America has a weird relationship with cults where they’re terrified of small cults (or organizations they think are cults) but completely normalized massive cults that hurt many more people (eg: LDS Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Amish, Scientology, most Megachurches)
To anybody asking if the Amish are a cult, the answer is yes, very much so.
They’re a high control group that isolate you from society. The cult decides how you dress, how you behave, who you marry and how. They control what you know, blocking all information from the outside world. They control how you feel and what you’re allowed to think with threats of both social and supernatural harm. They’re a cult.
The best method to determine if a group is a cult, in my opinion, is Steven Hassan’s (cult expert and former cult member himself) BITE model.
BITE stands for Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control, and Emotional Control.
The more points a group “scores” on the model, the more of a cult it is.
I think this model is the best one for several reasons:
It’s more nuanced than “cult” or “not cult” and doesn’t make false equivalences between groups
It’s versatile, applying to groups big and small, and cults of all kinds, religious, political, financial, etc.
It focuses on what’s important, which is what the cult does to its members, and those members’ experiences, and not on irrelevant details like how uncommon their doctrines are or whether they have a charismatic leader
This is a great example of Thought Control used by cults whenever they’re confronted with criticism.
The creator of the BITE Model considers abusive relationships to be two-person cults.
As someone who grew up in the Mennonite church around one of the biggest Amish populations in the country… both Amish and Mennonites are cults. Outsiders view them as “quirky” and “harmless” because they’re not DEATH cults. Doesn’t make them not cults.
Full offense but sometimes fandom just totally make up the characterization of a character and then complain when that isn’t canon
Also full offense but sometimes fandom makes up characterization of a character and then guilt trips and shames any fan that doesn’t agree with that specific perspective in all fanon works.
This is why fanon is good and bad. Because some of yall truly need to see the line between fanon and canon.
It’s great to have theories, fics, headcanons, even those incorrect texts whatever. But it all snowballs from there and suddenly that character who just makes jokes to ease the room is a fucken idiot. That broody boy in the corner is now a uwu soft boi who needs all the hugs. Someone who is struggling in canon with the burden of power is now fine with it. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Fanon ships are another thing, people get so wrapped up in thinking wow this is what it should be not that canon ship instead. That when they’re ship isn’t canon because it doesn’t make sense or the Fandom flipped the view of a character they get pissed sometimes and start bullying the shippers of the canon endgames
And its 100% okay to have these ideas but some people in a fandom end up immersing themselves within the fanon side and so when the next book or season comes out and the character isnt like how they are in the fics and hcs they’ve been reading suddenly the author ruined a character the author created.
I think a huge part of the problem is how fandom has slowly been sliding from ‘fun’ into ‘right’.
Don’t get me wrong. Fandom has always had pockets of people more interested in their character/ship/etc being ‘right’ but it seems like, more and more, the emphasis in fandom has gone from
‘this is a fun idea’
to
‘this is a right idea’
and now the second is seen as the only valid response to being in fandom with a headcanon.
In a surprising twist that I think no one saw comming from early access, Astarion and Halsin are like totally opposite ends of whatever gay motherfucker spectrum theyre on
Astarion presents himself as alluring, flirty, desirable, sexually available, ect ect, but it’s entitely preformative. If given a choice he’d happily go without it all for as long as he can.
Meanwhile Halsin is the most regular, sober, sensible dude ever who probably smells like damp leaves and dirt, and then he just show up one night like “i wanna fuck nasty like the oak father intended”
media with all kinds of interesting and unique and memorable designs for men and then every single woman imaginable looks like artbreeder mercy overwatch in latex skinsuits OVER AND OVERRRRRRRR it’s like. no amount of shallow writing to make them seem girlboss and independent will fix your rancid spirit and i’m becoming the shrieking skull now and i’m going to chase you forever and ever and ever and YES i will be shrieking
“THOSE EVIL FEMINISTS HAVE GONE TOO FAR HERE’S MY MOD TO FIX THIS UGLY HIDEOUS HAG OF A DATEABLE WOMAN” *pictures of glassy eyed anime girl tiktok sunburn blush huge eyes elsa frozen nose. you look up what the original character looked like and she was less than 10 degrees from glassy eyed anime girl in the fucking first place*
an article about the incident. michael eisen is jewish and has israeli family and they fired him for “siding” with palestine
if you’re in science and particularly academia, you can sign onto the letter of support for michael eisen here. they allow anonymous signatures as well.
That’s it, the Professor is truly the King of Sass
The letter didn’t come from the Nazi party, but from the publishing house which had expressed an interest in the German translation of The Hobbit. Tolkien’s response really is a thing of beauty, though, so it deserves to be quoted in its entirety:
25 July 1938 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. … I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject - which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearings whatsoever on the merits of my work or its suitability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully
J.R.R. Tolkien.
(Letter 30)
The Hobbit wasn’t published in German until 1957.
This might just be the politest “fuck you” ever written.
W.h.a.t.
Not just “I wish I had Jewish ancestors, but I don’t,” but also “you do realize that’s not what ‘Aryan’ actually means, right,” and “you guys are making it pretty hard to be proud of my German heritage.”
You’re a child. An infant. Your mocking is thus infantile. He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness and warmth when I shiver in cold. And his kiss still thrills me, even after a millennia. His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world is not worth of. I love this man beyond measure and reason. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s all and he’s more.
