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We are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
- clouddrover 4y agoTake the cult test. Apply it to a company you work at. See how you feel: https://cult-escape.com/cult-test/ https://cult-escape.com/cult-test/
- extragood 4y agoThey don't mind us reading critical works, but they do prophesize the end of the world.. hmm
- xpe 4y agoThere are common dynamics. The penalties for leaving vary, but still, leaving a group you feel connected with always hurts.
- martopix 4y agoI cannot stress how much this applies to academia
- kelseyfrog 4y agoI mean you could do the same thing with the abstract ideas of post-marginal revolution economics and its adherents and get a positive result so the test is obviously wrong.
- Schroedingersat 4y agoI can't even tell if this is a poe. Well done.
- xpe 4y agoI can't even figure out what a poe is. Here at least.
- kelseyfrog 4y agoThank you.
- partiallypro 4y agoHonestly, apply it to your political party. I've come to see both parties can be very cultish as of late. If you leave the herd, you are immediately attacked even if it's for the smallest topic. People leave their families over it. When you start to think about it...it's starts to fall a bit into that. I think that is a more compelling argument than saying family itself is a cult, which is at the human core more than a political party.
- 13of40 4y agoI got basically a zero score when I did it for my company (except the separation one, which I guess is analogous to quitting) but when I tried my country I got a pretty good score - 8/10 (Edit: To be clear I'm not a member of a political party so I can't try that one.)
- lmm 4y agoThat doesn't sound so implausible. Many countries are cult-like and many people, even those who think of themselves as liberal, have a very cult-like nationalism.
- mcv 4y agoI decided to do it for my church, and got zero. I think most companies and countries score higher than that. Although even for my country I could only honestly give a point for the title. (No idea if it's the king or the prime minister who counts as the leader here, but it's an impressive title. There's plenty of laws, but they don't restrict much on the relational front. Well, there's restrictions on marrying children, and criminal jobs are illegal, so that might be another point.)
- lazyeye 4y agoA good indication of a cult is that there is a shopping list of specific core beliefs (say 20) you are expected to believe. And you believe 19 of them but on the 20th you have a slightly different view. If this causes you to be banished and ostracised, then it's probably a cult. JK Rowling would be an example of this.
- darthrupert 4y ago10/10. Funny or alarming?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- msla 4y agoAside from all the content-free "Everything I Don't Like Is A Cult" chuntering I already see, what is the point of this? I thought it was a dig at how cult-like the "anticult" deprogramming stuff was back during the last big scare in the 1980s, but it isn't that, because the victims of deprogramming sessions weren't free to leave. That was rather their big problem: They kidnapped people and held them in motel rooms and such and they pointedly weren't free to leave until they'd been psychologically broken. So the part where this says "you" (some imaginary person in this second-person fiction thing) are free to leave undercuts that point, leaving this pointless. I do have a point, though: Saying everything is a cult is bad for the same reason saying every relationship is abusive is bad. It gives cover to the real abusers. After all, if every situation is equally terrible, there's no real reason to leave the ones which are, in point of fact, terrible. "Everywhere else is just as bad" is a powerful tool for abusers to use on their victims.
- newaccount74 4y agoTo me it sounded like they were offering people everything they need to get out of a cult, without forcing them to join a different type of cult. Maybe I'm too naive, but to me it sounds like they genuinely are trying to help.
- bbor 4y agoI don’t think it has a point in that sense? Perhaps I’m lacking critical reading skills but this seems more like creative writing than social commentary. Your response to all the other comments is very on point though. Cults are real, and I think this story repeatedly interacts with some very scary aspects of real cults - aspects not found in an Agile coach or middle manager, in my uninformed opinion.
- msla 4y agoYeah, it's probably just a piece of creative writing, but I've seen the basic conceit done better. The Local 58 web videos, for example, do the "message to you" thing better because they build a world for that message to have come from, and draw you into that world using both text and paratext. This, on the other hand, does no world-building and doesn't even create an implied character for the message to have come from. It's too sterile. Even if it is nodding at morally-questionable deprogramming outfits, one, that's kind of an odd reference to be making decades after the fact, and, two, there's nothing in the text to support that beyond the literal use of the word "de-programming" precisely once. However, there's no other obvious interpretation which would give this a point.
- maxbond 4y agoI was waiting for the part that would make it clear what was being satirized, and it never came? I feel like I'm missing context?
- scubbo 4y agoMy reading is that the very fact that it's so abstract and general is itself the point. What could the cult be? Politics? Religion? A particular professional mindset or focus? Many could fit. Apart from the reference to "promise of godly exaltation or gift in a theoretical afterlife" (which nod towards religion), you could apply a lot of this to many social groups.
- dmix 4y ago> One of the hallmark tactics of a cult is to isolate you from the rest of the world. They make you depend solely on others within the community for your every need, thus making it extremely difficult to leave. This line stood out to me and seems very apt in these days. For ex, how it's now normal to go after people's jobs directly via social media pressure tactics or business's revenue (and subsequently their employees jobs) via Visa/mastercard/paypal/ad buyers/etc, merely for stepping out of line from mainstream opinions... as Wikileaks and many others experienced. Making society more resilient to cult-like behaviour is always a good thing. Even when these tactics might benefit your pet beliefs, it's rarely worth the trade-offs and usually backfires. When the system you promote exclusively benefits a particular ideology or exclusive set of organizations that's usually a good indicator it's cultish.
- tjr225 4y ago
- Guthur 4y agoIf you stand apart you will be preyed upon by those that do not. We are not designed or evolved or whatever to prowl alone, because it will always be in our nature to come together and some will exploit this. And so while you stand alone they will bring all their machinations to consume your very being. Would you really be that strong to stand alone against all those that would look to exploit you.
- Taniwha 4y agoIt's agile isn't it ....
- autotune 4y agoIf you had said Jira you might have gotten a better response. Agile is just the methodology, it's the implementation that causes suffering.
- quickthrower2 4y agoagile is synonymous with bad agile. If you really are doing good agile as a company you need to say how to be believed.
- autotune 4y agoStep 1) Switch to Azure DevOps, or literally anything else, from Jira Step 2) ??? Step 3) Enjoy your good agile.
- quickthrower2 4y agoThanks for the keyword "Azure DevOps" I would have never guessed it was that. For Microsoft centric Engineering teams, it might be an easier sell. Then again Azure tends to like to cancel services. Although they are very nice and support those cancelled things for quite a while first. I also don't see how JIRA can make things bad. I mean bad to use the software maybe, but it is not really enforcing a type of agile onto anyone.
- autotune 4y agoSure, this is nothing about being "Microsoft" or "Linux" centric, you can use it as a ticketing and CICD tool that literally has plugins to connect to AWS or GCP through terraform cli stages and deploy from there. Azure DevOps is about as centric to Microsoft as Jira is to Canonical in terms of service functionality. If your only criteria for tool selection is "MS bad" you might want reconsider how you evaluate your tool set. I say this as someone who started out using Linux, still uses Linux for the majority of their job, and uses a MacBook Pro for work and personal use, outside of gaming of course. The only things we use in Azure specifically are Active Directory and Azure DevOps, which again, right tool for the right job. You probably wouldn't want to attempt using FreeIPA because "MS bad" when AD has already been production ready for years. And again, there is no way you will be able to see how JIRA does things wrong if it's the first and only tool you ever use. Search functionality is a relative dream in Azure DevOps, for starters.
- richardatlarge 4y agoAnother way of saying we are all a great distance from absolute truth about the world. Which my cult says is absolute nonsense. Some cults are better than others
- firecall 4y agoYou say Cult like it's a bad thing....
- Smoosh 4y agoHey, our absolute ruler with a personal interface to the divine says that we aren't.
- raydiatian 4y agoSeems to be an ironic satirization of a cult-deplatforming seminar being cult-shaped itself
- webkike 4y agoEvery now and then an article gets to the front page of this website that completely baffles me as to the reason it got there. Could someone explain this one to me?
- bhaney 4y agoI liked reading it, so I upvoted it. Apparently other people did the same.
- smaudet 4y agoCould be in part bot activity. I've seen a couple other weird things rise up on here. The blogging platform for this one is interesting, if you follow the rabbit hole a bit you'll find e.g. https://herman.bearblog.dev/building-software-to-last-forever/ https://herman.bearblog.dev/building-software-to-last-foreve... I don't see that many posts, but it appears to have some interesting traffic on it at present. Worth holding on to perhaps? https://github.com/HermanMartinus/bearblog/ https://github.com/HermanMartinus/bearblog/
- dang 4y agoI looked at the data; the upvoters are ordinary HN users—not bots, unless someone created bots 7 years ago to comment about monorepos and upvote Haskell blogs.
- TaylorAlexander 4y agoI read the featured article and found it interesting. Maybe just a difference of opinion?
- jhanschoo 4y agoThis looks like something you might read on McSweeney's
- myshpa 4y agoSince the day we're born we're interpreting the world around us, or we're told stories explaining it. We live in our image of the world, not in reality. When grown up, most are afraid of the real world, protecting their dreamy world with ferocity, afraid to peek out. It takes courage to face it.
- legerdemain 4y agoThis reads like faxlore: the smeared, repeatedly photocopied screeds and attempts at humor you find pinned to the cork board in the mail room.
- parrellel 4y agoWas that a meta-cult induction. Because I think I just read the Penn and Teller version of a cult induction? Neat.
- motohagiography 4y agoWas also thinking it was a variation on a quine. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_%28computing%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_%28computing%29) There are variations on this article that I think could be useful to give some perspective on certain patterns of thought. The strange-loop aspect demonstrates how we can operate on a belief that originates from a circular reference, and as a consequence, the logic of our ideas and reasoning may not be consistent with the external world. If our conclusions justify indulging in an immoderate vice (e.g. the seven deadlies or another obvious list of things we know we are capable of choosing better options than) it's probably worth examining more closely.
- imwillofficial 4y ago“cognitive dissonance” has to be the most over-used psychobable word ever.
- _def 4y agoIs it over used? Probably. But how is it psycho babble? I thought here it was used in a way true to its original meaning.
- imwillofficial 4y agoCognitive dissonance is not some scientifically shown fact. It’s a guess at what’s happening. It’s pseudo science at best, psychobable at worst.
- prox 4y agoWhile we always are part of a generalized belief system, some are open ended and some are closed ended. That is to say, if you are willing to postpone your “truth statements” in order to promote your own critical thinking and inquisitive behavior, you are probably open ended. If someone attacks your insert belief statement , and if you do not feel threatened, you are willing to entertain beliefs other than your own, without surrendering your individual capacity for critical thinking and curiosity, that is probably open ended belief. There are many things we probably belief that we want to belief rather than are true. That does not have to be a problem. Problems usually arise when we make future statements that entail a salvation aspect. “Do this and everything will be better” , “follow me because I know better.” The more exclusionary the tone of this salvation message, the more cultish it will score. Some good resources : https://www.igotout.org/resources https://www.igotout.org/resources A recent book to imagine what it’s on the inside is the book Cult Trip : inside the world of coercion and control.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- noodles_nomore 4y agoThere is a non-fiction book that essentially reads like this. It's polemically titled "God Wants You Dead." It's only marginally about religion.
- gorgoiler 4y agoVery clever. The scariest monster remains unseen. I try to live my life being open to challenging and being challenged by anything. But there are some things — needing money, clothes, electricity — which are hard to escape. I’ll try and have another go though, I promise.
- IshKebab 4y agoExcept they're clearly talking about Christianity.
- namero999 4y agoThey are clearly talking about a tech corporation.
- clnq 4y agoThey are clearly talking about dysfunctional societal norms.
- TrapLord_Rhodo 4y agoThey are clearly recruiting for their cult.
- the_only_law 4y agoWhere do I sign up?
- leokeba 4y agoYou already did.
- johmue 4y agowhatever you are thinking about while reading this is probably the cult you are in
- autotune 4y agoSo npm package management is legitimately a cult?
- jspash 4y agoMaybe not NPM per se. But the cult of JAVASCRIPT ALL TEH THINGS!!! most certainly is. imho
- autotune 4y agoYet try mentioning this when a new js framework gets released and submitted on here and your comment gets flagged almost immediately. FREE YOURSELVES MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND COME TO THE LIGHT, FOR PYSCRIPT IS HERE TO SAVE YOU!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- scandox 4y agoReminder of the difference between a cult and a mere religion: a religion only wants 10% but a cult wants it all.
- TrispusAttucks 4y agoWho knew that leaving the cult was as easy as joining another! Very clever.
- ur-whale 4y agoWhat I find remarkable is that both the word "culture" (as in the culture you were born in) and "cult" have the same stem. When you think about it, the entire article can out of the box apply to both.
- peepee1982 4y agoA lot of people here seem to be offended by this essay because of the literal definition of the term "cult" and start looking for potential cults they may be part of. I think they are mistaken. To me, this essay clearly speaks about the maladaptive conditioning we receive from our families and society in general during childhood and adolescence which causes us to suppress our feelings and authentic selves and treat the pain of it with medication, distraction, and OCD behaviors instead of healthy emotional release. But I might just be projecting.
- DavidPiper 4y ago> But I might just be projecting. I might be too, but this was my takeaway as well, though I stopped short of the link to medication and distraction. Family and society were enough to consider ;)
- peepee1982 4y agoJust to be clear, I'm not against medication or distraction when appropriate. And I agree with you :-)
- siddboots 4y agoThat's where my mind went as well - in fact, it reminded me of Guy Debord: > In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.
- mcv 4y agoWhile reading it, I couldn't help but think: but what if this is the cult? I've got to admit I have no idea what the difference is between brainwashing and deprogramming.
- sharikous 4y agoBoth things are programs that run in your head. The difference is how much the program makes you search inside yourself and ALONE for the answers you seek as opposite to reaching for an external authority. If you feel you are dependent on an external human the most likely event is that they or their group made you dependent on purpose via some sort of manipulation.
- thinkingemote 4y agoOne characteristic of cults is how they get defined and define themselves. They define themselves in conjunction with everyone "outside" but it goes further as "outside" itself gets defined partly by them and partly by others. For example, if a bunch of newspapers says "X organisation is a cult" then it provokes a kind of self-reinforcing reaction in the organisation to separate themselves more from those not in the group. The group becomes more strong by defining itself in comparison to those outside the group. A member of a group finds their membership and sense of belonging stronger when people outside the group separate them. Polarisation isolates the poles but it also strengthens them. It's therefore kind of one sided to say that a cult isolates a member from the outside world, although they do actually do that. It also gives a potential path away from dangerous cults to be formed - it's about allowing groups to exist within ones life and allowing people to move around - a kind of tolerance for the other or the margins. Outside of cults, 2 examples: A good example of the group solidification mechanism is in the parallel with US politics where people in either sides think it's the other side that polarises politics. "I'm not an extremist you are". There's also an example of Reddit about subreddits and communities. Reddit organisation labelled subreddits "communities" where before the labelling the people who visited subreddits didn't think of themselves as a community. "communities" were created to isolate certain problematic subreddits who indeed had a unique group identity. Quarantine was introduced at the same time to perform the isolation. Subreddits turned into communities by becoming identified as such from within and outside but also the communities own self-culture, moderation rules became stronger because they were labelled as such. I can recommend Spying in Guru Land for a book about cults. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2487851.Spying_in_Guru_Land https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2487851.Spying_in_Guru_L...
- phtrivier 4y agoWell, I'm only interested in the part where they provide free arbitrary meals on demand. The economics of that are intriguing, but, hey, since I'm clearly a poor soul to save, they can't deny me this right, right ? Where do I sign up for your totally-not-a-cult thing ?
- Smithalicious 4y agoThis is a pointless article that baits the reader into thinking there is a point, as evidenced by the fact that you can read many comments here of people trying to extract meaning out of it and not find anything that is actually profound and not incredibly overwrought.
- goodpoint 4y agoIt's not pointless at all.
- dTal 4y agoAnd yet over a hundred people have upvoted it so far. Perhaps the ambiguity is the point.
- madeofpalk 4y agoWe are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
- shapefrog 4y agoWe are sorry to inform you that you are in a cult
- hdjjhhvvhga 4y agoI regret not having read your comment before clicking the link and wasting a few minutes of my life. A good idea but not realized well.
- notpushkin 4y agoIt's not really an article, more of a short story I guess.
- quickthrower2 4y agoThe cult is aka “hotel california”
- gonzo 4y agoPlenty of room
- d--b 4y agoMeh… Culture = Cult. How deep. For those interested, read Bruno Latour, it’s a lot finer. It’s about how you compose with the various traits of your culture to make sense of the world. People build their own Frankenstein-like culture. A lot of scientists are also religious. We choose what we want to believe in, and how we do it is what is interesting.
- b3lvedere 4y agoNice on a t-shirt: You can't spell culture without cult
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ay 4y agoCult is shorthand for “startup religion”.
- FollowingTheDao 4y agoFunny that no one here got the joke. The cult is Hacker News.
- sebastianconcpt 4y agoIs it talking about the wokeness cult?
- jpambrun 4y agoTrumpism?
- sebastianconcpt 4y agoPostmodernist Negative Dialectics?
- drewbug01 4y agoIt’s an interesting piece, and I think it’s intended to be satirical (and done rather well). But, I grew up in an actual cult. The comments here to the effect of “everything’s a cult” and “startups are cults” and “HN is a cult” - oh gosh. Nothing could be further from the truth. HN is not a cult, folks. I’m glad people can make those jokes though, because I immediately know they didn’t experience what I did. They have never experienced the ongoing heartbreak of losing your entire world when you leave - your family, your friends, your job, your social life, your religion, your everything. People who get out don’t tend to make light of it. In any case: know that there are actual cults in operation, and they do tremendous harm. The “everything’s a cult” stuff allows them to operate more freely these days.
- macintux 4y agoThe world seems replete with similar falsehoods these days, to prevent us from caring about the real criminals. I'm glad you escaped, and thanks for sharing.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tapland 4y agoIt's been very hard finding a psychologist in Scandinavia who even understands the concept. And lately it's been getting really bad having to re-tell the reasons for the PTSD diagnosis to doctors who go "oh, well, a lot of people _say _they have PTSD"
- drewbug01 4y agoI had a similar experience finding a therapist who could work with “religious trauma”. Part of the reason I finally started calling it a cult (despite the stigma) is that at least in the US that seemed to help people understand that I meant something deeper and darker than the average person. (Not to mention: a lot of people get really touchy with the idea that religion can be “traumatic” at all.)
- sharikous 4y agoI have come to realize that every imposition of power from an individual or a group has the same characteristics. From a narcissistic single person in the family, to an evangelist, a religion, a state. They all follow the same patterns. It's pervasive but if you pick your poison carefully you will be in a place that lets you have the maximum freedom (a democratic state, a healthy family dynamic, atheism or a very liberal spirituality). The majority howver willingly or not will pick the power system where they think they are most comfortable (usually the one they grew up with).
- mistermann 4y ago> It's pervasive but if you pick your poison carefully you will be in a place that lets you have the maximum freedom (a democratic state, a healthy family dynamic, atheism or a very liberal spirituality). The majority howver willingly or not will pick the power system where they think they are most comfortable (usually the one they grew up with). An interesting way of thinking, where did you learn it from?
- sylware 4y agoUsually, "cult" is used in a negative way to define a group of ppl with strong, too strong, "in-betweeners" behavior. One of the time which surprised me: got some feedback of ppl who did work for mozilla. That said, it can happen with real religion based network of ppl: it is so strong (economy included), my country state had to setup some laws to deal with this.
- bart_spoon 4y agoI’ve seen so much quibbling at what criteria actually makes something a cult. Some religions get labeled as cults, when others don’t, and the without much differentiation between them. Some atheistic communities have just as many cult-like attributes as religious ones, but don’t get labeled as a cult. The same goes for political groups, companies, philosophies, and online communities. It seems like most human communities have cult-like characteristics. I’ve come to the conclusion that the word “cult” isn’t very useful as a descriptor, at least in terms of the thing it’s describing. Rather, it’s far more useful as a descriptor of the person using the word to describe something. As the post indicates, we all belong to a cult of some kind, or engage in some level of cultish behavior. If I label something a cult, it doesn’t tell you much about that thing itself, or ways in which it is more of a cult than anything else, but it does signify my disapproval of that thing, which probably, at a base level is due to reasons unrelated to the cult-like behavior of that group. In short, the labeling of something as a cult doesn’t actually do anything to describe that thing. Rather it’s a Rorschach test for the person doing the labeling.
- thetinymite 4y agoThe author grew up in Utah, so my guess is that the essay is about Mormonism / latter day saints
- aaron695 4y ago
- alistairSH 4y agoAm I the only person who has no idea what this is about? Is it trying to imply society as a whole is a cult? Weird take, but ok?
- softwaredoug 4y agoIn all honesty you have probably been in culty things Most aren’t extreme - there’s also just the toxic, narcissistic leader people are eager to please, that attracts sycophants and exerts a high level of ostracism on folks that don’t conform. You can find yourself backing into these situations almost unconsciously. There’s an entire field of studying malignant narcissists and high control groups. And we all have a little narcissism / eagerness to belong we need to look out for. Many mundane workplace settings, community groups, political movements, sports teams can easily become “culty”
- brian-bk 4y agoEssay reads like a cult essay. Kinda like: 'Sorry to inform you that you are in a cult, but stay here, we'll fix you up and make you better.' It reminds me of spam saying "your computer has been infected with a virus, download this tool (definitely not the real virus) to cleanse your computer".
- tboyd47 4y agoI liked it, but it sounds more like initiation into a cult than deprogramming from one. > You were born to parents who started your indoctrination from day one. Separation from one's own parents is a cult mind control tactic. > Like it or not though, the cult has left noticeable marks on you. In fact, that's how we identified you. Guilt is another mind control technique. > Unlike your cult, we encourage you to feel these feelings to their fullest if at all possible. This is another tactic called disinhibition. > If these feelings ever get too much to handle, simply press the red button on the device on your wrist, and you will be relieved of these feelings for a two hour time period. Drug abuse. > Want food? Press the green button on your wrist device, and the meal of your choosing will be prepared for you. Change of diet is a mind control tactic as well. > You are also welcome to feed, pet, and generally take care of the various cats and dogs that wander the premises. They are specially trained as companion animals and are here to make you feel better and, hopefully, lift your mood. Love bombing is typically done with humans but OK. https://cultinformation.org.uk/article_cult-concerns.html https://cultinformation.org.uk/article_cult-concerns.html
- castlecrasher2 4y ago>I liked it, but it sounds more like initiation into a cult than deprogramming from one. I thought so, too, and was waiting for a punchline that never came.
- awillen 4y agoThat seems like the whole point of this - from the perspective of the reader, you can't actually tell whether you've actually just been taken out of a cult for deprogramming or if this is a cult indoctrinating you by convincing you that you used to be in a cult.
- ispo 4y agoI see it, I still thing other Similarly interesting interpretations can be made. Suggestions?
- ziml77 4y ago> it sounds more like initiation into a cult than deprogramming from one. I'm fairly certain that's the point. Makes you think if rescuing someone from a cult isn't just switching them to a different cult that happens to be widely accepted. Once you have that thought, then it leads to thinking about what defines a cult and why deprogramming is not the same as indoctrination.
- slowhand09 4y ago"The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist." The greatest trick the progressives ever played was convincing the world that Qanon did exist.
- throwaway_4ever 4y agoIs this satire? My progressives-hating family were the only ones shoving down my throat that Qanon exists...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- diffxx 4y ago> The comments here to the effect of “everything’s a cult” and “startups are cults” and “HN is a cult” - oh gosh. Nothing could be further from the truth. HN is not a cult, folks. While reading, I assumed they were talking about western civilization itself.
- danans 4y agoThe word cult has different meanings when used academically and colloquially [1]. The academic meaning has more to do with analyzing shared-culture groups by identifying clusters of material culture and beliefs. I.e. the cult of Apollo, or the cult of St. Nicholas. Cult in the sense used in this article is in the modern sense of a group of people heavily controlled by a charismatic leader via a belief system. Some academic "cults" certainly fit the definition of modern colloquial "cults", but not all. Some are just religious/cultural clusters. 1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3511972#:~:text=...a%20cult%20is%20usually,and%20individualistically%20oriented%2C%20and%20deriv%2D https://www.jstor.org/stable/3511972#:~:text=...a%20cult%20i...
- zzzbra 4y agowish i could get these five minutes back. this is the definition of “specious”.
- soso_sesame 4y agoIts funny to read what reads to me as Hacker News middle-class contrarianism about how silly people use the term cult, when I grew up with parents in actual cults that led me to going in foster care and ultimately severing all ties to them due to their dangerous behavior.
- untangle 4y agoPerhaps I'm stating the obvious, but "...sorry to inform you..." is just one post of many on the blog. Those seeking more context should check out the home page and some of the other posts. Two items emerge quickly: the blogger left Utah several years ago and is now probably an atheist. But the writing is great -- haunting and mysterious. Nice find.