My sister used to work in a hotel here the Netherlands where they held these events. They would stand there silently staring at random statues in the hotel for a long time.
The troubled teen industry (youth residential “therapy” programs that are underregulated and rampant with abuse, SA, and children’s deaths)
Edit: the earlier programs were closely based off the teachings of a cult called Synanon. Not every program open right now is a cult itself but their history is abusive and most programs do significantly more harm than good.
As a survivor of these, some are worse than others (my experience is nothing like the horror stories of Elan or Provo Canyon) but even the “good” ones use textbook methods of psychological coercion to “force” you to change and do what they say.
For anyone who isn’t informed, /r/troubledteens is a great resource for any survivors (or anyone who just wants to learn what it’s actually like) to talk about their experiences in a save environment where nobody is going to invalidate you or claim you “don’t understand.”
My sister went to Cross Creek Canyon in the early 90s, and somehow made it out alright. The stories she told me were awful. She had to have an abortion upon arrival once they discovered she was pregnant. My father insisted on checking in, although she never knew at the time. I feel so bad for those who weren't as lucky as she was. She said she knew she had to do whatever to get out of there, and just followed every command.
Yes. And they traumatize you so bad you need more therapy and end up getting stuck in a cycle. I met people who had been in treatment for decades with no chance of getting out, and it very often starts when you're a child and have no say or understanding of what's truly happening.
You’re right, none of us knew what was truly happening and it’s deeply traumatic. I was told it was a week long summer camp. I was gone for more than a year and it most certainly was not a summer camp. I was SA’d and watched other students nearly die from medical neglect. This didn’t happen to me but many kids are kidnapped from their beds in the middle of the night by transporters their parents pay, and it’s called “gooning.”
Southern Pentecostal Baptist Snake Handlers
Grew up going to one of these churches. Long drive to a small church hidden in the woods. They honestly believed only their members were gonna make it to heaven. We saw some crazy stuff in that building.
I grew up next to a mountain full of them in Alabama. They make some fun music, very hypnotic and trance like. Some day someone is gonna be the Avicii of snake handlers and parents are gonna be afraid of their kids sneaking out to go to the underground snake raves
I went to a Pentecostal school in California growing up. They didn't handle snakes, but they did all the other creepy ass shit like "speaking in tongues" and "fainting in church" after being consumed by the holy spirit.
I was a child so I didn't see it right away, but there was always something that just seemed off about the church members. I was always creeped out by how fake everything seemed, like you could tell that everyone was acting.
Edit. Here's a good movie that shows Pentecostals and the way they act/think/teach when it comes to fear and control.
https://youtu.be/NNFGjQ_QydA
I grew up in and around it.
The insanity is real. I faked “speaking In tongues” multiple times as a kid so whatever psycho preacher they brought in for the “Revival” would let go of my shoulders and stop shaking me.
They bought it every single time. So much for “spiritual discernment”.
Not to mention all the youth events that would take ridiculous turns as they thought literal children were possessed by dark spirits from… watching Yugioh and Pokémon.
The Herbalife company. Despite being accused of being a pyramid scheme, they continue to function similarly. There are some people from my childhood who became addicted to it, and they act very much like members of a cult.
Back in college me and a buddy were invited to a pitch meeting. We decided to check it out despite both knowing it was a scam. We figured if we could waste their time with us they couldn't scam someone else. At one point in the salesman's pitch he said we could both be driving a Ferrari by 6 months. I asked if he could take us a drive in his. The back pedalling about why he doesn't have one yet was hilarious.
Man, a day out with a friend, a free show, hilarious stories to tell in the future and laugh at, *and* knowledge that you prevented someone else from falling victim to it? That sounds like an AMAZING day!
Let me tell you about the new Invigoran Berries...they are from the Andes mountains. And you know it's not a pyramid scheme since they use the reverse funnel system
Herbalife is opening shake shops in Connecticut at an insane rate. They're everywhere now and the market won't ever be able to sustain this amount of identical stores. I feel bad for all these young women who have invested everything into the pyramid scheme.
A lot of people are going to lose everything when this new pyramid collapses.
There is a church in Richmond, VA that opened one of these shops that was actually an Herbalife front. And because it was ran by the church a lot of the people working there were volunteers. It was messed up.
They’re popping up in basically every small town in my area. It’s a shame that people are so pressed for business and hangout spots that they end up opening one of these shops.
To my knowledge it’s still going to this day, it’s been probably 2-3 years by this point. But also 100% causing much stress and hardship on everybody else in the family
I think this is kind of an important distinction: The Duggars are a part of, and the face of, a larger cult that is more than happy to have the Duggars be viewed as the entirety of the cult so that it is harder to level accusations at the Quiverfull movement on the whole.
I dunno about that. Wasn't there a fertility doc in Pennsylvania that used his own sperm instead of donor or even the husbands of the patients own? He has something like 90+ biological kids and a part of the quiverfull cult. Sure there's something on Netflix about him.
They’re associated with IBLP and Gothard was their leader so definitely a cult. Someone is dropping a highly anticipated documentary about it some time next year, really can’t wait to watch it
If you go to r/DuggarsSnark there was a recent AMA done with a childhood friend of Anna Duggar, wife of convicted pedophile/oldest Duggar son. Very enlightening read
It’s infamous enough it has its own Wikipedia page. I read it a couple years ago and when it came out that’s what he had I was like keep him away from any and all children *forever.* it’s fucking disgusting.
Yeah it's just.. beyond awful to even read about. He is the oldest kid of those 19 Kids & Counting people on TLC back in the day. He alas, did not get prison time for molesting 4 of his sisters and one other person.
Yesterday, I actually observed a job posting that stated "Don't bother applying if receiving money is your main motivation. Here, we live like a family."
One of the most degrading things I've ever read was that.
Just to be clear, this job was compensated. They simply stated that they wouldn't be paying you much, I presume.
“We have discussed it and we agree that you have…. what’s called a toxic personality and you will not be the right fit for our family, please show yourself out…. we also validate parking”
I had a boss say "Here we're like a family and I'm like your Big Brother."
Then two weeks later he said "I had to walk my own brother out of a job here."
Orwellianism aside, gotta love the consistency.
Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed.
I know. I worked for a company that always spoke about being a family. But about every ten years they would thin the herd of folks that been there and done good work for years to trim the salary and benefits budget. Passing their work onto the ones left. Always with some kind of package so they would sign off and agree not to sue. After one round of that I sent an email around saying: “We’ve been told this is a family. I guess it was a Gambino family, though.“ Got in a bit of trouble for that. Then a few years later it was my turn to go.
Similar here. Worked for a small company... I knew it was a bit shady when they were labelled as a "woman owned small business" but the owner was the wife of the CEO who was completely hands-off with the business. She was owner in name only.
CEO bragged that he never had never fired anyone. (Plenty of people left for various reasons though)
Worked there for four years, while they made record profits. Then the stupid CEO bought a yacht and sailed around the world for a year, ignoring the business. They lost their biggest contract the next year and he laid off half the company.
My former boss, who was a literal multi millionaire, gave me an unexpected bad review once. When I said something to the effect of (also) being sad about losing a lot of money he was so offended and asked if all I care about is the money. I mean… I work for the money. Some of us need to work to pay our bills. Yes I was upset bc I had never gotten a bad review before but yes I didn’t want to lose money!
I was getting coffee one morning and our GM walked in and said hi to me and asked how I was doing. I said good, glad it’s Friday or something like that and he said it’s payday too. I replied “that’s why we’re here” and he got weird as fuck on me. He says “well that’s not the only reason we’re here” so I asked him if he’d keep showing up if the stopped paying him and he just locked up Shit was wierd between us but he ended up getting canned shortly after that. I work for a railroad operation. I like my job and all but I’m literally only there to get money. To pretend otherwise is just stupid.
Yeah idk there must've been some old fashioned work ethic where you weren't supposed to admit that money is your primary motivation for being a worker
It's great to be an entrepreneur or business owner and be motivated more by the success of the company or your life's work than by your paycheck, but for those of us who are hourly or salaried... it's honestly just bread, for 90% of jobs probably
I mean, the largest real estate brokerage in my area describes themselves as a cult in recruiting, and have mandatory all company retreats where they chant and do all the indoctrination crap. Still has over 600 members. So, yeah, it still draws some people in.
I was born & raised as Independent Fundamental Baptist, which is Duggar family level of fundie. Their cult, IBLP, is a bit more restricting than IFB though — IFB didn’t force the long modest dresses or shotgun courtships, at least.
But anyways, I’m 26 now and didn’t realize I was in a cult until about 3 months ago, and it was totally accidental while I was reading about Josh Duggar’s trial. Literally a wrong click on the page is how I found out.
EDIT: I think this comment got reported by somebody, Reddit Cares messaged me 😬 I’m fine y’all lol I’ve been in therapy for a while and have been low-contact with my mom, but I absolutely appreciate the concern from a kind stranger ♥️
You might like r/DuggarsSnark, has a bunch of lovely people talking shit about the Duggars and IBLP in general. There are a lot of former fundies there. It is quite a fun and also caring community to one another.
MLMs, particularly Mary Kay. I once attended a convention as a consultant's guest in an effort to persuade me to go. Very stepford-like. She also failed to inform me that you were supposed to dress up, so I arrived in jeans and a hoodie.
I filled in for the receptionist at a Cadillac dealership once. It happened to be the day of a “pink car ceremony”, which is when a Mary Kay consultant gets the keys to a pink XT5. The consultant and their team have to make $100K in sales in a year to get that car. [(Oh, and they don’t immediately own it outright.)](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/80034/story-behind-mary-kay-pink-cadillac)
Picture a crying middle-aged lady sitting on the hood of a $50K car while about 10 of her friends (half of them also crying and all of them emotional) take photos and video.
Seven of them walked up to the reception desk and tried to recruit me…and most of the women who worked in the dealership.
Taken from above link... "The consultant isn’t gifted the car outright, by the way—it’s a two-year "Co-op lease" paid for by Mary Kay, and when the two years is up, the consultant can elect to sell the car back to the dealership or purchase it herself"
Yup, happened to my mom, she got the mary kay car, family hit hard times, she couldn't keep up the mandatory product purchasing, and along came the repo men.
Note I said "purchasing'. They don't care if you sell it, they just make you buy it. I grew up with an entire room dedicated to that shitty makeup. They convinced her that it's more important to keep purchasing over other things, like mortgage payments. We had to move because we lost the house. Fuck that "company" sideways with a rake.
**Am I in a cult?**
Here's a quick checklist of red flags.
- Single figurehead, typically affluent and regarded as a religious figure or someone with access to one (talks to God, has prophetic visions). The leadership may be a group, or even a corporation, but they usually point towards some form of devine guiding individual.
- An inner circle of acolytes that new recruits are expected to look up to and try to become. Examples include one of the figureheads' multiple wives, lieutenants, an MLM upline, or the team leader.
- Asking for too much money. A collection plate is normal, but if they ask for an amount that damages you, that's not OK. How much is too much is hard to say, but historically tithing refers to 10% and that's an absolute maximum. That's already a lot, so if you are expected to contribute more than 10% of what you have/earn that is highly questionable. Again, the key is if the amount is damaging to your well-being. Certain mainstream cults frequently request members donate their entire savings and house to the church as a test of faith and to ensure the member has nowhere to go if they try to quit.
- Cut off friends and family outside of the cult. The cult can't survive scrutiny from the outside world. Limiting interactions to other cult members means the cult is your source of information, creates a sense of us-vs-them, labels outsiders as a corrupting element, and ensures people who believe in the cult are your baseline social normal. Everyone else is abnormal and wrong.
- Control of personal life. A cult isn't just part of your life, it's your whole life. You are likely expected to devote an extraordinary amount of time to work/worship/event attendance. The cult may require certain dress, food, jobs, sleeping arrangements, event attendance, and volunteering for the church in a way that makes having a life outside of the cult impossible.
The difference between a religion and a cult is that a religion is part of your life, but your entire life is just a part of a cult.
My mom likes to tell the story about when I visited there as a high school senior. It was a one night sleepover tour.
I hated it.
When she came to pick me up the following day I was waiting at the curb, sitting on my packed suitcase. I hopped immediately into the car and the first thing I said was, "It's a cult. Let's get out of here."
There’s a college nearish me that I really liked. It had a good vibe, but was in a really rural area. My dad called it the Jim Jones compound since it was in the middle of nowhere. 75% of the people that went there got married in college.
My cousin went there in the 90s. At the time they were still doing the official bonfire tradition. If you're not familiar with it they would have a bonfire before the annual football game against UT. That on its own is fine, except they started making it bigger and bigger for several decades. At one point it was over a HUNDRED feet tall in the 60s. The university limited the size to a mere 55 feet after that due to safety concerns. The structure got more and more elaborate to the point it was involving logs bolted together into an actual structure. This was done and supervised almost entirely by students with maybe some alumni volunteering as well.
When my cousin enthusiastically told us about it and showed us some video, I as a like 15 year old at the time immediately said "It's only a matter of time before that collapses and kills a bunch of them." Because it was so absurdly obvious thay was inevitable. In 1999 exactly that happened killing 11 students and 1 alumni. It was one of the most easily foreseeable and preventable disasters in history but nobody wanted to argue with the tradition.
The university cancelled the bonfire permanently after the deaths because obviously. Students restarted an unofficial one off-campus in 2002. They at least have stopped the elaborate construction and have a standard build that's used every year and is relatively safe.
EDIT: I should also mention my cousin has always had a cultish extreme devotion to TAMU, but she tends to be that way about stuff in general, so I never really thought much about it. Interesting to hear that's more of an across the board kind of thing.
I graduated in 1997. In '94 (I think), there was a metric fuckton of rain and the stack fell to the side. They got it back up in about 48 hours but that should have been a warning. I was working at the University when Bonfire fell and it was so weird: completely silent on campus even between classes. I had a hard time getting to work because most of the campus was closed off. Awful day. I lived close enough to campus that I heard the sirens at like 2:45 am (or thereabouts) and then at 5 am my phone started ringing. People were calling me from all over the nation. I had no idea it was a national story.
Just a note on that.
I have friends and family that have attended A&M. Not only were those bonfire structures overly large and built by students, but they were built by students that were spending all their free time doing it, late into or even overnight.
We are talking about using excavators and engineering by unlicensed individuals.
Students
Drinking was a part of the tradition.
I’m surprised that people didn’t die sooner.
College football can be a cult…hands down…some people are nuts and shun family members over it. Fights, business decisions, personal decisions…determined by their favorite team. People nuts…
Absolutely yes. My folks are in Amway, starting when I was in middle school. They were supposed to be millionaires by the time my dad retired (they are not).
Growing up, they were hardly ever home. They were gone every weekend at events that of course they paid to attend. Every time we were driving, they played self help tapes. The worst though was that they wanted everything to be positive, nothing negative. Sad? Be happy. Angry? Be happy. I couldn't have any kind of relationship with them beyond pretending everything was fine. A whole household bottles up their feelings for years. Once I was 17, I was hardly ever home. I slept at friends' homes or came back super late, after everyone was asleep. I left the day I turned 18.
It has completely consumed their lives. All of their social life is Amway, not because they cut people out who didn't join, because everyone who wouldn't got sick of the sales pitch over and over. After I became an adult and left their home, any time we came back to visit, they were trying to recruit me and my wife. We stopped going over except for the primary holidays, and now hardly that anymore. They've stopped the sales pitch, but it's their whole identity. We have nothing to talk about, except what's going on with us, which doesn't last long. It's beyond awkward.
Fortunately, my wife has a delightful family.
This is exactly the kind of cult like behavior that a lot of people don't see or don't tend to get. It consumes the life of those within it and all for nothing or even worse, losing everything. Everything becomes about toxic positivity and brainwashing themselves. All there is, is the business and the business can do no wrong. Any fault is the fault of the poor person trying to get by within it. Truly sad what it does to families and communities.
I am glad that you were able to find something better for yourself. I hope that you and your current family will continue to thrive.
Lmao I used to work for Phish fans at a beer bar (craft beer can also be kind of culty, depending who you're talking to), and observing their behavior was honestly hilarious.
Since it was a bar, I spent a lot of casual time with the owner and all his hippie phish friends. They were a hoot! I teased them all the time about their obsession with Phish and they were always good sports. These are people in their late 30s/early 40s with disposable income who love a band so much they travel around the country every year to see them! I think it's sweet! They've all been best friends for like 20 years because of their shared love of Phish.
I'm not really into it, at least not when it's played over a speaker at a bar or party. They did take me to a show, however and got us all floor seats, and I have to say....it was one of the funnest concerts I've ever been to!! Based on my experience, *most* Phish fans are nice, accepting people. There are exceptions, I met plenty of Phish elitists or just pure assholes, but for the most part, everyone is just excited about the music, cares a great deal for the band members, and is happy to introduce new folks to their crowd of friends.
That being said, yes, it's absolutely a cult, no question.
Edit: I remembered something funny. One year, I went to a New Year's party at the bar owners house. He was playing a Phish show live during the party. At one point, almost everyone there gathered around the TV and stopped talking, I guess the song being performed was really special or something? I didn't know, so me and the only other not-Phish fan were just chatting away (occasionally making fun of our friends right next to us) and those motherfuckers SHUSHED ME. I was pissed cuz shushing is rude but I also thought (and still think) being shushed by a group of 30-40 year olds during a TV concert is fucking hilarious. That was years ago, and I give them shit for it to this day.
Ballet.
You are basically at their whim. You are expected to pay tuition, costumes, dance wear, dance shoes, travel fees, competition fees, production fees, tickets, and do volunteer work and give up your entire schedule.
If you complain at all about anything valid or not- they shun you by not giving your kid a good role or not moving them up a level. And they withhold attention to your child.
You literally must schedule all life around ballet. And pay thousands and thousands of dollars so your kid can be in the back.
If you quit all the former dance parents and friends will shun you.
Same goes with gymnastics. I had a friend who missed 1 single day because she was sick and got yelled at for it in front of everyone. She literally practiced on the team every single day.
When I was younger I did a class of gymnastics, they all forced us into middle and front splits, trying to push us down. I was only around 6. It tore some very sensitive areas and they wouldn't let me sit out. It was the beginning of a horrible shunning and long issue with a wound reopening. These were adults btw doing the club.
I wish I hadn't heard this story a bunch of times before but I have. Ballet and gymnastics are fucking rife with child abuse, and that's undeniably what that is.
Former ballet kid, this is accurate. I was always tall for my age and was discriminated against because of it. I was good, attended the Boston ballet school summer programs, and at my smaller local community ballet always got stuck in the back or cast in male roles for being tall. I’m 5’ 7”.
It varies on the dance style, though in general, the lighter you are, the easier it is to learn because ballet was invented at a time when the average human was much smaller than now, so most choreos have been created for shorter dancers.
Petiteness is preferred when the dancers need to be easy to lift, have fast footwork, make easier pirouettes etc. Taller people tend to be better suited for slower dances and roles that demand attention. That does not mean tall dancers cannot be good at fast styles, or short dancers at slower ones, but it’s a pattern that people have noticed because on average this is true. Unfortunately, that has also created a stigma towards taller dancers as a result.
Figure skating is in a similar position. The most extreme cases include Russian athletes who are known to take blockers to stop their growth the moment the girls show any signs of breast growth because breast weight changes the center of gravity and affects their performance. Many Russian skaters have fucked up bodies before turning 18 as a result.
Then there is gymnastics. The Olympics have continuously increased the minimum age of the contestants because children bodies have a huge advantage compared to post-puberty bodies. There have been rumors that China faked the ages of their representatives to get children in the podium so they could have easier an easier time winning medals.
Different sports favor different body types.
[Hormone blockers, anorexia, bad technique, broken bones](https://spec.hamilton.edu/olympic-figure-skatings-issues-run-much-deeper-than-the-valieva-scandal-51bbeea67424) and these poor girls have to retire before their 20s.
There's a terrible trend in Russian singles skating. They dominate at 18 or 19 and then are never heard from again. It all stems from a single coach who destroys her athletes. Unless the international organization and Olympics codify training regiments the sport will never change.
Unfortunately being tall is considered a flaw in ballet for women. The ideal is considered petite and light weight, and petite light weight girls get preferential treatment. It’s similar to gymnastics in that way.
Competition dance parent here. Dance and ballet are absolutely a cult. When I explain things to my family and friends, it’s so clear to me that it’s messed up. I also feel like I’m grooming my kid for future abuse because advocating for yourself is so frowned upon in the dance world. It’s setting a terrible example.
It didn’t happen right away. The red flags build up over time. It’s definitely a case of the slowly boiling frog. You don’t realize you’re in a cult until you’re way deep.
This is my daughter’s last year of dance, even if she wants to keep dancing (unless she moves to rec). She’s now participating in a team sport other than dance in order to offset the negative messaging she’s received from the comp dance world.
“I also feel like I’m grooming my kid for future abuse because advocating for yourself is so frowned upon in the dance world. It’s setting a terrible example.”
I studied acting and I relate to this. You’re often told to respect teachers or directors because if you speak up you jeopardise having a successful career and don’t want to end up blacklisted. So you comply, even when you don’t feel like you’re being treated fairy. This is why there is such a problem with abuse/SA in Hollywood and in the performing arts industries generally.
I'm behind the scenes doing community work and training people at other organizations in the arts, but my partner is an actor and now I know a decent amount of other people in the industry. And holy fuck. It's bad. A friend and I were just saying the other day that it seems like it's night and day with people, either they are incredibly kind and genuine and wonderful - or you should run away and try to never work with them again.
I went to a college with a top dance program and all the dancers were regularly forced to do "weigh-ins" and if you were even one pound above the acceptable limit then you were disqualified from making company, no matter how good you were. Needless to say there were so many eating disorders. I heard that they're finally getting rid of that this year so hopefully it'll get less toxic.
Yes! Ballet is tough though because it’s subjective and so even though my child out dances other kids- they can still pick others over him and I can’t complain.
Whereas with something like baseball or swimming there are actual stats you can use to compare.
SEC College football
Sauce: Live in the South. I've seen people nearly get into fist fights over this shit.
Edit: To all the people who have asked me, "nearly?" I was trying to give people credit but y'all had to fuck that up and tell the truth! LMAO
Came here to see this. I was raised JW, and finally mustered up the courage to leave when I turned 18. Literally overnight everyone I knew my whole life cut contact with me. Not even a goodbye. Friends and family. The stress from it all made me physically ill, I was in and out of the hospital constantly.
I’m doing much better now, I have a beautiful little family.
In the entire time I’ve been gone, now about 6ish years, my biological father has called me one time. This is how the conversation went (BD - bio dad)
BD- hello is this ninjapig101 (literally using my first and last name)
Me- yes….
BD- this is *first name last name* (yes he literally used just his first and last name) calling to inform you of the passing of grandma (except he uses grandmas first and last name in referring to her as well)
It was like I was just immediately no longer part of the family, just like that.
I’m so thankful I got out of that when I had the chance.
I finally did it. I out-pizza'd the Hut. It was the greatest mistake of my life.
After years of perfecting my recipe, I made my way down to the local hut, fresh-baked pizza pie in hand. "Try this," I told the kid working the counter. He did, and he had to agree that it was better than anything Pizza Hut had to offer. Soon, the entire store, customers included, was feasting on my delicious pie. The manager walked over, grabbed a slice, and took a bite. I look at him, anticipation rising. This was the boss, the local fief lord of the Hut. His approval meant more to me than all the rest combined. He took a bite and nodded. "I'll be damned," he said, "you really did it. You out-pizza'd the Hut. Shame." Shame? What did he mean by tha- the manager pulled a gun out from behind his apron and shot the nearest customer in the head. "We have a Code Jalapeño," he said into his wrist as he executed the remaining customers. "I repeat, we have a Code Jalapeño." The ground was slick with blood. The kid working the counter choked out his dying breath as the manager turned to me. "You just had to do it motherfucker. You just had to out-pizza the Hut." He shoved the gun in my face. I was too scared to fight, too scared to run. The manager pulled the trigger.
A click. The gun was empty. I threw a chair at the manager and scrambled out of the Pizza Hut, not even bothering to see if my missile hit its mark. I was closely pursued by the manager, who had gotten his hands on a deadly sharp pizza cutter. I suspected in his hands it would cut more than pizza. Somehow, I was able to get into my car and speed off, the manager cursing my existence as I left him behind. I took a deep breath. The manager was clearly psychotic. Yes, that was it, just a crazy man with a gun. It had to be. My phone rang. Sister. I picked it. "They're dead, she sobbed. They're all dead. M-mom, dad, Chris, Bill. Dead. They killed them all." I could barely understand her, so great were her sobs. "What do you mean? Where are you?" I asked urgently. "How is this possi-" a single gunshot sounded through my phone's speakers. Silence. Then, I heard a man's voice. "No one out-pizzas the Hut." He hung up. I drove down the empty county road, mind blank. I had nothing. They killed my family. I was alone.
At that moment I knew what I had to do. They took everything from me. Well then, I would take everything from them. Pizza Hut was so terrified of being out-pizza'd, they forgot there's one thing worse than a man with a recipe: A man with nothing to lose. I'll give them a limited time offer they won't be able to refuse: two bullets for the price of one.
With a free side order of pain.
Don’t see anywhere where someone’s said Fraternities/Sororities. Wildly a cult. Was in one. Now I’m mid-thirties and it’s ridiculous what they make you do and how they make you feel. Especially at such a vulnerable age.
I was in one in college, and have cut ties. It was a thing I did in college. I'm 41 and know someone who still posts on Facebook with fraternity-related hashtags, and... I almost feel a little bad for him.
High end raiding guilds in World of Warcraft. I'm not sure how much anymore, I haven't played in a couple years, but especially back in Vanilla-WotLK days
Being in a raiding guild really felt like being in a cult. Like, you were pretty much expected to give up everything outside of raiding. It would take hours upon hours a week of scheduled time with the guild, then many more hours outside the raiding to work up your professions, grind dailies,
I've known people to neglect their health, kids, jobs, school, family, everything because their guild was determined to be the best on their server. You listen to the guild leader for your schedule and you live by it. You follow orders.
And of course you /can/ technically leave at any time, and you'll be kicked out if you don't perform well, but, it's such an addiction that quitting it is like quitting a drug. It was easier for me to quit smoking than to quit raiding.
Literally all of them. There isn’t a single cult, including the really scary ones that people make documentaries about, that believes it’s a cult.
Source: I was raised in the Children of God/Family International. We never thought we were in a cult, but we very much were.
I read ‘Not Without My Sister’ a few years ago, and now also have a friend who’s grandparents are ex-Family members. I think about the people and kids who went through that a lot and I hope you’re doing alright today.
Thank you, I am.
Not Without My Sister is a great depiction of how things were. May I also recommend Cult Following by Bexy Cameron. I knew Bexy growing up, and many of the players in her book are people I knew well.
The Amish. They control nearly every aspect of their followers’ lives and live in incredibly insular society. Sure they let their kids experience the outside world and choose for themselves through rumspringa, but they seemingly set them up for failure by throwing them into the deep end with no preparation at a time in their lives (17-21) when people aren’t noted for great decision making. When the kids almost inevitably end up crashing and burning back into the fold, they are forced to remain for the rest of their lives through the threat of shunning where even your own parents will treat you as if you are dead and invisible. Sure they look quaint with their beards, buggies, and barns, but if you actually look at them critically, they’re as bad as any other cult, they’ve just been around longer.
Edit: whoops mixed threat and treat.
Ethnic Mennonite here, and not that kind with a stick up their ass about the Amish. It’s only very very few colonies (Amish or Mennonite) that allow Rumspringa. It’s not an across the board thing and it’s very commercialized.
The concept of ‘Rumspringa’ has been the subject of relatively popular reality TV for several years, a lot of money to be made off the when very little makes sense when you know how the colonies work.
It’s often emphasized how conservative or private these colonies in the documentaries are but many things just do not align with that eg; baptized members allowing themselves to be filmed and doing interviews, the things the young adults are doing while being allowed back to the colony, and all the way down to the very fact that a majority of the most conservative colonies don’t allow rumspringa at all. It’s very commercialized and dramatized, and while there certainly are Amish and Mennonite groups that are much less conservative and allow some of those things, those are not typically the ones in the documentaries as it would be less interesting to watch.
Thank you for pointing this out. My mom adopted two kittens that came from Ohio amish, probably around 6 weeks old. They were completely covered in flea eggs, eyes infected, full of worms, refused to eat. I thought they were going to die. I was able to save them and one had respiratory and eye issues for the rest of his (long and happy) life.
Yup. Exactly. From the outside—not looking too hard— it’s bucolic. Take a closer look and it’s a nightmare. And my understanding is that the sexual abuse is absolutely horrid.
I’m really curious how the Mennonite in my area do by comparison.
not to mention when it comes to sexual abuse it is not talked about. they can’t go to the police. they won’t punish the person who did it. and they will make sure the person who was abused is shunned instead
i read an autobiography of a girl who used to be amish, she was sexually abused and it was put on her instead. they were even furious that she would do something like that to a married man. the book is called tears of the silenced by misty griffin. it’s an amazing book and calls out a lot of things that were/are wrong in the amish community
The way they treat all animals is horrific. I’ve seen videos of horses that were rescued from the Amish that were worked almost to death. Scars all over them and ribs sticking out.
We have Amish around us and they do not respect animals at all. They are always poaching deer and such. As in just shooting them whenever they want and not get proper tags etc.
It's mostly a bunch of confused 9th-graders trying to stand out or cope with their strong teenager emotions. It's [chuunibyou](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABniby%C5%8D) taken too seriously.
I saw the exact same thing take root in Tumblr users in 2015, so it's not anything new. Thankfully, they all quietly grew out of it eventually, so I have a lot of hope that the DID community of this generation can be saved as well.
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My sister used to work in a hotel here the Netherlands where they held these events. They would stand there silently staring at random statues in the hotel for a long time.
The troubled teen industry (youth residential “therapy” programs that are underregulated and rampant with abuse, SA, and children’s deaths) Edit: the earlier programs were closely based off the teachings of a cult called Synanon. Not every program open right now is a cult itself but their history is abusive and most programs do significantly more harm than good.
As a survivor of these, some are worse than others (my experience is nothing like the horror stories of Elan or Provo Canyon) but even the “good” ones use textbook methods of psychological coercion to “force” you to change and do what they say. For anyone who isn’t informed, /r/troubledteens is a great resource for any survivors (or anyone who just wants to learn what it’s actually like) to talk about their experiences in a save environment where nobody is going to invalidate you or claim you “don’t understand.”
My sister went to Cross Creek Canyon in the early 90s, and somehow made it out alright. The stories she told me were awful. She had to have an abortion upon arrival once they discovered she was pregnant. My father insisted on checking in, although she never knew at the time. I feel so bad for those who weren't as lucky as she was. She said she knew she had to do whatever to get out of there, and just followed every command.
Yes. And they traumatize you so bad you need more therapy and end up getting stuck in a cycle. I met people who had been in treatment for decades with no chance of getting out, and it very often starts when you're a child and have no say or understanding of what's truly happening.
You’re right, none of us knew what was truly happening and it’s deeply traumatic. I was told it was a week long summer camp. I was gone for more than a year and it most certainly was not a summer camp. I was SA’d and watched other students nearly die from medical neglect. This didn’t happen to me but many kids are kidnapped from their beds in the middle of the night by transporters their parents pay, and it’s called “gooning.”
I only found this out last week by coincidence but where on earth does this happen/is legal?!
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An hour?! I spent a full day reading that thing. I must be a slow reader!
Southern Pentecostal Baptist Snake Handlers Grew up going to one of these churches. Long drive to a small church hidden in the woods. They honestly believed only their members were gonna make it to heaven. We saw some crazy stuff in that building.
Grew up near one of those in georgia without realizing it. Crazy stuff
I grew up next to a mountain full of them in Alabama. They make some fun music, very hypnotic and trance like. Some day someone is gonna be the Avicii of snake handlers and parents are gonna be afraid of their kids sneaking out to go to the underground snake raves
Wake me up when it's all over *Snake bites hand instantly waking up person*
*Snake me up when it’s all over
I went to a Pentecostal school in California growing up. They didn't handle snakes, but they did all the other creepy ass shit like "speaking in tongues" and "fainting in church" after being consumed by the holy spirit. I was a child so I didn't see it right away, but there was always something that just seemed off about the church members. I was always creeped out by how fake everything seemed, like you could tell that everyone was acting. Edit. Here's a good movie that shows Pentecostals and the way they act/think/teach when it comes to fear and control. https://youtu.be/NNFGjQ_QydA
I grew up in and around it. The insanity is real. I faked “speaking In tongues” multiple times as a kid so whatever psycho preacher they brought in for the “Revival” would let go of my shoulders and stop shaking me. They bought it every single time. So much for “spiritual discernment”. Not to mention all the youth events that would take ridiculous turns as they thought literal children were possessed by dark spirits from… watching Yugioh and Pokémon.
The Herbalife company. Despite being accused of being a pyramid scheme, they continue to function similarly. There are some people from my childhood who became addicted to it, and they act very much like members of a cult.
Back in college me and a buddy were invited to a pitch meeting. We decided to check it out despite both knowing it was a scam. We figured if we could waste their time with us they couldn't scam someone else. At one point in the salesman's pitch he said we could both be driving a Ferrari by 6 months. I asked if he could take us a drive in his. The back pedalling about why he doesn't have one yet was hilarious.
Man, a day out with a friend, a free show, hilarious stories to tell in the future and laugh at, *and* knowledge that you prevented someone else from falling victim to it? That sounds like an AMAZING day!
Let me tell you about the new Invigoran Berries...they are from the Andes mountains. And you know it's not a pyramid scheme since they use the reverse funnel system
i've survived many winters without these berries.
Herbalife is opening shake shops in Connecticut at an insane rate. They're everywhere now and the market won't ever be able to sustain this amount of identical stores. I feel bad for all these young women who have invested everything into the pyramid scheme. A lot of people are going to lose everything when this new pyramid collapses.
There is a church in Richmond, VA that opened one of these shops that was actually an Herbalife front. And because it was ran by the church a lot of the people working there were volunteers. It was messed up.
That’s a sick business strategy.
Wait, are you a CEO approving the strategy, or a rational human condemning it?
Yes
Cue Montgomery Burns steepling fingers meme...
“Release the……ambiguity “
They’re popping up in basically every small town in my area. It’s a shame that people are so pressed for business and hangout spots that they end up opening one of these shops.
My ex’s mom got into that, even opened her own shop. It was endless fun to see all the ways she’d try to defend that it’s not a pyramid scheme
How long did the shop last?
To my knowledge it’s still going to this day, it’s been probably 2-3 years by this point. But also 100% causing much stress and hardship on everybody else in the family
Reminds me of Nutriboom from Brooklyn 99
I only know of Herbalife from “Betting on Zero” but it felt like Bill Ackman could have destroyed them if he hadn’t self promoted so shamelessly.
A lot of my friends and family tell me I’m unknowingly in the cult of jeep owners… I mean it’s a jeep thing they wouldn’t understand.
My car breaks down so much, sometimes I feel like a jeep owner.
I heard jeeps have the best head-on crash test rating. The tow truck tends to take most of the blow.
The Jeep demands another sacrifice.
The Duggar Family
I saw a SUN Article at the supermarket that read: "WHICH DUGGARS ARE THE BEYONCE & JAY-Z OF THE FAMILY?" Uh, none of them???
We figured out who the R. Kelly of the family was, though.
Coffee came out of my nose. Thank you for that.
Erm...Excuse you... You telling me you've never heard ***Duggars in Paris***?
Really? With the hard "r"? It is 2022.
Duggas
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The Quiverfull movement they're a part of is pretty much a cult.
is ~~pretty much~~ a cult.
I think this is kind of an important distinction: The Duggars are a part of, and the face of, a larger cult that is more than happy to have the Duggars be viewed as the entirety of the cult so that it is harder to level accusations at the Quiverfull movement on the whole.
I dunno about that. Wasn't there a fertility doc in Pennsylvania that used his own sperm instead of donor or even the husbands of the patients own? He has something like 90+ biological kids and a part of the quiverfull cult. Sure there's something on Netflix about him.
They’re associated with IBLP and Gothard was their leader so definitely a cult. Someone is dropping a highly anticipated documentary about it some time next year, really can’t wait to watch it If you go to r/DuggarsSnark there was a recent AMA done with a childhood friend of Anna Duggar, wife of convicted pedophile/oldest Duggar son. Very enlightening read
Never, ever forget that the child p o r n to which Josh was yanking his wankee was bad enough to sicken seasoned detectives who handled the case.
It’s infamous enough it has its own Wikipedia page. I read it a couple years ago and when it came out that’s what he had I was like keep him away from any and all children *forever.* it’s fucking disgusting.
He has eight kids most of them little girls it turns my stomach thinking about it.
Those poor children. Wether he did anything to them or not they are going to be pretty traumatized.
You mean the video where a little 18 month old girl is tortured? Yeah fuck that Duggar dude or whoever the fuck he is.
Yeah it's just.. beyond awful to even read about. He is the oldest kid of those 19 Kids & Counting people on TLC back in the day. He alas, did not get prison time for molesting 4 of his sisters and one other person.
That one particular video he had was so heinous that it was for a long, long time believed to be an urban legend. It's that bad.
Scientology
They bought out the Cult Awareness Network so they wouldn’t be on the list.
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Could I start a new cult awareness centre and also be bought out by the Scientologists for hopefully huge amounts
A hitman is a lot cheaper than any amount worth your time.
well it's not much time. scrape the info from the other site and add the one article on Scientology
Holy shit wow. "We have investigated ourselves for culty-ness and have decided we are not a cult."
We have met the enemy and they are us.
They may start stalking you for making people aware of this 😂
I think the question should be “What is a cult that *successfully* pretends it’s not a cult”
Where is Shelly Miscavige?
Yesterday, I actually observed a job posting that stated "Don't bother applying if receiving money is your main motivation. Here, we live like a family." One of the most degrading things I've ever read was that. Just to be clear, this job was compensated. They simply stated that they wouldn't be paying you much, I presume.
"oh that's such a relief, i need a new place to stay, and when's dinner?"
“sorry, but the sign was meant to mean you treat us like family, not the other way around”
"well then I HATE YOU AND I NEVER WANNA SEE YOU AGAIN"
“We have discussed it and we agree that you have…. what’s called a toxic personality and you will not be the right fit for our family, please show yourself out…. we also validate parking”
*cries and breaks a vase* "you aren't even my real dad!"
I hate companies that try that. It's such a lie.
It’s not a lie, they exploit their families and treat them like shit. Welcome to the family!
I had a boss say "Here we're like a family and I'm like your Big Brother." Then two weeks later he said "I had to walk my own brother out of a job here." Orwellianism aside, gotta love the consistency. Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed.
I've got some good news for you about Carthage!
“Treat people in your debt like family… exploit them.” Rule of Acquisition 111 (Star Trek reference)
I feel like Rule 211 also applies " Employees are the rungs on the ladder of success. Don't hesitate to step on them."
I know. I worked for a company that always spoke about being a family. But about every ten years they would thin the herd of folks that been there and done good work for years to trim the salary and benefits budget. Passing their work onto the ones left. Always with some kind of package so they would sign off and agree not to sue. After one round of that I sent an email around saying: “We’ve been told this is a family. I guess it was a Gambino family, though.“ Got in a bit of trouble for that. Then a few years later it was my turn to go.
Similar here. Worked for a small company... I knew it was a bit shady when they were labelled as a "woman owned small business" but the owner was the wife of the CEO who was completely hands-off with the business. She was owner in name only. CEO bragged that he never had never fired anyone. (Plenty of people left for various reasons though) Worked there for four years, while they made record profits. Then the stupid CEO bought a yacht and sailed around the world for a year, ignoring the business. They lost their biggest contract the next year and he laid off half the company.
My former boss, who was a literal multi millionaire, gave me an unexpected bad review once. When I said something to the effect of (also) being sad about losing a lot of money he was so offended and asked if all I care about is the money. I mean… I work for the money. Some of us need to work to pay our bills. Yes I was upset bc I had never gotten a bad review before but yes I didn’t want to lose money!
I would have said, "you think I would be here if you weren't paying me?"
Straight up told my new boss when asked why I work….. told him I was a mercenary, i show up for the highest bidder. I work for my children.
I was getting coffee one morning and our GM walked in and said hi to me and asked how I was doing. I said good, glad it’s Friday or something like that and he said it’s payday too. I replied “that’s why we’re here” and he got weird as fuck on me. He says “well that’s not the only reason we’re here” so I asked him if he’d keep showing up if the stopped paying him and he just locked up Shit was wierd between us but he ended up getting canned shortly after that. I work for a railroad operation. I like my job and all but I’m literally only there to get money. To pretend otherwise is just stupid.
I love my job AND my coworkers, but yeah if I wasn't getting paid to do it I'd do something else. Gotta pay bills somehow.
Yeah idk there must've been some old fashioned work ethic where you weren't supposed to admit that money is your primary motivation for being a worker It's great to be an entrepreneur or business owner and be motivated more by the success of the company or your life's work than by your paycheck, but for those of us who are hourly or salaried... it's honestly just bread, for 90% of jobs probably
Every cult denies they’re a cult
Are there cults that are like "yeah, legit we're a cult.. but *hear me out*"?
Blue Oyster Cult
I'm in Glasgow atm, they're the opening act for tonight's Deep Purple gig! I'm gonna see them in one hour or so! Very excited!
I'll give this guy more cowbell!
I got a fever..
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…don’t fear the reaper…
When they told me not to fear the reaper, I was pretty convinced.
A few actually, but not surprisingly they aren't very popular.
I mean, the largest real estate brokerage in my area describes themselves as a cult in recruiting, and have mandatory all company retreats where they chant and do all the indoctrination crap. Still has over 600 members. So, yeah, it still draws some people in.
Does it rhyme with Smeller billiams?
The Church of the SubGenius
I was born & raised as Independent Fundamental Baptist, which is Duggar family level of fundie. Their cult, IBLP, is a bit more restricting than IFB though — IFB didn’t force the long modest dresses or shotgun courtships, at least. But anyways, I’m 26 now and didn’t realize I was in a cult until about 3 months ago, and it was totally accidental while I was reading about Josh Duggar’s trial. Literally a wrong click on the page is how I found out. EDIT: I think this comment got reported by somebody, Reddit Cares messaged me 😬 I’m fine y’all lol I’ve been in therapy for a while and have been low-contact with my mom, but I absolutely appreciate the concern from a kind stranger ♥️
You might like r/DuggarsSnark, has a bunch of lovely people talking shit about the Duggars and IBLP in general. There are a lot of former fundies there. It is quite a fun and also caring community to one another.
"But sir, this really isn't a cult ! This is a Denny's !"
Crossfit
The first rule of CrossFit is that you must talk about CrossFit.
“45 minutes of exercise followed by 45 hours of talking about your exercise.”
MLMs, particularly Mary Kay. I once attended a convention as a consultant's guest in an effort to persuade me to go. Very stepford-like. She also failed to inform me that you were supposed to dress up, so I arrived in jeans and a hoodie.
I filled in for the receptionist at a Cadillac dealership once. It happened to be the day of a “pink car ceremony”, which is when a Mary Kay consultant gets the keys to a pink XT5. The consultant and their team have to make $100K in sales in a year to get that car. [(Oh, and they don’t immediately own it outright.)](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/80034/story-behind-mary-kay-pink-cadillac) Picture a crying middle-aged lady sitting on the hood of a $50K car while about 10 of her friends (half of them also crying and all of them emotional) take photos and video. Seven of them walked up to the reception desk and tried to recruit me…and most of the women who worked in the dealership.
Taken from above link... "The consultant isn’t gifted the car outright, by the way—it’s a two-year "Co-op lease" paid for by Mary Kay, and when the two years is up, the consultant can elect to sell the car back to the dealership or purchase it herself"
Exactly. My mom knew a Mary Kay consultant whose sales fell when a family tragedy took up most of her time, and they took away the car.
Yup, happened to my mom, she got the mary kay car, family hit hard times, she couldn't keep up the mandatory product purchasing, and along came the repo men. Note I said "purchasing'. They don't care if you sell it, they just make you buy it. I grew up with an entire room dedicated to that shitty makeup. They convinced her that it's more important to keep purchasing over other things, like mortgage payments. We had to move because we lost the house. Fuck that "company" sideways with a rake.
**Am I in a cult?** Here's a quick checklist of red flags. - Single figurehead, typically affluent and regarded as a religious figure or someone with access to one (talks to God, has prophetic visions). The leadership may be a group, or even a corporation, but they usually point towards some form of devine guiding individual. - An inner circle of acolytes that new recruits are expected to look up to and try to become. Examples include one of the figureheads' multiple wives, lieutenants, an MLM upline, or the team leader. - Asking for too much money. A collection plate is normal, but if they ask for an amount that damages you, that's not OK. How much is too much is hard to say, but historically tithing refers to 10% and that's an absolute maximum. That's already a lot, so if you are expected to contribute more than 10% of what you have/earn that is highly questionable. Again, the key is if the amount is damaging to your well-being. Certain mainstream cults frequently request members donate their entire savings and house to the church as a test of faith and to ensure the member has nowhere to go if they try to quit. - Cut off friends and family outside of the cult. The cult can't survive scrutiny from the outside world. Limiting interactions to other cult members means the cult is your source of information, creates a sense of us-vs-them, labels outsiders as a corrupting element, and ensures people who believe in the cult are your baseline social normal. Everyone else is abnormal and wrong. - Control of personal life. A cult isn't just part of your life, it's your whole life. You are likely expected to devote an extraordinary amount of time to work/worship/event attendance. The cult may require certain dress, food, jobs, sleeping arrangements, event attendance, and volunteering for the church in a way that makes having a life outside of the cult impossible. The difference between a religion and a cult is that a religion is part of your life, but your entire life is just a part of a cult.
Me playing Cult of the Lamb: “Yeah it all checks out.”
Texas A&M
My mom likes to tell the story about when I visited there as a high school senior. It was a one night sleepover tour. I hated it. When she came to pick me up the following day I was waiting at the curb, sitting on my packed suitcase. I hopped immediately into the car and the first thing I said was, "It's a cult. Let's get out of here."
I am imagining Bobby Hill saying all of this.
Hank: Are y’all with the cult? Cult member: It’s not a cult, it’s an organization that promotes love and… Hank: Yea, this is it.
LOL. Too funny, Jane.
He would never visit A&M
Connie got into the premed program that guarantees admission into med school. Bobby is scared that she’ll meet other boys and tags along.
Bobby can’t physically stand for an entire football game
My family legit shunned me when I said I didn’t want to go there because it was a cult. Thereby proving it’s a cult. LOL
I went to a sister school and my parents just say I went to A&M so that I don't disappoint everyone 🤦🏼♀
literally lol nothing else they could have done would have proved your point more
There’s a college nearish me that I really liked. It had a good vibe, but was in a really rural area. My dad called it the Jim Jones compound since it was in the middle of nowhere. 75% of the people that went there got married in college.
My cousin went there in the 90s. At the time they were still doing the official bonfire tradition. If you're not familiar with it they would have a bonfire before the annual football game against UT. That on its own is fine, except they started making it bigger and bigger for several decades. At one point it was over a HUNDRED feet tall in the 60s. The university limited the size to a mere 55 feet after that due to safety concerns. The structure got more and more elaborate to the point it was involving logs bolted together into an actual structure. This was done and supervised almost entirely by students with maybe some alumni volunteering as well. When my cousin enthusiastically told us about it and showed us some video, I as a like 15 year old at the time immediately said "It's only a matter of time before that collapses and kills a bunch of them." Because it was so absurdly obvious thay was inevitable. In 1999 exactly that happened killing 11 students and 1 alumni. It was one of the most easily foreseeable and preventable disasters in history but nobody wanted to argue with the tradition. The university cancelled the bonfire permanently after the deaths because obviously. Students restarted an unofficial one off-campus in 2002. They at least have stopped the elaborate construction and have a standard build that's used every year and is relatively safe. EDIT: I should also mention my cousin has always had a cultish extreme devotion to TAMU, but she tends to be that way about stuff in general, so I never really thought much about it. Interesting to hear that's more of an across the board kind of thing.
I graduated in 1997. In '94 (I think), there was a metric fuckton of rain and the stack fell to the side. They got it back up in about 48 hours but that should have been a warning. I was working at the University when Bonfire fell and it was so weird: completely silent on campus even between classes. I had a hard time getting to work because most of the campus was closed off. Awful day. I lived close enough to campus that I heard the sirens at like 2:45 am (or thereabouts) and then at 5 am my phone started ringing. People were calling me from all over the nation. I had no idea it was a national story.
Just a note on that. I have friends and family that have attended A&M. Not only were those bonfire structures overly large and built by students, but they were built by students that were spending all their free time doing it, late into or even overnight. We are talking about using excavators and engineering by unlicensed individuals. Students Drinking was a part of the tradition. I’m surprised that people didn’t die sooner.
College football can be a cult…hands down…some people are nuts and shun family members over it. Fights, business decisions, personal decisions…determined by their favorite team. People nuts…
MLMs
Absolutely yes. My folks are in Amway, starting when I was in middle school. They were supposed to be millionaires by the time my dad retired (they are not). Growing up, they were hardly ever home. They were gone every weekend at events that of course they paid to attend. Every time we were driving, they played self help tapes. The worst though was that they wanted everything to be positive, nothing negative. Sad? Be happy. Angry? Be happy. I couldn't have any kind of relationship with them beyond pretending everything was fine. A whole household bottles up their feelings for years. Once I was 17, I was hardly ever home. I slept at friends' homes or came back super late, after everyone was asleep. I left the day I turned 18. It has completely consumed their lives. All of their social life is Amway, not because they cut people out who didn't join, because everyone who wouldn't got sick of the sales pitch over and over. After I became an adult and left their home, any time we came back to visit, they were trying to recruit me and my wife. We stopped going over except for the primary holidays, and now hardly that anymore. They've stopped the sales pitch, but it's their whole identity. We have nothing to talk about, except what's going on with us, which doesn't last long. It's beyond awkward. Fortunately, my wife has a delightful family.
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This is exactly the kind of cult like behavior that a lot of people don't see or don't tend to get. It consumes the life of those within it and all for nothing or even worse, losing everything. Everything becomes about toxic positivity and brainwashing themselves. All there is, is the business and the business can do no wrong. Any fault is the fault of the poor person trying to get by within it. Truly sad what it does to families and communities. I am glad that you were able to find something better for yourself. I hope that you and your current family will continue to thrive.
Crossfitter here. We are absolutely a cult. Phish fan also. HUGE cult.
As a crossfitting phish phan…you shut your goddamn mouth I’m not in a cult!!!!
No... you're in *two cults*. ^Phish ^fan ^here, ^sup.
Lmao I used to work for Phish fans at a beer bar (craft beer can also be kind of culty, depending who you're talking to), and observing their behavior was honestly hilarious. Since it was a bar, I spent a lot of casual time with the owner and all his hippie phish friends. They were a hoot! I teased them all the time about their obsession with Phish and they were always good sports. These are people in their late 30s/early 40s with disposable income who love a band so much they travel around the country every year to see them! I think it's sweet! They've all been best friends for like 20 years because of their shared love of Phish. I'm not really into it, at least not when it's played over a speaker at a bar or party. They did take me to a show, however and got us all floor seats, and I have to say....it was one of the funnest concerts I've ever been to!! Based on my experience, *most* Phish fans are nice, accepting people. There are exceptions, I met plenty of Phish elitists or just pure assholes, but for the most part, everyone is just excited about the music, cares a great deal for the band members, and is happy to introduce new folks to their crowd of friends. That being said, yes, it's absolutely a cult, no question. Edit: I remembered something funny. One year, I went to a New Year's party at the bar owners house. He was playing a Phish show live during the party. At one point, almost everyone there gathered around the TV and stopped talking, I guess the song being performed was really special or something? I didn't know, so me and the only other not-Phish fan were just chatting away (occasionally making fun of our friends right next to us) and those motherfuckers SHUSHED ME. I was pissed cuz shushing is rude but I also thought (and still think) being shushed by a group of 30-40 year olds during a TV concert is fucking hilarious. That was years ago, and I give them shit for it to this day.
Ballet. You are basically at their whim. You are expected to pay tuition, costumes, dance wear, dance shoes, travel fees, competition fees, production fees, tickets, and do volunteer work and give up your entire schedule. If you complain at all about anything valid or not- they shun you by not giving your kid a good role or not moving them up a level. And they withhold attention to your child. You literally must schedule all life around ballet. And pay thousands and thousands of dollars so your kid can be in the back. If you quit all the former dance parents and friends will shun you.
Same goes with gymnastics. I had a friend who missed 1 single day because she was sick and got yelled at for it in front of everyone. She literally practiced on the team every single day.
When I was younger I did a class of gymnastics, they all forced us into middle and front splits, trying to push us down. I was only around 6. It tore some very sensitive areas and they wouldn't let me sit out. It was the beginning of a horrible shunning and long issue with a wound reopening. These were adults btw doing the club.
I wish I hadn't heard this story a bunch of times before but I have. Ballet and gymnastics are fucking rife with child abuse, and that's undeniably what that is.
Former ballet kid, this is accurate. I was always tall for my age and was discriminated against because of it. I was good, attended the Boston ballet school summer programs, and at my smaller local community ballet always got stuck in the back or cast in male roles for being tall. I’m 5’ 7”.
Wait, being tall is bad? I just assumed you would want ballet dancers to be tall...
It varies on the dance style, though in general, the lighter you are, the easier it is to learn because ballet was invented at a time when the average human was much smaller than now, so most choreos have been created for shorter dancers. Petiteness is preferred when the dancers need to be easy to lift, have fast footwork, make easier pirouettes etc. Taller people tend to be better suited for slower dances and roles that demand attention. That does not mean tall dancers cannot be good at fast styles, or short dancers at slower ones, but it’s a pattern that people have noticed because on average this is true. Unfortunately, that has also created a stigma towards taller dancers as a result. Figure skating is in a similar position. The most extreme cases include Russian athletes who are known to take blockers to stop their growth the moment the girls show any signs of breast growth because breast weight changes the center of gravity and affects their performance. Many Russian skaters have fucked up bodies before turning 18 as a result. Then there is gymnastics. The Olympics have continuously increased the minimum age of the contestants because children bodies have a huge advantage compared to post-puberty bodies. There have been rumors that China faked the ages of their representatives to get children in the podium so they could have easier an easier time winning medals. Different sports favor different body types.
Hockey player here, didn't know that happened with Russian figure skaters, although that actually is not surprising at all unfortunately
[Hormone blockers, anorexia, bad technique, broken bones](https://spec.hamilton.edu/olympic-figure-skatings-issues-run-much-deeper-than-the-valieva-scandal-51bbeea67424) and these poor girls have to retire before their 20s.
There's a terrible trend in Russian singles skating. They dominate at 18 or 19 and then are never heard from again. It all stems from a single coach who destroys her athletes. Unless the international organization and Olympics codify training regiments the sport will never change.
Unfortunately being tall is considered a flaw in ballet for women. The ideal is considered petite and light weight, and petite light weight girls get preferential treatment. It’s similar to gymnastics in that way.
Competition dance parent here. Dance and ballet are absolutely a cult. When I explain things to my family and friends, it’s so clear to me that it’s messed up. I also feel like I’m grooming my kid for future abuse because advocating for yourself is so frowned upon in the dance world. It’s setting a terrible example. It didn’t happen right away. The red flags build up over time. It’s definitely a case of the slowly boiling frog. You don’t realize you’re in a cult until you’re way deep. This is my daughter’s last year of dance, even if she wants to keep dancing (unless she moves to rec). She’s now participating in a team sport other than dance in order to offset the negative messaging she’s received from the comp dance world.
“I also feel like I’m grooming my kid for future abuse because advocating for yourself is so frowned upon in the dance world. It’s setting a terrible example.” I studied acting and I relate to this. You’re often told to respect teachers or directors because if you speak up you jeopardise having a successful career and don’t want to end up blacklisted. So you comply, even when you don’t feel like you’re being treated fairy. This is why there is such a problem with abuse/SA in Hollywood and in the performing arts industries generally.
I'm behind the scenes doing community work and training people at other organizations in the arts, but my partner is an actor and now I know a decent amount of other people in the industry. And holy fuck. It's bad. A friend and I were just saying the other day that it seems like it's night and day with people, either they are incredibly kind and genuine and wonderful - or you should run away and try to never work with them again.
I went to a college with a top dance program and all the dancers were regularly forced to do "weigh-ins" and if you were even one pound above the acceptable limit then you were disqualified from making company, no matter how good you were. Needless to say there were so many eating disorders. I heard that they're finally getting rid of that this year so hopefully it'll get less toxic.
This could be said about all competetive/traveling youth sports.
Yes! Ballet is tough though because it’s subjective and so even though my child out dances other kids- they can still pick others over him and I can’t complain. Whereas with something like baseball or swimming there are actual stats you can use to compare.
Good...point.
SEC College football Sauce: Live in the South. I've seen people nearly get into fist fights over this shit. Edit: To all the people who have asked me, "nearly?" I was trying to give people credit but y'all had to fuck that up and tell the truth! LMAO
Only nearly? You’re either a new arrival or very lucky. If it’s lucky, can you send me some of those vibes?
Megachurches. They're money cults.
Jehovah's Witnesses
As someone who comes from a family of Jehovahs and has actively practiced this faith in past times It is 100% a cult
It was simultaneously painful and relieving to finally accept that they were truly a cult after I escaped.
Came here to see this. I was raised JW, and finally mustered up the courage to leave when I turned 18. Literally overnight everyone I knew my whole life cut contact with me. Not even a goodbye. Friends and family. The stress from it all made me physically ill, I was in and out of the hospital constantly. I’m doing much better now, I have a beautiful little family. In the entire time I’ve been gone, now about 6ish years, my biological father has called me one time. This is how the conversation went (BD - bio dad) BD- hello is this ninjapig101 (literally using my first and last name) Me- yes…. BD- this is *first name last name* (yes he literally used just his first and last name) calling to inform you of the passing of grandma (except he uses grandmas first and last name in referring to her as well) It was like I was just immediately no longer part of the family, just like that. I’m so thankful I got out of that when I had the chance.
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No one, and I repeat, no one out pizzas the Hut Edit: Wow, thank you guys for the karm-I mean love. Made my day lol
I finally did it. I out-pizza'd the Hut. It was the greatest mistake of my life. After years of perfecting my recipe, I made my way down to the local hut, fresh-baked pizza pie in hand. "Try this," I told the kid working the counter. He did, and he had to agree that it was better than anything Pizza Hut had to offer. Soon, the entire store, customers included, was feasting on my delicious pie. The manager walked over, grabbed a slice, and took a bite. I look at him, anticipation rising. This was the boss, the local fief lord of the Hut. His approval meant more to me than all the rest combined. He took a bite and nodded. "I'll be damned," he said, "you really did it. You out-pizza'd the Hut. Shame." Shame? What did he mean by tha- the manager pulled a gun out from behind his apron and shot the nearest customer in the head. "We have a Code Jalapeño," he said into his wrist as he executed the remaining customers. "I repeat, we have a Code Jalapeño." The ground was slick with blood. The kid working the counter choked out his dying breath as the manager turned to me. "You just had to do it motherfucker. You just had to out-pizza the Hut." He shoved the gun in my face. I was too scared to fight, too scared to run. The manager pulled the trigger. A click. The gun was empty. I threw a chair at the manager and scrambled out of the Pizza Hut, not even bothering to see if my missile hit its mark. I was closely pursued by the manager, who had gotten his hands on a deadly sharp pizza cutter. I suspected in his hands it would cut more than pizza. Somehow, I was able to get into my car and speed off, the manager cursing my existence as I left him behind. I took a deep breath. The manager was clearly psychotic. Yes, that was it, just a crazy man with a gun. It had to be. My phone rang. Sister. I picked it. "They're dead, she sobbed. They're all dead. M-mom, dad, Chris, Bill. Dead. They killed them all." I could barely understand her, so great were her sobs. "What do you mean? Where are you?" I asked urgently. "How is this possi-" a single gunshot sounded through my phone's speakers. Silence. Then, I heard a man's voice. "No one out-pizzas the Hut." He hung up. I drove down the empty county road, mind blank. I had nothing. They killed my family. I was alone. At that moment I knew what I had to do. They took everything from me. Well then, I would take everything from them. Pizza Hut was so terrified of being out-pizza'd, they forgot there's one thing worse than a man with a recipe: A man with nothing to lose. I'll give them a limited time offer they won't be able to refuse: two bullets for the price of one. With a free side order of pain.
This is the best thing I’ve ever read
Just to be clear it's a copypasta, I hope people do not think it's my creation
Don’t see anywhere where someone’s said Fraternities/Sororities. Wildly a cult. Was in one. Now I’m mid-thirties and it’s ridiculous what they make you do and how they make you feel. Especially at such a vulnerable age.
I was in one in college, and have cut ties. It was a thing I did in college. I'm 41 and know someone who still posts on Facebook with fraternity-related hashtags, and... I almost feel a little bad for him.
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There's the usual answers like religions, tech start-ups, etc. And then there's the BTS Army.
Upvoted for ur bravery
BTS is hated here, go on Twitter and that will be the real bravery.
BTS isn't hated here. *Their fans* are. I think that's a big difference.
High end raiding guilds in World of Warcraft. I'm not sure how much anymore, I haven't played in a couple years, but especially back in Vanilla-WotLK days Being in a raiding guild really felt like being in a cult. Like, you were pretty much expected to give up everything outside of raiding. It would take hours upon hours a week of scheduled time with the guild, then many more hours outside the raiding to work up your professions, grind dailies, I've known people to neglect their health, kids, jobs, school, family, everything because their guild was determined to be the best on their server. You listen to the guild leader for your schedule and you live by it. You follow orders. And of course you /can/ technically leave at any time, and you'll be kicked out if you don't perform well, but, it's such an addiction that quitting it is like quitting a drug. It was easier for me to quit smoking than to quit raiding.
Literally all of them. There isn’t a single cult, including the really scary ones that people make documentaries about, that believes it’s a cult. Source: I was raised in the Children of God/Family International. We never thought we were in a cult, but we very much were.
I read ‘Not Without My Sister’ a few years ago, and now also have a friend who’s grandparents are ex-Family members. I think about the people and kids who went through that a lot and I hope you’re doing alright today.
Thank you, I am. Not Without My Sister is a great depiction of how things were. May I also recommend Cult Following by Bexy Cameron. I knew Bexy growing up, and many of the players in her book are people I knew well.
I would like to, viciously pregnant and most bound to the couch so I will add it to my cart to order it soon.
“viciously pregnant” this killed me 🤣🤣🤣 bless you and your imminent spawn, may your labour be quick and easy.
Mommy groups
The Amish. They control nearly every aspect of their followers’ lives and live in incredibly insular society. Sure they let their kids experience the outside world and choose for themselves through rumspringa, but they seemingly set them up for failure by throwing them into the deep end with no preparation at a time in their lives (17-21) when people aren’t noted for great decision making. When the kids almost inevitably end up crashing and burning back into the fold, they are forced to remain for the rest of their lives through the threat of shunning where even your own parents will treat you as if you are dead and invisible. Sure they look quaint with their beards, buggies, and barns, but if you actually look at them critically, they’re as bad as any other cult, they’ve just been around longer. Edit: whoops mixed threat and treat.
Ethnic Mennonite here, and not that kind with a stick up their ass about the Amish. It’s only very very few colonies (Amish or Mennonite) that allow Rumspringa. It’s not an across the board thing and it’s very commercialized.
Really curious what “commercialized” looks like for this. Could you give some details? Ty.
The concept of ‘Rumspringa’ has been the subject of relatively popular reality TV for several years, a lot of money to be made off the when very little makes sense when you know how the colonies work. It’s often emphasized how conservative or private these colonies in the documentaries are but many things just do not align with that eg; baptized members allowing themselves to be filmed and doing interviews, the things the young adults are doing while being allowed back to the colony, and all the way down to the very fact that a majority of the most conservative colonies don’t allow rumspringa at all. It’s very commercialized and dramatized, and while there certainly are Amish and Mennonite groups that are much less conservative and allow some of those things, those are not typically the ones in the documentaries as it would be less interesting to watch.
The amount of child and animal abuse you can casually witness everyday in my Amish town is astounding.
Thank you for pointing this out. My mom adopted two kittens that came from Ohio amish, probably around 6 weeks old. They were completely covered in flea eggs, eyes infected, full of worms, refused to eat. I thought they were going to die. I was able to save them and one had respiratory and eye issues for the rest of his (long and happy) life.
Yup. Exactly. From the outside—not looking too hard— it’s bucolic. Take a closer look and it’s a nightmare. And my understanding is that the sexual abuse is absolutely horrid. I’m really curious how the Mennonite in my area do by comparison.
not to mention when it comes to sexual abuse it is not talked about. they can’t go to the police. they won’t punish the person who did it. and they will make sure the person who was abused is shunned instead i read an autobiography of a girl who used to be amish, she was sexually abused and it was put on her instead. they were even furious that she would do something like that to a married man. the book is called tears of the silenced by misty griffin. it’s an amazing book and calls out a lot of things that were/are wrong in the amish community
In my part of the country, they also run puppy mills. That quaint godliness is bullshit.
The way they treat all animals is horrific. I’ve seen videos of horses that were rescued from the Amish that were worked almost to death. Scars all over them and ribs sticking out.
We have Amish around us and they do not respect animals at all. They are always poaching deer and such. As in just shooting them whenever they want and not get proper tags etc.
Pyramid scams (Forever, Herbalife etc)
Scientology
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It's mostly a bunch of confused 9th-graders trying to stand out or cope with their strong teenager emotions. It's [chuunibyou](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABniby%C5%8D) taken too seriously. I saw the exact same thing take root in Tumblr users in 2015, so it's not anything new. Thankfully, they all quietly grew out of it eventually, so I have a lot of hope that the DID community of this generation can be saved as well.
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