Question: What makes some/many join a cult or movement ?

[Rustyeye77]

How do you brainwash seemingly normal people to do crazy shit?

We have Qanon where normal people lose all sense and listen to an idiot.
Hitler was able to convince a country
Jamestown convinced an entire group to drink the koolaid.

Are they lonely? easily fooled?

Do they have a violent nature?

It wouldnt happen but if Biden became a fascist , would anyone here follow him here ? I doubt it.

Just wondering

[underpants]

1. Usually for a sense of belonging

being appreciated

Showered in love then cut off from those LIARS in their past, more love, and then full belief. Soon they will help recruit, adore, and train others.

[MoonRiver]

2. My take is that people sucked into a cult are vulnerable, even those that appear "normal."

They are looking for support and love they currently lack. As they are incorporated into the cult, it (the cult) takes over their reasoning processes. What happens next, depends on the cult's agenda.

[Rustyeye77]

4. And that must include violence.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Yes they are looking for something that is missing in their lives or problems theyare facing.

And instead of normal problem solving techniques, the cult is attractive to them.

[MoonRiver]

13. It's kind of an easy way out of one's problems.

Unfortunately the cult just presents many more problems.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Yes easy way outs usually have their own set of problems attached.

[chowder66]

23. +10000

[stillcool]

3. Need to belong, and a sense of security

It's like an addiction.

[Silver1]

5. Psyops

Qanon uses psyops to convince people to follow. Whoever is behind it knows what they're doing.

[Montauk6]

7. The first seed...

Charismatic leader who make YOU feel good about yourself and that you or your ideas aren't the problem, it's EVERYONE else.

That, in my opinion, is where the "fun" begins.

[overleft]

8. This has been happening since the 1980's when raygun's administration remove the responsibiliy

for media giants. The broadcasting of the rights propaganda has, over the years, been a staple of faux noise, limpbaugh, and other RW media for years. It has now been joined by newsmax, oann etc as well as a myriad of ways on the internet.

[applegrove]

9. Depends on the cult leader. Usually they find people in a cognitive opening

like distressed psychology or young adulthood. They appeal to vanity (or anything human) and love bomb and give their followers wings as they appeal against an other who is supposedly a danger.

Sometimes the followers were perfectly fine and the cult leader and his flying monkeys took stability away from the potential follower and then give it back if they join the cult: like the GOP getting rid of good union jobs so people will stop dreaming of their happy retirement (which is no more) and become unhinged and disconnected, and stop voting with reason and start voting against scapegoats presented to them either with a dogwhistle or a megaphone.

[Iggo]

10. I'm an ex-catholic, foaming at the mouth atheist.

I have views on issues, and I’ll leave it at that.

[Mosby]

11. Answers.

Cults provide clarity. People join cults because they believe they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for questions such as good vs. evil, religion, the meaning of life, politics, etc. Many cult leaders promote messages that are simple and seem to make sense, the exact opposite of what we’re often provided with in typical, everyday life. Cult leaders make promises that are totally unattainable, but not offered by any other group in society.

Germans loved Hitler, its something of a myth that he had to convince anyone to commit genocide, because the German people were willing participants.

[Rustyeye77]

12. True

So many RW groups

Qanon
oathkeepers
3% group
Boogaloo
Proud boys
Anti-Semites group

They all follow dumps orders

[marlakay]

19. I heard when Hitler first started

The people were starving after WW1 and had no jobs. He promised them food and jobs.

[gollygee]

14. They're lonely and looking for a community, and they like answers to problems that don't have

easy answers.

[uponit7771]

15. ***SIMPLE*** Narrow their ///TRUSTED/// sources of information and cross checking and they'll

... turn into nuts.

Get their trust by repeating things they say to you without agreeing then challenge with the most pithy questions ... simple.

[BusyBeingBest]

16. Sad empty lives. Even money and/or Jesus ain't cutting it for them.

[marlakay]

18. I got sucked into a cult for a year

When I was 18. Came from troubled family, had few friends. Felt like no one cared about me.

They suck you in with feeling like a special family that loves you and by the time you realize something might be wrong you are a fervent believer and its hard to get out.

My dad drove up from CA, I was in OR and threatened the leader to make them tell me to leave. I didn't find that out for many years.

I was all screwed up for a time and people had to deprogram me, not formally but had long talks with normal people for months before I realized how messed up the place was.

For a time I thought I was weak, then I realized they just used a girl who was struggling with family issues looking for love. Like the song says in all the wrong places.

[Rustyeye77]

20. That's quite a story.

Thank you for sharing.

How long did it take for you to recover from that ?

[marlakay]

22. I was messed up in my thinking

For months, joined a church after still looking for that family connection and it was on edge of cult like itself, so I really wouldn't say I got over it until my 30's when I had been out of the church for years. Between the cult that had me believing it was the last days and we had to can and freeze food for the end, and the right wing church telling me when to have kids and not to go to college I was not strong in my mind.

I finally went to a bookkeeping school and went to work and started to learn what regular people thought. Sounds crazy now but before internet our worlds could be very small.

The good about my earlier life is I have a lot of compassion for people and understand why republicans get so caught up in their beliefs.

This is why I believe religion should be kept out of schools, the young are so easily impressed.

[Rustyeye77]

24. Thank you

Seems you recovered nicely

[marlakay]

25. Thanks 😊

[LanternWaste]

21. I'd guess an extremely low self-esteem is a most common denominator.

Just a guess predicated on a handful of people I've known who have gone off the deep end looking for an easy fix to feeling ineffectual in a complex world.

Easy, convenient answers (i.e., bumper sticker) to complex problems are attractive alternatives to the required discipline of research and critical thought.

[Corgigal]

26. They also want to believe

that they only know something. They are so superior in their thinking, then you. They will try to explain in to you over and over again, but you will think it’s nuts, they will only think you’re not bright enough to understand.