Cultism

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Cultism refers to the ideological tendency towards the practices and devotions of cults. Cults are usually defined as organizations that exert an unhealthy and abusive amount of control over their members.

History

Cultism as we know it emerged in 1617 as a way of describing religious cults, but in its modern form, it emerged between the 19th and early 20th centuries . Prototypes of cults have existed since antiquity, especially in ancient tribes and societies. An example could be the followers of Pythagoras, known for advancing mathematics and the execution of Hippasus of Metapontum, a mathematician known for discovering the existence of irrational numbers.

Meanings of the Word 'Cult'

Cultivation

The term 'cult' is a cognate of the term 'cultivation'. In the broadest and non-negative sense a cult is any group who participate in cultivation of something, with that thing being seen as holy by the members of the group. This meaning of the word is used by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches to describe the public veneration of saints.

This meaning of the word 'cult' isn't really what people think when think of 'cults' and one shouldn't conflate this meaning with the other meaning.

B.I.T.E. model

B.I.T.E. is an acronym for the four characteristics which according to the mental health counselor define what a cult is.[3][4] The B.I.T.E. model can generally be said to be what most people think when they think of the word 'cult'.

B.I.T.E. stands for[3]

  • Behaviour control: The organisation takes control over its members' physical activity.
  • Information control: The organisation takes control over its members' source of information.
  • Thought control: The organisation takes control what its members can and cannot think.
  • Emotional control: The organisation takes control over what its members can and cannot feel.


Cult of Personality

Another meaning of the term 'cult' is found within the term 'cult of personality', which is a practice utilized predominantly by autocratic political regimes. The term means worship of a certain individual (usually the current ruler or one of the founders of the regime). Some of the most well-known cults of personality are:

Types of cults

Militant cults

Collective suicide/Destructive cults

Cults (To Christians)

Sex cult

W.I.P

Examples

Aryan Nations

W.I.P

Colonia Dignidad

Colonia Dignidad was a Chilean sect and German settlement with Nazi and neoliberal ideals, having numerous accusations of crimes against humanity. The colony emerged in 1961, in the region of Maule in the province of Linhares, with an area of ​​137km², in which its leader was the German refugee sympathizer of Nazism Paul Schäfer, who made people from his Christian Baptist community migrate to the colony, which at the time it was just a farm (El Lavadero).

When journalists arrived in the region, the colony made an effort to show a sign of harmony, with happy residents, men doing field work and women embroidering or making butter. In fact, the colony's rules of conduct were so strict, that it was assimilated to slavery, there were also several cases of racism, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and classism, in addition to the visit of Josef Mengele and hosting numerous Nazi refugees (such as former members of the SS and the Gestapo), with support from Perón. The colony was also accused of harboring UFOs according to Miguel Serrano, in which he blamed the victims calling them traitors, supporting Schäfer.[5]

Colonia was known for being extremely isolated and having torture camps under the Pinochet dictatorship, in which many opponents were tortured and murdered. Another thing that made her known was the numerous cases of pedophilia of Paul Schäfer in the colony.

The settlement ended in 1991 (1 year after the turn to democracy in Chile), changing its name to Villa Baviera, currently being visited. Schäfer fled to Argentina in 1996, but was arrested in 2005, later being extradited back to Chile, dying at age 88.

Destiny Church

W.I.P

Dragon Rouge

W.I.P

Duvalierism

Duvalier, being a highly paranoid man, led a state generally considered to be totalitarian. His power led him to make some rather odd decisions usually under the guise of some kind of "VooDoo" knowledge. One instance was alledgely ordering the murder of every black dog in Haiti under suspicion that one of his political opponents transformed into one. Under his rule a secret police force known as the "TonTon Macoute" (Translated as Uncle Gunnysack), itself named after a Haitian Bogeyman character was to infiltrate just about any organization in the country and would often make people suspected of the smallest crime disappear, sometimes operating in broad daylight. Duvalier also had claimed to use Voodoo to kill John K Kennedy.

Eastern Lightning

W.I.P

Falun Gong

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa is a new religious movement, known for its anti-communist sentiment and a sect-like organization founded by Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s and since 1999, have been banned by the Communist Party of China, with its members actively being persecuted and arrested for their beliefs. Falun Gong emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom" — a period that saw a proliferation of similar practices of meditation, and promotion of Confucian values. The movement gained widespread popularity in China throughout the 1990s and by 1999 government sources estimated that there were 70 million practitioners, more than there were CPC members at the time (although this number was most likely a gross overestimate).

Falun Gong initially enjoyed support from the Chinese government which actively promoted the cult despite its right-wing anti-communist leanings. This could be because Deng Xiaoping, after his 1992 Southern Tour, decided to drop socialism completely and fully embrace free-market capitalism and may have perceived Falun Gong due to its promotion of Confucian values as a counterbalance to left-wing and liberal opposition. The fact Falun Gong promotes itself as a "healthy" practice that can cure diseases without one needing to take medicine may have been cost-effective and convenient for the Chinese government as China at the time lacked a proper healthcare system.

In 1995, Li Hongzhi declared that he had finished teaching Falun Gong in China, and began spreading the practice abroad. Between 1995 and 1999, Li traveled the world giving lectures on his beliefs wherever he went. Falun Gong associations and clubs began appearing all throughout Europe, North America, and Australia. Li Hongzhi moved to the United States in 1996 with his wife and daughter, and in 1998 became a U.S. permanent resident, settling in New York, where Falun Gong's headquarters remain to this day.

The Chinese government under President Jiang Zemin had little to no support due to mass poverty, corruption, nepotism, and repression by state officials which fueled the popularity of Falun Gong which many perceived as an escape from the bitter reality. Jiang Zemin came to perceive the cult as a threat to his power as an increasing number of CPC officials (Possibly including future President Xi Jinping) actively practiced or sympathized with Falun Gong themselves.

On 25 April 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered near the central appeals office in Beijing to demand an end to the escalating harassment against the movement, and on 29 July the same year, Falun Gong was banned by the Central Government. The persecution of Falun Gong enabled Jiang Zemin to seize control of media, police, and the military to eliminate dissent. He even went so far as to create his own paramilitary organization called the 610 Office to persecute the cult. Re-education through labor, Laojiao, rapidly expanded with hundreds of camps being built all across the country to jail Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents. The persecution of Falun Gong gave Jiang Zemin unprecedented powers and made it easier for him to maintain a high level of influence over Party politics after his term ended in 2004 when he was forced to formally hand over power to the new Paramount Leader Hu Jintao. Local officials often competed to arrest as many Falun Gong practitioners as possible to show their loyalty to Jiang's faction. The Governor of Liaoning, Bo Xilai, was one of the leading officials in the Anti-Falun Gong campaign which made it easier for him to rise through the ranks of the Party.

The persecution of Falun Gong caused many of its practitioners to flee China. Many settled in the US where they would gain financial support from the US government and the Republican Party to promote conservative anti-communist sentiment. Falun Gong practitioners established a vast global media network consisting of arts and entertainment company Shen Yun, the newspaper Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD Television) broadcaster, and the YouTube channel China Uncensored, among others that promote negative coverage of CCP's China. Falun Gong due to their revisionist views of the ancient dynasties are believers in the mandate of heaven which stresses that when the rulers of China become too corrupt and inept to rule the Chinese people will overthrow the government and a new dynasty will take its place. Falun Gong (among other Chinese dissident groups) alleges the CCP abroad carries out organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience with the organs being sold on black markets. Falun Gong practitioners abroad have signed arrest warrants for Jiang Zemin and Bo Xilai for engaging in genocide. In 2013 Spain ordered the arrest of former President Jiang Zemin meaning that he longer can set foot in Spain without being put on trial.

Falun Gong media often promote views in line with the Republican Party and Western conservative politicians such as Steve Bannon, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham. They are also very critical of "elites" and "big tech" corporations such as Bill Gates' Microsoft and Cisco which they accuse of having helped China set up their surveillance network, Great Firewall, and promoting Chinese state propaganda. Falun Gong support the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan over the Kuomintang which they perceive to be too friendly to CCP's interests and want China and Taiwan to be recognized as separate countries. They're also highly supportive of other Chinese dissident organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress, the Central Tibetan Administration, and the Hong Kong Democracy Movement and hope that China will be broken into several different states along ethnic and cultural divisions.

Falun Gong media have gained widespread popularity and coverage since Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The cult portrayed Trump as a messiah-like figure sent from heaven to destroy the Chinese Communist Party. Before 2021, cult-affiliated media such as China Uncensored regularly tried to portray then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and the US Democratic Party as communist sympathizers that would turn the US into a Chinese vassal state should Trump not win the 2020 Presidential Election. Since Trump lost (which the cult initially denied by promoting the election fraud conspiracy) and Biden won the presidency, Falun Gong media has back-tracked on their negative coverage of the Democratic Party as US-China relations have only worsened over the past 2 years contrary to what they had previously told their audience would happen.

Even though former President Jiang Zemin significantly lost influence even before his death, over the past decade due to losing the power struggle against current Paramount Leader and President Xi Jinping, Falun Gong remains illegal in China, possibly because of Xi's fear that legalizing the cult would mean to admit the CCP did something wrong in the first place which would greatly polarize Chinese society.

Happy Science

W.I.P

Fifth Monarchism

W.I.P

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS)

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often abbreviated as FLDS, is a Mormon sect whose members continue to practice polygamy, currently led by Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the sexual assault of two children. He continues to lead the group while behind bars.

The movement was founded in the early 20th century not long after its founding members were excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, primarily because of their refusal to abandon the practice of polygamy after its renunciation in the "Second Manifesto", published in 1904, though the Mormon Church has officially denounced polygamy as early as 1890, by then-church president Wilford Woodruff because of fears that continued support for the practice could lead to the dismantling of all Mormon temples.[6]

The group has continued to reside in the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border, though there are other FLDS groups in other parts of the United States and Canada, such as in Eldorado, Texas, Mancos, Colorado, Pringle, South Dakota, Minot, North Dakota, Grand Marais, Minnesota, Bountiful and Creston, British Colombia, and other locations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the FLDS Church as a hate group, citing Warren Jeffs' views on African Americans, women, LGBT+ people, violence, and the end of the world and declared the group as "a white supremacist, homophobic, antigovernment, totalitarian cult".[7]

Scientology

W.I.P

LaRouche movement

W.I.P

Lord's Resistance Army

Manson Family

W.I.P

QAnon

QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory, political movement, and cult that originated on 4chan in 2017. The QAnon Conspiracy centers on the claims made by an individual (or individuals) named "Q". The primary claim is that a cabal of Satanists operating a global child sex trafficking ring are working to undermine Donald Trump and his administration. Proponents of the conspiracy believed that the Trump administration would one day conduct mass arrests and executions of Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, business tycoons, and others in an event known as "The Storm" or "The Event". QAnon also claims that Trump sparked the conspiracy of Russian interference in the 2016 election to enlist Robert Mueller in helping him expose the child sex trafficking ring and preventing a coup led by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros. QAnon has been described as a "big tent" conspiracy theory due to their propensity to believe in a plethora of other conspiracies ranging from Aliens and UFOs to Covid-19 to John F. Kennedy Jr. QAnon believers were heavily involved in the 2020 election and after Joe Biden won, they were heavily involved in attempting to overturn the election results. When legal means of overturning the election failed many QAnon supporters helped in storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Since then social media sites have cracked down on QAnon conspiracy claims, though the movement still has a large following.

Russian Conceptualism

W.I.P

Unification Church

W.I.P


Personality

Weird and not to be let around kids. Seriously, don't do let him around them. Wait, this isn't Epsteinism…

How to Draw

Flag of Cultism
  • Draw a ball
  • Color it with very dark red
  • Draw an eye in the middle
    • Inside the eye, draw a big X
    • Draw the symbol ✨ glow, only black and in the middle of the symbol, draw a white circle.
  • Draw two horns and you're done.
Color Name HEX RGB
Black #141414 20, 20, 20
White #FFFFFF 255, 255, 255
Dark red #340000 52, 0, 0


Relations

Blessed

Frenemies

  • Trumpism - I like your supporters, but why do you call the KKK disgusting?
  • Marxism–Leninism–Maoism - The other kind of MLM, also based! Denies he's me and pretends to hate me, though.
  • Anti-Japaneseism - I like your idea of overthrowing the Japanese government. It's just my methods are a little more "direct" Some of you guys are alright though, don't go to the subway tomorrow.
  • Pagan Theocracy - I like you, your praxis and your tales, but you don't go far enough. Why just sacrifice animals in the occasional ritual blood sacrifice when you could mass-sacrifice thousands? (But your Aztec counterparts were my greatest inspiration.)
  • Christian Democracy - I do occasionally adopt your religion, but Jesus Christ some of you absolutely despise us!

Foes

  • Theocracies - Ew, organized religions with no religious freedom.
  • Dengism - OK I'm a cult, and? Aren't we different? We both like brainwashing!
  • State Atheism - Really hate me. Your Marxist-Leninist counterparts are super based though.

Further Information

Notable Cults

References

  1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones#Publicity_problems
  2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301#Allegations_against_the_group
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Steven Hassan's B.I.T.E. Model of Authoritarian control
  4. ↑ Undue Influence
  5. ↑ 1
  6. ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-polygamy/
  7. ↑ https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/fundamentalist-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints
  8. ↑ Yes, every single one of them.

Gallery

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