Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Myths About Cults: Not Just "Those People Over There" Anymore

 
When the sad history of cultism's victims comes to light in the smoldering ashes of their devastated lives, it becomes abundantly clear that the ruin is an equal opportunity storm of destruction. It doesn't matter if you're a rich white American executive or a dirt poor Chinese laborer: the power of cultic delusion is such that it drags down any and everyone who yields to its siren songs. 

And, in typical form, someone who thinks they Know Better decides to edify all around them with their excoriating criticism of a cult victim who, they snarl, should have indeed Known Better.  They rattle off a list of glibly intoned rationalizations that they say prove that the cult victim surely could have "done better," and that their involvement was a tragic miscalculation they saw coming, therefore, they hold the lion's share of responsibility for their involvement and the cost they suffered for having gotten involved. If they were more "mature", more "spiritual", more "educated", etc., they would have then "Known Better."

This strident belief is one of the  most persistently cruel charges that supposedly well meaning observers can inflict upon a cult victim. It leaves them twice victimized and abused and unfortunately it's not at all uncommon among the worlds of pain that cult survivors live in. It is bad enough that they've suffered the religious abuse, personal chaos, lost careers and futures that have left them without friends, family,  resources, even their health. Now you have a bunch of "truth tellers" wanting to essentially scold them and reopen woundings with salted knives of verbal abuse.

It's part of human life for people to want to feel superior to others .. and it's particularly disgusting when these myths are completely wrong to begin with.   We wrote an article years ago that is no less true today about seven of the most popular misconceptions that these armchair therapists like to circulate but which are a break from reality.  Enjoy the no-nonsense rejoinder by clicking here.