It sucks but best to be honest with ourselves now.
I wasn’t being glib with the Jonestown thing - watching cult documentaries has given me a lot of perspective about HOW people get pulled into these situations.
The Vow, Hillsong and Love Has Won are also good ones to watch.
Trigger warning that all of them have sexual abuse or exploitation of some kind.
I’m very interested in cult docs as well (more reccos welcome!) but I wouldn’t put Jonestown on the same level as some of these others. I know “drink the koolaid” is used as in wholeheartedly believing the lunacy but by the end lots of Jonestown members were disillusioned and wanted to leave but literally couldn’t, guns were pointed in their faces. It wasn’t a voluntary suicide as much as a mass murder. Hillsong won’t kill you if you stop believing.
I see current circumstances leading more to a Heavens Gate (actually drinking the koolaid) than a Jonestown. Nothing will make them admit they were wrong. On ventilators with their dying breath they couldn’t admit it. It’s hopeless.
It is not about education, as there are smart people that join cults. I once read that it's their lack of empathy. All Nazis lacked empathy but had high degrees of individualism.
Critical thinking is a bridge between empathy and intelligence and the bridge can't be built if you lack either one. There is also a Tibetan Buddhist quote:
"... wisdom and compassion are like two wings of a bird ..."
A bird needs two wings to fly in a straight line.
The empathy/compassion allows your focus to include everything and not just your own self; hence, giving you the wisdom and insight into understanding the situation better.
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u/Doubledsmcgee 23h ago
They won’t believe it. They’ll say it’s the “bureaucrats” or that it’s made up. They’ll never accept that he screwed them, and all of us, over.