#i don't like the final result as i hoped so

[throwsahammer]

The word you're looking for to describe the common attitude between high control groups and the Jones school of conspiracy belief is "conspiracism". It's frequently described as ascribing disproportionate importanceto the role that conspiracies play in reality, but in practice it virtually always results in the exact flavor of egocentric worldview that you are describing.

Two more quick notes about cults and conspiracy belief. You are correctly recognizing that they overlap quite heavily, and that's because (at best) high control groups generally lump all of humanity into one of three categories: the enlightened chosen, those suffering in ignorance, and the malicious enemy. The second group is basically just a rhetorical tool that is employed for PR reasons, but over time, as cult members alienate more and more people, this second group slowly vanishes because surely people who were merely ignorant wouldn't consistently reject your message of hope, and therefore must be agents of the enemy! Conspiracy beliefs likewise present the world's problems as simple, if massive, things, and so proselytization is necessary to gather the strength needed to solve them, and anyone who pushes back against them must be an enemy agent.

The final note I have is that high control groups don't have any secret techniques or tools in their arsenal. Control is established and maintained via mundane socialization. I think a lot of people take comfort in the idea that there is some sort of metaphysical difference between their own communities and "cults," and frankly, there isn't. Any group can establish toxic norms, require scrupulousity and orthodoxy, and isolate you from external support networks without bringing silly hats or the promise of eternal rewards into it at all. The universality is honestly why I feel like talking about my experiences and findings is worthwhile.

The Conspiratorial Mindset

So, I've always had a bit of an interest in scams and hokum, and what people call "Cults".

One of the common refrains when you talk about religious Cults is, "If you think about it all religions have beliefs that seem odd to outsiders" and this is true, but as I read more about cults I started to think,

"Wait, a lot of these groups aren't united just by having unusual religious or supernatural views; a lot of them also seem to have matching patterns of behaviors that have nothing to do with belief in psychic space aliens"

I'm talking about things like,

Having a leadership structure which is absolute, where the top leaders cannot be disciplined or even openly criticized by lower members;

Exerting tremendous control over the dress and behavior of adherents;

Telling adherents that outsiders are untrustworthy and that contact with outsiders should be strictly limited and heavily monitored by organizational leadership;

The extensive and common use of shunning and reprogramming in response to violation of any of the above rules.

In some groups, failing to adhere to the dress code and spending a lot of time with outsiders is, at worst, the subject of a few little jabs at family gatherings. In other groups, those same behaviors are treated as Defcon one crises and become the central issue of the adherent's relationship with everybody else in the organization until they can be bullied back into doing the organization's bidding.

It was gratifying to learn that other people have noticed these patterns (Some people prefer the term "High Control Group" to "Cult" because it highlights what the actual problem is)

I am starting to notice similar dynamics in what are commonly called "Conspiracy theories".

The thing about conspiracy theories is... Well, conspiracies exist, and sometimes groups of powerful people get together to do something in secret which would get them in big trouble if they were to do it openly.

But I am starting to notice a particular, I don't know, a particular way of conceptualizing the organization and purpose of conspiracies which is unique to some people and which characterizes the kind of conspiracy theorist who takes Alex Jones seriously.

I kind of think of it as a "Witch-Hunting mentality".

For certain people in more primitive times and places, if they, say, slipped off a ladder and hurt themselves, their first thought would be, "That must have happened because a witch cursed me. We need to find and punish the witch who cursed me."

And this isn't just the attribution of malice that characterizes this idea:

One malicious conspiracy that might make you fall off a ladder is a manufacturer who doesn't care about safety ratings. Imagine that the manufacturer is really deliberately malicious here. A subordinate comes to him and says, "Our ladders can't reliably hold the weight of a person and a lot of them will probably break and cause people to fall and hurt themselves." and he says, "I know that but who cares, by the time people figure it out it'll be too late to get their money back."

That's a malicious conspiracy, but, importantly, if Bob buys a faulty ladder and falls off, the conspiracy wasn't trying to hurt Bob; it merely didn't care whether Bob got hurt.

Now, this distinction doesn't take away the malice and hostility towards Bob, but if you go to the ladder manufacturer and say, "Hey boss, Bob bought one of our faulty ladders, but he's really skinny so the ladder didn't break" the manufacturer will go, "Who the fuck is Bob? And good, that's one less angry person."

Whereas imagine Bob's ladder has been cursed to break by a witch. The witch did it because she hates Bob, and wants him to fall, and if she finds out he didn't fall, she'll go, "Curses, I'll have to find some other way to hurt Bob."

Conspiracy theorists, it seems to me, are far more inclined to conceptualize conspiracies as acts of deliberate malice aimed at them rather than acts of negligent malice.

@loving-n0t-heyting posted this article from the New York Post which contains a good example of what I mean:

“I thought I was on the cutting edge of promoting rights for gay people,” Yang said. “But then I started looking deeper into where this was coming from and who was paying for it, and I started to get very disillusioned...

I assume the people paying for it are LGBT advocacy groups? Did you, uh, not know that the people you were working for were paying you to work for them?

“When you really dig down you can see how much of this comes from documents and plans at the United Nations,” Yang said, referring in part to the UN’s “Gender Equality” initiative. “It’s part of a global agenda to restructure society, re-structure our social norms and the economy,” Yang claimed. “They are undermining the sexually dimorphic nature of reality and breaking down the differences between the sexes to break down our identity. They are constructing identities for us and they want us to adopt them.”

Oh, I see.

This is exactly what I mean. LGBT rights efforts make Yang and others feel disoriented, like society is being restructured and that they are being left behind, like they aren't quite in control of social norms and that stable identity categories can't be relied on anymore.

Now, one kind of conservative might look at that and say, "These are bad second order effects of LGBT people trying to assert their lifestyle in public and that's why we should oppose them."

But another kind says, "These changes make me feel unstable. Therefore, the main purpose of the changes is to make me feel unstable. In order to understand these changes, I need to figure out who wants me to feel unstable and what they would gain from making me feel unstable."

The idea that Yang's feeling of instability is simply a side effect of a series of efforts mainly focused on LGBT rights is incomprehensible. Instead, she believes that there is a series of efforts focused mainly on making her feel unstable, with LGBT rights as a kind of side effect to the main goal of making her feel unstable.

This kind of thing is, to me, a big red flag that indicates that we are starting to float away from reasonable conspiracy thinking into crazy town.

I am particularly curious if folks can recommend any writers or researchers who have noticed this dynamic.

[luciawithoutj]

Made this for that Discord art challenge.

[skeletalheartattack]

bozo dubbed over dubbed over

[zebratimw]

I still love you (Song: Still in Love with You by Deeps)

[vehwill]

Oof I'm so sorry, I I have a fever these days and I couldn't reblog it like I wanted.

I have to say you did a divine job, it must have been very long and nerve-wracking, but I really like the final result 👏

Each of them has personalities and characteristics that I can also recognize in general in the ethnicity of the character.

The expression, the looks and the cut of the eyes, the hair, up to the angle of the noses, it's all perfect 😱💪

I hope I don't sound too verbose but I wanted to compliment you, it must have really been a lot of work!

oh yes, Michele or Michelangelo Loconte, you chose a singer with a lovely face, perfect for Ita chan.

he has a precious little face 🥰 great reference and muse for him!

I'm curious: for Russia instead, who gives you the right inspiration? An actor, a singer...?

This is awesome 🥹👏😍 my good friend, I'm amazed by your patience and skill 🙇🥂🫴🌹

P.S.: so Michele has a Russian fan club?

That's so cute 💞

Something I've wanted to do for a long time.

I tried to do it a year ago, but then I gave up. This time, when my style developed sharply, I decided to take on stylization. The most difficult were Italy, Japan and China. But for China everything was decided quickly - I remembered that cosplay that I really liked and used it as a reference. Japan has always seemed round-faced to me, but by beauty standards almost all their models have a different type of face, so I used several references.. I still think I should think about his design for a bit more. But Italy... it's a headache, I didn't even have any idea what he would look like(There was only one thing I knew - puppy face), so I went to Wikipedia to read abt famous people in Italy... and found my muse - Michelangelo Loconte.(He's quite interesting, read about him! He also has a Russian fan club... someone even asked what perfume he wears) He's identical in height to Feliciano! I took the hairstyle from Jacob Elordi. This is where the difficulties end. For now I will use this art as a reference for future drawings, although I usually try to do everything from memory.

[soupbtch]

ummm. my fic is done.

[sinnettini]

lorenzo sonego serves, winston-salem open 2024

photos by grant halverson

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

smile for the camera!

crisis belongs to @amyupup47

[piningpercussionist]

(ooc)

*clawing my way out of my grave*

I finally restocked the queue! Sorry for my continual Corpse behavior,, but you should have regularly scheduled content again for a bit!

[ronanlynchbf]

and then an overwhelming sense of dread apear.

[mikcschmidt]

I actually have . Much to say abt the monty erasure but I fear I maybe just autistic and overreacting n he will appear in a dlc or something I just love monty so much n him being cut out of that gingerbread cookie ruin art was my last straw ((slash jay

[tooies]

i wish i enjoyed making art aughhhhh

[viktortittiforov]

the 2010s sure were a time in my life

[deputy-morgan-malone]

What is your OC’s Role in a Tragic Play?

I was tagged by @corvosattano​, @fourlittleseedlings​, @shellibisshe​ and @aceghosts​ to take this uquiz for my OC/s, thank you!

Not tagging anyone since it’s been a while, but if you see this and would like to do it consider this an open tag, and feel free to tag me in on your results :)

Deputy Morgan Malone (FC5)

misunderstood villain

prepare for an onslaught of both the most dehumanizing and hateful takes, and flood of thirst comments. you are chronically misunderstood. whether or not you're actually evil is debatable. you may be acting out for revenge, to defend someone you love, or even just to protect yourself. you're a pretty jaded person. you don't trust or even really like most people. maybe you did at one point. but that part of you is gone, and you don't go a single day without grieving it. you think a lot about what your life could have been. you're stuck in the past. you're angry and maybe you don't even want to be, but this is the only way you can see to survive. you're open, but less in a trusting way and more like a wound. you don't like to let people see you, but the hurt spills out of you before you can stop it. you're impulsive, even as you try hard to plan and prepare. maybe someday your side of the story will finally be heard. until then, you can convince yourself that being hated is safer anyway.

[kadoodles-on-ao3]

Re: My FFXIV Xenoblade crossover

I'm still trying to get the hang of gpose (and I kind of went overboard in my brainstorming for all the things I want to make haha) so it'll still be a while before it's finished, but here's a sneak peek in the meantime ;)

[tvrningout-a]

psst pssst PSSSST... you're doing great <3