America has a weird relationship with cults where theyâre terrified of small cults (or organizations they think are cults) but completely normalized massive cults that hurt many more people (eg: LDS Church, Jehovahâs Witnesses, the Amish, Scientology, most Megachurches)
To anybody asking if the Amish are a cult, the answer is yes, very much so.
Theyâre 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 youâre allowed to think with threats of both social and supernatural harm. Theyâre a cult.
The best method to determine if a group is a cult, in my opinion, is Steven Hassanâs (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 âscoresâ on the model, the more of a cult it is.
I think this model is the best one for several reasons:
Itâs more nuanced than âcultâ or ânot cultâ and doesnât make false equivalences between groups
Itâs versatile, applying to groups big and small, and cults of all kinds, religious, political, financial, etc.
It focuses on whatâs important, which is what the cult does to its members, and those membersâ 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 theyâre confronted with criticism.
#you might notice that there are a lot of similarities between cult techniques and those of abusive partners#and that is an important thing to be aware of
yah that goes in the post
The creator of the BITE Model considers abusive relationships to be two-person cults.
