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Comment by voisin | Hacker News Reader

Cult and society being one and the same: a shared delusional thinking that one’s value system is the one true answer. Cult being just a minority with particularly (in the majority’s view) extreme positions.

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I think we can all appreciate the flexibility of language when defining the word cult. But in practical terms was the Branch davidian the same as, say, the Mormon church or your nan's knitting circle?

The difference between Mormonism (or any other religion) and a cult is one of degree, not kind

The joke is the difference between a cult and a religion is 100 years.

I like the definition: myths are religions people no longer believe in. Cults are far more exclusive and demanding of their members

That is not true. A defining characteristic of cults is a sense of imminite danger from government or status quo and a willingness to lay down ones life in defense of it. To say that is a few degrees off of what major religions think means your compass is waaay off!

This would have described the Mormon church not long ago. That's why they went to Utah!

You got a point: new religions are cult like but you got to agree that fleeing religious persecution and loading up stockpiles are also kinds, not degrees!

> A defining characteristic of cults is a sense of imminite danger from government or status quo and a willingness to lay down ones life in defense of it.

Is this actually a defining characteristic? I didn’t think cults were defined so narrowly. I understood cults to simply be highly insular groups with extreme views. Like the Flat Earth Society would a cult, though I don’t think they feel imminent danger or are willing to lay down their lives.

Would disagree. Cults have some charismatic leader running the show, afaik the LDS (or regular organized religions more generally) aren't like this

Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were the charismatic cult leaders of Mormonism. Since their time, the mainstream Mormon Church headquartered in Salt Lake City has become less and less cultish and more bureaucratic, yet they still qualify as a cult according to the BITE model, and there are many Mormon splinter groups that are among the worst cults active today.

The priest (or equivalent) generally serves this role in kind, and for some sects degree. Religions include the same kind of inoculation with respect to belief, exclusion, and suspicion of outside influences that cults have: it’s just expressed differently (sometimes).

That must be quite the knitting circle (to count as an entire society).

I don't think you can say that the dynamic is the same. With a cult, there's usually a single leader, there's usually a hierarchy

Does society have those things, inherently? A touchy question

Is there a cult that doesn't have those things? I've yet to find one. It seems to me that cults are similar not to general society, but to fascist societies

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