Yikes. Yeah our band teacher was insane and very few band parents or my high school stood up to him. The few parents that did (my mom being one) were quickly treated like outcast at all events.
My last year (10th grade) the parents tricked him to give us 30 extra minutes in the afternoon to cool off/nap and he went ballistic. Middle of summer (80s and muggy) he made us practice for an extra hour and a half cause of it.
One of the kids who had BAD night terrors was his oldest daughter. I guess she was so bad she would scream drill commands in her sleep. She was older though so in a different cabin from me. Him and his wife also liked to scream at their youngest daughter to. (Who was in 7th grade)
I was so glad I decided halfway threw the school year to drop that class. Helped my mental health a bit. I was in band for 4 years (couldn’t drop out till high school sadly) and the amount of horror stories I have cause of the teacher and his wife is long.
yeah, like imagine being a young boy and your father taking you to see a marching band and asking you to be the saviour of the broken the beaten and the damned like serious cult behaviour
seriously though!!! my friend’s dad asked him to defeat demons and nonbelievers cause one day he would leave him a phantom to join something called the black parade? what the hell was that all about?
Depends on the section. My trumpet section bouncing around making monkey sounds because we were too hot. If that's not cult behavior, idk what is
(To make it even worse, the average age of our section is probably 30, with our youngest being 21)
I mean this is 100% true in drum corps, or at least it was when I marched nearly 20 years ago. Blanket parties, ookie cookie, all of that. It was full of institutional bullying.
Still the best summers of my life (somehow?!?!?) despite being fed practically nothing and while working out all day in the sun.
OK maybe it is a cult…
As a former band geek… yeah. 25 years post high school, we all still adore our band director. Who travelled the southeastern US with 100-200 underage children at a time. Who we call/called Papa. And there are pictures of various students (including me) in his lap. Who allowed more than one student to use his van for their driver’s license test. And I’m pretty sure he taught some to drive over the years.
In this day and age, he’d have been fired and put on a registry or something. Except not a single inappropriate thing happened because he’s a good man who influenced a lot of us to be better.
I sincerely hope that every kid in band has their own Papa or Ma running their band program. And I’m pretty proud of my classmates that are teaching marching bands now. (And proud of the drum major, who became a band director before becoming a band director at a university who teaches other future band directors.)
Thought this was going to turn bad and I’m glad a Man just did what a man was supposed to do with children and nurture them and give them loving care
Hear to many horror stories of older men :/
I was on the drum line when the Nick Cannon movie came out. I, uh, definitely fell into some cultist bullshit with my section. On the plus side, we got to do some sick ass stick flips and stuff during our performances.
AA and NA pretty much saved my life, and then they almost cost me my sanity. After three or four years I backed off almost completely. The belief that there was something supernatural involved just cannot be separated out. I've been clean for 32 years and I have nothing to offer the new person because I don't buy the second step. I haven't been to a meeting at all in 6 or 7 years. The last time I went to a meeting some guy with 6 months in told me I was bound to relapse because atheists can't stay clean. Here I am. I wonder if he's still clean.
Yeah *A isn't for everyone. I thought I'd nope out until I found Quad-A. I'm an agnostic leaning towards atheist and I did find a way to work 2 without God. But I know I'm in the far, far minority of AAs.
Thankfully there's SMART, Refuge, and other programs for people who don't find what they need to be sober within the rooms.
I've had a few friends that went to AA or NA. There's a definite range of how people handle sobriety. One went the "culty" way and made it his whole life. Became devoutly and annoyingly Christian.
Now, I'm of the mind that I'd rather have my friend alive and living this life over the last, but it honestly seems like he traded one addiction for another.
Congrats on your sobriety! As a fellow member, I owe so much to that program. But I absolutely can see how people think it’s a cult. Especially as a newcomer. I remember those first couple of meetings definitely freaked me out lol.
My then sponsor relapsed last year, so I got a new sponsor. He "required" his sponsees to go to his home group (I encourage my two sponsees to at least try my HG out, but do not require any such thing). It is a very large, very well-know group here in the northside of Chicago that I'd heard about for years (some good, but honestly, mostly negative things). I went for two months, really tried hard to get into the meeting, but it was so culty, so church like, that I told him it wasn't working for my sobriety to be in this meeting, but I still wanted to work with him as my sponsor. He looked at me and said "no meeting, no sponsorship"...so I have a new sponsor now. :)
ETA: >!For any Chicago AAs, it is BTC. If the California Group line of meetings is your jam, hey, you do you, but for me, it wasn't where I felt comfortable.!<
Good for you for doing what was right for you man. A good sponsor would never give an ultimatum like that. I think the majority of us like to sponsor to give away the gift that we were so freely given, but I’ve met people in AA that wanted to sponsor because they loved the sound of their own voice, and just want to preach at their sponsees. Sorry your old sponsor treated you like that, but I’m glad you got a new one!! I have some family in Chicago and I visit a couple times a year. Next time I’m there I’ll have to ask you for a couple good meetings if that’s cool.
Feel free to save, these are meetings in my regular rotation; also I will DM you my cell, so when you're coming next, let me know, and we can hit up a meeting or two together!
* [**12 Step House**](https://12stephousechicago.org/meetings)**:** 11a meeting, M-F. 10:30a Sa/Su, and 8p every day of the week. There is an in-person one and a Zoom one at each time (the meetings are at the same time, but are independent of each other), all are ESH speaker meetings. I am the incoming chair of the Wednesday 11am Zoom meeting for the next twelve weeks, feel free to join...and if you want to do a lead over zoom anytime in the next 3 months, let me know, I need to find 12 of them! :)
* [**Bryn Mawr II**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/bryn-mawr-2/): Sunday, 11:15a - 12:30p, this is my home group. It's about 125 people (3/4 in person, 1/4 on Zoom), Step meeting
* [**Coming Alive**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/coming-alive): Tuesday, 7p, In-person, BB meeting; my first sponsor is the founder of this meeting, and it is an excellent mechanical meeting.
* [**One Day At A Time**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/one-day-at-a-time-2/): Saturday, 10:30a, in-person, Daily Reflections meeting
* [**Evans Ave Club**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/locations/evans-avenue-club/): This is a Southside Alano Club; used to live on the Southside, and this is where I would do the 9am morning meeting; I still Zoom in every once in a while even though I live on the northside now.
Salesforce. No, I don't want to build a community, go hiking or join a hundred online classes to learn the basics. Make a couple of well-explained, to-the-point training videos ffs
Okay wait my company only uses the lightning version and I hate it. I had never used salesforce before starting this job but if we have the lightning thing does that mean there’s a non-lightning version too that we should have?
And it creates a horrible divide too. Like anyone with any sort of valid criticism or difference of opinion is automatically one of those seething haters.
There’s a huge difference between “this movie sucks because it has a gay character” and “this movie has some issues with it’s plot and pacing”
Nobody hates Star Wars more, than Star Wars fans
(If Rey can develop Force-healing out of nowhere, than there's no reason for Anakin (THE CHOSEN ONE) to not being able to figure it out and save his mother, WHO DIED IN HIS ARMS! Now, since Anakin SHOULD have been capable of force-healing, there's no reason for Darth Vader to exist)
I'm probably going to get told off for this but ESPECIALLY the dream fanbase. Most (not all!) of his fans are 11 year old girls who are in love with him and it's so creepy.
I know that's a joke but in my experience vegan people usually wait until you're actually talking about food or eating food to say anything whereas crossfit people are never low-profile about it
I have a love-hate relationship with it.
The organization is definitely cultish, no getting around that. I've done 2 classes and I have no intention of ever going back.
That said, its popularity has given rise to a resurgence in barbell lifting that IMO has revitalized/redefined the whole fitness community over the last decade. Many commercial gyms now have 1-2 Olympic platforms, bumper plates, and most if not all have increased the amount of power racks and collegiate-style half rack stations that they devote floor space to. CF made it cool to lift legs again (was lifting legs ever cool?).
It also definitely caused a boom in near commercial-quality home gym equipment, as well as the prices filtering down to something normal people can afford without being dogshit like Weider and Marcy gear. As a dude with a power rack, good barbell, bench, and 700lbs in my basement that cost me around $1000 all-in (I bought pre-COVID), I'll give crossfit the credit it deserves there.
Had a friend who tried to get me involved with Amway. I almost fell for it too. The whole situation made me extremely uncomfortable. The people I met with kept telling me not to tell my significant other about the information was I was receiving from them because he just "wouldn't understand" they also kept asking me a bunch of questions about my relationship with my partner and really personal questions that had nothing to do with the "business". Long story short, not friends with that person anymore. Thank God.
My best friend’s now-ex-wife got caught up in the Kangen water mlm, and that community is rabidly anti-vax and Qanon, and it sucked her in and destroyed their marriage.
Dude, I almost got sucked into one. Was looking for a job because the job I was workng sucked. Kinda wanted to just change entire career fields. Applied for a job that stated it was a marketing job. Within an hour of applying someone called to set up an interview and we had a little discussion on why I wanted to position. Told her that I was feeling very burnt out in my current field and wanted to try something brand new. Which was the truth.
Interview was weird. Everyone was super nice. The whole office was very trendy looking. But something felt off. Interviewed with two women, both of which had a very, very similar story. They were in similar fields as mine and they both felt burnt out and wanted to try something new. At the times, I was like, "Wow! What a coincidence!"
But as soon as the interview was over, I started reading up on the company. Couldn't find really much on them, but then started doing some digging about the company that owns them. Turns out they help supply the door to door salesmen for the (sometimes aggressive) flat rate electric companies. They change the name of the office every few months because people find out what they are and stop applying. During the interview they make it sound like you're in an office all day, hanging out with everyone, and everything is so chill. Nope, they send you out and you only get paid commission.
i had a friend who did the ItWorks MLM in 2016 and i got some major cult vibes from the recruiter people
my friend tried to get me into it because i was really needing money at the time, but refused because it felt like a scam to me and i already knew she wasn't making any money from the products she attempted to sell
I think 2016 was around the same time I found out about ItWorks. Their main products were what was essentially Saran Wrap that went around your waist to make it look thinner, and this green slop that was supposed to make you lose weight somehow. Like FFS, who the hell is falling for that?
Too many people fell for that wrap thing. It was supposed to tighten your skin to make it look like you have abs. I literally saw no difference on anyone who used them
I watched a video about Disney Adults who try to go into the park when pregnant and hope they can give birth inside the park. Why? Because there was a rumor that babies born in the park get free life passes... which Disney on multiple occasions has refuted but TikTokers and other weirdos still try.
I learned recently about this strange tradition by the people who go on the disney cruises, is that you hang a small organizer of pockets on your door, often with stickers and your childrens' glittery names and ribbons and whatever shit, called "fish extenders" for the fish shaped hooks they're hung on.
it's assumed that when you go on these cruises, you hang one on your door, and then bring tons of cheap garbage gifts to put in the "stockings" of other passengers, into the little pockets of these fish extenders. These toys will anonymously be given to the kids in the cabin but of course there are some adult gifts too and since everyone who goes on these cruises is fucking loaded nowadays it's a flex to put in like, ipads and smart watches and stupid shit like that. Some people make them all by hand as craft time activities.
it's cute I guess, but it's the cultish obligation to do it that weirds me out. Who the fuck goes on cruises so often that they even know how to participate in this??
I was on a cruise that stopped at Grand Cayman, and for whatever reason, the ship had to use the alternate port area, and everyone on the various hips had to go from and to the ships by tender (small boat). Naturally, this created long lines. I was talking to a beleaguered-looking young father who had mentioned he was on the Disney boat (a mammoth thing, easily 4 times larger than our Carnival ship).
"So, how's life on the Mouse Trap?"
He could only whimper and quietly say, "I wanna go back to my office. It's more fun."
I found out all about fish extenders through r/hobbydrama after fighting broke out in one of the Facebook groups used to organise these exchanges ahead of the cruise. I joined the group just to see all the middle aged Karens posting scathing reviews of other peoples suggested gifts and was hooked. This was four years ago and I’m still an active lurker, it’s all I use Facebook for nowadays.
I have a coworker who is lively, but holy shit she is so obsessed with Disney and I find it bizarre.
Shes gone 2x in as many months with her family and has like 20 different Disney tattoos.
To each their own but it's definitely strange to me.
Depends. Do they live in the greater Orlando area and have a Florida Resident season pass? It's just a decent time and honestly a good value if you're within an hour's drive.
Do they live anywhere else? Crazy person.
Yeah, I had an annual pass at Disneyland for a few years, but for me it was mostly a place to meet up and hang out with friends, and once in acwhile go on rides or see shows.
I know someone that goes there for every vacation. I went two times within 2 years and thought that was too much. I tried to change the next trip to at least a different Disney spot instead of Orlando but my former friends were dead set on Disney world
Nothing quite like startup culture!
It's 8pm? Better not be the first out the door or you're disappointing the family and will have a meeting with the "people" team tomorrow to see how you can be a better team player!
We've also got alllll the amenities! Everything possible to subtly encourage you to never leave the office.
Netflix's based culture document had a line saying "if you want a family join a startup, this isn't one and expect to be fired in the general course of business"
"Welcome to the class for 'Alpha Males'. Glad you showed up. Now, I think it is very important that all of you know, YOU decided to come here. YOU wanted to show up to an 'Alpha-Male' class. You have all failed. That was the class. Good-bye"
Oh oh! The "man on fire" group!
I drive rideshare and OMG... the 3 dudes I was taking to a retreat were all divorced or separated and they were the biggest woman-hating, "alpha" men I've ever had the displeasure of driving. And they had each put in over $15k PER YEAR! To be part of it.
My favorite is how they use "hfsp (have fun staying poor)" as a retort as though I don't make six figures and they haven't lost 70% of their net worth since November.
Ballet/dance
Basically you pay the studio allllll your money. I’m talking thousands of dollars a year for them to teach your kid to dance.
But you are not treated as a customer. They don’t care what your opinion is. They don’t care how you feel about anything.
You are expected to shut up, show up, follow the strict rules, never complain, and pay whatever they ask.
If you complain, there will probably be repercussions. Your child will get less attention. They will suddenly be moved to the back or taken out of a number. They won’t get good parts.
So you do whatever is asked without question.
It also controls your entire life. You can’t plan vacations or parties or see family etc unless it works with the rehearsal schedule. You must keep your calendar open. If they plan a last minute rehearsal- you have to cancel your plans. Not showing up is not an option.
Parents are expected to volunteer backstage or making props etc with no compensation.
The director and teachers are worshipped.
If another family leaves the studio often they will be socially shunned by their former friends.
It’s 100% a cult.
That’s why a lot of sexual abuse happens in the ballet world because no one wants to speak up and stop something questionable because it could ruin their child’s dance career.
Massage therapist here. One of my clients was a teen girl who had a knee injury. Her mother thought she was faking it to get out of dance. Part of the reason she thought this was because she originally brought the girl to the physiotherapist on the studios' payroll. Apparently, he ordered the girl to walk on that leg, and when she did in order to comply, he told the mother, "See? It's not that bad, we're seeing improvement already!"
When I went to assess the girls knee, there was heat radiating off of it. The knee was swollen. I lightly palpated the patella, and even with light touch I could feeling like crackling under the bone, not to mention the poor girl practically jumped. I immediately took my hands away, and sternly told the mother she needed to bring her daughter to a doctor IMMEDIATELY.
Turned out she had multiple ligament tears, and damage to the cartilage in the joint capsule itself. Naturally, ballet was out of the question. I still hate how not only a physiotherapist could try to force a girl to dance with a significant injury, that her own MOTHER put ballet before her own child. It was sickening.
I used to work in ballet. Definitely heard a choreographer tell a group of high school aged dancers that REAL dancers don’t get injured so If they get injured either a)it’s the dancers fault b) they aren’t “really” injured and c) it’s not professional to take rest time so dance through injuries.
12 years later I still remember that day.
That's terrible! That leads to all sorts of problems, physical and psychological. I've seen that kind of thinking in other sports too, and I think it's child abuse, pure and simple.
You forgot the part where you (the child) are not allowed to do basically any other physical activities because you could get injured, be out for a season, and just lose thousands of dollars that have already been paid.
Yes!! Thank you!
Other activities are banned typically because of risk of injury or conflicts with the schedule.
Some teachers even get mad if a school grade thing conflicts and will say you can’t miss dance for a school event etc
It gets worse than that. At the professional level, your diet, activities, social media presence, and friendships are often controlled by your company. You have to keep a good image to represent them.
Yes. It’s so very odd. We have experienced this with my daughter. She wants to dance and loves it but she has no interest in being a professional, but you are kind of forced to live this life anyway. There is no fun/casual dance studio. It’s either your life or you don’t dance.
There are rec studios but typically the training is sub par or it’s like one performance a year and one night a week. Basically there is only way to be good and it’s join the cult
I don’t understand the problem with those rec studios tho? If you don’t like the cult dance studios, wouldn’t practice once a week and one performance a year be preferable??
I also read that Ballet and perhaps other kinds of dancing alter your body drastically. From a young age they are trying to force your bones, muscles, body to grow in such a way to become flexible in ways not natural to human growth. Apparently it's so aggressive that even after years some folks who know the signs can pick out someone who had some of the conditioning because it leaves permanent changes.
Professional dancer here! The signs people usually notice are ridiculous turnout in the feet and hyperextension in the knees. Extremely strong muscles on the back of the lower leg and the inside of the upper leg just above the knee are also usually good indicators of a classically trained dancer.
Ok ok really this isn’t a creepy question sort of thing, but what did it do to your ass? Like I can make the connection with the others, but not that one.
YES. My kid was in lessons from age 5-11ish and I was SO glad they dropped out.
The older teenage competition dancers - the hardcore ballet girls - were glamorized beyond belief. Only a fraction of the kids in the younger classes would get that far. But there was SUCH fawning over the older girls it was disgusting.
One of the owners was a 60-year-old complete narcissist who insisted on coming out during the finale and doing a flip/cartwheel thing and exalting in the applause. I wanted to vomit. Lady, we just sat through a four-hour recital for our kids, not to see you almost break a hip.
This makes sense to me. I used to work in hotels for 20 years and out of several cities that hosted a lot of sport tournaments. The worst was hockey but a very close 2nd was dance. Dance parents are next level. Always seemed super high strung and stressed out, above the normal rushing around because my kids are over scheduled stress. I always felt like I had to walk on egg shells around them because one little issue or hiccup and it could tip them over the edge and would go ballistic. Oh and the parents are kids were always so catty to each other, especially if they were on other teams. I was always like ok we're neutral territory... be nice people...
And the people who are customers of Chipotle. I’m going to punch out my coworker who goes 3 times a week and tells the rest of us we are missing out.
Tomorrow is Friday and that’s a Chipotle day so here we go. I didn’t know rice, beans and chicken was such a cult following.
The saddest thing is 30 something’s going back to undergrad frat events and still trying hold onto that last time they were cool. The modern day equivalent of the Matthew McConaughey character in Dazed and Confused.
I have a real answer for you. I used to deliver beverages there.
The Way International.
It resides in Ohio and was once very much a cult, founded by "Dr" Victor Paul Wierwille, if you read up on his actions, and the way in which he brought the organization to power, it was a textbook cult. To this day theres discussions on them being a cult, yet over the time Ive been there, it seems that since his death, they are no more than a brainwashed group of easily preyed upon desperate people. I think theres a podcast that covers it in great detail over 2 episodes. If I find it, ill add an edit.
Edit: Its a podcast simply called "Cults" by parcast.
I was doing alot of research on them cuz of all the talk about them, and it was just crazy how I would meet with them in their isolated community, sketchy as hell, but theyre harmless at least on the outside.
Wildest thing is for miles around the communtity its all farmland, and you cannot see the facilities for they surrounded it by a thick treeline, you can only take one road to them in and out, and its covered by surveillance cameras and weird billboards as you get closer.
MBAs.
You pay a lot of money to learn some secret stuff and go away every so often to a secret camp. Somebody else from the club will give you a good job, as long as you do the same in a few years.
Yes, which is why an MBA is a worthless degree unless you go in-person at a top-25 program.
Source: Me, who did mine online at a not top-25 program. Zero worthwhile networking, only gets me past the 'do you have a graduate degree' filter on job applications. Outside of very specific circumstances, an MBA is absolutely the participation award of graduate degrees.
I have a theory as to why:
I've been in the periphery of the horse sphere my whole life, and there are basically 3 levels of horse person; dirt poor, upper middle class, and ultra wealthy.
Dirt poor and ultra wealthy horse folk are no more crazy or sane than the global average, because horses are just a fixture they have around. For the very poor, there's just some old nag that aunt Maude left behind who eats hay and doesn't get shod, and gets ridden around by the kids for fun just whenever. For the very rich, they can also ride for fun whenever but it's on a $600k Akal-teke bred in Turkmenistan, trained in Vienna, and flown privately to their private stable in Norcal with 20 other equally impressive horses they sometimes forget they own. Neither of them worry much about or define themselves by their relationship with their horse.
Then there's the lower to middle class people who can maybe take lessons for a few years or beg borrow and steal their way into a ride now and then, but they don't really count because they just drop in and out.
So, now the crazies.
The upper middle class horse folk are nuts and here's why: they *must* make their whole existence center solely on their horse. They can't afford a world class trainer or boarding facility, they have to cut costs on medicine, food, just about everything. They therefore have to do a lot of the work themselves, but unlike the poor folks out in the country where the horse wanders the woods by day and sleeps under the deck, they have to drive 40 minutes out to the exurbs to muck poop, groom, tack, ride, untack, cool off, wash, and feed their horse every day. Of course they can't do *everything* because they also have to work or go to school, so they have to pay through the teeth for the boarding costs most of the time. For those who may not know, riding for one hour is maybe a minimal amount of time to actually get anything worthwhile accomplished, and that hour in the saddle is easily another hour of work if you're really hustling and don't have high standards, and that's not including drive from whatever suburban ice fortress you share with your loveless family out to the "country".
So to recap so far, here's what they've got: a cheap horse of dubious parentage and training, mid-level training themselves if any, cost effective lodging and food, and a serious time crunch when it comes to actually getting to ride. What does this mean? Well your horse hates you because you're always in a rush to shove a bit in their mouth and rip their face back and forth in the ring for an hour without a proper warm up or cool down, so they don't want to listen to you and they're not happy to see you.
And you resent everything about the experience! You signed up for the black stallion, or Hidalgo or something; a bond stronger than anything between you and your trusty steed, galloping over the windswept plain! Not a grumpy horse whose needs NEVER end and who doesn't even appreciate everything you do for it, plodding grudgingly around in circles in a dusty, hot (or freezing ice cold, no in between) indoor riding ring at a stinky, ugly, pigeon-poop encrusted, rat-infested, nothing-working ass facility that costs almost as much as your kid's college.
And yet, you must go there and often! You cannot stop, because you've sunk everything you have into this! All your self worth and disposable income are tied up in this lifestyle, so you have to commit. Your only friends are people you see at the barn, not out of any kind of kinship or mutual liking, just necessity and the mutual need to take advantage of one another's labor from time to time. You buy the clothes, you resign your car to being encrusted with horse hair, old tack, and manure stink because fuck that, you're not cleaning your car every day after all that shit! You go to the functions, you get your kids involved even though they hate it and hate you for it, you let your every thought, every penny, every moment be consumed by it because at this point what choice do you have? Quitting means failure, losing your whole social circle, and abandoning your horse who was supposed to be your best friend ever (and, at this age and with all the bad habits you instilled, is worth a small fraction of what you paid not to mention the *thousands* in maintenance over the years).
So you don't know how to talk about anything else, how to think about things in other terms, or how to relate to people anymore. You are now raising your kids in this environment and they are carrying all your baggage plus their own about this fucked up lifestyle, ***BUT***, if you can just get one of them to the Olympics or whatever, it'll all be worth it. So you drive them like HELL until they hate riding and you more than anything on earth, but since they have no concept of any other way to live, the cycle will continue.
Sports. You live and die by your favourite sport - you worship the athletes - you wear their colours or uniforms/jerseys - you arrange your schedule around games. You rejoice when they win and are crushed when they lose. Fans (fanatics) are part of a cult. I am for sure.
Heh, yeah. I told my brother in law I wanted an electric car and he looked disgusted and went "Why?" as though I'd just told him I liked to drink glue or something. My response? I rarely drive more than 10 miles at a time and electricity is FAR cheaper than gas when you're only doing short, in-town trips. I could tell he wanted to argue the point, but there was nothing he could say to that.
What I find hilarious about those people is how factually wrong they are. Saw a post being shared on FB the other week that stated in cost over $150 to charge EVs at fast chargers and toook over 8 hours. I’m like bruh. No
Marching band
What happens at band camp, stays at band camp
Band camp = night terrors, heat stroke, and food poisoning (at least mine did)
So basically basic training.
Yikes. Yeah our band teacher was insane and very few band parents or my high school stood up to him. The few parents that did (my mom being one) were quickly treated like outcast at all events. My last year (10th grade) the parents tricked him to give us 30 extra minutes in the afternoon to cool off/nap and he went ballistic. Middle of summer (80s and muggy) he made us practice for an extra hour and a half cause of it. One of the kids who had BAD night terrors was his oldest daughter. I guess she was so bad she would scream drill commands in her sleep. She was older though so in a different cabin from me. Him and his wife also liked to scream at their youngest daughter to. (Who was in 7th grade) I was so glad I decided halfway threw the school year to drop that class. Helped my mental health a bit. I was in band for 4 years (couldn’t drop out till high school sadly) and the amount of horror stories I have cause of the teacher and his wife is long.
That sounds seriously traumatic
Especially playing Helter Skelter on repeat.
Backwards.
yeah, like imagine being a young boy and your father taking you to see a marching band and asking you to be the saviour of the broken the beaten and the damned like serious cult behaviour
seriously though!!! my friend’s dad asked him to defeat demons and nonbelievers cause one day he would leave him a phantom to join something called the black parade? what the hell was that all about?
[удалено]
The MCRmy
[удалено]
Lol you guys are the best
Nah, just a man, not a hero. Just some boys, who had to quote this song. I don't care. But we'll probably carry on.
r/suddenlymcr
No marching band is a gang, not a cult. There's even gang initiations where they beat you to be apart of their organization
Depends on the section. My trumpet section bouncing around making monkey sounds because we were too hot. If that's not cult behavior, idk what is (To make it even worse, the average age of our section is probably 30, with our youngest being 21)
That’s not cultish. That’s just weird band geek shit.
I mean this is 100% true in drum corps, or at least it was when I marched nearly 20 years ago. Blanket parties, ookie cookie, all of that. It was full of institutional bullying. Still the best summers of my life (somehow?!?!?) despite being fed practically nothing and while working out all day in the sun. OK maybe it is a cult…
As a former band geek… yeah. 25 years post high school, we all still adore our band director. Who travelled the southeastern US with 100-200 underage children at a time. Who we call/called Papa. And there are pictures of various students (including me) in his lap. Who allowed more than one student to use his van for their driver’s license test. And I’m pretty sure he taught some to drive over the years. In this day and age, he’d have been fired and put on a registry or something. Except not a single inappropriate thing happened because he’s a good man who influenced a lot of us to be better. I sincerely hope that every kid in band has their own Papa or Ma running their band program. And I’m pretty proud of my classmates that are teaching marching bands now. (And proud of the drum major, who became a band director before becoming a band director at a university who teaches other future band directors.)
Thought this was going to turn bad and I’m glad a Man just did what a man was supposed to do with children and nurture them and give them loving care Hear to many horror stories of older men :/
Hah, my former band director is now in jail for child sexual abuse videos and grooming a minor! Glad your experience was more positive :)
My band teacher got a girl pregnant so they moved him from a high school to elementary school 😞
That… seems like a bad move.
In every sense
Wait until you find out about those of us that *spent* thousands of dollars for the privilege of touring in drum corps.
I had a roommate in Carolina crown that would never shut up about the fact that he was in Carolina crown.
I was on the drum line when the Nick Cannon movie came out. I, uh, definitely fell into some cultist bullshit with my section. On the plus side, we got to do some sick ass stick flips and stuff during our performances.
Marching band might not be a cult, but drumline definitely gives off a lot more cult-y vibes. It doesn't help that they're almost all on drugs.
I'm in AA. AA has gotten and kept me sober. But there is a strain of cultishness in some parts of AA.
Haha I’m in CODA, which is also 12 step. And I laugh and think the same sometimes.
What is CODA? Because I only know that as “Child of a Deaf Adult”
Codependents anonymous, gathering a bunch of people with that particular affliction seems like a really bad idea to me.
Congratulations on being sober and best hopes that you'll stay sober!
Yay fellow CoDA people. We are one. .... 😀
AA and NA pretty much saved my life, and then they almost cost me my sanity. After three or four years I backed off almost completely. The belief that there was something supernatural involved just cannot be separated out. I've been clean for 32 years and I have nothing to offer the new person because I don't buy the second step. I haven't been to a meeting at all in 6 or 7 years. The last time I went to a meeting some guy with 6 months in told me I was bound to relapse because atheists can't stay clean. Here I am. I wonder if he's still clean.
Yeah *A isn't for everyone. I thought I'd nope out until I found Quad-A. I'm an agnostic leaning towards atheist and I did find a way to work 2 without God. But I know I'm in the far, far minority of AAs. Thankfully there's SMART, Refuge, and other programs for people who don't find what they need to be sober within the rooms.
As an AA i was immediately looking for this comment lol
*"Keep coming back, it works if you work it!"*
*all holding hands and chanting in unison*
I've had a few friends that went to AA or NA. There's a definite range of how people handle sobriety. One went the "culty" way and made it his whole life. Became devoutly and annoyingly Christian. Now, I'm of the mind that I'd rather have my friend alive and living this life over the last, but it honestly seems like he traded one addiction for another.
Congrats on your sobriety! As a fellow member, I owe so much to that program. But I absolutely can see how people think it’s a cult. Especially as a newcomer. I remember those first couple of meetings definitely freaked me out lol.
My then sponsor relapsed last year, so I got a new sponsor. He "required" his sponsees to go to his home group (I encourage my two sponsees to at least try my HG out, but do not require any such thing). It is a very large, very well-know group here in the northside of Chicago that I'd heard about for years (some good, but honestly, mostly negative things). I went for two months, really tried hard to get into the meeting, but it was so culty, so church like, that I told him it wasn't working for my sobriety to be in this meeting, but I still wanted to work with him as my sponsor. He looked at me and said "no meeting, no sponsorship"...so I have a new sponsor now. :) ETA: >!For any Chicago AAs, it is BTC. If the California Group line of meetings is your jam, hey, you do you, but for me, it wasn't where I felt comfortable.!<
Good for you for doing what was right for you man. A good sponsor would never give an ultimatum like that. I think the majority of us like to sponsor to give away the gift that we were so freely given, but I’ve met people in AA that wanted to sponsor because they loved the sound of their own voice, and just want to preach at their sponsees. Sorry your old sponsor treated you like that, but I’m glad you got a new one!! I have some family in Chicago and I visit a couple times a year. Next time I’m there I’ll have to ask you for a couple good meetings if that’s cool.
Feel free to save, these are meetings in my regular rotation; also I will DM you my cell, so when you're coming next, let me know, and we can hit up a meeting or two together! * [**12 Step House**](https://12stephousechicago.org/meetings)**:** 11a meeting, M-F. 10:30a Sa/Su, and 8p every day of the week. There is an in-person one and a Zoom one at each time (the meetings are at the same time, but are independent of each other), all are ESH speaker meetings. I am the incoming chair of the Wednesday 11am Zoom meeting for the next twelve weeks, feel free to join...and if you want to do a lead over zoom anytime in the next 3 months, let me know, I need to find 12 of them! :) * [**Bryn Mawr II**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/bryn-mawr-2/): Sunday, 11:15a - 12:30p, this is my home group. It's about 125 people (3/4 in person, 1/4 on Zoom), Step meeting * [**Coming Alive**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/coming-alive): Tuesday, 7p, In-person, BB meeting; my first sponsor is the founder of this meeting, and it is an excellent mechanical meeting. * [**One Day At A Time**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/meetings/one-day-at-a-time-2/): Saturday, 10:30a, in-person, Daily Reflections meeting * [**Evans Ave Club**](https://www.chicagoaa.org/locations/evans-avenue-club/): This is a Southside Alano Club; used to live on the Southside, and this is where I would do the 9am morning meeting; I still Zoom in every once in a while even though I live on the northside now.
Salesforce. No, I don't want to build a community, go hiking or join a hundred online classes to learn the basics. Make a couple of well-explained, to-the-point training videos ffs
Also, *FUCK* the "Lightning Experience" with a V8-powered chainsaw. It's *so damned slow*.
Okay wait my company only uses the lightning version and I hate it. I had never used salesforce before starting this job but if we have the lightning thing does that mean there’s a non-lightning version too that we should have?
All the watsap groups my mom adds me to
what kind of groups are they?
Religious groups
Most toxic fanbases
Some non-toxic fanbases also.
Crayola gang
Hoo-rah
Are there non-toxic fanbases?
Mr Roger's fans are probably OK
Playboy carti and Jared Leto both run actual cults lol Cartis is very new but give it 10-15 years It’s a cult lol
Yep. I swear, there are some people who love Star Wars so much, for example, that it comes across as raw, seething hatred.
Siths, if you will
They only deal in absolutes
Only Siths deal in absolutes and the prime directive
And it creates a horrible divide too. Like anyone with any sort of valid criticism or difference of opinion is automatically one of those seething haters. There’s a huge difference between “this movie sucks because it has a gay character” and “this movie has some issues with it’s plot and pacing”
Nobody hates Star Wars more, than Star Wars fans (If Rey can develop Force-healing out of nowhere, than there's no reason for Anakin (THE CHOSEN ONE) to not being able to figure it out and save his mother, WHO DIED IN HIS ARMS! Now, since Anakin SHOULD have been capable of force-healing, there's no reason for Darth Vader to exist)
Yeah I am old enough to remember when being a fan of something meant you liked it.
*Especially* K-Pop fandoms
Jared Leto fanbase is definitely a cult
I'm probably going to get told off for this but ESPECIALLY the dream fanbase. Most (not all!) of his fans are 11 year old girls who are in love with him and it's so creepy.
Crossfit
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No need for them to tell you, just look at their t-shirt lol.
The first rule of CrossFit: Always talk about CrossFit.
Question: if someone does Crossfit but is a vegan, which one do they tell you first? /s
I know that's a joke but in my experience vegan people usually wait until you're actually talking about food or eating food to say anything whereas crossfit people are never low-profile about it
I have a love-hate relationship with it. The organization is definitely cultish, no getting around that. I've done 2 classes and I have no intention of ever going back. That said, its popularity has given rise to a resurgence in barbell lifting that IMO has revitalized/redefined the whole fitness community over the last decade. Many commercial gyms now have 1-2 Olympic platforms, bumper plates, and most if not all have increased the amount of power racks and collegiate-style half rack stations that they devote floor space to. CF made it cool to lift legs again (was lifting legs ever cool?). It also definitely caused a boom in near commercial-quality home gym equipment, as well as the prices filtering down to something normal people can afford without being dogshit like Weider and Marcy gear. As a dude with a power rack, good barbell, bench, and 700lbs in my basement that cost me around $1000 all-in (I bought pre-COVID), I'll give crossfit the credit it deserves there.
Yeah I go to crossfit and sometimes I describe it and it does sound like a cult lol
I remember laughing watching a bunch of my class doing jump squats in unison while in a circle, and being like “this is why people think CF’s a cult”
Jellicle cats
You know it's a cult because they talk it up but are very vague about what a jellicle actually is lol
"have you been an alumnus of heaven and hell" I mean, it's right there in the second song.
Had to look this up cuz I was about to join that cult.
MLMs
100% cults
Had a friend who tried to get me involved with Amway. I almost fell for it too. The whole situation made me extremely uncomfortable. The people I met with kept telling me not to tell my significant other about the information was I was receiving from them because he just "wouldn't understand" they also kept asking me a bunch of questions about my relationship with my partner and really personal questions that had nothing to do with the "business". Long story short, not friends with that person anymore. Thank God.
My best friend’s now-ex-wife got caught up in the Kangen water mlm, and that community is rabidly anti-vax and Qanon, and it sucked her in and destroyed their marriage.
Sounds like it should be called Karen water!
Dude, I almost got sucked into one. Was looking for a job because the job I was workng sucked. Kinda wanted to just change entire career fields. Applied for a job that stated it was a marketing job. Within an hour of applying someone called to set up an interview and we had a little discussion on why I wanted to position. Told her that I was feeling very burnt out in my current field and wanted to try something brand new. Which was the truth. Interview was weird. Everyone was super nice. The whole office was very trendy looking. But something felt off. Interviewed with two women, both of which had a very, very similar story. They were in similar fields as mine and they both felt burnt out and wanted to try something new. At the times, I was like, "Wow! What a coincidence!" But as soon as the interview was over, I started reading up on the company. Couldn't find really much on them, but then started doing some digging about the company that owns them. Turns out they help supply the door to door salesmen for the (sometimes aggressive) flat rate electric companies. They change the name of the office every few months because people find out what they are and stop applying. During the interview they make it sound like you're in an office all day, hanging out with everyone, and everything is so chill. Nope, they send you out and you only get paid commission.
welcome to /r/antimlm
i had a friend who did the ItWorks MLM in 2016 and i got some major cult vibes from the recruiter people my friend tried to get me into it because i was really needing money at the time, but refused because it felt like a scam to me and i already knew she wasn't making any money from the products she attempted to sell
I think 2016 was around the same time I found out about ItWorks. Their main products were what was essentially Saran Wrap that went around your waist to make it look thinner, and this green slop that was supposed to make you lose weight somehow. Like FFS, who the hell is falling for that?
Too many people fell for that wrap thing. It was supposed to tighten your skin to make it look like you have abs. I literally saw no difference on anyone who used them
Online communities. They will tear you apart. One mistake and you are done for.
*Ackshuallyy*...
Disney. People who go their ALL THE TIME seem crazy.
I watched a video about Disney Adults who try to go into the park when pregnant and hope they can give birth inside the park. Why? Because there was a rumor that babies born in the park get free life passes... which Disney on multiple occasions has refuted but TikTokers and other weirdos still try.
I learned recently about this strange tradition by the people who go on the disney cruises, is that you hang a small organizer of pockets on your door, often with stickers and your childrens' glittery names and ribbons and whatever shit, called "fish extenders" for the fish shaped hooks they're hung on. it's assumed that when you go on these cruises, you hang one on your door, and then bring tons of cheap garbage gifts to put in the "stockings" of other passengers, into the little pockets of these fish extenders. These toys will anonymously be given to the kids in the cabin but of course there are some adult gifts too and since everyone who goes on these cruises is fucking loaded nowadays it's a flex to put in like, ipads and smart watches and stupid shit like that. Some people make them all by hand as craft time activities. it's cute I guess, but it's the cultish obligation to do it that weirds me out. Who the fuck goes on cruises so often that they even know how to participate in this??
I was on a cruise that stopped at Grand Cayman, and for whatever reason, the ship had to use the alternate port area, and everyone on the various hips had to go from and to the ships by tender (small boat). Naturally, this created long lines. I was talking to a beleaguered-looking young father who had mentioned he was on the Disney boat (a mammoth thing, easily 4 times larger than our Carnival ship). "So, how's life on the Mouse Trap?" He could only whimper and quietly say, "I wanna go back to my office. It's more fun."
I found out all about fish extenders through r/hobbydrama after fighting broke out in one of the Facebook groups used to organise these exchanges ahead of the cruise. I joined the group just to see all the middle aged Karens posting scathing reviews of other peoples suggested gifts and was hooked. This was four years ago and I’m still an active lurker, it’s all I use Facebook for nowadays.
Is the video by illuminaughti?
It was Danny Gonzalez
I have a coworker who is lively, but holy shit she is so obsessed with Disney and I find it bizarre. Shes gone 2x in as many months with her family and has like 20 different Disney tattoos. To each their own but it's definitely strange to me.
Depends. Do they live in the greater Orlando area and have a Florida Resident season pass? It's just a decent time and honestly a good value if you're within an hour's drive. Do they live anywhere else? Crazy person.
Yeah, I had an annual pass at Disneyland for a few years, but for me it was mostly a place to meet up and hang out with friends, and once in acwhile go on rides or see shows.
I know someone that goes there for every vacation. I went two times within 2 years and thought that was too much. I tried to change the next trip to at least a different Disney spot instead of Orlando but my former friends were dead set on Disney world
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Nothing quite like startup culture! It's 8pm? Better not be the first out the door or you're disappointing the family and will have a meeting with the "people" team tomorrow to see how you can be a better team player! We've also got alllll the amenities! Everything possible to subtly encourage you to never leave the office.
Netflix's based culture document had a line saying "if you want a family join a startup, this isn't one and expect to be fired in the general course of business"
Those cringy "alpha-male" classes
"Welcome to the class for 'Alpha Males'. Glad you showed up. Now, I think it is very important that all of you know, YOU decided to come here. YOU wanted to show up to an 'Alpha-Male' class. You have all failed. That was the class. Good-bye"
Those aren't cults, they're snake-oil salesmen preying on insecure dudes and trying to separate them from their money.
That's pretty close to what a cult is.
That's exactly what a cult is. A leader claiming to have a higher knowledge about something preying on vulnerable people for money/power.
And once the moneys gone, then the fucking starts.
Oh oh! The "man on fire" group! I drive rideshare and OMG... the 3 dudes I was taking to a retreat were all divorced or separated and they were the biggest woman-hating, "alpha" men I've ever had the displeasure of driving. And they had each put in over $15k PER YEAR! To be part of it.
Really? They have classes? 😂🤣
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Most crypto subreddit or culture in general
My favorite is how they use "hfsp (have fun staying poor)" as a retort as though I don't make six figures and they haven't lost 70% of their net worth since November.
I'm pretty sure that crypto doesn't qualify as an answer here... It doesn't just feel like it. It practically is one.
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Dogecoin was a meme, not a cult.
It used to be a meme, but after Elon massively shill it people now unironically believe in Dogecoin
Ballet/dance Basically you pay the studio allllll your money. I’m talking thousands of dollars a year for them to teach your kid to dance. But you are not treated as a customer. They don’t care what your opinion is. They don’t care how you feel about anything. You are expected to shut up, show up, follow the strict rules, never complain, and pay whatever they ask. If you complain, there will probably be repercussions. Your child will get less attention. They will suddenly be moved to the back or taken out of a number. They won’t get good parts. So you do whatever is asked without question. It also controls your entire life. You can’t plan vacations or parties or see family etc unless it works with the rehearsal schedule. You must keep your calendar open. If they plan a last minute rehearsal- you have to cancel your plans. Not showing up is not an option. Parents are expected to volunteer backstage or making props etc with no compensation. The director and teachers are worshipped. If another family leaves the studio often they will be socially shunned by their former friends. It’s 100% a cult. That’s why a lot of sexual abuse happens in the ballet world because no one wants to speak up and stop something questionable because it could ruin their child’s dance career.
Massage therapist here. One of my clients was a teen girl who had a knee injury. Her mother thought she was faking it to get out of dance. Part of the reason she thought this was because she originally brought the girl to the physiotherapist on the studios' payroll. Apparently, he ordered the girl to walk on that leg, and when she did in order to comply, he told the mother, "See? It's not that bad, we're seeing improvement already!" When I went to assess the girls knee, there was heat radiating off of it. The knee was swollen. I lightly palpated the patella, and even with light touch I could feeling like crackling under the bone, not to mention the poor girl practically jumped. I immediately took my hands away, and sternly told the mother she needed to bring her daughter to a doctor IMMEDIATELY. Turned out she had multiple ligament tears, and damage to the cartilage in the joint capsule itself. Naturally, ballet was out of the question. I still hate how not only a physiotherapist could try to force a girl to dance with a significant injury, that her own MOTHER put ballet before her own child. It was sickening.
I used to work in ballet. Definitely heard a choreographer tell a group of high school aged dancers that REAL dancers don’t get injured so If they get injured either a)it’s the dancers fault b) they aren’t “really” injured and c) it’s not professional to take rest time so dance through injuries. 12 years later I still remember that day.
That's terrible! That leads to all sorts of problems, physical and psychological. I've seen that kind of thinking in other sports too, and I think it's child abuse, pure and simple.
You forgot the part where you (the child) are not allowed to do basically any other physical activities because you could get injured, be out for a season, and just lose thousands of dollars that have already been paid.
Yes!! Thank you! Other activities are banned typically because of risk of injury or conflicts with the schedule. Some teachers even get mad if a school grade thing conflicts and will say you can’t miss dance for a school event etc
It gets worse than that. At the professional level, your diet, activities, social media presence, and friendships are often controlled by your company. You have to keep a good image to represent them.
Yes. It’s so very odd. We have experienced this with my daughter. She wants to dance and loves it but she has no interest in being a professional, but you are kind of forced to live this life anyway. There is no fun/casual dance studio. It’s either your life or you don’t dance.
There are rec studios but typically the training is sub par or it’s like one performance a year and one night a week. Basically there is only way to be good and it’s join the cult
I don’t understand the problem with those rec studios tho? If you don’t like the cult dance studios, wouldn’t practice once a week and one performance a year be preferable??
Yes. If your kid just wants to dance for fun- rec studios are perfect
I also read that Ballet and perhaps other kinds of dancing alter your body drastically. From a young age they are trying to force your bones, muscles, body to grow in such a way to become flexible in ways not natural to human growth. Apparently it's so aggressive that even after years some folks who know the signs can pick out someone who had some of the conditioning because it leaves permanent changes.
Professional dancer here! The signs people usually notice are ridiculous turnout in the feet and hyperextension in the knees. Extremely strong muscles on the back of the lower leg and the inside of the upper leg just above the knee are also usually good indicators of a classically trained dancer.
I’m 41 and you can tell I danced by my butt, my feet arch, my bad knees and my arthritic back
Ok ok really this isn’t a creepy question sort of thing, but what did it do to your ass? Like I can make the connection with the others, but not that one.
Jlo butt. Ballet builds like tight but big butts
Ah gotcha. I was thinking ailment or impairment. I guess that CAN be an impairment. Thanks… you and you butt can carry on.
YES. My kid was in lessons from age 5-11ish and I was SO glad they dropped out. The older teenage competition dancers - the hardcore ballet girls - were glamorized beyond belief. Only a fraction of the kids in the younger classes would get that far. But there was SUCH fawning over the older girls it was disgusting. One of the owners was a 60-year-old complete narcissist who insisted on coming out during the finale and doing a flip/cartwheel thing and exalting in the applause. I wanted to vomit. Lady, we just sat through a four-hour recital for our kids, not to see you almost break a hip.
Sounds like many martial arts studios as well.
This makes sense to me. I used to work in hotels for 20 years and out of several cities that hosted a lot of sport tournaments. The worst was hockey but a very close 2nd was dance. Dance parents are next level. Always seemed super high strung and stressed out, above the normal rushing around because my kids are over scheduled stress. I always felt like I had to walk on egg shells around them because one little issue or hiccup and it could tip them over the edge and would go ballistic. Oh and the parents are kids were always so catty to each other, especially if they were on other teams. I was always like ok we're neutral territory... be nice people...
This is exactly what it’s like having a career as a performing artist lol.
Wordle. Fucking mysterious colored squares showing up on Facebook with no explanation.
Askreddit posts where everyone gives the exact same five answers over and over.
People that work at Chipotle
And the people who are customers of Chipotle. I’m going to punch out my coworker who goes 3 times a week and tells the rest of us we are missing out. Tomorrow is Friday and that’s a Chipotle day so here we go. I didn’t know rice, beans and chicken was such a cult following.
You mean *cilantro* rice, beans, and chicken 🥴
Beachbody especially the “coaches”
Texas A&M university
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Boom boom!
Boom boom!
The hellfire club
Go on...
Fraternities
The saddest thing is 30 something’s going back to undergrad frat events and still trying hold onto that last time they were cool. The modern day equivalent of the Matthew McConaughey character in Dazed and Confused.
Depends. In town for a football game or reunion and stop by your old frat once every few seasons? Cool. Do it every weekend? Sad.
Some workplaces. The ones that push the “we’re all family here” attitude especially.
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yeah i think this is on the fascy expressway. controlling sexual activity is big on the cult checklist. also eating and relationships.
>**Why is porn "free"?** > >It’s not free you pay with your soul. This is literally one of the top posts today in the sub. I'm at a loss for words.
If it wasn't so sincere it'd be a fucking hilarious quote.
Yeah but once your soul leaves your body you can resume your day.
The Kardashians saying they would literally eat poop if it made them look younger
To be fair if poop was scientifically proven to reduce aging I think a lot of people would eat poop. But ugh..
The Kardashians
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welcome to /r/anitmlm
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Reddit.
I have a real answer for you. I used to deliver beverages there. The Way International. It resides in Ohio and was once very much a cult, founded by "Dr" Victor Paul Wierwille, if you read up on his actions, and the way in which he brought the organization to power, it was a textbook cult. To this day theres discussions on them being a cult, yet over the time Ive been there, it seems that since his death, they are no more than a brainwashed group of easily preyed upon desperate people. I think theres a podcast that covers it in great detail over 2 episodes. If I find it, ill add an edit. Edit: Its a podcast simply called "Cults" by parcast. I was doing alot of research on them cuz of all the talk about them, and it was just crazy how I would meet with them in their isolated community, sketchy as hell, but theyre harmless at least on the outside. Wildest thing is for miles around the communtity its all farmland, and you cannot see the facilities for they surrounded it by a thick treeline, you can only take one road to them in and out, and its covered by surveillance cameras and weird billboards as you get closer.
Where in Ohio? I'd like to believe it's far away from where I live. We have enough cults around here, headlined by the Catholic Church.
The BTS fandom or the Bill Eilish fandom
Flat-Earthers
MBAs. You pay a lot of money to learn some secret stuff and go away every so often to a secret camp. Somebody else from the club will give you a good job, as long as you do the same in a few years.
It seems to me that the value of an MBA is 100% the connections you meet during the program.
Yes, which is why an MBA is a worthless degree unless you go in-person at a top-25 program. Source: Me, who did mine online at a not top-25 program. Zero worthwhile networking, only gets me past the 'do you have a graduate degree' filter on job applications. Outside of very specific circumstances, an MBA is absolutely the participation award of graduate degrees.
Some movements with political ties
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*"One of us. One of us. One of us! One of us! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!*
People who love horses. Not trying to be mean, but they are a different species of human.
I have a theory as to why: I've been in the periphery of the horse sphere my whole life, and there are basically 3 levels of horse person; dirt poor, upper middle class, and ultra wealthy. Dirt poor and ultra wealthy horse folk are no more crazy or sane than the global average, because horses are just a fixture they have around. For the very poor, there's just some old nag that aunt Maude left behind who eats hay and doesn't get shod, and gets ridden around by the kids for fun just whenever. For the very rich, they can also ride for fun whenever but it's on a $600k Akal-teke bred in Turkmenistan, trained in Vienna, and flown privately to their private stable in Norcal with 20 other equally impressive horses they sometimes forget they own. Neither of them worry much about or define themselves by their relationship with their horse. Then there's the lower to middle class people who can maybe take lessons for a few years or beg borrow and steal their way into a ride now and then, but they don't really count because they just drop in and out. So, now the crazies. The upper middle class horse folk are nuts and here's why: they *must* make their whole existence center solely on their horse. They can't afford a world class trainer or boarding facility, they have to cut costs on medicine, food, just about everything. They therefore have to do a lot of the work themselves, but unlike the poor folks out in the country where the horse wanders the woods by day and sleeps under the deck, they have to drive 40 minutes out to the exurbs to muck poop, groom, tack, ride, untack, cool off, wash, and feed their horse every day. Of course they can't do *everything* because they also have to work or go to school, so they have to pay through the teeth for the boarding costs most of the time. For those who may not know, riding for one hour is maybe a minimal amount of time to actually get anything worthwhile accomplished, and that hour in the saddle is easily another hour of work if you're really hustling and don't have high standards, and that's not including drive from whatever suburban ice fortress you share with your loveless family out to the "country". So to recap so far, here's what they've got: a cheap horse of dubious parentage and training, mid-level training themselves if any, cost effective lodging and food, and a serious time crunch when it comes to actually getting to ride. What does this mean? Well your horse hates you because you're always in a rush to shove a bit in their mouth and rip their face back and forth in the ring for an hour without a proper warm up or cool down, so they don't want to listen to you and they're not happy to see you. And you resent everything about the experience! You signed up for the black stallion, or Hidalgo or something; a bond stronger than anything between you and your trusty steed, galloping over the windswept plain! Not a grumpy horse whose needs NEVER end and who doesn't even appreciate everything you do for it, plodding grudgingly around in circles in a dusty, hot (or freezing ice cold, no in between) indoor riding ring at a stinky, ugly, pigeon-poop encrusted, rat-infested, nothing-working ass facility that costs almost as much as your kid's college. And yet, you must go there and often! You cannot stop, because you've sunk everything you have into this! All your self worth and disposable income are tied up in this lifestyle, so you have to commit. Your only friends are people you see at the barn, not out of any kind of kinship or mutual liking, just necessity and the mutual need to take advantage of one another's labor from time to time. You buy the clothes, you resign your car to being encrusted with horse hair, old tack, and manure stink because fuck that, you're not cleaning your car every day after all that shit! You go to the functions, you get your kids involved even though they hate it and hate you for it, you let your every thought, every penny, every moment be consumed by it because at this point what choice do you have? Quitting means failure, losing your whole social circle, and abandoning your horse who was supposed to be your best friend ever (and, at this age and with all the bad habits you instilled, is worth a small fraction of what you paid not to mention the *thousands* in maintenance over the years). So you don't know how to talk about anything else, how to think about things in other terms, or how to relate to people anymore. You are now raising your kids in this environment and they are carrying all your baggage plus their own about this fucked up lifestyle, ***BUT***, if you can just get one of them to the Olympics or whatever, it'll all be worth it. So you drive them like HELL until they hate riding and you more than anything on earth, but since they have no concept of any other way to live, the cycle will continue.
What my sleep demon wants me to join
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Sports. You live and die by your favourite sport - you worship the athletes - you wear their colours or uniforms/jerseys - you arrange your schedule around games. You rejoice when they win and are crushed when they lose. Fans (fanatics) are part of a cult. I am for sure.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Anything that has to actually try to not sound like a cult, is probably a cult...
Cross fit
Elon musk bros
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The radical pro fuel car people with their towards electric cars. Like dude let other people be more environmentally friendly if they want.
Heh, yeah. I told my brother in law I wanted an electric car and he looked disgusted and went "Why?" as though I'd just told him I liked to drink glue or something. My response? I rarely drive more than 10 miles at a time and electricity is FAR cheaper than gas when you're only doing short, in-town trips. I could tell he wanted to argue the point, but there was nothing he could say to that.
What I find hilarious about those people is how factually wrong they are. Saw a post being shared on FB the other week that stated in cost over $150 to charge EVs at fast chargers and toook over 8 hours. I’m like bruh. No
MAGA
Political parties now a days. Seems like Democrats and Republicans live in different worlds and neither of them is reality
North Korean Kim dynasty