Conversation

The problem with cults is that almost all of the cult isn't bad. People don't join cults because they're stupid, they join because the cult provides them something immensely valuable, something that could be valuable to us too, something that heals and helps them. 1/
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It's just, a little part of the cult *is* poison, and then that bleeds into everything, and is seeps into your bloodstream far more effectively because it piggybacks on the good things you readily accept. You're starving, and it's a delicious meal laced with arsenic. 2/
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And for those inside, it makes it hard to conceive of it as a cult. Cults are 'bad' things, right? How could this be a cult when there's so much here I value and people I love? Leaving and declaring 'this is a cult' means turning my back on the things I find beautiful. 3/
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And for those who escape, it can be cruel to refer to their old cult as crazy or awful or fucked up. Maybe it was, but it was also a home and family. It's important to reject the bad delicately and precisely, like picking out the poison without damaging the surrounding tissue.
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