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every cult is in essence a life cult promising either redemption or immortality b/c they do not not how to handle death (viewed from the pov of the cult, Exit is the sin of suicide) they create collective suicide pacts ranging from cyanide laced kool aid to yolo hodl

it's probably possible to even define a cult as a group that revolves around an unassailable moral virtue e.g. like a company culture value that is "Be a Good Person" it states sth obviously good only to imply that anyone who doesn't agree with the whole of the culture is "bad"

this implies that identities for the most part have cultish elements because identities are held and maintained bc they are believed to be unassailably GOOD (but perhaps misunderstood, fallible, and under appreciated)

so if the core of good/bad is knocked out through a combination of "abandon all hope" "amoral middle path" and "universal oneness that bundles together hitler and jesus" then the identity also loses its internal energy source and dissolves

so the desire to be "good" and the joining of large movements that "do good" paves the road to hell w/ good intentions precisely because it powers self-serving identities and narratives that attempt to self-tesselate and remake God's world in their own image

this is similar to the toddler who sees another stealing a toy and gets angry and smacks in retaliation. the parent has to intervene by acknowledging the REAL perceived injustice but then dissolve it by expanding the toddler's mental model to include Other