I like reading about cults. Their beliefs and practices aren't as interesting as how they change their members and what kind of people they attract. The parts of human nature they capitalize upon. Scientology is a "self-help" religion with typical self-help trappings. Everything is your fault, if something bad happens to you, it's your fault, etc. What's interesting about it is how it tries to "improve people" and what Hubbard considered improvement. While it advertises itself as being all about "communication", they practice drills designed to remove their reaction to insults, yelling and the other person in general, to be able to disassociate at will and fake normalcy. Scientology is often described as lowering people's empathy and making them willing to do unscrupulous things. This "transformation" is flawed though in that Hubbard also had an interest in producing unquestioning slaves, hence the hypnosis and command following based "services". Christian cults encourage a "keep sweet" personality. Never expressing negative emotions and being perpetually chipper. Cults use a lot of made up terminology to get people to think with specific worldview chosen by the creator. Cults are apart from society, but also give unique insight into it.Post edited on 20th Oct 2020, 8:22pm
This belongs in /tat/, you can't really talk about cults without arguing about religion and socio-political issues. My dad was a follower of Osho. You can watch a decent video on the cult by a youtuber called DownTheRabbithole, although my dad was not part of that weird commune they built in the US. Still, the end result for me was that I effectively didn't have much of a father, since the cult consumed all his spare money, all his spare time, all his attention. Scientology gets a lot of shit because they were basically a Goyish knockoff of Judaism, in terms of how it builds influence through nepotism, makes use of psycho-terror, and uses lawfare and other aggressive tactics to silence critics; and Jews don't like competition, so they shit on Scientology and Mormons all the time in their media.
>>36374 >you can't really talk about cults without arguing about religion and socio-political issues I disagree. If a mod thinks so, they can move it. >Scientology gets a lot of shit because Even if any your reasoning was true, it doesn't invalidate any of what I've wrote.
What are your favourite cults, anon? Do you feel a desire to join when reading?
>>36377 tsuki's cult was fun. I didn't closely follow it, but I appreciated the aesthetic and lain/imageboard parasitism. Heaven's Gate is another one with some connection to the internet. Scientology is entertaining. The weird behavior of security guards and stories about their compounds and how they operate kind of like a corporation. They also have a lot of real estate. Their attempts at penetrating Japanese society are funny. Never felt like joining. I'd rather make my own cult than join somebody else's. It's too social though.
>>36379 Was Tsuki's cult actually serious? I remember signing up and posting on the imageboard but I lost interest and quit visiting. Went to check up on it one day and it was gone. I know a lot of people were wondering how serious Tsuki was. Apparently the guy used to be in with the 8chan /fringe/ board that was full of occult stuff so people weren't really sure.
>>36379 I love Heaven's Gate aesthetics, it's like they will be forever stuck in mid 90's early internet; https://www.heavensgate.com/ And the initiation tapes are truly nuts; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSZhwu1Rwo&t=235s Also Aum Shinrikyo and it's crappy videogame and anime; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YDMepD9VIo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIyKJwRgaI There's a good documentary movie about them, it almost makes you simpathize with some members, it mostly follows a 25 yo virgin (almost seems like one of us) who acts as spokeman after the sarin disaster.
>>36381 I don't know. It was serious enough for Tsuki to make money off it from what I've seen. Either way he was off-kilter. >>36382 >Aum Shinrikyo and it's crappy videogame and anime I knew about Aum, but I didn't know those existed. His singing is really something.Post edited on 21st Oct 2020, 1:24pm
All of the anime made by Aum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hH547DGhVk
>>36377 I've only ever read about the ones with major incidents behind them. Namely Aum, Scientology, the Peoples Temple, and the Branch Davidians. Tsuki too, even though they're not "major" and people only know about them due to their ties to imageboards. Aum sticks out in my head more than any of them. It's probably because they're from Japan and because of the sarin gas attack. I caught a glimpse about their offshoot Hikari no Wa, but I've never been able to find too much info on them. >Do you feel a desire to join when reading? One of the random electives I took in highschool (I think sociology) did a unit on cults. I remember them saying something about how many people who join cults tend to feel lonely/outcasted and have a strong desire to belong to something. I think I get that same sentiment whenever I read about a cult, I start imagining how nice it must feel to be a part of a close community like that. Then I remember what I've learned about cults and snap out of it. I actually almost joined Tsuki for that reason. This was after all the drama about suicides (or whatever it was) though, so I didn't miss much by not joining.
>>36385 >many people who join cults tend to feel lonely/outcasted and have a strong desire to belong to something That's true, but those people are also boring and gullible. They're so desperate for group belonging that they follow nonsensical rules and give up their money. Instead of doing something interesting, they spend their time studying gobbledy gook. I think being around people like that all the time would be suffocating.
>>36384 thanks, at least now I know where that old "moshi moshi, Jesus desu" image macro came from.
>>36382 >Louis Theroux contacted the Heaven's Gate group while making a program for his BBC2 documentary series, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, in early March 1997. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could not take part in the documentary because "at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on."[34] Fascinating
>>36381 I remember there was a message on the website telling adherents not to kill themselves. Weird stuff.
>>36392 There was this one kid who killed himself and he would have done it with or without systemspace. You know how IBs tend to attract depressed people. It was blown out of proportion because suicides always grab people's attention.
>>36392 >>36403 Tsuki never directly encouraged suicide, but the mythos basically said that committing suicide would have no consequences. It probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway though.
>>36382 I think I saw your documentary, but my japanese is not good enough to understand what was going on. >>36385 >they're not "major" I feel like lesser know cults are actually more interesting to read about. I don't know whether it could be called a cult or not, but on imageboard cults there is also the r9cute phenomenon.
>>36419 It was called "A", from 1998, I think there's subs somewhere, it also had a sequel I haven't watched yet.
This one doesn't get discussed a lot despite its highish member count and some rich people being involved, but I remember the NXIVM cult for its weird name and also doubling as a self-help company and ponzi scheme. Apparently the leader was convicted to 120 years in prison this October. One of the related organizations was called DOS(I think the leader was a bit of an early video game nerd since other terminology is also game related), an acronym of incorrect latin which means Master over Slave Women. It was also a sex cult with sex slave members. The guy who made it has an ugly haircut, so some people were incredulous about that. It's really annoying how orignal footage and interviews are drowned out by boring, shitty news coverage. Thankfully, the channel Keith Raniere Conversations still exists, so you can look at that if you're curious.
>>36485 Because there's not much to discuss because it was fairly obvious what the goal was. It wasn't some Aum or Heaven's Gate insanity, it was just a man manipulating heiresses for his own gain. A bizarre active one that is almost never talked about is the rainbow family. They're little hippie parties but attract violent types and have been linked to a disappearance
>>36373 Do you have any recommendations for reading about Aum Shinrikyo and how they managed to get so many very educated followers? It seems like a fascinating topic to me, since the kind of technological backbone the had is rare in cults (especially fairly localized ones).
>>36560 There's probably plenty in Japanese.
I watched bad vegan the other day. It's not about a cult per say, but basically some crazy ex-military dude using cult-like techniques to brainwash an eminent raw-food cuisine chef and restaurant owner. I think some of you might appreciate it. The meat suit part is fucking hilarious.
Join my cult of silence
>>36381 My friend whom I'm no longer in contact with went to a /fringe/ meetup once. Apparently most people there were very stupid, which makes sense to me because he was not very smart either.
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