Why Do People Join Cults?

Interesting take! Yeah, makes sense.

Psychology In Seattle

One last thing about Trump. Sorry, but I feel strongly about this. Richard Rorty, not even really a leftist wrote this clear back in 1998 in "Achieving Our Country." I may not have been totally on the same page as him politically, but man, did he ever understand the motivations of the America right: "Members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else. At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots."

Jed Hovey

I really enjoyed this episode. I've run in some pretty far left circles, live in the Twin Cities, and I can see how what Dr. Stein described could happen. Of all that left groups the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) was the only one that genuinely creeped me out. Even among those who identified as socialists, people spoke of them that way. They had that kind of devotion to Bob Avakian and his "radical new synthesis." When I was in NYC, they'd show up at events I went to and hand out their Revolution newspaper. Everything about them rubbed me the wrong way, I just wanted to run in the other direction when I saw them. It's funny to me that the DSA, the organization I'm in, is seen as far left by the general public, but these groups laugh us off as a kind of weak-sauce reformist organization, not even socialist, etc. It just goes to show you everything is relative. Last, I'd argue not to make too much out of Trump. He's not unique, he's just a very vulgar of a typical GOP politician. I'm sorry to disagree with your guest, but this is a typical misreading of the political situation in the US. I'm already rambling here, but Trump is not a radical departure from the US political system and its establishment, but the logical end result of decades of right wing and neoliberal capitalist politics. I would recommend Corey Robin's work on the subject in "The Reactionary Mind" (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reactionary-Mind-Conservatism-Edmund-Donald/dp/0190692006/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0/130-6517862-9509825?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=G6DX851EG3NFAWR08AB4)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Reactionary-Mind-Conservatism-Edmund-Donald/dp/0190692006/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0/130-6517862-9509825?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=G6DX851EG3NFAWR08AB4)</a> who very persuasively argues that Trump isn't anything new. He influenced my outlook on the subject a lot. Another big problem with this perspective is that it somehow posits that racism in the US and GOP are something new, when they aren't, or that there was a time when conservatism was good and decent, which there wasn't. I could go on even more about how Reagan was basically Trump with better acting chops, but you get the point.

Jed Hovey

Wow what a fascinating guest and discussion! The “floating terror” or “unnamed fear” reminds me of your description of lack of sense of self in the NPD deep dive. It’s almost like the cult experience has imposed that personality impairment on you, to where you can’t trust your own ability to think, to understand the world, or to establish safety or self regulate. It’s cool how when you view it through attachment, very different and seemingly unrelated phenomena (NPD vs a cult victim) can be similarly understood. The difference being the source of oppression: in NPD you are enslaved to your own defensive structure vs in a cult you are enslaved to other people’s rules/limitations. Also fascinating to see trump this way...and to ponder the difference between forming a cult to feed your narcissistic supply VS using narcissistic logic to bring others into a cult mindset. (Both might happen at the same time, or one process might be more true in a given group). This episode definitely stretched my brain!! :D