that ink is not squid pee, but it still feels so gross) still burning their eyes argued otherwise. Kallamar wasn’t doing much better though. Through the red light of the crown, the squid was an absolute mess. He was curled back against the pillar, shuddering through forceful, painful sounding exhales through his gills. Tears streaked down his face as he stared wide-eyed up at Lamb. Ichor was starting to bead at his torn ears, and the slice in his palm smeared black wherever he touched.

Since everything had gone so awry, Lamb had pretty much forgotten their entire speech, and thus didn’t quite know what to say at this point. Kallamar found his voice a bit faster.

(((That's all I want to share for now)))

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Question: why do people refer to Tobias in Megamorphs 4 as a "quasi-voluntary" controller? I don't have access to my copy right now but I don't recall anything that would imply he had any knowledge of what he was joining/cooperated in any way? Did I miss something?

So I call Tobias quasi-voluntary, because I think — from my read of MM4 — that Tobias is about as voluntary as any "voluntary controller" ever gets. Which is not that voluntary. Tobias goes to a Sharing meeting because Jake's there, but pretty soon he gets sucked into the cycle of love-bombing: "When you attend your second meeting of The Sharing they assign you a guide" (MM4). In Tobias's case it's a guy named Bill, a few years older, who spends every meeting praising Tobias, and talking up how the Sharing cured his depression and being a full member changed his life.

Bill waits for Tobias to say "I want to be a full member." And then he asks if Tobias is sure, and Tobias says "Yes." Bill presses all the way to "You trade a little bit of freedom for a lot of belonging" and gets Tobias to agree a third time. When the time comes for the "ceremony" (infestation), Chapman makes Tobias explain why he's joining, and Tobias does. Three more times Chapman asks, and three more times Tobias says, out loud, that he wants what's going to happen next. Chapman explains why they want Tobias's consent: "We only have problems in twenty-one percent of willing members. And there are... fewer incidents of contested control." Tobias withdraws consent when he realizes they're about to put a slug in his brain, but by then it's too late.

Later Tobias says "Most painful of all was the image of myself swallowing everything the Sharing told me. I had walked, willingly, to my own destruction. At the time I'd seen no alternatives." So is Tobias voluntary? Well, is Chapman voluntary? He agrees not to resist in exchange for Melissa not being recruited, and he keeps his end of the bargain (#2). Not only does he not fight back while there's a yeerk in his brain, but there's every possibility he's one of the people allowing the yeerk to slip out of their brain and then quietly walking to go wait in the break room without supervision.

Okay, but surely the taxxons are voluntary. They chose to ally with the yeerks... Only it turns out their options were ally with the yeerks or starve to death (#53), and just because their leaders chose the yeerks doesn't mean individual taxxons were okay with it (Andalite Chronicles).

But then, we all know Taylor is voluntary. Because she gave up her freedom for little old things like... relief from pain. And escape from discrimination. And basic health care that didn't cost her family their life savings (#33). And she could never change her mind, because she got punished by Sub-Visser Fifty-One for misbehaving (#43).

But Mr. Tidwell's definitely voluntary. He chooses to have a yeerk in his brain even after joining the YPM. Only he was so depressed he couldn't take care of himself when he joined (#29), and probably would have literally died without the yeerks.

Hang on, is Tom voluntary? He spontaneously offers to "be quiet" and "never trouble you again" when Temrash 114 starts trying to recruit Jake (#6). We don't know for sure that Tom isn't hanging out in that same break room after the events of #1, in exchange for Jake not being recruited.

So on. We know the Sharing targets people who are unhoused and/or mentally ill, and that the ones with happy, stable home lives (Tom, later Jake) tend to go unconvinced. You have to be vulnerable to end up voluntary, the series shows, so vulnerable that your whole ability to consent is seriously called into question.

[furiousgoldfish]

Abusive parents sometimes want to control your appearance so you look less individualistic, and more like them. The reasoning behind is that they are constantly aware that they need to keep up public appearances. Even if they keep you in complete poverty, servitude, violence and blackmail, the public can't be seeing that. So if your appearance differs from theirs too much, that is a threat to them.

They'll want you to look in unity with the rest of the family, even if you're everything but. That extends past your appearance; abusive parents attempt to control your entire identity.

If they're in a certain political circle, they expect you to be in it, if they belong to a certain religion, they expect it from you too, if they subscribe to certain ideas and beliefs to how a person needs to be, they expect you to share all of those beliefs. They need everything that makes you unique and different, to be completely erased and assimilated into their way of thinking, their way of behaving. So that there's no difference visible to the outside world, between them and you, even if you know in private, that there's a world of differences.

Controlling your identity and appearance extends to your social circle too; if you have friends who are not like them, they will devalue and degrade your friends, in front of you, and act like those people are worthless. They'll expect you to keep a social circle of only people in the family and people they approve of. They'll want to control who you come in contact, and from where you get your information, opinions and worldviews; nothing but the same worldview and opinion is ever allowed. They want you contained in that bubble of people who think, believe, and behave like them. Nothing individual, different or opposing.

They want you to have no place, no identity and no way to belong to any other people but them. They want you to feel like you're nothing without them, nothing in the outside world, like you have no place but inside of their house, doing what you're told. If you do manage to find your identity and beliefs elsewhere, this will be discouraged, degraded and you'll be expected to get rid of it, or even forbidden to participate in it.

This, again, is a cult tactic of control and escape sabotage. Restrictions on who you're allowed to be, how you're allowed to look, where you're allowed to make connections and what information and people you're allowed to be exposed to, that's something cults do to keep you indoctrinated. They don't want you getting any outside information, or to associate yourself with anyone who could make you doubt their methods. If you're the only one who has doubts, they can silence you. This is much more difficult to do if you have others backing you up, confirming that the methods are wrong, bizarre, traumatic.

If your family has attempted to control your appearance, identity and social circle, it's possible they're trying to keep you contained the same way a cult prevents a person from leaving; taking away their identity outside the group. Parents will do this to keep their children submissive and too scared to escape, too doubtful that they could be anyone who isn't completely defined by the parent's point of view. If this was done to you and you found it hard to imagine your place in the world, to figure out your identity and to find your own social circle, it was on purpose. They worked hard to make it extremely, extremely difficult for you.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

friendly reminder that what most people refer to as evangelical Christianity basically just refers to nondenominational Protestantism

[deservedgrace]

I think one of the more insidious beliefs I had to deconstruct imo is that "negative" emotions, especially anger, are sinful/bad. It's not beneficial to believe any emotions are inherently evil and need to be avoided at all costs, but anger specifically gives information about mistreatment, injustice, boundaries being crossed, disrespect, etc. People that are dissociated from their anger are that much easier to control. It's much easier to get away with harming people that struggle to identify when they're being harmed, and who can easily be called "sinful" when they do identify it.

[not-heavenly]

you don’t “know Joseph smith was a prophet” you’re 12 years old.

[clangenrising]

I want to take a second to talk to those of you who find it funny that Scorch has been calling the Clans a cult. I agree, it is kind of humorous, but I do want to be a wet blanket for a sec and point out that the Warrior Cats Clan structure IS actually very cultish. As far as I can tell, the Clans meet at least three out of four criteria laid out in Steven Hassan's BITE model of Authoritarian Control.

The BITE model lays out 4 kinds of control that Cults and groups like them use to keep their members in check:

Behavior Control Information Control Thought Control Emotional Control

And Warrior Clans exibit most of these traits (keep in mind I haven't read past Omen of the Stars). More below the cut

Behavior Control

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates/isolates (Clans live in specific areas and only really socialize with their own clan)

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member has sex (half clan and outsider mates are extremely discouraged and even punished)

Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals (Warrior Clans are full of ritual ceremonies that create group cohesion)

Rewards and Punishments used to modify behaviors (breaking the code results in punishments ranging from disliked duties to physical harm and cats can be rewarded with things like the best patrols or getting their warrior names early)

Impose rigid rules or regulations

Separation of Families (if a kittypet joins they are discouraged from ever talking to their family again.)

Information Control

Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs Insider doctrines (Clans discourage their members from listening to kittypets, loners, and rogues)

Extensive use of Cult Generated information and propaganda (I would argue the ubiquity of StarClan in Clan life would count. StarClan's word is seen as pure truth not to be questioned.)

Thought Control

Require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth including organizing people into us vs them and adopting the group's reality as the only reality.

Change a person's name and identity (this is a big one! If you join a clan you are highly encouraged to take a Clan style name. You become a warrior and that is your new identiy)

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed (The leader's word is law. StarClan is not to be questioned.)

Labeling alternitive belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful (A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet)

Emotional Control

Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness such as Identity guilt, not living up to full potential, etc (Half Clan and kittypet bigotry within clans ticks this box when applicable)

Instill fear of enemies, thinking independently, the outside world, leaving or being shunned by the group, losing one's salvation, etc (Again, more present in Clans that are depicted as 'evil' by the books but things like fear of losing one's salvation is present in kit tales that warn cats about ending up in the dark forest)

Phobia indoctrination: instilling irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader, saying things like there is no happiness outside the group, shunning those who leave so people fear losing their friends and family if they do, never allowing for legitimate reasons to leave aka anyone who does was weak or selfish or brainwashed. (This one is fairly self explanitory)

So yeah. The clans tick all the boxes that cults do.

Now, I want to be clear, im not saying you should start hating the clans or that you're bad for thinking they're cool. Part of that is that Cults inherently try to sound cool to draw in members and part of it is that its okay to enjoy fiction about things that are bad or immoral. The important part is being able to recognize and understand those things.

So my real intent here is to get you to examine the media you engage with more critically and, most importantly, as someone who was born into a cult and managed to escape:

Be careful not to let fun depictions of cults normalize cult behavior. You are not immune to propaganda and I would hate for any of you to get sucked into a group or religion that will control you in these ways. I recommend you take a look at the BITE model in its entirety and really think about how it may apply to groups you are in. Cults are really good at painting themselves as welcoming and fun and they are not. Look out for yourself.

I love you. Your regularly scheduled Warrior Cats content will resume shortly.

[like-it-or-not-i-am-alive]

Now, I hate to bring political garbage to my page. I do it oh so sparingly, you know? But this warrants the chatter. I just want you to listen to this man speak about voting. Mainly the first minute of audio. This is a clip taken from The Hill's video stream of former president Donald Trump's speech at the 'The Believer's Summit' (https://www.youtube.com/live/EK-2ciNXBMU?si=D3fKwQ_rWxXtFfEw). I do have captions enabled, but be warned they have a lot of random letters due to Trump's 'unique' speech style.

Also, please note the odd cut at the beginning where Trump's head seems to clip is NOT an edit on my part, and I do not believe it is a cut on The Hill's part either. As the words continue in flow and do not appear edited. Also in that this is a streamed video and is unlikely to have tampering. I believe it may just be a glitch in the stream. That or we fell through a mandala universe in direct sight.

Trump talks about the 'cheating left' and the necessity of christians to vote. People have commented on how he says he is not christian (this does reflect on the captions), but I actually don't think that was intentional on his part. It may be word soup in that after an hour long speech, the sentence didn't form correctly (or dementia episode lol). However, my focus is more on his next few sentences/claims about how this election will remove all need for christians to ever vote again.

I question how this can be interpreted in any way other than 'I am the last vote you'll make.' I see a lot of things the candidates say that can be taken out of context. Yet here I have provided a clip with prior and continued context, as well as the entire video, and yet this doesn't seem interpretable. I can't see the angle where this can be taken out of context. I can't see where it's a joke. I can't see where it means something else. How do you interpret: "Get out there and vote. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful christians.... In four years, you won't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good you won't have to vote again."?

You can't. He means every word of it. Even if you pull the angle of 'he'll fix the country so well that its christian core beliefs will be in control and no matter who you vote for, it'll be christian.' It's scummy. It implies heavily that in four years, the need to vote will be unnecessary because no matter how you vote, the set 'correct' person will win. That can't be achieved without voting.

You could suggest he means 'this is the only election that matters and when the next candidacy rolls around the effort is unnecessary but that doesn't make a lot of sense either.

The only way to not make this sound predatory is by suggesting he's just hyping the crowd and doesn't actually mean it... but that can't be it. At least, not to the people who follow Trump like he's the next messiah. Since that would imply cognitive decline. After all, saying he means it harmlessly and doesn't mean to sound so manipulative negates the idea that he's a competent ruler leader.

However you interpret it, whatever you take it to mean, you can't ignore the warning signs.

Doesn't it feel dystopian? This is the behaviour they warn us about. Extreme nationalism. Pushing religious ideology as politics. Placing your leadership on the same pedestal as a god. 'Vote with me to be a hero'.

Its cultism.

Scary shit.

[unwelcome-ozian]

In cults, members are typically isolated from the outside world. Members are inducted into the strict rules of the community, paving the way for experiences of shame, created dependency, and installed phobias. Installed phobias include a perception of the surrounding society as not only different, but threatening or judgmental, thus making the isolation necessary. Someone who has grown up or lived for several years in a cult has been immersed in its culture, structure and worldview. The harmful component in a cult community is therefore much to do with the psychological processes of coercive control described by Hassan and Lifton, among others.