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[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Like all ideological cults, they prey on lonely/alienated people who lack purpose and direction(or even narcissists who lack attention/recognition!). And try to cut them off from whatever existing healthy connections they still have in order to replace them with love-bombing yes-men, who can lock them into an emotional/social dependence that can be difficult to extricate oneself from.

[–]Chipit 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, that happened to me too. I guess someone at Youtube has a relative in Scientology and wants to get them out. I watched a few, it was pretty interesting for a bit, but soon my curiosity was sated and now I ignore them.

It's the same with all cults: promise these amazing advantages and let lonely people into an ingroup. Define the rest of the world as an outgroup and unite against them.

[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Arty Morty did a video comparing gender identity ideology to Scientology a while back.

It’s frustrating that more people don’t pick up on the pseudoreligious nature of the movement and that it requires the forced participation of everyone. Religious conservatives like Matt Walsh avoid bringing this up because obviously they’re all about forcing everyone to participate in their religion and they just hate that they’re the ones without the power.

[–]RippoffOfLoveSStraight | Overuses quotation marks 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Gender theory as it exists today has a few cult qualities. I've mentioned this before, but I recommend studying the BITE model. It was developed by Dr Steven Hassan, who is regarded as an expert on cults and mind control. Since you mention Scientology, he was a special guest on Leah Remini's TV series Scientology and the Aftermath.

Hassan has noticed some of these similarities too (source 1 | source 2), but as far as I know he hasn't gotten too involved in the trans debate.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's interesting because both are a type of non-deity religion. If I am pulling from the correct crevices in my brain, scientology has something to do with aliens called thetans who live in volcanos? But it's also a pyramid scheme of sorts.

The major difference with gender ideology is that they effectively turn the deity worship and glorification inward. In most religions self sacrifice is important for the greater good. Yes it's obviously a form of social control so that people in power can maintain control of an entire civilization without them going berserk and overthrowing the 1 guy who has food... But... The teachings arguably have a positive morality associated with them. We might not agree with the morality but it is a type of value system designed for the greater good. Leviticus is basically a large instruction manual on how to stay relatively healthy in a world with no medicine. It's just framed as the things that might kill you are abominations.

With the trans religion they actively reject the greater good in favor of creating an internal idol. They only demand that identity is important so that society will respect their own internal idol. They turn on each other on the drop of a dime because each of them worships their own identity.