#cultwatch

there is a reason that i will not enter a scientology org ever, even though i am at this point like an amateur expert on scientology and think my defenses are pretty strong. the closest i ever came was the lobby of the l ron hubbard life exhibit or the psychiatry industry of death museum in hollywood and in both cases i was with other people. in the museum if i was alone it would really only take one factoid that sounded plausible - and there were some - to be like, “hmm well they’re not wrong about literally everything"... and that’s all it takes for cults. one single opened door

interpreting midsommar correctly is great* but it’s a film which inherently has distance from its audience, and  not a subtle film either. i would hope that ppl’s takeaway is not “i saw that the harga were a cult therefore i’m not too susceptible to cults” but “i saw the harga was a cult and i saw how easy it was for a vulnerable person to be targeted by a cult and how welcoming a cult can feel”

like, feeling catharsis when all the women cry together is fine. of course! that's what makes it work! what’s important is knowing that the relief and emotion - and yes, a little bit of girl power - you as a viewer feel too is powered by a cult, knowing that the girl power and the cult are the same, knowing how that one single door opens even with the separation of a screen and a script

plus, even thinking you’re too smart for a cult is a sign that you’re not, bc some cults/conspiracy theories like flat earth 100% target ppl who think they are smarter than others around them, since that sense of superiority is an isolating factor. there was a great piece recently about soulcycle & showed a lot of cult indicators and they’re pretty insidious, same with the wellness industry more generally. same with some fandom spaces (babygate, i’m thinking). none of these are stereotypical cults, all of which could target ppl who otherwise think they are pretty immune

that doesn’t mean like shut yourself off from all communities - far from it! healthy communities, powered by mutual respect and openness, are the ultimate defense against cults. just like... the next best defense is not knowledge imo, it is humility

I started the Jonestown series from last podcast on the left (the guys are kinda dicks but like likeable dicks)

I watched 2 Netflix docs about cults, both of which are far superior to the much more hyped wild wild country (which if you recall I also liked!):

Deprogrammed (which really looks at cult deprogramming & how it both helps & hurts people, and it also is one of the few docs I’ve seen that effectively talks abt what’s appealing about a cult in the first place)