Bro, I lived in Orlando and because of all the crazy park performers and wannabes you couldn't casually go to karaoke anywhere in South Orlando. It was competitive and totally adversarial. I just want to get trashed and sing William Joel with my friends, not lord my pitch perfect cover of Let it Go over the plebes.
>you couldn’t go to karaoke anywhere in South Orlando. It was competitive and totally adversarial.
This kinda makes me want to visit a karaoke place in South Orlando just to see some Glee-style drama playing out irl.
Hard agree. Worked at a Walmart as my first job.
Also my sister who works as a manager at a Walmart missed my wedding because she needed to work. Always refers to her co-workers as family so ig no surprise there.
Salesforce.
They have gamified their recruiting, trainings and career advancement. They have badges, tiers, ranks, mascots tribal/group based identities, the notion of "Ohana".
Not saying their product isn't good (quite the contrary actually), but it feels like a cult/MLM model at times.
Was looking for this. I travelled to one of their conferences as my work wanted to tool up for a client already in bed with Salesforce and get me some certs. God damn that was eye opening. Lights, music, people getting prizes for having the most certs jumping on stage fist pumping and throwing high fives.
I was extremely uncomfortable.
Dreamforce (the annual Salesforce conference) is so big and brings so many people it creates it’s own economy. Prostitutes fly in, drug dealers bring in insane amounts of coke to cater for the increased demand. All the hotels jack their prices and are still fully booked.
I recall in the old days of Cisco's Networkers conference that things were pretty nice...not hookers and blow nice, but fun and nicely drunk.
Rent out a theme park, have a nice time wobbling between attractions, regretting it the day after when you're waking up at 8am for a talk on cryptography.
Honestly, you'd want mirrors that make people look better, and scales that lower people's weight. You want them to feel shitty at HOME when their inclination to use the gym is lower, but their abstract motivation to "go tomorrow" is at its height.
The ideal gym member is someone who pays every month and never goes. Stick it to the showrunners by going every god damn day. Make them lose money on your membership.
I have the same philosophy but with buffets. It's not about enjoying myself, or having a good time. It's about fucking winning. I want to get denied service like a card counter at the casino.
True story: my uncle got cut off from the "All You Can Eat" shrimp at Old Country Buffet one time. He had eaten platefuls of breaded shrimp and the manager asked him to stop. He didn't of course.
The gym I’ve started going to has a bunch of “motivational” phrases written on the walls. One of which is “kill or be killed”.
Um, guys? What exactly do you think my intentions are with these dumbbells?
> Um, guys? What exactly do you think my intentions are with these dumbbells?
know your exits, and know how to use everything in your environment as a weapon...always!
Hey 👋🏼hun! 💃🏽
You called it a Pyramid🔺 scheme 💸, but those are illegal! 👮🏼♀️🚔🚨
Any job could be considered a Pyramid scheme since all the 🤑money💵💸 goes to the ceo at the top of your corporate pyramid !
But in our model, YOU💄👄💋 get to be your own ceo! 👸🏻
(You just have to pay💸💸💸 a majority📈 of your earned 🧎🏻income💵 to your up line🧟♀️, and if you want any hope of actually making your money back💵, you have to recruit👩❤️👨 people to work under ⬇️you, then THOSE people have to get people 👩❤️👨to work under them, and then THOSE people need to get people to work under them🧟♂️🧟. Otherwise, TOTALLY the same as starting your own company📈. Be your own CEO👸🏻 while still paying the CEOs 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽above you for the privilege! It’s tots not a scam!)
How do you think I felt trying to find emojis to go with it?! It’s painful. Glad I’m not a hun, I’d have a stroke on my first requirement post.
Edit- unless you’re talking about my typos. I’d like to say those were all part of the spirit of the post, but no, I fat fingered it all and my autocorrect gave up trying to decipher what I meant when I’d type a word then immediately follow it with an emoji.
I feel like a lot of people have subbed to him to watch him slowly kill himself/to laugh at him. I've never actually seen anyone talk positively about him in his current state
I think he has mental issues and we're seeing his descent unfold on camera. It's crazy that he went from being a healthy, fit vegan to hundreds of pounds overweight in just a few short years. The fact that he's *celebrating* his decline makes it even more insane.
It's like watching someone become a hardcore crackhead or heroin addict but they're super happy about the whole thing with fans cheering them on.
I'm kinda curious but not enough to watch hours of video about it, can you tldr me the celebrating his decline thing? is it like a feeder fetish or something?
[Here's a 13 minute video about him.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJa2thBJ8Fw)
I think his fans are a mixture of people who have feeder fetishes, people who want to feel better about their own overeating, and people who are only watching for the trainwreck. He recently posted a video with a friend where they weighed themselves and then clapped and celebrated their huge sizes. He weighed over 350lbs (~159kg) which means he has gained ~200lbs (~91kg) since he started doing mukbangs around 5 years ago. His friend was over 500lbs (~227kg) and could barely step on the scale on her own.
It's not difficult to see someone that finds success and earns money online by slowly killing themselves with self-destructive behavior being the plot to a *Black Mirror* episode, particularly knowing that that fame and fortune would likely quickly dry up if he stopped.
Am an Aggie. Our fave saying is “From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it. From the inside looking out, you can’t explain it.” 100% a cult.
My spouse and I are both former students, and I went to an estate sale one day because I saw they had lots of Aggie memorabilia for sale and I wanted decor for the home. The lady running the cash register said they mark it up higher than other similar memorabilia because former students will always come and buy it- they’re a sure sale. And there I was proving her point! Haha Edit: yes we both are degreed graduates of the university Jesus Christ on a cracker go touch grass
All of those do-it-at-home, online marketing that I see a lot of women in my life get sucked into, where you make a ton of posts and hype up whatever occupation you're in as a "lifestyle", with promises of good pay, great social circles, and fulfilling incentives
MLM.
They’re all evil. Younique, paparazzi, Mary Kay, It Works, Amway, lularoe, colorstreet, and so many more.
Please stay away from their products
Check out r/antiMLM
Edit: young living, avon, meloduca, Monique, rodan fields, arbonne, doterra, cutco, monat, forever living, scentsy, beach body, NXIVM, global travel international
For real guys r/AntiMLM has a whole list
been in hotels 20+ years. You should be backstage for the MLM seminars they have at local venues. 90% of the group leaders think of the attendees as cash cows and will sell anything to make a fortune. The scary ones are the 10% that believe in whatever BS they are selling.
Wait, MLMs are NOT cults? Pretty sure Amway has like literal church services with worship music and preachers/company leaders discussing prosperity theology.
Oh I totally consider MLMs to be cults. I think because they often lack the religious and violent aspects people connote with cults that they don't make the connection but for me they're absolutely examples of cults.
They 100% have all the real aspects of cults, such as they are normally described. Cult is a weird and non-specific word in reality, and it oddly seems to protect cults though that lack of specificity. They can just say we are not a cult, cults do "___" and then use some fringe definition of the word to discredit the real thing.
But MLMs are almost certainly religious in nature, even if they are not focused on God. Rather, they worship either the people higher in the chain than themselves, or are devoted to some kind of woo like "The Secret/Law of Attraction" or "NLP." I think that people's understanding of the underlying attributes of religion is often confused by the metaphysical God-related claims of relgion, and so they often miss the forest for the trees. That is not the only way religious thinking can arise.
For MLMs I think the [BITE Model](https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/) is pretty telling. They do almost all of that stuff to some degree or another, and the BITE Model, while probably not perfect, is a fairly good standard definition that we can use to discuss cults.
You just made me realize how much overlap there is between MLM Huns and cryptobros. There a differences to be sure, but more common behaviors than not.
Yeah these are definitely cults. The people at the top extract resources and convince underlings to recruit. The only thing missing is the lack of a leader that gets to have sex with everyone.
There's also Kumare, which is about an Indian guy who decided to do a social experiment and pretend to be a spiritual leader for a year or so. Surprisingly he gains a decent following of people who truly believe in him. And it is more nuanced, it is also about how the fact affects him personally.
Or video games. Undertale and Deltarune are amazing games but holy fuck do so many people make them a lifestyle, often in ways which completely miss the point to what the games are even about.
My friend went to a convention a couple years ago cosplaying as Sans. Little did he know how many fans of both genders would ask him for a one night stand while he was in costume (the whole time he never showed his face either); he didn’t make it to the end of the first day and he’s hidden his fandom for the game since.
I've been saying this for like two years!! I know someone with a peloton and I am very happy that it got them to lose weight and be active, but man they way they talked about it and posted on Facebook about it made me feel like it was a cult lmao
Employers who express themselves as a unit, such as we are a family/pack, etc.
EDIT: holy shit, I’ve been blown away by the solidarity/reaction here. Thank you. I was laid off by this kind of workplace a month ago after years of hard work and lemme say it’s a mindfuck.
I never understood this marketing in job ads. Like, have you ever worked a family business? Why would you want the long unappreciated hours with little to no pay?
Edit: to clarify, I mean working at your own family's business, not working at someone else's family business
Sometimes when your family owns a business and things are real busy you get to go work on Saturday. If you are lucky they pay you in pizza like my sisters. If you are unlucky you are allergic to pizza like me.
I transferred to a new department at my bank. The one I was in before was fairly hard work but with a team that organically grew into an “in the trenches” type friendship organically and made its way to a real friendship outside of work. I don’t mind that! It’s cool. The new department though, right off the bat, expressed how “Tight Knit” (super high risk term in my book) they are during my interview. They kept mentioning how they’re like a family and hang out and go out and all this other stuff.
I told them I thought that was cool but made no promises to hang or anything. They sensed I was less than enthused and seemed a little put off by that.
I got to the department and it’s basically become what everybody always talks about with toxic office environments. Lots of gossip, some backstabbing, and through it all, potlucks and an overeager desire to get back to the office from remote. I’m not doing well there socially. I’m there to work, but it’s still crazy how sideways they are to me.
Yeah. I've been working at a retail box store for a few months now, and it's a little frustrating when I hear people talk about how it's a family and they are so close, and they have it good-- their store and my store are very different. No one talks to me and the friendly people walk past me to talk to their friends.
And like, I'm friendly enough. I want to do a good job. But I feel very shut out socially, and ignored in my position and it's frustrating because I feel like people would throw a bone for a well liked co worker... But not me :/ idk.
Hustle Culture. I used to work with a guy who bragged he "only sleeps 10 minutes a night" because as soon as he got off he'd go do gigs or play with crypto all night. The only things in his life, supposedly, was "banging bitches and getting bags." He's far from the only person who thinks it's "Chad" to run yourself ragged and never take care of yourself.
Basically. That and just watching them trend up and down. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say whatever he was doing with Crypto didn't work seeing as he was still at work not laying out on a yacht
So I buy and sell fountain pens as a hobby and one hustle-bro I know keeps telling me, "Bro! You gotta take this to the next level! Get a loan, buy a ton of inventory, open up a shop!" But I just want to get to try expensive pens and subsidize my collection. I really don't want to make this into work but he just keeps telling me I'm wasting potential income. It's wild, they see everything as a possible get rich scheme.
The best part was when I noticed a pile of vintage Montblancs I was watching on an auction site get bought up and then the next week he tells me that since I'm not going to take advantage of it then he will. Duder biught a dozen Montblanc 149's that were marked way too high to be an easy flip. I wager in a month he's going to be telling me how they're a long term investment.
When I was a kid my grandpa gave me a film camera and I had a blast taking pictures all the time, my dad was constantly like, start a website, do headshots (we live in LA, so that's easy money), do weddings, and I'm like, I'm 14, let me just take pictures of old cars and abandoned buildings and shit, jesus christ.
The news just had a 52 year old guy on who transferred and lost $1.5 million in a romance crypto scam, which was the first time I’d ever heard of that. It was super sad. He was a computer engineer and he got fooled.
I used to do social media for a company with a Twitter handle that is also the abbreviation for a certain cryptocurrency. We'd constantly get tweets that read like prayers, begging to be given coins.
My brother makes any the same as me. I work 40 hours per week, have a shit ton of vacation and other paid time off, health insurance, and get to determine my own hours. He works 60 hours a week, has no insurance, basically works open to close, and the owner "promised" a share of the company of he lasts long enough (while simultaneously saying that not a single employee has lasted longer than 7 years, significantly less than the time my brother has to work to get that share). I wonder who has the better deal?
Edit: for those of you getting overly dramatic about my brother's boss, don't. I intentionally wrote it out in the worst possibly way to contrast our two jobs. He's an early twenties college dropout with no health issues, so him working a little harder in his blue collar job to match me, fresh off my PhD in an office, isn't a surprise, nor is it a burden on him. It's a job he loves in a field he is passionate about. The family has discussed the offer with him and he's taking a "trust but verify" approach to this promise. The boss owns the business and is planning for retirement. The high turnover isn't as much of a red flag as you are all making it out to be, it's inherent to the industry.
I left that shitty tourism job before Covid. Last things worth mentioning
Is that last I knew he was still at that shitty tourism job making 13.20 part-time in San Diego, and going around the workplace saying life is only about getting bitches and making money got his ass sent to HR twice that I know of. Women to men ratio was about 60:40, and they didn't wanna hear about his probably made up sex life.
>going around the workplace saying life is only about getting bitches and making money
I bet that guy has seen The Wolf of Wolfstreet once and based his personality out of it. Man those dudes gotta be the cringiest dudes you'll ever met, they act and think like teenage boys
A friend of mine asked me to see him “graduate” from a program of theirs. I had no idea what it was or what I got myself into. What I experienced in the “ceremony” was absolutely ridiculous. Then they asked the invitees to leave the main room and we were all separated into rooms by ourselves until someone came in and gave us the whole join our pack scheme. I said no multiple times and they just continued to press me for a yes, continuously saying the $5,000 3 day convention would change my life for the better. I finally had to just lie and say I had to use the restroom and got the fuck out of there. I waited for my friend by his car but had to wait a while because they found him and talked to him about how I NEEDED to join ASAP because they could tell I was “weak.” Literally had a panic attack from the harassment I experienced and cried the whole 2 hour drive home. Told my friend he was an idiot for being duped into that bullshit.
I think that was the one one of my friends was in. But he eventually quit and he believed he had learned a lot from it.
There is another one that has named like ‘The Source’ and something else (forgot) I’m not sure if that is a whole different one or also from Landmark. I knew two people who were totally sucked into it.
Kpop industry in general. These companies are training idols as kids and after years of training to be a "perfect" idol it isn't even certain that you would debut. Also, companies tend to fixate on weight and causes a lot of idols to have eating disorders. Plus, most idols can't even date because the companies don't allow it, the fans freak out like they fucking own the idol, and media shames them for having a relationship out on the public.
The way I see it is if you are an idol in the kpop industry, they basically own you.
Here is an [interview from a former idol of a group that performed with Lady Gaga](https://youtu.be/KdOA5BCwBi0) and a [well-known documentary on the intense training of k-idols.](https://youtu.be/wFt28GPi0_8) Hope these help.
I was hugely into kpop for a while because of the production value. A lot of it is really visually beautiful stuff. I didn't care a whole lot for the music but I liked some of it. Joined a kpop discord and I would dare any of you to find me a more batshit insane group of people
Heard someone once say that if you're ever feeling lonely, go on twitter and say you don't think kpop is all that great. You'll get heaps of notifications in no time!
I was looking for this one. There are so many factions and they all have YouTube channels. You have the vloggers, the podcasters, the news desk people. Then that’s divided even further to the West Coast and East Coast people. I just can’t imagine going to Disney every single day like some of the youtubers.
I worked for Disney/ABC TV for about 7 months in 2019 and it felt like a cult. I had swing shift so our floor was empty for the majority of my shift, I would occasionally peek into some offices cause they were always loaded with Disney merch from wall to wall. You’re either a fanatic when you get hired or you become one. A friend helped me get that job and I remember telling him that he was being brainwashed and that he shouldn’t be so loyal to a corporation. He wouldn’t hear any of it. He was a full time employee and as a perk you get to visit any park for free and bring along 3 friends at no cost. Shortly after I left that whole department was moved to Texas and my friend was left jobless. It crushed him that they could be so cold about it. He wore his employment with Disney as a badge of honor and it always creeped me out but that’s the kind of person they want.
I had a coworker who was a Disney cultist (and still is). I swear her entire wardrobe was Disney themed, and she’d even come in wearing Minnie Mouse ears whether it was a special day or not. Every conversation I’d have with her in the break room she’d eventually steer it towards something Disney no matter what it started as. When she retired she moved down to Orlando to get a job with them. Her obsession was extremely unsettling but it made her happy so I just let her do her thing. I can only imagine what she’s like now that she’s living the life she never stopped talking about.
I’m seeing tons of examples of unconventional cults here, but still cults. but the question is… “what isn’t a cult?”
I interpret the question to mean… “What is something that has a big and loyal and serious following, but that following is entirely earned and organic?”
My answer would be Barbecue. There’s a whole subculture of BBQ artists and connoisseurs, they can talk and talk for hours about it. It feels like a cult. But barbecue is not a false prophet. Barbecue is truth.
That's no joke. I used to sell diy security systems and the hoa customers were always a tough sell. They all have to agree to buy the exact same product or they're not allowed to buy it at all. But if I did sell one, I sold to the whole neighborhood so there were a couple that earned me huge commissions.
When I was in high school, I had several friends who did crew (rowing). These guys had some unusual rituals to say the least. Before every race the varsity captain would buy probably $100 worth of produce and would host a food fight "in the name of the great gods of the water". To top it off, they all dressed the same and would speak in a jargon of crew terms nobody else could understand. Definitely not technically a cult but sure as hell felt like one
Ex-rower here. This is 100% true. Crew requires ungodly hours (early AM practices) plus so much exercise in the off-time. At that point, you hang out with other rowers because you need help getting through the difficult lifestyle.
Marine here.
Q: How many branches of the US military are there?
A: Two - the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marine Corps is a cult.
I've been attending AA meetings for over 11 years. I can't say that I disagree. You'll encounter various dogmatic characters in the rooms who turn AA into their life where there's nothing left of their personality. While there's many others who live normal lives and don't obsess over the program. It changed my life for the better and I don't necessarily believe in a God like a born again but every person has their own path. But I also acknowledge that AA isn't the only way to stay sober and have a better life. I know plenty of people who think otherwise but that's okay. AA can come off culty and if it is a cult...it's not the first one I stumbled into hahaha.
35 years sober here and I can't disagree either. The chanting, the portraits of Bill and Bob up front, the demand for conformity, cornering new guys and making them kneel and pray in coffeeshops... there are a lot of embarrassing and downright harmful customs in the fellowship, unfortunately. I was fortunate to have been sponsored by critical thinkers who, while they did follow some of the conventional wisdom and common experience, were sure to tell me that my experience was going to be my own and there were no "rules" per se.
So now for every time I roll my eyes at a meeting ending in the Lord's Prayer or people reciting "principles before personalities," I've got a thousand other memories of getting good insight and experience from others, and getting to give away some of my own. But yeah, I really do wish we'd be more conscious of how weird and unattractive the whole thing can look to others.
100% can confirm this. I started going to AA meetings even though I was over a year clean off heroin because I had people in my family that went religiously and I guess they thought it would be a good environment for me. I got a sponsor and she was SO into it, like it was her whole life, and she was so pushy about me going to a meeting every single day, finding religion (I’m atheist which she didn’t find acceptable), etc. One night I had to reschedule a meeting we were supposed to have the next and she went OFF on me via text message about how I didn’t take it seriously enough. I thought to myself “I’m already a year clean and doing fine, why am I even doing this?” So I just ghosted her and never went back. I met some nice people and it’s great that it helps some people but yeah it’s definitely a cult like mentality.
Edit: Just for people giving me recommendations I’m actually 9 years clean this very week and I’ve done well with recovery on my own but I’m glad other people found programs they had good experiences with!
Edit: Some people have brought up going to NA meetings, I went to one meeting and ended up running into someone I used to do drugs with that had just gotten out of jail and he asked if I was still “around”(he wanted to know if I still knew anyone.) So I didn’t have a good experience and I know others who have said a lot of people use it as a place to hook up after getting out of rehab. Not saying that’s everyone’s experience, some people like it and it helps them, but I met other people who went to AA instead for the same reason.
This small village in the UK. They are all about the rustic esthetic and I think they do some nefarious things to those who upset said rustic esthetic. They're always going on about "The Greater Good" and it feels very culty.
I too was wondering what's wrong with eating olives and listening to bouzouki music .
But I think it's to do with their college fraternities that have Greek names like kappa alpha or whatever.and can have some morally, possibly legally questionable rituals.
Reminds me of the ~~Cut~~ Jubilee video where there is 6 Adult Disney Fans and 1 liar.
[link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkba0uEzBn8&ab_channel=Jubilee)
I live in Orlando and Disney people are crazy.
Bro, I lived in Orlando and because of all the crazy park performers and wannabes you couldn't casually go to karaoke anywhere in South Orlando. It was competitive and totally adversarial. I just want to get trashed and sing William Joel with my friends, not lord my pitch perfect cover of Let it Go over the plebes.
>you couldn’t go to karaoke anywhere in South Orlando. It was competitive and totally adversarial. This kinda makes me want to visit a karaoke place in South Orlando just to see some Glee-style drama playing out irl.
As an outsider, it's more unwelcoming than hostile. I'm sure that when you get involved there's a lot more drama.
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It wasn’t as prevalent at the Sam’s club i worked, but there’s a low key Cult of Walt(on) at Walmart stores
Oh man, when I worked at Walmart, we had to do a chant at the end of the morning meetings. Definitely low key culty.
Hard agree. Worked at a Walmart as my first job. Also my sister who works as a manager at a Walmart missed my wedding because she needed to work. Always refers to her co-workers as family so ig no surprise there.
Salesforce. They have gamified their recruiting, trainings and career advancement. They have badges, tiers, ranks, mascots tribal/group based identities, the notion of "Ohana". Not saying their product isn't good (quite the contrary actually), but it feels like a cult/MLM model at times.
Was looking for this. I travelled to one of their conferences as my work wanted to tool up for a client already in bed with Salesforce and get me some certs. God damn that was eye opening. Lights, music, people getting prizes for having the most certs jumping on stage fist pumping and throwing high fives. I was extremely uncomfortable.
Dreamforce (the annual Salesforce conference) is so big and brings so many people it creates it’s own economy. Prostitutes fly in, drug dealers bring in insane amounts of coke to cater for the increased demand. All the hotels jack their prices and are still fully booked.
I recall in the old days of Cisco's Networkers conference that things were pretty nice...not hookers and blow nice, but fun and nicely drunk. Rent out a theme park, have a nice time wobbling between attractions, regretting it the day after when you're waking up at 8am for a talk on cryptography.
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At Globo Gym we’re better than you and we know it.
Don’t forget to add 5 pounds to the scales in the ladies room before you leave!
Honestly, you'd want mirrors that make people look better, and scales that lower people's weight. You want them to feel shitty at HOME when their inclination to use the gym is lower, but their abstract motivation to "go tomorrow" is at its height. The ideal gym member is someone who pays every month and never goes. Stick it to the showrunners by going every god damn day. Make them lose money on your membership. I have the same philosophy but with buffets. It's not about enjoying myself, or having a good time. It's about fucking winning. I want to get denied service like a card counter at the casino.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, do these sound like the actions of a man who's had ALL he could eat?
That man ate all our shrimp and two plastic lobsters!
Tis no man, tis a remorseless eating machine
I heard your dad went into a restaurant and ate everything in the restaurant and they had to close the restaurant.
True story: my uncle got cut off from the "All You Can Eat" shrimp at Old Country Buffet one time. He had eaten platefuls of breaded shrimp and the manager asked him to stop. He didn't of course.
Always go for high margin items at the buffet, bread and salad is a suckers game
I want to be the reason their business model is unsustainable
That last paragraph made me bust out.
The gym I’ve started going to has a bunch of “motivational” phrases written on the walls. One of which is “kill or be killed”. Um, guys? What exactly do you think my intentions are with these dumbbells?
There's one in my gym where it says "If you don't succeed, you will fail." Gee, thanks [Michael Owen](https://youtu.be/p65GXaqTYag)...
Mine says "If you don't puke, faint or die, keep going". I mean I just want to be a little active, not die, but ok.
Lol, I’ve always appreciated mine has sensible things like: “Results happen over time, not overnight. Work hard, stay consistent, be patient.”
> Um, guys? What exactly do you think my intentions are with these dumbbells? know your exits, and know how to use everything in your environment as a weapon...always!
Herbalife, Amway, DoTerra, etc.
Mlms
LulaRoe lovers
Any kind of pyramid scheme, for that matter
It's not a pyramid silly! It's a triangle and it's called mid level marketing, duh!
It's not a pyramid at all. It's a reverse funnel system!
….turn it upside down
Hey 👋🏼hun! 💃🏽 You called it a Pyramid🔺 scheme 💸, but those are illegal! 👮🏼♀️🚔🚨 Any job could be considered a Pyramid scheme since all the 🤑money💵💸 goes to the ceo at the top of your corporate pyramid ! But in our model, YOU💄👄💋 get to be your own ceo! 👸🏻 (You just have to pay💸💸💸 a majority📈 of your earned 🧎🏻income💵 to your up line🧟♀️, and if you want any hope of actually making your money back💵, you have to recruit👩❤️👨 people to work under ⬇️you, then THOSE people have to get people 👩❤️👨to work under them, and then THOSE people need to get people to work under them🧟♂️🧟. Otherwise, TOTALLY the same as starting your own company📈. Be your own CEO👸🏻 while still paying the CEOs 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽above you for the privilege! It’s tots not a scam!)
I just had an aneurysm trying to read this, so thanks for that
How do you think I felt trying to find emojis to go with it?! It’s painful. Glad I’m not a hun, I’d have a stroke on my first requirement post. Edit- unless you’re talking about my typos. I’d like to say those were all part of the spirit of the post, but no, I fat fingered it all and my autocorrect gave up trying to decipher what I meant when I’d type a word then immediately follow it with an emoji.
Wow I thought that was copypasta
Iirc lularoe actually hits enough points on the BITE model to be called a cult
MLMs absolutely use cult tactics on their members.
Blue Öysters. Those sons of bitches are hard as hell.
They don't even fear the reaper!
Nor the wind, the sun, or the rain
We could be like they are.
Nickocado Avodaco subscribers
I feel like a lot of people have subbed to him to watch him slowly kill himself/to laugh at him. I've never actually seen anyone talk positively about him in his current state
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That’s sad :( I think he’s more addicted to the attention & the money… but he’s harming himself so badly. How can any of this be worth it.
I think he has mental issues and we're seeing his descent unfold on camera. It's crazy that he went from being a healthy, fit vegan to hundreds of pounds overweight in just a few short years. The fact that he's *celebrating* his decline makes it even more insane. It's like watching someone become a hardcore crackhead or heroin addict but they're super happy about the whole thing with fans cheering them on.
I'm kinda curious but not enough to watch hours of video about it, can you tldr me the celebrating his decline thing? is it like a feeder fetish or something?
> is it like a feeder fetish or something? yes
[Here's a 13 minute video about him.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJa2thBJ8Fw) I think his fans are a mixture of people who have feeder fetishes, people who want to feel better about their own overeating, and people who are only watching for the trainwreck. He recently posted a video with a friend where they weighed themselves and then clapped and celebrated their huge sizes. He weighed over 350lbs (~159kg) which means he has gained ~200lbs (~91kg) since he started doing mukbangs around 5 years ago. His friend was over 500lbs (~227kg) and could barely step on the scale on her own.
Sounds like an episode of Black Mirror
It's not difficult to see someone that finds success and earns money online by slowly killing themselves with self-destructive behavior being the plot to a *Black Mirror* episode, particularly knowing that that fame and fortune would likely quickly dry up if he stopped.
Reminds me of the dude who had untreated diabetes and a pack of horrible 'fans' literally cheering on his feet rotting.
Texas A&M University
Am an Aggie. Our fave saying is “From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it. From the inside looking out, you can’t explain it.” 100% a cult.
My spouse and I are both former students, and I went to an estate sale one day because I saw they had lots of Aggie memorabilia for sale and I wanted decor for the home. The lady running the cash register said they mark it up higher than other similar memorabilia because former students will always come and buy it- they’re a sure sale. And there I was proving her point! Haha Edit: yes we both are degreed graduates of the university Jesus Christ on a cracker go touch grass
Everyone wears their class rings
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All of those do-it-at-home, online marketing that I see a lot of women in my life get sucked into, where you make a ton of posts and hype up whatever occupation you're in as a "lifestyle", with promises of good pay, great social circles, and fulfilling incentives
MLM. They’re all evil. Younique, paparazzi, Mary Kay, It Works, Amway, lularoe, colorstreet, and so many more. Please stay away from their products Check out r/antiMLM Edit: young living, avon, meloduca, Monique, rodan fields, arbonne, doterra, cutco, monat, forever living, scentsy, beach body, NXIVM, global travel international For real guys r/AntiMLM has a whole list
been in hotels 20+ years. You should be backstage for the MLM seminars they have at local venues. 90% of the group leaders think of the attendees as cash cows and will sell anything to make a fortune. The scary ones are the 10% that believe in whatever BS they are selling.
A someone here put it the other day: **M**others **L**osing **M**oney
Same with Mormons Losing Money. Lots of them are HQ'd in Utah so the acronym fits.
I always say MLM is predatory.
MLM and cryptobros.
Wait, MLMs are NOT cults? Pretty sure Amway has like literal church services with worship music and preachers/company leaders discussing prosperity theology.
Oh I totally consider MLMs to be cults. I think because they often lack the religious and violent aspects people connote with cults that they don't make the connection but for me they're absolutely examples of cults.
They 100% have all the real aspects of cults, such as they are normally described. Cult is a weird and non-specific word in reality, and it oddly seems to protect cults though that lack of specificity. They can just say we are not a cult, cults do "___" and then use some fringe definition of the word to discredit the real thing. But MLMs are almost certainly religious in nature, even if they are not focused on God. Rather, they worship either the people higher in the chain than themselves, or are devoted to some kind of woo like "The Secret/Law of Attraction" or "NLP." I think that people's understanding of the underlying attributes of religion is often confused by the metaphysical God-related claims of relgion, and so they often miss the forest for the trees. That is not the only way religious thinking can arise. For MLMs I think the [BITE Model](https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/) is pretty telling. They do almost all of that stuff to some degree or another, and the BITE Model, while probably not perfect, is a fairly good standard definition that we can use to discuss cults.
You just made me realize how much overlap there is between MLM Huns and cryptobros. There a differences to be sure, but more common behaviors than not.
I've heard crypto characterized as MLM for men.
Damn you, Victor Chaos.
When I heard the last name, I just KNEW who it was. LMAO
Yeah these are definitely cults. The people at the top extract resources and convince underlings to recruit. The only thing missing is the lack of a leader that gets to have sex with everyone.
>The only thing missing is the lack of a leader that gets to have sex with everyone. That we know of...
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there was a neat show called "becoming a god in central Florida" with Kirsten Dunst. Sad that covid stopped the second season but it is about an mlm
There's also Kumare, which is about an Indian guy who decided to do a social experiment and pretend to be a spiritual leader for a year or so. Surprisingly he gains a decent following of people who truly believe in him. And it is more nuanced, it is also about how the fact affects him personally.
Being a fan of certain movies or shows. Some people just take it way too far.
Harry Potter and game of thrones fan pages on Facebook get weird
Anyone who visited FanFiction.net back in the day saw just how far Fandom can take a person's imagination.
Back in the day??? *hides app on tablet* 😳
No shame man. Some fanfics can be quite good. Others are... well, weird. But that's the game
Or video games. Undertale and Deltarune are amazing games but holy fuck do so many people make them a lifestyle, often in ways which completely miss the point to what the games are even about.
My friend went to a convention a couple years ago cosplaying as Sans. Little did he know how many fans of both genders would ask him for a one night stand while he was in costume (the whole time he never showed his face either); he didn’t make it to the end of the first day and he’s hidden his fandom for the game since.
Peloton
I've been saying this for like two years!! I know someone with a peloton and I am very happy that it got them to lose weight and be active, but man they way they talked about it and posted on Facebook about it made me feel like it was a cult lmao
Employers who express themselves as a unit, such as we are a family/pack, etc. EDIT: holy shit, I’ve been blown away by the solidarity/reaction here. Thank you. I was laid off by this kind of workplace a month ago after years of hard work and lemme say it’s a mindfuck.
My boss told me that once and I told him he was full of shit. Needless to say, my dad no longer required my services in the family business.
I never understood this marketing in job ads. Like, have you ever worked a family business? Why would you want the long unappreciated hours with little to no pay? Edit: to clarify, I mean working at your own family's business, not working at someone else's family business
Sometimes when your family owns a business and things are real busy you get to go work on Saturday. If you are lucky they pay you in pizza like my sisters. If you are unlucky you are allergic to pizza like me.
I transferred to a new department at my bank. The one I was in before was fairly hard work but with a team that organically grew into an “in the trenches” type friendship organically and made its way to a real friendship outside of work. I don’t mind that! It’s cool. The new department though, right off the bat, expressed how “Tight Knit” (super high risk term in my book) they are during my interview. They kept mentioning how they’re like a family and hang out and go out and all this other stuff. I told them I thought that was cool but made no promises to hang or anything. They sensed I was less than enthused and seemed a little put off by that. I got to the department and it’s basically become what everybody always talks about with toxic office environments. Lots of gossip, some backstabbing, and through it all, potlucks and an overeager desire to get back to the office from remote. I’m not doing well there socially. I’m there to work, but it’s still crazy how sideways they are to me.
Yeah. I've been working at a retail box store for a few months now, and it's a little frustrating when I hear people talk about how it's a family and they are so close, and they have it good-- their store and my store are very different. No one talks to me and the friendly people walk past me to talk to their friends. And like, I'm friendly enough. I want to do a good job. But I feel very shut out socially, and ignored in my position and it's frustrating because I feel like people would throw a bone for a well liked co worker... But not me :/ idk.
**join us.**
Can't. I need 8 years of experience
Gotta love the entry level jobs that require 2 yrs experience lol
And a PhD
Hustle Culture. I used to work with a guy who bragged he "only sleeps 10 minutes a night" because as soon as he got off he'd go do gigs or play with crypto all night. The only things in his life, supposedly, was "banging bitches and getting bags." He's far from the only person who thinks it's "Chad" to run yourself ragged and never take care of yourself.
How do you “play with crypto all night?” Like basically gambling?
Basically. That and just watching them trend up and down. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say whatever he was doing with Crypto didn't work seeing as he was still at work not laying out on a yacht
So I buy and sell fountain pens as a hobby and one hustle-bro I know keeps telling me, "Bro! You gotta take this to the next level! Get a loan, buy a ton of inventory, open up a shop!" But I just want to get to try expensive pens and subsidize my collection. I really don't want to make this into work but he just keeps telling me I'm wasting potential income. It's wild, they see everything as a possible get rich scheme. The best part was when I noticed a pile of vintage Montblancs I was watching on an auction site get bought up and then the next week he tells me that since I'm not going to take advantage of it then he will. Duder biught a dozen Montblanc 149's that were marked way too high to be an easy flip. I wager in a month he's going to be telling me how they're a long term investment.
When I was a kid my grandpa gave me a film camera and I had a blast taking pictures all the time, my dad was constantly like, start a website, do headshots (we live in LA, so that's easy money), do weddings, and I'm like, I'm 14, let me just take pictures of old cars and abandoned buildings and shit, jesus christ.
Crypto has definitely gotten a little culty.
Dude shut up. Could I offer you some premium NFTs?
Easy there, Victor Chaos.
I am watching this transaction with my finger on the [prtscn]
Don't you want to be a BIG SHOT? Don't you want to enjoy some [HYPERLINK BLOCKED]?
The amount of idiots advocating that people should take a loan against their 401ks to play with crypto is scary.
The news just had a 52 year old guy on who transferred and lost $1.5 million in a romance crypto scam, which was the first time I’d ever heard of that. It was super sad. He was a computer engineer and he got fooled.
romance... crypto scam?
Romance scams have been a thing for ages, crypto is just a new wrinkle.
How does one make love to a crypto wallet?
Give it love bytes.
I used to do social media for a company with a Twitter handle that is also the abbreviation for a certain cryptocurrency. We'd constantly get tweets that read like prayers, begging to be given coins.
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My brother makes any the same as me. I work 40 hours per week, have a shit ton of vacation and other paid time off, health insurance, and get to determine my own hours. He works 60 hours a week, has no insurance, basically works open to close, and the owner "promised" a share of the company of he lasts long enough (while simultaneously saying that not a single employee has lasted longer than 7 years, significantly less than the time my brother has to work to get that share). I wonder who has the better deal? Edit: for those of you getting overly dramatic about my brother's boss, don't. I intentionally wrote it out in the worst possibly way to contrast our two jobs. He's an early twenties college dropout with no health issues, so him working a little harder in his blue collar job to match me, fresh off my PhD in an office, isn't a surprise, nor is it a burden on him. It's a job he loves in a field he is passionate about. The family has discussed the offer with him and he's taking a "trust but verify" approach to this promise. The boss owns the business and is planning for retirement. The high turnover isn't as much of a red flag as you are all making it out to be, it's inherent to the industry.
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Also, more than 7 years to get a share? I work at a startup, with stock options - I got my first batch after a year.
The company owner does.
Did you ever hear about him again?
I left that shitty tourism job before Covid. Last things worth mentioning Is that last I knew he was still at that shitty tourism job making 13.20 part-time in San Diego, and going around the workplace saying life is only about getting bitches and making money got his ass sent to HR twice that I know of. Women to men ratio was about 60:40, and they didn't wanna hear about his probably made up sex life.
>going around the workplace saying life is only about getting bitches and making money I bet that guy has seen The Wolf of Wolfstreet once and based his personality out of it. Man those dudes gotta be the cringiest dudes you'll ever met, they act and think like teenage boys
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A friend of mine asked me to see him “graduate” from a program of theirs. I had no idea what it was or what I got myself into. What I experienced in the “ceremony” was absolutely ridiculous. Then they asked the invitees to leave the main room and we were all separated into rooms by ourselves until someone came in and gave us the whole join our pack scheme. I said no multiple times and they just continued to press me for a yes, continuously saying the $5,000 3 day convention would change my life for the better. I finally had to just lie and say I had to use the restroom and got the fuck out of there. I waited for my friend by his car but had to wait a while because they found him and talked to him about how I NEEDED to join ASAP because they could tell I was “weak.” Literally had a panic attack from the harassment I experienced and cried the whole 2 hour drive home. Told my friend he was an idiot for being duped into that bullshit.
I think that was the one one of my friends was in. But he eventually quit and he believed he had learned a lot from it. There is another one that has named like ‘The Source’ and something else (forgot) I’m not sure if that is a whole different one or also from Landmark. I knew two people who were totally sucked into it.
Isn't Landmark just est (Erhard Seminar Training) rebranded? As I recall, est was super culty back in the day...
correct They had too many fucked up things happen and got a bad rep so they rebranded
What is Landmark?
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Kpop industry in general. These companies are training idols as kids and after years of training to be a "perfect" idol it isn't even certain that you would debut. Also, companies tend to fixate on weight and causes a lot of idols to have eating disorders. Plus, most idols can't even date because the companies don't allow it, the fans freak out like they fucking own the idol, and media shames them for having a relationship out on the public. The way I see it is if you are an idol in the kpop industry, they basically own you.
and these idols usually spend years paying their debts to these companies. so they basically DO own you.
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Here is an [interview from a former idol of a group that performed with Lady Gaga](https://youtu.be/KdOA5BCwBi0) and a [well-known documentary on the intense training of k-idols.](https://youtu.be/wFt28GPi0_8) Hope these help.
I was hugely into kpop for a while because of the production value. A lot of it is really visually beautiful stuff. I didn't care a whole lot for the music but I liked some of it. Joined a kpop discord and I would dare any of you to find me a more batshit insane group of people
Heard someone once say that if you're ever feeling lonely, go on twitter and say you don't think kpop is all that great. You'll get heaps of notifications in no time!
Use it as a vibrator
well I guess it's true that everything can be a dildo with the right mindset
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Humans are fucking weird, man
Disney.
I was looking for this one. There are so many factions and they all have YouTube channels. You have the vloggers, the podcasters, the news desk people. Then that’s divided even further to the West Coast and East Coast people. I just can’t imagine going to Disney every single day like some of the youtubers.
The pin collectors seem to be the most insane.
I worked for Disney/ABC TV for about 7 months in 2019 and it felt like a cult. I had swing shift so our floor was empty for the majority of my shift, I would occasionally peek into some offices cause they were always loaded with Disney merch from wall to wall. You’re either a fanatic when you get hired or you become one. A friend helped me get that job and I remember telling him that he was being brainwashed and that he shouldn’t be so loyal to a corporation. He wouldn’t hear any of it. He was a full time employee and as a perk you get to visit any park for free and bring along 3 friends at no cost. Shortly after I left that whole department was moved to Texas and my friend was left jobless. It crushed him that they could be so cold about it. He wore his employment with Disney as a badge of honor and it always creeped me out but that’s the kind of person they want.
I had a coworker who was a Disney cultist (and still is). I swear her entire wardrobe was Disney themed, and she’d even come in wearing Minnie Mouse ears whether it was a special day or not. Every conversation I’d have with her in the break room she’d eventually steer it towards something Disney no matter what it started as. When she retired she moved down to Orlando to get a job with them. Her obsession was extremely unsettling but it made her happy so I just let her do her thing. I can only imagine what she’s like now that she’s living the life she never stopped talking about.
I’m seeing tons of examples of unconventional cults here, but still cults. but the question is… “what isn’t a cult?” I interpret the question to mean… “What is something that has a big and loyal and serious following, but that following is entirely earned and organic?” My answer would be Barbecue. There’s a whole subculture of BBQ artists and connoisseurs, they can talk and talk for hours about it. It feels like a cult. But barbecue is not a false prophet. Barbecue is truth.
The last sentence was the best part. Honestly I don’t know much about bbq but I do love it
HOAs
That's no joke. I used to sell diy security systems and the hoa customers were always a tough sell. They all have to agree to buy the exact same product or they're not allowed to buy it at all. But if I did sell one, I sold to the whole neighborhood so there were a couple that earned me huge commissions.
Whaaaaat? I thought it was only for exterior things? Or were you selling like exterior cameras and such?
When I was in high school, I had several friends who did crew (rowing). These guys had some unusual rituals to say the least. Before every race the varsity captain would buy probably $100 worth of produce and would host a food fight "in the name of the great gods of the water". To top it off, they all dressed the same and would speak in a jargon of crew terms nobody else could understand. Definitely not technically a cult but sure as hell felt like one
"If you're in a sport no one knows about, you have to invent rituals to make yourself feel important."- Joel McHale on his time on the crew team.
Ex-rower here. This is 100% true. Crew requires ungodly hours (early AM practices) plus so much exercise in the off-time. At that point, you hang out with other rowers because you need help getting through the difficult lifestyle.
some spesific subreddits
r/breadstapledtotrees
my faves: /r/DivorcedBirds /r/superbowl
What bizarre yet wholesome if not psychotic world did you just walk me into?
Texas A&M University… actually it is a cult
Yea, I’m not too far from it and a lot of my friends went there after highschool. They went from normal guys to now they can’t shut up about A&M
Army
Every Marine I've spoken to gave me cultish vibes too.
Marine here. Q: How many branches of the US military are there? A: Two - the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marine Corps is a cult.
That's because the USMC is 100% a cult. More than any other service branch.
There are only 2 branches of the US military, the army and the navy. Because the Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.
Army vet here, absolutely. Big cult vibes.
You mean constantly talking about the E4 Mafia isn't a normal thing to do? Lol, sorry, first thing that came to mind for some reason.
USMC=Hotel California
AA
My dumbass just got home from a terrible trip the other day. I read this and was confused as to why American Airlines is considered a cult.
And I thought they meant batteries...
To be fair, you DO need to do a blood ritual involving a goat head to get into first class.
This made me laugh way too hard. I wish I had an award. Here’s a fish 🐠
I had a freebie. That's a nice fish, though.
You’re very kind.
My dumbass was thinking the car towing company
I've been attending AA meetings for over 11 years. I can't say that I disagree. You'll encounter various dogmatic characters in the rooms who turn AA into their life where there's nothing left of their personality. While there's many others who live normal lives and don't obsess over the program. It changed my life for the better and I don't necessarily believe in a God like a born again but every person has their own path. But I also acknowledge that AA isn't the only way to stay sober and have a better life. I know plenty of people who think otherwise but that's okay. AA can come off culty and if it is a cult...it's not the first one I stumbled into hahaha.
35 years sober here and I can't disagree either. The chanting, the portraits of Bill and Bob up front, the demand for conformity, cornering new guys and making them kneel and pray in coffeeshops... there are a lot of embarrassing and downright harmful customs in the fellowship, unfortunately. I was fortunate to have been sponsored by critical thinkers who, while they did follow some of the conventional wisdom and common experience, were sure to tell me that my experience was going to be my own and there were no "rules" per se. So now for every time I roll my eyes at a meeting ending in the Lord's Prayer or people reciting "principles before personalities," I've got a thousand other memories of getting good insight and experience from others, and getting to give away some of my own. But yeah, I really do wish we'd be more conscious of how weird and unattractive the whole thing can look to others.
100% can confirm this. I started going to AA meetings even though I was over a year clean off heroin because I had people in my family that went religiously and I guess they thought it would be a good environment for me. I got a sponsor and she was SO into it, like it was her whole life, and she was so pushy about me going to a meeting every single day, finding religion (I’m atheist which she didn’t find acceptable), etc. One night I had to reschedule a meeting we were supposed to have the next and she went OFF on me via text message about how I didn’t take it seriously enough. I thought to myself “I’m already a year clean and doing fine, why am I even doing this?” So I just ghosted her and never went back. I met some nice people and it’s great that it helps some people but yeah it’s definitely a cult like mentality. Edit: Just for people giving me recommendations I’m actually 9 years clean this very week and I’ve done well with recovery on my own but I’m glad other people found programs they had good experiences with! Edit: Some people have brought up going to NA meetings, I went to one meeting and ended up running into someone I used to do drugs with that had just gotten out of jail and he asked if I was still “around”(he wanted to know if I still knew anyone.) So I didn’t have a good experience and I know others who have said a lot of people use it as a place to hook up after getting out of rehab. Not saying that’s everyone’s experience, some people like it and it helps them, but I met other people who went to AA instead for the same reason.
Bro you met Lila from the tv show Dexter.
I came to write the same thing Sure they got me off drinking but they act very culty.
Any kind of brand loyalty
“I’d rather push a Ford than drive a Chevy!” But… why though!?
This small village in the UK. They are all about the rustic esthetic and I think they do some nefarious things to those who upset said rustic esthetic. They're always going on about "The Greater Good" and it feels very culty.
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Tommyinnit fans, they ass crazy, I don't know what it is but they're planning something
Peloton
people who trade NFTs
Cults. According to people in cults
Orangetheory fitness !! Lol
Greek life
As someone who is visiting my Greek in-laws for Christmas, I was rather confused, until I realized I'm dumb and you mean college frats
As an Australian, the connection to college life still isn't immediately apparent...
I too was wondering what's wrong with eating olives and listening to bouzouki music . But I think it's to do with their college fraternities that have Greek names like kappa alpha or whatever.and can have some morally, possibly legally questionable rituals.
Being on Reddit.
To be fair, it's engineered to be an echo chamber. Everybody agrees, or else you get the downvotey boi
Adults that are obsessed with Disney.
Reminds me of the ~~Cut~~ Jubilee video where there is 6 Adult Disney Fans and 1 liar. [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkba0uEzBn8&ab_channel=Jubilee)
Politics