TDS

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

TDS is a massive case of projection. Write that down.

All they have is that, and Tu Quoque.

- Doc “gotta love seeing turd birds and incels lecture others on cults” nc4me

[Gunnar]

It would help me understand his idea if Hound would explain how he feels he detects the presence of Marxists.

I believe that the criteria is, ‘if the other person does not affirm and promote whatever Hound says, then that other person is a Marxist’.

That’s regardless of what point along the spectrum his opinion is, from bootlicking all things Trump, to demanding that people stop using certain words that supposedly offend him.

The impression I get is that he thinks that anyone who cares about helping anyone other than obscenely wealthy, avaricious and power-obsessed oligarchs who already have more wealth than hundreds of ordinary people can spend in their entire lifetimes is a Marxist.

[Kishkumen]

Cults suck!

Let me know when you escape the MAGA cult.

[Some Schmo]

Let me know when you escape the MAGA cult.

They like the cult, though. That's what makes them so damned weird. They relish it. The ignorance it takes to get to that place is off the charts.

[Kishkumen]

They like the cult, though. That's what makes them so damned weird. They relish it. The ignorance it takes to get to that place is off the charts.

I find cults interesting. A lot of people think I grew up in a cult. Maybe I did. All cults are not the same, however. There are truly dangerous cults and there are relatively harmless cults. MAGA is a dangerous cult.

[Some Schmo]

They like the cult, though. That's what makes them so damned weird. They relish it. The ignorance it takes to get to that place is off the charts.

I find cults interesting. A lot of people think I grew up in a cult. Maybe I did. All cults are not the same, however. There are truly dangerous cults and there are relatively harmless cults. MAGA is a dangerous cult.

If you grew up LDS, you grew up in a cult. The distinguishing factor is them encouraging you to distrust anything not said by the church. They may as well have called outside information "fake news."

[Kishkumen]

If you grew up LDS, you grew up in a cult. The distinguishing factor is them encouraging you to distrust anything not said by the church. They may as well have called outside information "fake news."

Mmmm. I see what you are saying, but they encouraged people to distrust outsider information about the LDS Church, which is a little different from teaching people to distrust everything not communicated by the LDS Church. The latter type of isolation is clearly in the realm of dangerous cult behavior. The former is not good but not so sinister either.

[Some Schmo]

If you grew up LDS, you grew up in a cult. The distinguishing factor is them encouraging you to distrust anything not said by the church. They may as well have called outside information "fake news."

Mmmm. I see what you are saying, but they encouraged people to distrust outsider information about the LDS Church, which is a little different from teaching people to distrust everything not communicated by the LDS Church. The latter type of isolation is clearly in the realm of dangerous cult behavior. The former is not good but not so sinister either.

This is a fair point, although it went beyond just information about the church. It also extended to anything that conflicted with their beliefs, like caffeine is good for you, masturbation is good for the prostate, life begins when sperm and eggs are generated, not at conception, gay sex is natural, etc.

[Kishkumen]

This is a fair point, although it went beyond just information about the church. It also extended to anything that conflicted with their beliefs, like caffeine is good for you, masturbation is good for the prostate, life begins when sperm and eggs are generated, not at conception, gay sex is natural, etc.

Yep. Most churches, even the liberal ones, don't want you to believe things that conflict with their doctrines. I don't miss being around a bunch of folk who are fretting about who is or is not hewing to the Church's teachings on this or that. It was a real bore. Certainly the LDS Church thought it should be the standard members judged their decisions by in areas where they had no business weighing in, and I am relieved to be free of that.

[Some Schmo]

This is a fair point, although it went beyond just information about the church. It also extended to anything that conflicted with their beliefs, like caffeine is good for you, masturbation is good for the prostate, life begins when sperm and eggs are generated, not at conception, gay sex is natural, etc.

Yep. Most churches, even the liberal ones, don't want you to believe things that conflict with their doctrines. I don't miss being around a bunch of folk who are fretting about who is or is not hewing to the Church's teachings on this or that. It was a real bore. Certainly the LDS Church thought it should be the standard members judged their decisions by in areas where they had no business weighing in, and I am relieved to be free of that.

No doubt.

So I guess the real difference is how do these churches treat dissent? Do they guilt the hell out of you and remind you that god is reading your thoughts, or do they encourage you to think and pray and come to your own conclusions, even if they conflict with doctrine? Also, how much does one church or another take control of your lifestyle?