Comment by cogman10 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cogman10 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> It's primarily the uneducated who fall for nonsense arguments

I'd be careful with this line of thinking. Cults can often grab well educated individuals. Heck, I've had cult members proposition me on HN.

Cults don't generally grab members by appealing to knowledge. They do it by being friendly, providing community, filling needs. The people sucked into cults generally get there because of loneliness, trama, or high stress. It can be super rewarding when that nice neighbor you know invites you to a social activity sponsored by their church, after all, what's the harm?

Cults love the "love bomb" and it's effective.

Don't underestimate them. I was born into a high demand religion and I'm pretty familiar with the techniques used to get new members.

The defense against a cult is recognizing how they operate. Most cults do the same thing. They don't start you with the weird beliefs, they start you with "we just love having parties together. We're not like other churches, we're fun!"

"I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader." Creed ;)

Cults are a different, far more specialized thing than general widespread polarization though.

A bit different but not as much as you'd think. If you ever look into radicalized organizations the playbook is remarkably similar to how cults operate. It's a lot of trying to fill a void and dissatisfaction with society with the purpose of the movement. "You feel this way because those people are ruining society. We know the answer, it's xyz". Even right down to the love bombing to get someone in "You aren't like the rest of society, you've found the secret truth that makes you better than everyone else. If only others could know what you know, then the world would be better. It's a conspiracy that keeps the world from the truth."

The cross over between radicalization, cults, and conspiracy mindset is extensive. Each feeding and stealing the others greatest hits.

In my childhood cult, everyone believes they're the chosen, the ones that have figured everything out. When someone points out "hey, you are wrong about X" they just laugh because obviously those people aren't as good or loved as you are.

Before anyone gets out of such a cult, the first thing that has to happen is the question "What if I'm wrong?". That's why the cult spends so much time telling you to "doubt your doubts" and "everything bad you hear about us is actually the devil trying to trick you".

You can see this in radicalized groups all the time. "We are right. It's all a lie when someone says we did something bad. It was actually this group we hate, a psyop"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com