I think a big part of this is how thoroughly dissatisfaction is pushed. We are conditioned against being content with what we have.
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Right, and part of the reason we are dissatisfied is because of how atomized we are in the modern context. That makes us ALL easy pickings, really.
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It’s the core value of the advertising industry.
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That’s why we are on this version of the Matrix, after all
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Thanks! That was a good, but quick, read.
I also almost got sucked into Scientology when I was about his age through their “personality test.” So many of the techniques the author mentioned, they used them during the “interview” process, which I thought would be maybe an hour on my day off and ended up taking the whole day. By the end of that day I was so into it that I signed a contract.
I think the main thing that saved me is that I walked everywhere. The fresh air cleared my head and I called them when I got home to cancel the contract.
They still called me every year on my birthday until I changed my number 
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Again what I am saying is that no one, regardless of their upbringing, or however many damage points they’ve accrued over the years, should consider themselves permanently not susceptible to psychological abuse up to and including being targeted by a cult for the same reasons no one should consider themselves not susceptible to robbery or fraud.
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Meh. You’re no Joe Pesci.
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You don’t know that. On the internet, no one knows you’re Joe Pesci. 
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I wish more folks would follow this heuristic rather than fight and die over justifying their beliefs to others. I think the world would be a much better place if we did things that way, probably more peaceful too.
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At least they got most of the glitches out.
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At least they got most of the glitches out this time.
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Me either. Except perhaps being raised to worship skepticism? My parents were atheists and critical thinkers – an engineer and a math teacher.
(This comment is all about me, of course. I’m going to have to collect all my BB comments into my autobiography. It’s more here than anywhere.)
Worshiping skeptism can be dysfunctional, as when my widowed mother became an alcoholic. She didn’t like AA because “I am not like them” (not that AA isn’t in fact often harmful). She went to one meeting with a therapist and quit, saying, “What a bunch of BS.”
I can remember being approached by Jesusites, etc, as a teen and physically backing away (did I think they’d contaminate me?)
As a freelancer, I was invited (in about 2007) by a contact to meet a guy with an internet business idea. The guy was a blowhard who bulldozed over my warnings that the internet actually didn’t work the way he thought.* When he and the other 2 started swapping stories about their fun experiences working in MLM, I literally got up and walked out mid-sentence.
Footnote: Alas, a whole lot of people thought they knew more than I did about the internet, because I was a middle-aged female (and fat). Let’s disregard my degree in CS and my first web site built in 1997.
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I do think I am somewhat insulated by being quite a walker-outer. I’ve turned on my heel and walked out of three different medical clinics that insisted on my SSN (one receptionist was so insulted that I asked for the return of my “new patient” paperwork that he threw it at me).
Iffy-sounding pitches trigger walking out even faster. I do that thing where you hold your elbows to form a meter, and tilt up one arm to measure increasing BS. Try it, it’s bodily reinforcement.
I also think my parents made me so skeptical that I’ve missed out on some stuff.
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I’d argue that laziness is the most powerful. Inventions are borne of it, it is the core of efficiency, and it guides almost every decision made by man.
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Just me talkin’ out my ass here: There are good and bad kinds of faiths. The good kind is based on reasonable and honest effort being put into verification; supportive facts; and a wisdom born of experience. The bad kind is based on unsupported biases; malevolent self-interest; the mindless instinct to follow the biggest and loudest bull in the herd; and general intellectual/academic laziness. Both kinds are powerful, but the latter may be stronger and more common.
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Why are cults still successful?
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Societal acceptance / legitimacy of freedom of religion. This provides legal dodges, tax shelters, grifting at megachurch scale, all things that haven’t even been tested in courts because we all have the same idea planted in our heads: “you can’t tell me what to believe!” It’s easy to act with impunity when the law is afraid to cross you.
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Enormous advances in psychology and marketing. Psychology used to be simple: do what the men in power say, or they will torture you to death in a dungeon. While effective, we’ve advanced a lot since those days, and are now using both positive and negative reinforcement. Advertisers have long led the way in promoting useless stuff for profit, and they’ve learned what works. From shiny rocks in engagement rings that are expected to cost “two months salary”, to dozens of varieties of sugary caffeinated water, to slightly smarter phones, marketers have blazed new trails in driving human behavior in the most profitable directions possible. They’re constantly honing the edge of the knife, making sure you are always terrified of suffering unbearably from FOMO. And those lessons are available to anyone.
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Unfettered communications. The internet has enabled previously isolated idealists to find each other. While this isn’t a bad thing, it allows small groups to combine resources to make possible things that were previously beyond their reach. This means a couple of model airplane nerds can buy an old golf course in Ohio to host a research, design, manufacturing, and testing center. And a couple of survivalists can buy a compound in the woods of Idaho to train Soldiers of God.
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Unfettered capitalism. We let corporations do anything in the name of profits, up to and including killing uninsured people, selling toxic products, polluters, etc. When you’re not one of the privileged, it’s a built-in win for a cultist to sway you to blame someone else for your troubles. And if you can’t use economics, you can use race, xenophobia, or just about any excuse to rally people around a flag of hate.
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When he says “everybody cults”, he’s devaluing (or at best redefining) what “cult” means.
He mentions how “ethical cults” are jazz players… can’t he use a different word?
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Glitch glitch
(Post deleted by author)
Glitch
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Judging only on this video and a few promotional bios I found for him after a 2 minute Google search, this guy gives off strong motivational speaker scam artist vibes. I’m guessing this dude - through his company his company Flow Genetics Project, where they offer “best practices from optimal psychology, neuroscience, and experiential leadership, taught in dynamic learning environments that are challenging, fun, and transformational” - can teach me & my company how to develop the much needed Ethical Cults he describes in the video.
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