Re 'measles was once a dangerous disease'. This is misleading as measles iscurrently defined by symptoms rather than cause. The danger lies in the conidtions causing the dis-ease which were as much as anything overcrowding, poor sanitation, poor nutrition and poor drinking water supply.
Thanks for your comment—I appreciate the clarification. I certainly wasn’t trying to be misleading. When I referred to measles as “once a dangerous disease,” I was implying, perhaps too subtly, that it was the conditions of the time—poor sanitation, overcrowding, malnutrition—that made it dangerous, not the measles virus itself. You’re absolutely right to highlight that distinction, and I agree it’s an important one.
Thanks Turfseer, I had no intention of suggesting you were trying to mislead, I appreciate all you do. Language is a tricky business and the medical industry has used it to deceive us for too long.
These last 5 years have been a real boon as our interactions have sharpened our swords as it were.
The question posed—“Does one know they're in a cult when they're in one?”—is deceptively simple and disturbingly relevant. History, psychology, and common sense all point to the same unsettling answer: usually not.
Cults don’t announce themselves with signs and theme songs. They don’t hand you a checklist on Day One: Abandon critical thinking? Check. Worship charismatic leader? Check. Shun outsiders? Check. Instead, they creep in slowly, cloaked in virtuous goals, community bonding, or even "science." The boundaries between independent thought and groupthink become blurred, and before long, the members believe they’re the rational ones, and everyone outside is lost or dangerous.
Social psychologist Robert Lifton famously outlined the traits of thought reform environments: milieu control, loaded language, sacred science, and dispensing of existence. Sound familiar? It should. It describes not just religious cults, but also political movements, media bubbles, and even segments of the public health establishment in recent years. When questioning becomes taboo and obedience is recast as virtue, you’re not in a democracy of ideas—you’re in a faith-based bureaucracy.
And here's the kicker: the people inside such environments often see you as the cultist. That’s the brilliance—and tragedy—of psychological capture.
So, do people know they’re in a cult? Rarely. But we should always be asking ourselves: what can’t I question? Who am I not allowed to criticize? And what facts make me uncomfortable—not because they’re false, but because I fear what they might unravel?
Those are the questions that keep you out of a cult. Or maybe—if it's too late—lead you to the exit.
As Paul the apostle wrote 'And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.'
In that context it is God who makes us alive and gives us faith so, no, one does not know that one is in a cult until woken up as it were from death.
Thanks, well worth exposing the fraud.
Re 'measles was once a dangerous disease'. This is misleading as measles iscurrently defined by symptoms rather than cause. The danger lies in the conidtions causing the dis-ease which were as much as anything overcrowding, poor sanitation, poor nutrition and poor drinking water supply.
Thanks for your comment—I appreciate the clarification. I certainly wasn’t trying to be misleading. When I referred to measles as “once a dangerous disease,” I was implying, perhaps too subtly, that it was the conditions of the time—poor sanitation, overcrowding, malnutrition—that made it dangerous, not the measles virus itself. You’re absolutely right to highlight that distinction, and I agree it’s an important one.
Thanks Turfseer, I had no intention of suggesting you were trying to mislead, I appreciate all you do. Language is a tricky business and the medical industry has used it to deceive us for too long.
These last 5 years have been a real boon as our interactions have sharpened our swords as it were.
You woke up that's the main thing, better late than never. I only woke up to the medical fraud myself in 2020.
What grieves me is Christian friends I have told do not seem to have understood it properly yet.
When you're part of a cult, there is never any critical thinking!
The question posed—“Does one know they're in a cult when they're in one?”—is deceptively simple and disturbingly relevant. History, psychology, and common sense all point to the same unsettling answer: usually not.
Cults don’t announce themselves with signs and theme songs. They don’t hand you a checklist on Day One: Abandon critical thinking? Check. Worship charismatic leader? Check. Shun outsiders? Check. Instead, they creep in slowly, cloaked in virtuous goals, community bonding, or even "science." The boundaries between independent thought and groupthink become blurred, and before long, the members believe they’re the rational ones, and everyone outside is lost or dangerous.
Social psychologist Robert Lifton famously outlined the traits of thought reform environments: milieu control, loaded language, sacred science, and dispensing of existence. Sound familiar? It should. It describes not just religious cults, but also political movements, media bubbles, and even segments of the public health establishment in recent years. When questioning becomes taboo and obedience is recast as virtue, you’re not in a democracy of ideas—you’re in a faith-based bureaucracy.
And here's the kicker: the people inside such environments often see you as the cultist. That’s the brilliance—and tragedy—of psychological capture.
So, do people know they’re in a cult? Rarely. But we should always be asking ourselves: what can’t I question? Who am I not allowed to criticize? And what facts make me uncomfortable—not because they’re false, but because I fear what they might unravel?
Those are the questions that keep you out of a cult. Or maybe—if it's too late—lead you to the exit.
As Paul the apostle wrote 'And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.'
In that context it is God who makes us alive and gives us faith so, no, one does not know that one is in a cult until woken up as it were from death.