Vocab Malone

We don't want to call it a cult.

Hmm.

There is also the anti-cult movement, which says, no, this is a cult.

We should deal with it.

Then there's the Christian apologists who do the countercult movement.

So there's different groups that deal with them.

So it's kind of like saying something is a cult might be just a way to scare people.

But at the end of the day, most researchers in these fields agree there are characteristics that make something more like a cult and less like a cult.

Got it.

Now, people who aren't careful, like atheists, some incendiary atheists, oh, Christianity, all religions are cults, you know, kind of like that kind of thing.

But there's more technical terms.

So charismatic, over-controlling, authoritarian leader or leadership structure.

Control of behavior down to very minute elements of behavior.

Control of information you're allowed to receive.

That's a huge one.

Information control is almost one of the biggest signs that you are in a cult if you are banned from reading any outside criticism.

Thought control.

So you speak a certain way to doubt a lot of times is punishable.

It often ends up in some kind of communal living situation with high control over everyone there and almost always devolves into something weird regarding sex, often involving minors.

Mm-hmm.