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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30042 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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This part actually jumped out at me:

80% of the members of the cult were women, and there weren't enough men to go around.

This seems unexpected because if there were any social group that had a gender imbalance of that degree, AND all the women in question were self-described as looking for love, you'd think this would lead to men joining up to exploit the imbalance until it was wittled down some.

I notice I am confused. Even accounting for women in general being more drawn to weird spiritualist remedies.

Sure the premise that you're looking for one specific person kind of limits the playing field, but that rarely stops motivated males.

Also, the basic description of the group made it seem less cult-like than the central example of cults, but upon looking at some of their background beliefs and their youtube channel yeah, this is definitely a classic-style cult with some slick presentation.

Like, I'm actually willing to tolerate psychic matchmakers because they basically take all the standard tactics and tricks to finding a mate for someone and dress it up in some woo language to make it more palatable.

But the harms being done in the Twin Flames Universe seem pretty obvious even before the coerced transition, and most of the other hallmarks are there.

This rests on the assumption that the women are young and attractive. Not even MtFs bother trying to muscle in on middle aged women's book clubs and knitting circles.

I'm going to assume most of the women recruited were so eager to join specifically because they'd failed to find love through conventional means and were becoming increasingly desperate as they could feel their biological clocks ticking down.

Most men don’t actually optimize their lives around attracting women.

This seems unexpected because if there were any social group that had a gender imbalance of that degree, AND all the women in question were self-described as looking for love, you'd think this would lead to men joining up to exploit the imbalance until it was wittled down some.

There are some women who are more or less genuinely unfuckable, and I don't mean because they're ugly, old, or crazy. Knowing nothing about this particular cult and therefore not in any way commenting on it, many of the cultists at Jonestown were mentally incompetent, morbidly obese, etc

Well, there is always the verboten topic of the "meme sex". Probably going to get modded again for even uttering the words.

Big five personality traits agreeableness and neuroticism are a helluva drug. And, specific to this cult, more or less every single former member they interviewed said they found the cult by googling "twin flame", a woo woo spiritual concept they'd heard about before, after having an intense personal connection with someone. Twin Flame Universe is apparently the most search engine optimized result for that query, and off to the cult they go. The struggle sessions prey on their neuroticism and the intense social conditioning preys on their agreeableness.

Well, there is always the verboten topic of the "meme sex". Probably going to get modded again for even uttering the words.

Meme sex? What does that mean? That one sex is more susceptible to cultural programming?

Thats my plain read of it, yes. Not unlike "cultural marxism" however, plenty of people will insist the plain reading is wrong, and the true meaning involves literally every evil that lurks under the bed of a neoliberal at night.

I have never - in my entire life - changed a man's mind with a single but especially clever response.

Just seems like they shouldn't have had any trouble recruiting males once the word got out that there were eligible females seeking companions to be found. That's how most social groups end up working. Attract the ladies and then expect the men to follow (and spend money)

Maybe the word never got out.

Or maybe the women were conventionally unattractive or just overly picky, both of which are overstated but extant problems that women sometimes have.

Many of the women in the documentary were definitely on the chubbier side, and were encouraged to get fatter from the cult leader's diet plan.

Are you confused about why most cult leaders are charismatic men?

I presume some of the gender imbalance is linked to intentional recruitment practises by such a cult, especially since I think that most cult leaders (being overwhelmingly male) certainly enjoy having more submissive women around for their sexual enjoyment, and this only ceases to apply when a cult gains some degree of legitimacy or a large amount of growth, where the dude in charge has reached saturation for the number of women he can fuck, and doesn't particularly care who they rope in next. Or they might pass away and hand the torch to other followers, who I suspect are more likely to be "True Believers" and less internally motivated by such.

I also believe that women are naturally more inclined to fall for cultish practises/woo, not that it's exclusive to them. How many men do you see unironically espousing astrology or healing crystals?

I’ve long suspected that such a dynamic actually is what drives recruiting. A group of men cannot attract women to join for the purposes of sexual access. Women can. In fact, in most cases it’s the woman who looks after the spiritual side of things. If she’s devout, then the children and the husband will be in church. If she doesn’t care, then odds are that the family won’t be observant. Even in dating, men are far more likely to play act religion even if they don’t believe it if they think they’ll have access to a woman they want.

Children are more likely to stay in the religion if their father practices than if the mother practices. It isn't obvious to me why

Are you confused about why most cult leaders are charismatic men?

Nah.

But as to the rest of your comment, was there any evidence that the leader of the group was getting laid by the female members?

Seems like the whole premise of the group is "there's one (1) singular person out there for you, I'm here to help you find them" which seems less likely to lead to drug-fueled orgies than claiming "I am Jesus born again, bang me to secure your place in heaven" or whatever.

And that's why you would think, as word spread, that men might join the group and play the game for a chance to become a given woman's "twin flame".

I guess the question is why did men's innate horniness drive more of them to the group?

How many men do you see unironically espousing astrology or healing crystals?

Not much, but you get the weird gymbro/tradbro sort of thing like perineum tanning and whatever the Liver King advocates. And of course there are those who accuse Andrew Tate of being a cult leader.

Anyhoo, my last thought is that as we've seen a large rise in the share of single adults, I bet more cult-like groups that promise to help find love rise to prominence in the near future.

But as to the rest of your comment, was there any evidence that the leader of the group was getting laid by the female members?

I think that's a fair assumption to make in the case of most modern cults, even if it's not necessarily applicable in this one.

I joked with my wife in the first episode "How long until the cult leader just starts fucking all the women?"

Surprisingly, it hadn't gotten that far yet. Although the final episode talks about him buying several hundred acres in the middle of nowhere, and wanting his cult members to move out there. He wants his "harmonious couples" to start having "golden children" that are already ascended. However, since most of them are sterilized women pretending to be men, he will be picking who the biological fathers will be.

Pretty sure you only need one guess how that's going to end up.

Although the final episode talks about him buying several hundred acres in the middle of nowhere, and wanting his cult members to move out there. He wants his "harmonious couples" to start having "golden children" that are already ascended. However, since most of them are sterilized women pretending to be men, he will be picking who the biological fathers will be.

Ah.

Yeah this just sounds like the Branch Davidians with extra steps.

Heaven's Gate sterilized many of its members before their more famous mass suicide.

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