#bite model

[hexpatient]

theres a moral panic about people ~identifying~ too much with their psychiatric label such as the period in 2019 on here i saw a lot of wringing about identifying with your trauma too much :( stop making trauma art with the bloody hello kitties and go to therapy or whatever or you will be stuck in your trauma forever because you've made it your whole personality. thats a moral panic. idk if that was a larger trend or not but i definitely noticed. its just nonsense. of course people in the thick of trauma are """"identifying"""" with the trauma.... duh.... anyway.

people pretty observable identify AS and WITH their psychiatric labels very heavily. and i honestly dont blame them for that? these ideas that are basically the supposedly medical objective descriptive label of "the reason why you are the way that you are disorder"? i dont blame people for putting their labels in their bio or identifying heavily with them! for many of us, the symptoms of those labels DO really define us very heavily.

i say this to bring it back around to the BITE model though: thought control> change your identity, possibly even your name. because those psych labels ultimately rewrite our understandings of ourselves, even if in a way that appears to provide a satisfying explanation. and connects the identity to the psychiatric institution by implicitly accepting their language and reasoning.

i personally still use labels like "ptsd" for myself and dont really plan on stopping and i dont want to press anyone else into stopping either. i think those labels can still be important shorthand for your experience of the symptoms. and again, i dont fault anyone for using them as a descriptor or identifying aspect of themselves. its very human, extremely understandable for people to latch onto the labels applied to them by authorities, supposedly based in science and compassion.

im directing my scrutiny towards the source: psychiatry itself. because the labels, even if accurate, sum up a highly complicated human person in a way that is intended to belittle and delegitimize. to a psych authority, im not a complicated person with ptsd, no, i am a person shaped object who's only characteristic is (the most bad faith caricature ever of) ptsd.

but anyway. BITE model. changes to your identity. and god i remember when i still was mostly accepting things as they were fed to me, and those diagnostic labels felt so satisfying and gratifying like yes!!! there is something wrong with me for reals which means my pain matters!!!! but i was wrong because psychiatry labeled me with those diagnosis as a justification for deciding my pain didnt matter.

so when theres complaining about identifying too much with the mental illness, please remember that these labels are created, on purpose or not, to sum up a person. its literally an identifying label. its not the fault of people identifying with or even AS them.

[weemietime]

Okay okay, I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m already deeply ashamed and embarrassed of myself for my behaviour and all, so if you think I don’t feel guilty and am bandwagoning, I’m not, I’m genuinely upset about what I did and there’s no one who could possibly hate myself more than me. And also, I’m not Jewish myself, but you could probably tell by what I’m about to say next.

So I was one of the many people who was a radical supporter of whatever has become of the pro Palestine movement (yes, I know, embarrassing behaviour) and I was perpetuating a lot of antisemitic things and would get super defensive about it because I truly didn’t think that what I was saying and/or doing was antisemitism and I also thought that I was genuinely helping people by being so… radical about things. A few months ago, I took a break from social media and on that break I sort of realised how much I don’t know about the harmful radical movement I was supporting and the Jewish and Israeli people that I was actually hurting by not listening to, and I truly am sorry and I do wish to become an ally, a good ally at that, but I do wonder if I’ve done too much damage already, I probably have. So yeah, I guess I was just wondering how I could possibly do better. I probably shouldn’t even be asking you this, you can totally block me if you want, I swear I’m not trolling or anything, but yeahhhh

The best thing that you can do for yourself and your community is to be honest about your perspective! How it happened, how you got radicalized, the things you said and why you said them. Some people won't be ready to forgive you and that's ultimately their prerogative. But people like you are the reason I am here, because I believe it is possible to form a bridge between our people and find a way to dialogue and call people back in from the extremism they've been indoctrinated into.

I'm fairly open about my history on here, but when I was a child I got indoctrinated into a violent gang. I adopted a lot of extreme beliefs and engaged in horrible, violent acts both under duress and of my own volition. So when I talk about indoctrination I am talking about something I have personal experience with. The people who I victimized to this day probably still have legitimate hate for me, and that's their right. I don't need to convince them I'm a good person or a changed person or whatever, you can't really undo harm or make up for harm like that, that's not how it works.

Once you put that out there, that's it. But at the same time, kind acts and good acts stand on their own, too. So I try and do outreach like this, to share my perspectives, to educate people on how extremism and radicalism and appetitive aggression work because I can't fix what I broke. All I can do is serve as a warning beacon for others going down a bad path, and I don't have any ability to know if that makes me a cosmically good or bad person.

Baruch dayen ha'emet. It's what we say when people die: G-d is the true judge. Only G-d knows those answers and I just have to have faith that G-d will judge me with compassion and understanding, and allow me to state my case. It's an ongoing conversation, you aren't ever just one thing or another thing. You grow, and learn, and that slowly changes the landscape.

I hope this helps in some manner! And I appreciate you sending this, we need to keep these avenues open, we have to build these bridges or else nothing will change. It's that simple.

[of-word-and-weapons]

How to write cults-

[Source-I was in one for 15 years]

Also alot of this is my own experience as a formed jw, other survivors [if you're comfortable with it] please add to this. This post was insipred by this post and it's my hope that this will help people who have never been in cults understand what the experience is like so they can be more respectful in their stories/fandoms/daily lives.

[If you haven't lived through a cult please read but don't add to this. This is for actual cult survivors]

This isn't an exhaustive list. There's so much more to it. I might add a part 2 about how you're affected socially/ how people veiw you

First thing you need to know is that there is no one size fits all for cults. The best tip is learning about real life cults, this podcast is pretty good.

The B.I.T.E. model is a test for whether a group or organization is in cult territory and reading through that is a pretty good generalization of what being in a cult is like.

Not every high control group will exibit all of these points, every group is different.

Something else is that the people who are in cults aren't aware of it. No one wakes up and thinks "I'm going to join a cult today and let it ruin my life"

The process of indoctrination is slow and subtle. [I'm only speaking on my own experience here] but it often starts with a conversation. They get you talking and before you know it you're agreeing with what they're saying because it sounds reasonable.

Instead of thinking about indoctrination like this really intense drilling of information at you, think of it like building a wall with bricks.

You agreed with what they said because it sounded reasonable. Maybe they offer to tell you more at a different time. Why not? It's free and they seem like they have answers to your questions. They get you into a new conversation, you agree with them because it sounds reasonable and they're so friendly and convincing that it put you at ease.

Third conversation comes up. They say something this time that seems a little out there but they're able to reason with topics/points you two talked about in the last two conversations and you agreed with that so this must be correct too right?

This is how indoctrination works. Its very much a frog that won't jump out of a boiling pot situation.

Eventually they'll invite you to their church. They might not call it church, the cult I was in called it a kingdom hall. They'll say that there's no pressure to join, that anyone can come, that you don't have to believe it in order to attend. Maybe you do belive it maybe you don't. You go anyway because why not right? What do you have to loose?

That's when you met the rest of the congregation and they are the friendlyist people you've ever met. You see people of different races and ages getting along, people come up and say hello, ask about you, seem to genuinely care about you and it feels so damn good. Especially if you're an isolated person.

You keep going because you like the people and the message is comforting. It gives you stability in a chaotic world, eases your mind about issues in life or society.

Then the other shoe starts to drop

They say that you're welcome to stay but in order to be pleasing to God we must make ourselves pleasing to him. [This can happen earlier but it absolutely happens when you start attending regularly]

Certain things like who you spend your time with. [B-behavioral control]We can't have bad associates in our lives when we're trying so hard to make ourselves better right? They would take you right back to where you were when you started, and you don't want that.

You do make positive changes. Maybe you stop swearing or stop smoking or using drugs. This is great, but it's also an example of how much you need this group because you would have never been able to do that before, and I you leave there will be nothing stopping you from going back to it.

You tell your friends and family about it because this is so great and you want them to be as happy and fulfilled as you are, but they're not interested. They love you and they tell you you might be in a cult.

And you are. Congrats. You're now in a cult but you don't see it that way. The group told you this would happen, told you that there would be those that would try to tempt you away. They prepared you for this.

Your friends show you articles about the group, disproving their claims or reports on the groups activity but you ignore it. That's apostate literature, those are lies that the enemy put out to disparage the group. [I- Informational control]

If a peice of information gets to you that disproves the groups claims you're taught to disregard it. You're taught that everything you need to know from family dynamics, to finance, to sex, to gender, to diet, to Healthcare, to anything should come from the church. They teach you that you don't know anything without them to guide you.

If things stop making sense then you need to have faith. You need to have trust. Fake it till you make it. [T-thought control]

The people around you become your only people. Your old friends don't talk to you because you only talk about the group and no one likes being converted. [Or maybe you bring them in and the process starts all over again]

You feel what they want you to feel. You're apart of a family now, and family gets along. You don't hate people in the church, you love them. You accept correction by the elders because youre humble. [E-emotional control]

Breaking away is hard. If you've been in it for a while then you're entire support system is in the group. Not all groups shun ex members but the one I was in did. You're angry, you're confused, you're embarrassed. You feel like an idiot and most of all you feel guilt. It's like a bad breakup with everything you've ever known.

You have to figure out how to function again. You have to find out who you are again. Deal with the disappointment that the future the group sold you isn't real. You're not going to paradise and living forever. You have to come to terms with your inevitable death.

Depression, drug use, grief. It's shitty. It's really shitty.

And don't think they forgot about you. They'll see you in the market and start up another conversation. Just a simple conversation.

[creature-wizard]

So I find that using the BITE model for cults is a lot more useful when discussing what a cult actually is with folks who either use it too much or not appropriately, but there's some wild shit the author, Hassan, has said--including calling/implying being trans is a cult and being weirdly panicky about erotic hypnosis (and just, imo as a recreational hypnotist, way overstating the power of hypnosis), claiming Trump was hypnotizing people, etc--do you know of any alternate resources for cult/high control group awareness to recommend or read that aren't by him? And/or how would you approach his work, if you're aware of his claims?

Unfortunately, I don't know of any alternatives right now.

My personal feelings the BITE model is that it can be an okay starting point for someone who suspects they're in a cult. It's not a great tool for diagnosing potential cults, because some of the items on it are so vague (for example, "a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality") that they could be used to demonize any other political, spiritual, or cultural group as a cult. And like all other checklists that lack nuanced elaboration, it generally just lends itself to reductive thinking that can lead you to false conclusions, or be used for malicious applications.

[clangenrising]

I want to take a second to talk to those of you who find it funny that Scorch has been calling the Clans a cult. I agree, it is kind of humorous, but I do want to be a wet blanket for a sec and point out that the Warrior Cats Clan structure IS actually very cultish. As far as I can tell, the Clans meet at least three out of four criteria laid out in Steven Hassan's BITE model of Authoritarian Control.

The BITE model lays out 4 kinds of control that Cults and groups like them use to keep their members in check:

Behavior Control Information Control Thought Control Emotional Control

And Warrior Clans exibit most of these traits (keep in mind I haven't read past Omen of the Stars). More below the cut

Behavior Control

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates/isolates (Clans live in specific areas and only really socialize with their own clan)

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member has sex (half clan and outsider mates are extremely discouraged and even punished)

Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals (Warrior Clans are full of ritual ceremonies that create group cohesion)

Rewards and Punishments used to modify behaviors (breaking the code results in punishments ranging from disliked duties to physical harm and cats can be rewarded with things like the best patrols or getting their warrior names early)

Impose rigid rules or regulations

Separation of Families (if a kittypet joins they are discouraged from ever talking to their family again.)

Information Control

Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs Insider doctrines (Clans discourage their members from listening to kittypets, loners, and rogues)

Extensive use of Cult Generated information and propaganda (I would argue the ubiquity of StarClan in Clan life would count. StarClan's word is seen as pure truth not to be questioned.)

Thought Control

Require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth including organizing people into us vs them and adopting the group's reality as the only reality.

Change a person's name and identity (this is a big one! If you join a clan you are highly encouraged to take a Clan style name. You become a warrior and that is your new identiy)

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed (The leader's word is law. StarClan is not to be questioned.)

Labeling alternitive belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful (A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet)

Emotional Control

Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness such as Identity guilt, not living up to full potential, etc (Half Clan and kittypet bigotry within clans ticks this box when applicable)

Instill fear of enemies, thinking independently, the outside world, leaving or being shunned by the group, losing one's salvation, etc (Again, more present in Clans that are depicted as 'evil' by the books but things like fear of losing one's salvation is present in kit tales that warn cats about ending up in the dark forest)

Phobia indoctrination: instilling irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader, saying things like there is no happiness outside the group, shunning those who leave so people fear losing their friends and family if they do, never allowing for legitimate reasons to leave aka anyone who does was weak or selfish or brainwashed. (This one is fairly self explanitory)

So yeah. The clans tick all the boxes that cults do.

Now, I want to be clear, im not saying you should start hating the clans or that you're bad for thinking they're cool. Part of that is that Cults inherently try to sound cool to draw in members and part of it is that its okay to enjoy fiction about things that are bad or immoral. The important part is being able to recognize and understand those things.

So my real intent here is to get you to examine the media you engage with more critically and, most importantly, as someone who was born into a cult and managed to escape:

Be careful not to let fun depictions of cults normalize cult behavior. You are not immune to propaganda and I would hate for any of you to get sucked into a group or religion that will control you in these ways. I recommend you take a look at the BITE model in its entirety and really think about how it may apply to groups you are in. Cults are really good at painting themselves as welcoming and fun and they are not. Look out for yourself.

I love you. Your regularly scheduled Warrior Cats content will resume shortly.

[gothkrispies]

It’s absolutely wild that some people’s hatred of TikTok makes them unwilling to see the bigger picture. Censorship is BAD. Information control is BAD. Just moving to another platform isn’t going to change the impact of the TikTok ban.

[exmovibes]

Going over the LDS church with the BITE model because I'm bored

If I skip over any bulletpoints, it's because I didn't feel they applied to the church

Promote dependence and obedience- you need to follow specific doctrine if you want to get into the Celestial Kingdom

Modify behavior with rewards or punishments- wearing garments 24/7 will protect you from harm, paying tithing and following the word of wisdom etc will let you into the temple

Restrict or control sexuality- not even going to touch on the blatant homophobia, the church has a massive sexual purity culture problem. No porn, no masterbation, no sex before marriage. (Ever heard of Soaking? Not normal behavior)

Control clothing- modesty is expected. Much more in adults than kids because of garments, but no sleeveless shirts or crop tops or shorts that go above the knee etc

Regulate food and drink intake- monthly fasting, fasting as a valid way to get closer to God if you need help with something, word of wisdom

Exploit you financially- tithing. 10% of all income to get to the Celestial Kingdom.

Require you to seek permission for major decisions- not "required" per se but it is expected that you meet with a bishop or pray thoroughly before making big decisions

Deliberately withhold and distort information- hiding billions of dollars from members, changing church history

Forbid you from speaking with ex-members and critics- label exmos as apostates. Taught that anyone who left the church left purely to engage in sinful behavior and therefore cannot be trusted

Discourage access to non cult sources of information- taught to only go to the official church website for any questions we have about the church. Any information that criticizes the church is seen as hate and Satan trying to lure members away

Use information gained in confession sessions against you- if you go to the bishop about anything that contradicts the church teachings, you aren't allowed to take sacrament and you can't go to the temple, which are public acts of shame.

Gaslight to make you doubt your own memory- constant changing of church doctrine "God lives on a planet near Kolab, except no he doesn't" "joseph Smith translated the bom using the urim and thummem except no he actually stuck his head in a hat" "if you make it to the Celestial Kingdom you get your own planet except no you don't"

Require you to report thoughts and feelings to superiors- if you have any thoughts that contradict the church teachings you are expected to tell your bishop. Talking about sexual thoughts with an old man while 11 because I was scared I was going to hell is not fun

Encourage you to spy and report others misconduct- you're expected to tell your bishop if someone is acting against what the church teaches. Someone's drinking coffee? Tell the bishop. Someone is dating while being 15? Tell the bishop

Instill Black vs White Us vs Them Good vs Evil thinking- there's a right and a wrong way to do things. There's no arguing or bargening your way out of sin. Don't really know how to describe it

Change your identity- you're a mormon first, yourself second. Taught that God comes before literally everything else.

Reject doubt- taught to "doubt your doubts"

Instill fears of leaving the church- you're taught that if you leave, you lose your community, your shot at eternal happiness and mortal wellbeing.

Label some emotions as evil, worldly, sinful, or wrong- you feel anything sexual in any context other than towards a spouse? Sinful. You have any doubts about the church? Sinful.

Shun you if you don't believe or want to leave- I've lost all of my close friends when I left. I don't even want to mention the way my parents reacted to the idea that their child will have "Excommunicated" on their church record. Stuff of nightmares I'll say that much

Teach that there is no happiness or peace outside the group- taught that people only leave to sin. To live a worldly life. Sinning and living a worldly life is taught to result in sorrow.

[maureen-doolittle]

Are the Jedi a cult?

So my wife and I were talking about Star Wars while eating dinner, and we landed on the topic of the Jedi. I mentioned my absolute hatred of the Jedi approach to child-raising. Like, oh, you want your group members to deny attachments? I know, give them all disorganized and disrupted attachments to primary caregivers!

And then a THOUGHT hit me: are the Jedi a cult? Specifically, to what degree do their beliefs and actions resonate with Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control? I pulled it up and my wife immediately said, “Wow, that would do NUMBERS on Tumblr. Please help prove my wife right because she’s awesome. 

For the unaware, BITE is an acronym that stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotion. It refers to four different types of control that organizations can have over their members. The higher a given organization scores, the more cult-like that organization is likely to be. (Disclaimer: this post is exclusively for shitposting reasons and I am extremely not a mental health or sociology expert.)

Behavior Control

Regulate individual’s physical reality - unclear? 

Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates - literally yes that’s the whole thing that PROMPTED this post

When, how and with whom the member has sex - yep, celibacy rules!

Control types of clothing and hairstyles - yes, unless you’re mace windu

Regulate diet – food and drink, hunger and/or fasting - no, not that i know of

Manipulation and deprivation of sleep - nope

Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence - i am absolutely not going to research the star wars economy for this shitpost. we’re leaving it at “unclear.”

Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time - lol do the jedi get vacation? like, at all?

Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet - can you imagine if the jedi had twitter? god, anakin would be such a pain in the ass about it. anyway, this feels like what the jedi council is, so yes. 

Permission required for major decisions - SPEAKING OF THE JEDI COUNCIL... also, according to my wife, “obi-wan consults with the jedi council more than raiden consults with the elder gods.” i don’t understand this reference, but i’m glad some of you will.

Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative - again, the jedi council!!! like, there’s the whole “well you’re not a master YET” nonsense and... this post might turn me into an anakin skywalker apologist

Discourage individualism, encourage group-think - this is literally what caused the council to collapse. no one had an original thought.

Impose rigid rules and regulations - oh my god SOOOOOO MANY.

Punish disobedience by beating, torture, burning, cutting, rape, or tattooing/branding - happily, a no on this one. holy shit.

Threaten harm to family and friends - technically, this is a “no,” but it’s specifically because you’re not supposed to have any of those, so i’m giving this a half point. also, see everything that happened with Shmi Skywalker.

Force individual to rape or be raped - again, no.

Encourage and engage in corporal punishment - we don’t see what goes on in the crèches, but since we don’t have evidence, this is a no.

Instill dependency and obedience - they LITERALLY have a master/padawan system where you can’t question your superior, like???

Kidnapping - hot take but i totally think this is what they do with some younglings. that said, this is just my hot take, so this is technically still a no.

Beating - again, no

Torture - no

Rape - no

Separation of Families - actually yes??? like, true, i don’t have proof that the kids are kidnapped, but they fully separate children from their families at extremely young ages!

Imprisonment - no

Murder - listen, we could be here all day debating whether all, most, many, some, few, or none of the jedi’s killings are justified. but like... they’re warrior monks, so i’ll give this one a pass.

Score: 11.5/25

Information Control

Deception: a. Deliberately withhold information - i didn’t remember this one so i asked my wife and she immediately went “yeah, definitely” b. Distort information to make it more acceptable - “What I told you is true... from a certain point of view” - Obi-Wan Kenobi (this is a yes) c. Systematically lie to the cult member - DARTH FUCKING VADER had to tell Luke about his parentage! like! obi-wan! what the hell!

Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including: a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, media - this probably gets a “no” on a technicality. how would we even measure this? b. Critical information - nope c. Former members - again, this is a technical “no,” but it’s only because i really don’t think there are any “former members.” d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate - arguably yes, given how much they’re constantly running all over the galaxy. like, they’re definitely not the only law enforcement/army in the galaxy, so what gives? e. Control through cell phone with texting, calls, internet tracking - huh, i wonder if those blue video things are tracked? do we have any confirmation of that? i’m pretty sure they have the capability to do so, so i’m giving this a half point.

Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible - again, no way to measure this, so no b. Control information at different levels and missions within group - oh ABSOLUTELY. i’ll cut them a tiny bit of slack because they have to do this for like, legitimate national security interests sometimes, but they also do it for bullshit information control reasons. c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when - again, this is literally just the jedi council

Encourage spying on other members a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member - hello again, master/padawan relationship!  b. Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership - you have ONE bad dream about your secret wife dying in labor, and everyone’s on your case about it. c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group - yep

Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including: a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media - another no on a technicality. also, this gives me the horrifying mental image of Jedi YouTubers, so now you have to suffer with that. b. Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources - nah

Unethical use of confession a. Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries - oh, you’re sad because you miss your enslaved mother? well THAT’S just proof you could NEVER be a jedi! b. Withholding forgiveness or absolution - do they even have a process for forgiveness or absolution? am i losing my mind or do we not see this? anyway, no. c. Manipulation of memory, possible false memories - nope

Score: 9.5/19

Thought Control

Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality - this is just crèche training b. Instill black and white thinking - jesus, CONSTANTLY. “once you go over to the dark side, forever will it dominate your destiny!” c. Decide between good vs. evil - see above d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders) - see above again

Change person’s name and identity - huh, this one’s actually a sith thing. bonus points for the villains actually doing the cult-y thing this time, i guess.

Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words - the fact that yoda’s advice to a terrified first-grader is “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering” really says it all here.

Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts - once again, see above.

Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member - nope

Memories are manipulated and false memories are created - not that we see, no.

Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including: a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking - those earlier yoda quotes are really pulling their weight in this section. goddamn. b. Meditating - i have to assume meditation is a part of jedi training, because like... come on. of course it is. that said, i don’t know if it’s specifically used to stop negative thoughts, so we’ll give it a half point. c. Chanting, Praying, Speaking in Tongues, Singing, or Humming - i put these all in one because they’re all religion-focused, but in a way that doesn’t map onto the jedi/star wars experience of religion. and the answer is no to all.

Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism - the jedi are so afraid of constructive criticism that anyone who tries gets hit with immediate professional consequences and social shaming

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed - again, see above! it’s wild how many times i’ve said that here!

Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful - they literally call it the dark side. like, i’m not saying that Force choking or lighting is a good thing, but really, guys?

Instill new “map of reality” - eh, not really

Score: 10.5/16

Emotion Control

(upon seeing this i went “oh, i’m sure this will go GREAT.”)

Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish - fear, anger, the need for a parental figure... yep! all demonized!

Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt - yes again

Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault - your fear and grief about missing your mom are YOUR fault, anakin! it’s definitely not our fault that we took you away from your mom and left her to die!

Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as: a. Identity guilt - eh, not really b. You are not living up to your potential - oh absolutely yes. “you were supposed to bring balance to the force!!1!11!!!” like, i know it’s not said as a control tactic, but that’s a lot to put on a person! (side note: i was correct earlier; this post is totally turning me into an anakin skywalker apologist.) c. Your family is deficient - i actually don’t think they do this, so like... hurray for the bare minimum. d. Your past is suspect - they don’t explicitly say this, so even though i get the vibes, i have to give them a no. e. Your affiliations are unwise - fuck off this LITERALLY sounds like a yoda quote! i don’t care if he didn’t actually say this, i’m counting it. f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish - including your desire to grieve your mother, aunt, and uncle! g. Social guilt - no relationships allowed! f. Historical guilt - nope

Instill fear, such as fear of: a. Thinking independently - yeah there’s no way the council allows that b. The outside world - actually, no. they’re in pretty regular contact with the outside world, despite the fact that they ignore the increasing corruption of the galactic republic. c. Enemies - hello dark [side] my old friend... d. Losing one’s salvation - the only way the jedi could be worse is if there were some version of this. the only afterlife they have is being a blue ghost, which is rad as hell. e. Leaving or being shunned by the group - technically, no, but see above - no one ever leaves this group. f. Other’s disapproval - if mace windu looked at me with disappointment in his eyes i would DISSOLVE g. Historical guilt - nope

Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment and then declaring you are horrible sinner - qui-gon and yoda both do this to anakin and luke, respectively.

Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins - the jedi council is responsible for so many of these

Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority a. No happiness or fulfillment possible outside of the group - yep b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc. - no, but i also don’t think leaving the group is presented as an option? i know i keep giving half points, but it’s my high-effort shitpost and i’ll do it if i want to. c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends and family - see the above logic. hey look, the half-points evened out! d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll - oh my god can you IMAGINE yoda complaining about former jedi being “seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll.” someone get frank oz on this, stat. that said, people who join the dark side are explicitly said to be “seduced” by it, so... maybe? half-points abound! e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family - nope

Score: 14.5/25

Total Score: 46/85, or 54.12%. Honestly, that’s not quite as high as I was expecting, but that’s still like... concerningly high! like, if you join an organization and describe it as “just over half-cult,” that’s really bad! jedis! what are you doing!