Alright. I normally would not make this sort of post here, but I recently discovered the existence of “cultcore”. Seeing the trauma that myself and other close friends experienced growing up in this situation romanticized by many people who clearly did not go through any of it is shocking and somewhat horrific.
Here are some things I would like to say on the matter:
“Cult” is not a funny word. It’s not a word you should call your friend group, it’s not a word you should call a fan base, and it’s not a word you should call your Discord server. Cults are not some otherworldly mystical beast. They are not the grandiose horror film and campfire story depictions of blood sacrifice or chanting in circles, at least not most of them, and not in ways that you would expect. Cults are sneaky. They make their control seem healthy to the people they draw in, and condition their victims to believe that the rituals they take place in are normal, and nothing out of the ordinary. Cults want your time, your money, and your family. Cults teach you that they are the only right way to live. They engulf you. They convince you that any other way of life, any attempts to leave, will result in misery, damnation, and hell. Cults are very real. It is more likely than you think that a person you know is involved in a cult. It is more likely than you think that someone who know has been hurt by a cult. It is more likely than you know that a friend of yours was raised in a cult. Cults are not a joke. They are not funny, your aesthetic, or something that you should make light of if you are ill-informed of their reality. I am begging you, whoever you are, to stop treating cults like a joke. Stop saying things that erase the suffering of cult survivors.
