TAGS
CULT
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
If you disagree with someone’s political, philosophical or religious beliefs, according to Karlis and her sources, you have a right to victimize and deprogram them.
MEDIA & ETHICS
I actually saw this question in an online forum the other day: “If I wanted to start my own cult, how would I do it?” Now to begin with, the word “cult” is simply a pejorative word for some group the person using it doesn't like.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
To this day, the assailants that closed in on Ryan’s fallen body and riddled it with rifle and shotgun blasts have not been conclusively identified, although as many as a dozen or so “possibles” have been named in connection with the attack. And so, as in the case of Congressman Hinds, the killers of Congressman Ryan escaped accountability from any court of law.
TOLERANCE
One would think, in this new epoch of hyper-sensitivity, that casual slurs about a stranger’s religion would be “so last century.” Not so much. I’m an actor, and a big part of my life is auditioning for casting directors in the LA area.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Back in the 80s and 90s, people who used Macintosh computers—myself included—were considered odd, as were the computers themselves. Mac users were considered a cult. As a result, Mac sales were dismal. To boost sales in 1997, Steve Jobs launched an ad campaign called “Think Different.”
TOLERANCE
When I was a child in France, the word “culte” just meant “worship.” Still does. In fact, when intolerant types there want to disapprove of some faith, they have to call it a “secte.” Of course, in the USA a cult can be anything from “the cult of skinny jeans” to some dark, authoritarian thing.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The effort to make these religious groups seem dangerous, threatening or just plain weird was prodigious. And didn’t really work on me, to be honest—my husband’s family includes a large branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses and they all seem perfectly normal to me.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
I’m telling you to stop using the word “cult.” The “C” word. Just stop it. Why? I challenge you—if you can show me a sentence where the word “cult” isn’t demeaning, I’ll back off. Email me here. Everyone knows of the problem with the “N”-word.
MEDIA & ETHICS
“Everybody knows” what a cult is. “Cult” is one of those words promoted by the media. Yet if you question anyone using the word, they invariably fall into a blubbering stammer when trying to define it.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
All new religions before being “established” are or were considered “cults” (definition 3). That would include Christianity and Judaism among others. But this word “cult” has been used by many to denigrate a set of beliefs, making them seem weird or strange.
