50% off your first 6 bottle box PLUS a bonus bottle: www.brightcellars.com/wisecrack3 Thanks to Bright Cellars for sponsoring this video! Are cults an inherent part of American culture?
We're shifting from money being the main focus of power and control; to personal information. If that's the case, then cults are not "harmless"; the way you claim. They're capable of harvesting massive and detailed information from their members. Information they can sell, use and exploit using modern technology. Mark my words; cults will become a powerhouse online some day; just as powerful as corporations. In fact the distinction between corporations and the modern online individual is blurred.
The best cult to date has got to be the lobster cult. They're helping a lobster shed until it gets huge and refer to it as The Lorb, but also try to help keep the ocean clean and stuff.
I HAD to go and check out their website... It's awesome! xD I'm just worried that, if I join, the Flying Spaghetti Monster might get angry with me. Does anyone know if they're on good terms or have a thing for cult exclusivity?
@@cinthiagoch I'm not a pastafarian so I can't say. However, I do know that The Lorb loves all. So, as long as you help keep the ocean clean, you're probs good.
Cults offer a sense of belonging, so they thrive most when large groups of people begin to feel isolated and disconnected from their communities. The fact that most people can only afford to rent and are often forced to move according to job availability and housing prices cannot be healthy to their sense of security and belonging. How long can someone tolerate that before wondering if being part of a group, ANY group, would be better than being completely alone? Part of the appeal of MLMs is that, while they claim that you're "your own boss", they also lay on the praise and support and promise that "you aren't in this alone" because they have such a "diverse network" and "inclusive culture". Then they also promise you this support system will also make you a ton of money. They just often neglect to mention that you don't make much money, and all of it is from people you already know. Even if you do start making money, its only until you make a mistake or take a step out of line or are unhappy with them for any reason (because of course that would be your fault). Its just a cult designed to monetize your friends and family.
that's true as well, i def think sense of belonging is a big part of it, also feeling dependant upon whoever the "leader" is, or the "community" itself
I think it's no surprise that as capitalism is failing to meet the needs of people, especially as it mostly failed to rise to the challenge of dealing with COVID, more cults are forming (I refer to something as a cult based on the damage/negative outcomes). This system is inherently alienating. Everything is a competition which is isolating. It also makes sense that wealthy and powerful people at the top who benefit from this system have played such a huge role in cult-forming (Scientology, NXIVM, Qanon). It's a distraction and scapegoating to avoid addressing the root issue. And because people were first in the cult of capitalism, they're starting off on the premise that "there's no way the economic system could be at fault. It's not possible! Capitalism is good, and good things aren't bad, so it must be... it must be the fault of people who aren't greedy enough, or reptilian spacepeople, or satanic baby-eaters!" It's a sad state of affairs when something as ridiculous as those examples is seen by enough of these people as less ridiculous than pondering a different way of doing things.
@@furiousapplesack Missing what's right in front of themselves is the norm now, religions stand the test of time as the video said, but how, they have children, they are functional at the most fundamental level of biology. The changes to society you attribute to capitalism are nothing less than the progressive agenda, individualism at any cost, shedding family, religion, history and religion leading to wide spread division and unhappiness, and of course sterility. You name some cnn concerns, when you see the new original sin recast as racism, apocalyptic(climate) prophecy and "equality" creationism reborn all right under your nose.
@@furiousapplesack Said the one arguing against basic evolutionary logic. People co-evolved with religion, you clearly have not escaped it and fall more in line with the sterility cult which will pass as without children those groups have no future. Needs are endless, and when your views can only farm the needy, again, there is no future for that. Green movements, blm, these are religious revivals, or did you think it rational they were given a pass on lockdown in the middle of a pandemic.
It is awesome how a word that originated hated from the term "culture" is now so negative while a term originating from the term "fanatic" is a positive label.
Oh My Gawd! Language is a Tool used to communicate, It does Evolve over Time. That's why Words are so Dense in their meaning Or have Multiple meanings depending on the context
The thing about cults is that they capitalize on our most primitive instincts to draw lines between different groups of people, pledge allegiance to the ingroup and be hostile to outgroups. By that logic, pretty much anything can become a cult...
@@AlejandroGonzalez-ft4si yeah but I feel like if I don't support in some way it doesn't qualify so I comment just in case been super lucky since I discovered it not taking changed haha
Agree (with Future Mindset's comment). In the race to get vital resources that are becoming scarcer, you unconsciously "choose" teams that accept you (because of common traits, sometimes transformed in identity parts/ego "crutches") and try to belong to the winning/surviving teams. And it's worsening because capitalism applied to almost everything, divide us in more numerous and smaller groups in a competition more difficult each year. And I would like to add that the concept of hierarchy that imply that some (group of) people have more value than others is not helping to deal peacefully with political issues.
Yea I used to work in a pyramid scheme, I realized it by the second week I was there but I needed money and didn't have to pay to work it like other rough ones. I worked 11 hours a day 6 days a week trying to sell stuff door to door and didn't make a dollar some weeks while making just enough to survive in others. It's was 100% toxic positivity. It was a rough 6 months before I found a better job that pays me. At one point during my work I was training a new hire and was so tired of everything when a guy pulled a knife on me I just kept trying to sell to him not even caring if he tried to stab me ha.
The Learning never Ends! And also, tbh, I am worried about Anti-Science, so i go around and recommend people randomly Science-YT-Channel and just Education overall. Mind if i do?
It's funny to hear Americans question whether there's something 'cultish' about their society. LOL ... As an outside observer, yes. BIG YES. You're ALL cultists, big time.
I'd argue every culture is a cult in some ways. That's why I always try to think of people as people. You know all human and such. The cult of humanity if you will lol.
Dr. Wallace was my professor in college, and he pretty much predicted the violent end of the Waco siege, based on what he knew about millenialist groups in America.
We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. In fealty to the God-Emperor, our undying Lord, and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon this comment.
Cult's have been around forever. Hell every religion was at some point a small gathering a cult that grew and grew till it became a religion. Cults were here before us, and they will continue on as long as humans are the way we are.
Exactly what I thought too like 0.2 seconds into the video. Essentially all ancient religions, both extinct and those remaining today, were either born from cults, or gave birth to cults which sprouted from their off-shooting branches.
And today we have alot more because the hole of thr first world nation are going through a crisis of faith. The traditional faith systmes (religion) are on the decline..but people need to believe in something. So now alot of cults are forming to try and capalis on it/forming on thier own(like fandoms)
because cults are just dysfunctional religion, we coevolved with religion which increased group fitness, cults tend to end the line. what groups are cults today, lets just say wise crack would never dare say.
Wisecrack is real nice, but i think the best RU-vidr i know must be 'Hbomberguy', cause he's so incredibly unbiased. He thinks of himself as a Fool and preaches that 'If I, a total fool, can sit down and inform myself, then you can too.' I love that. He is known to NEVER 'assume around' but instead do this revolutionary new thing called 'informing himserlf'.
When looking at any group that could possibly be a cult I like to use the B.I.T.E. model on it. B.I.T.E. is Behavior control, Information control, Tought control and Emotion control. If you use this with an exponential 8 place number system it can really tell you how much even religions are cult like.
The BITE model becomes useless in academic philosophy because literally any epistemic worldview will eventually satisfy those requirements. But, no one would look at Hedonism, Utilitarianism, or Stoicism and proclaim them cults, in spite of them possessing every component of BITE. There needs to be a better rubric.
I think you should have talked about the BITE model. It is a model that focuses on how much control a group has over its members and overall I think it is one of the best ways to identify cults, both religious and otherwise
I would love some Chr-Teens react and tell me their Opinion on 'Viced Rhino' and his newest Video, funny enough named 'Atheism is #1'. (Dont mind the title) I mean, even at least the Fact that Ex-Christian all agree that the Church is a 'Financial and Time-consuming Drain' is interesting. I mean, logic alone dictates that, if you enter a Religion, you should obviously ask those who FLED it WHY they did so. Maybe simple logic wants you to ask them why they were where you will be and then left? Maybe? But even beyond that... MILLIONS of Ex-Christians, who have now finally experienced BOTH ‚Paths’ are telling people: „Yeah, it didnt really give me anything i couldnt have as an Atheist, cause its just a big Lie that Atheism equals Meaningless, depressive Life. Thats a lie.“ Also, MILLIONS of people donated MUCH money for the church BUT when they ever got into financial struggle, even pleading would make the Church do NOTHING. Isnt that worth exploring more? Especially if your a Teen? Wouldnt you want to know the commonly agreed on fact that the Church wants your money but will absolutely and no way help you if you struggle financially? ?
@@petardraganov3716 Mate, i really dont wanna tell you this... but... all the other churches... and i mean ALL the other churches... ...they say the exact same thing over the other churches, including yours... ...Get what i try to say?
& wisecrack make sure you make a video on the C0vid clues in the last 2 episodes of Rick & Morty. Or you chose to only focus on Capitalism because it fits your narrative ?? or are we really going to ignore news anchor Rick saying "Fck you, I get millions of dollars by Big Pharma" then gets executed & replaced by one saying " Id like to say prescription drugs are great and you should buy them now" or evil morty saying " tonight I do that thing I wanna do, with the curve thing " then going on to kill everybody in that city. "nobody leave everybody stay" aka Lockdown or even the fact that they were wearing masks ?? or youre just gonna call me a Far right wing, maga supporting, anti vaxx, flat earther, trumptard ? when are people going to wake up ? smh
Not all cults are bad even RU-vid has its own cult following of creators and we don’t even know these people in real life but there like a friend we wish we all ways had
nope, functional religion increases group fitness, cults tend to end the genetic line. lets just say its very inconvenient which groups fit this definition today.
@@bryanmarabe8098 sure. I can put that in anything as well a business model for people buy stuff. No said it has be the truth. People make that up as they go.
Am i the only one *extremely* bothered that none of these experts mention: -'promoting' members to only be in contact with other members - fanatical adherence to beliefs and who know what other things we've come to expect from cults? "but that is not what the defenition" -> the meaning of a word changes to society's most commonly used & understood meaning. experts don't decide defenitions. the majority does.
Yeah, I understand a cult to mean a group that practices deception and/or coercion. And that definition has been around for decades. I wish they had talked more about that.
Some aspects of the cultish impulse can be good: questioning established institutions, building your own path to fulfillment if necessary, etc. But isolating and abusing followers and encouraging hate and contempt for all outsiders is where we get the dark side of cultish behavior.
The Learning never Ends! And also, tbh, I am worried about Anti-Science, so i go around and recommend people randomly Science-YT-Channel and just Education overall (mostly Fun-Education aka Teaching-as-it-should-be). Mind if i do?
it's sad that people can't seem to sit quietly with themselves and find their own answers to life's challenges. there's not really much hope for people who need a "great leader" to tell them how to live their lives.
its sad and unfortunate. i think alot of it comes from fear of being alone, or like your life lack's meaning, people think they're find it in these things. its why i used to be targeted alot when i was younger, cause i've often felt that way, alot of us do, the only different is i've given up on finding happiness, so i'm immune to their so-called charms lol
The funniest part is that you got these ideas from watching a collective of great leaders most likely we live in an age of enlightened and safety where this is even a possibility. The idea that information can come to you by sitting quietly and waiting for the answer is in turn what creates cults when people look for advice from the exact person even able to do those things in a time of chaos
I don’t have as much of a problem with things defined as cults if they’re literally just people following some ideology that’s doing them good and not harm. Once that ideology begins cutting them off from family, telling them to follow blindly and never question, threatens them and those they love if they see fit to leave it (according to widespread doctrine and not just on the actions of members being jerks) then it’s in a bad category. Wearing the exact same outfit and eating the exact same meals without variation isn’t a great sign either. I get that some people see churches as cults, but there is a line. Funny thing is, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and people think we’re a cult. We’re a Christian religion. We’re no more a cult than any other Christian religion (and less of one than some). But all it takes is for someone to meet some lunatic fringe schmuck who practices the religion wrong and all sorts of generalizations start making the rounds. We’re very big on free will, including the freedom to refuse. Anyone who says otherwise is getting it wrong and has a personal agenda to push. This is true of a large number of groups that people try to demonize... most are founded on something good but then have some individual or group do something terrible and it dirties the reputation of good people trying to do the right thing.
I think a much more useful way of defining cults is the B.I.T.E. model for identifying groups which impose certain kinds of control over members. These general criteria to look out for are: Behavior control Information control Thought control Emotional control. if you're familiar with the work of Steven Hassan, his explanations are most demystifying, and helpful to evaluate a group on a continuum of cult-like influence over members, and to avoid or extricate ones self, or better help others to regain independent thought and agency from the control of a cult. Understanding it not as a simple binary is important, since most of us will not easily realize if a group we've been involved with our whole lives is functioning, more or less, as a cult.
Almost like a zealous belief in any singular set of cultural ideas requires one to control their behaviors, information, thoughts, and emotions in order to avoid confronting "others" that could challenge one's simple self-serving narrative wrought of localized and personalized experiences. Digital space was supposed to bring together people kept apart by the inconvenient distance involved in meatspace, but it just created alleyways for the seediest of ideologies to peddle their grift and snake oils.
@@smokedbeefandcheese4144 Being able to communicate with others like Yourself is part of problem with Social media. If before Social Media one had to interact with peoples in their respective social gathering place and listen to different arguments about an issue now with social media one can live in bubble where all have similar world views of them without coming across different opinions. Social media AI algorithms doesn't help this problem either.
In fairness, it’s done both. The internet has expanded our options and our opportunities to learn from one another. The thing is, people choose what they want to do, just like they did before the internet. There have always been people deep into conspiracies. And there have always been people who prefer a more objective approach to learning.
i'd say that's pretty much true. though some groups i imagine if they're a big part of your life, like you have alot of friends in it, you'll have to leave them as well, and may have to pick up sticks, but yeah a big part of cults is control through fear and all that
@@professorbaxtercarelessdre1075 I think that’s the question though: if you leave a religion, does that automatically mean you lose your friends? Or does the religion take a stance of, hey, we’re not for everyone, just do what’s right for you? The more cultish a group is, the more it isolates it’s members.
@@catsmom129 yeah idk tbh, i've not had religion in my life for many years, and when i did, the people in it weren't so cool with you just leaving and staying in your life. so who knows
@@zxyatiywariii8 yeah, possibly. i mean, it's true, all evidence seems to point to the fact that we're not designed to personally know and/or love more than a couple hundred people at a time (presumably a lot less). Whether or not that has to do with the fact that for many millennia humans lived in tribes with at most 500 people is... Lol i don't know. Circumstantial evidence. I'm not an evolutionary psychologist. That said, i personally don't long to have romantic, familial or even cordial relationships with more than a handful of people, let alone entire nations. It's okay to have a friend group and feel largely impartial to the rest of humanity. Mind you, i don't think fostering ill will or condoning suffering for other groups of people simply because "I don't know them" isn't exactly kosher either. I do wish for everyone to live a life that is half as awesome as mine, but as long as no one's breaking laws or getting hurt, i couldn't care less about the dramas the rest of humanity involves itself in.
I've been thinking about this recently because of the amount of cultish behavior exhibited in men's health circles. I guess people started realizing how easy it is to exploit men's insecurities. The older I get, the more I realize that if your personal problems require money to be fixed, it's probably bullshit.
The Learning never Ends! And also, tbh, I am worried about Anti-Science, so i go around and recommend people randomly Science-YT-Channel and just Education overall (mostly Fun-Education aka Teaching-as-it-should-be). Mind if i do?
We're shifting from money being the main focus of power and control; to personal information. If that's the case, then cults are not "harmless"; the way you claim. They're capable of harvesting massive and detailed information from their members. Information they can sell, use and exploit using modern technology. Mark my words; cults will become a powerhouse online some day; just as powerful as corporations. In fact the distinction between corporations and the modern online individual is blurred.
Charismatic does not mean handsome, good looking, physically attractive, etc. What this video showed me is that the wisecrack writers don't know what a cult is. Look up the BITE model.
Linguistics are even cult like behaviors nowadays . The term cult had specific meaning over time that meaning doesn't align and people change the definition and tell people what a cult is now. Majority of things people carry judgement with are theories you're showing some superiority with a comment and show someone else's words to prove your correctness
Calling Jonestown a suicide does the people that were gunned down there (about half of them) a huge obscenity. And how can you pretend to have a serious discussion of cults without any mention of the BITE model? A cult isn't about size, it's about how it behaves.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov
As a programmer, to me Belief systems are basically just greedy heuristics in action, they almost never reveal any deep "truth", or even try to build a model that is good enough to approximate observed reality. They just hack their way to a local minimum and stay there forever, long after it no longer make sense and basically contradicts common sense / any current data. No one would want a self-driving car for example, to use those over-simplified tools, and yet some choose to live their entire lives based solely on them. It is an old sad story of humanity, which hopefully be rejected and forgotten like many others in our history.
I think we’re built to belong somewhere and to idolize someone or something. The question isn’t IF we’ll worship something but WHAT are we going to worship. . . Worship being defined as what we deem worthy of our attention.
We can make it a cult you can be our one true prince. Let me be the your first follower, my essence is flawed oh Cubos please oh please shine upon me, bath me in your wisdom. Your essences a light that envelops my spirit, and in my youth i knew only sparks. Dim instantaneous flashes. Never feeling the warmth of the light but now in wisecrack’s comment section I’ve seen the one true prince. Please grant me immolation in your essence Cubos P.S when you die your just dead. Nothing…
I enjoyed the video, as always. I am very surprised that there was no mention of the BITE model. I find that to be the most effective way to gauge an organization's cultiness.
I think the best way to determine of cult groups are as "American as apple pie" is to contrast how cults shaped America with cults from other countries. My gut reaction (without doing any research at all) is cults have been pretty prominent on every continent at various times through out history. If there was a way to measure the effect of cults on other countries and it showed that cults played a more prominent roll in forming American culture than I think it would be fair to say cults are as American as apple pie. My hunch is that cults are a very human phenomena that happens in everything from religion and politics to music and soda companies. #releasethesnydercut
Another perspective to consider on cults is why are folks driven to belief? why do they seek something higher than themselves.? It makes sense that at one point there was a beautiful core belief but over time. every new pastor or "leader" modifies that core in some capacity thus distorting it and leading to the culture of cults, especially with corporations trying to get in the mix now. But it's important to remember that the core belief still exists and that others have searched and found it with peace to comfort them. Think of a healthy river that people once drank from. but with time and so much development and pollution, that river has now become muddy and undrinkable.
I think most of us assume that there's an underlying but fundamental element of predation in a cult. Social and psychological coercion is assumed to be used to override and dominate individual judgment, and conformity in the group is assumed to be strongly enforced. There's also a sense that people join because they have emotional and psychological needs that aren't being met that make them vulnerable to manipulation. And manipulation and exploitation are ASSUMED (probably rightly in most cases, even in the relatively benign "cults".)
The Learning never Ends! And also, tbh, I am worried about Anti-Science, so i go around and recommend people randomly Science-YT-Channel and just Education overall (mostly Fun-Education aka Teaching-as-it-should-be). Mind if i do?
Can't blame people for wanting to find a place to fit in and feel like they belong in. It's only when they start sacrificing everything and anything that it becomes a problem.
Except cults aren't about individualism they're all about belonging and fitting into the ingroup as much as possible while being extremely hostile to outer groups.
the thing about Helen Floersh is that she's better at captivating my attention than all the other Wisecrack hosts (which are great as well ). Make Helen present regularly again ! :))
I always associated cults with a negative affect. To me, the difference between a cult and a religion is their behavior and a prominent, dominating “messiah” figure at the top. Cults cut people off from the world, they demand extreme things from their followers, they do not allow followers to leave, they become increasingly convinced of something awful that’s about to happen (most of them have really dysfunctional eschatology), etc.. So if I religion starts demanding that it’s followers become dysfunctional or violent, or it does not allow it’s followers to leave, it has become a cult. But the same psychological phenomenon that make us religious are the same ones that allow us to be cultish. It’s the same synapses firing, so we need to be extremely careful. Our religious behaviors have always been very interesting and they same baked into us, some of us more than others for some reason be it neurological or environmental or both. And I think that cults not only show up in MLM schemes, but also in politics. It’s easy to use those religious tendencies to get people to believe almost anything to the point that their willing to die for it. To me, both ideologies and cults are extremely similar. They tug on those same neurons. That’s why talking about politics and religion makes us equally as angry. And when we go extreme, we go cultish, which is to say, dysfunctional and generally and flatly wrong about whatever it is we have an opinion about. But yeah, my definition of a cult doesn’t seem to match the one outlined here. So I’m not sure if America was built on cults. By the video’s definition, my religion would be a cult for sure. It’s one of those cults that came out of the late 1800’s and became mainstream over time, like the Jehovah’s witnesses. But I don’t consider my church to be a cult. Although I freely admit that there are cults that have grown out of my church, and some of them have been violent. Again, it’s our eschatology that makes us vulnerable to that sort of thing. I’ve been critical of it, but I suspect not much will change given that our identity really rests on our unique take on the end times. But who knows? Regardless, this was an interesting one, thanks for the video!
Great video. Helped me through a lot of what I've been thinking. One thing I can't stop thinking about is the cult of a celebrity. I feel like nowadays a celebrity's word is the gospel.
Wisecrack is real nice, but i think the best RU-vidr i know must be 'Hbomberguy', cause he's so incredibly unbiased. He thinks of himself as a Fool and preaches that 'If I, a total fool, can sit down and inform myself, then you can too.' I love that. He is known to NEVER 'assume around' but instead do this revolutionary new thing called 'informing himserlf'.
Usually there's a check list of things cults will usually have - A welcoming ceremony for new members - Seeking out lonely individuals - Asking for your money for the "community" - Lots of time in "re-educating" - A divine but human leader - Separation from society - A rewritten book based on any religious text - Initiation for new members
I understand why cults have risen up around the health and fitness industries. People often are lazy and like to eat the unhealthy stuff that tastes good. It takes a LOT of motivation to change that. Using cultish motivation tools probably started off with the right intentions, but it's going a little too far lately.
I'm an ex cult member. I was with the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) for nearly a decade before I left after discovering that the later degrees of the Order included texts describing abuse against pregnant women. If you want to look into this you can find the full text of OTO rituals in The Secret Rituals of the OTO by Francis King. Look at the last 3 degree materials. I can confirm through personal experience the first few degree materials are correct and I can confirm through research that the later degree material is real as it's been traced to physical documents written by the leader Aleister Crowley. L Ron Hubbard was not a member but he performed a version of these abusive later degree material with Jack Parsons in the Babalon Working. Wiki that, it's a nuts story that ends with L Ron Hubbard stealing Jack Parson's wife and boat while Jack Parson's stole L Ron's wife.
Thanks for the video, as always! I have to say, the "whoosh" sound effect is SO DISTRACTING. Its used way too much and I don't know that it adds anything to the video. Fascinating topic though, thanks again!
I kinda agree. I think if they lowered the volume of the sound effects, it wouldn't be so bad. As it stands, the "whoosh" is louder than the person speaking (here and in other videos), which is annoying as hell.
I think you made a research blunder, based on my understanding (which may be inaccurate), cults (when the word isn't being used as a slur) aren't miniature religious movements. I think it is important to make this distinction so the word isn't misused, or people don't get the wrong Idea (like people in the comment section). Religions and cults can be compared to people in a relationship; healthy relationships are like religions, and abusive ones are like cults. Religions want to work with it's members to strengthen it's community and values; cults lie, manipulate, gaslight, and restrain it's members to achieve it's goals. This classification is based on the behavior of communities, not sects as a whole (though leaders are usually the catalyst of a cult). Even if Catholicism as a whole isn't considered a cult, there has been many cult leaders using Catholicism as a platform to steal money, perform sexual assault, or sponsor dangerous political agendas (like the KKK). A similar comparison can be made for MLM (multi level marketting) scams and real jobs (though wage-slavery is a thing). Telltale here is a RU-vidr that does his best to understand cults, and tends to use the B.I.T.E. model to assess whether something can be called a cult. Telltale is where I get a lot of my information from about this. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6Zs1mnZRtEE.html
You will look around and find every aspect of human life is revolved around so called "cults" the idea that capitalism comes out of protestants thought process is quite cool never thought about that clearly however you can see cult like behavior legit under every RU-vid page with a creator who's garnered mass respect from their followers you'll see cult like behavior around all sports you'll see cult like behavior from people who went to certain universities cult like behavior around our races countries of origin and even in the twitch community. Hell we even got a bunch of little tiny cults of troll like men who work to death to give their money to twitch streaming nude "goddesses" who share pleasure with them.
As a European the US definitely appears to be inherently cultish. Your understanding of patriotism seems cultish to me. The flags everywhere, the pledge of allegiance in schools, the belief that the US is the greatest country in the world, etc. It's all just a big cult.
@@DrumWild As an American I’m glad you’re gone. Capitalism, the consensual transaction of products between individuals, is the single most successful, prosperous, egalitarian and robust economic system in human history. 80% of the world’s poverty since 1970 has decreased and as markets become more and more free this trend is only accelerating. There is no substitute for free market capitalism as a promoter of human prosperity.
In the end, everybody is idolizing something. Whether it is wealth, yourself, your favorite sports team or even your child. People idolize many things and this only increases with secularism. It's not that things became a cult and then people joined in. It's that people in western(-ized) societies have an increased demand in something to believe in, and then various individuals/organizations seize that opportunity and gave people something to replace their inner void left by the societal disengagement from religion.
I heard all this rich story of US cults and all I saw was idolatry, manifested as blind trust toward an ideology or a leader's vision, and a façade of self serving goodness that points to godlesness even within mainstream well stablished religions. Yikes.
Trying to research this claim about Puritans and private property and not finding anything to really validate the idea. From what I am finding Puritans as a whole believed strongly in private property, but a few puritan communities, such as the Pilgrims, did experiment for a very short time with common storehouses and communal living but these experiments ended in failure when the young men refused to work if the fruit of their labor was divided equally among families that did not contribute labor. Even so they never completely abolished private property even in those communities. I'm happy to look into further evidence of the claim, but this is all I could find with about 20 minutes and multiple search engines.
