Ky Schevers

I know I make a point of speaking about the harms of the detrans community I left but I'd rather that people's take away is that "we need to create more resources for people" rather than "terfs are an evil cult". People turn to ideology to solve real problems.

I think there’s a need to do both. Recognising the radicalisation techniques and cult-like behaviour is crucial if steps are to be taken to stop people falling into that trap, and getting people out of it. The thing with all cults is they use selective ‘truths’ mixed with harms.

What work does assigning the cult label do though? Others are doing a good job of revealing the falsity of truth claims made by anti trans groups without trying to attach some cult diagnosis to it pretty effectively.

More importantly what nuances does a highly stigmatising and highly emotive label like "cult" help to hide and how does that affect how we interact with people who we believe are wrong, and part of a subcultural committed to being wrong.

I'd wager that the vast majority of people who actually are in cults do not benefit from the label particularly even. I said this way back last year when I was chatting to ex GC folks who were also coming out publicly. On the one hand if you're up for doing the reading it can..

..be useful to understand how cults operate and the specific reasons why trying to talk someone out isn't always useful etc. But most people aren't prepared to do the reading and are quite happy to use the label to just add more stigma and dehumanise ppl into tragic victim tropes