#cultish

[the-final-sentence]

Life is much too peculiar to go at it all alone.

Amanda Montell, from Cultish

[yahoodarling]

Small answers to my sagau question

Would characters give up their family/siblings in your name if you, their God, asked?

General warnings: cult themes, manipulation, death, sacrifice, yandereish themes

Jean and Diluc(unedited)

A little darker here but would Jean be willing to literally blood sacrific Barbara for a 'holy offering' if you so wished? To prove her loyalty to you.

"I promise! I can do it" Jean kneeled before you clutching her chest, she loved you so much so much so tears flooded her eyes when ever she saw you but pain ached her at the role she must play. Her sister will and forever more shall praise Barbatos, Barbara will never accept grace from another and so will never follow you. Jean knows what time will come, nonbelievers are the most fithly scum of Teyvat, nonwilling to follow their true Grace that is you. Jean remembers those nights, on the brink of passing out of exhast, piles and piles of paper and laws to check swamping her, those moments right before collasping of hearing your voice, your sweet words comforting her and speaking all the praise and love and appreciation she so desperately wanted, that has lead to her now, a loyal believer of you working amongst the sheep of Mondstadt that are unwilling to accept you. She will rebuild your legacy inside out, in all her work she will do for you but she cant rush it, slowly she will lead the people of Mondstadt to follow you but her sister… 

Barbara looked at Jean with terror, they were meant to just go on a quiet walk and catch up yet a blade was pointed to her chest, cries and pleas of confusion escaping her. Jean closed her eyes and remembered your words,

'Your sister has strong faith in another, you know she has no place in our future.'

'I know, im embarrassed to have such link but… she won't listen to me, she wont hear out your almighty grace. It aches me.'

You smile and lean down, cupping her face and stringing your fingers through her blond hair. 'I can give her a chance, but i need you to do something for me'

'I promise! I can do it'

'In a brief moment before death i shall greet her, if she does not accept me then then she never would.'

'My Grace you mean…'

'If she accepts me she will come back alive, touched by me she will evade death but if not… well, rather sooner than later to ride a stain.'

Jean took a moment to think, you were right, you always were right.

'Jean my dear,' you pull her into your chest and stroke her hair 'you have done so so much for your sister, your city and yet what have they done for you? You can do this task guilt free for me, i will always love you.'

Jean stook outside mondstadts walls, blade unshed and at her side as she watched the motionless figure of her sister bleeding at the neck. Barabara didnt move. Its her fault, her fault for not accepting your love.

●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●●•●•●•●•●

Would diluc take that step and end his sworn brothers life, someone he had pleadged himself to, all to gain your favour?

Diluc has been here before, soaked in rain and burnin passion consuming his chest, his sworn brother before him screaming at him in fear and despiration, it felt just like that day of his 18th. Betrayal.

"What are you doing?! Please just listen to me, they are a fraud! You think Teyvats Grace will just appear with no reason? I know you are broken Diluc but they cant fix you!"

"Kaeya" Diluc shifted his weight, grasp strong against his claymors hilt "come please. This is a place you cant deny is home. Their love is every ones home. You can finally be accepted." This was Dilucs last attept to bring Kaeya salvation but he didnt listen and it ended in blood. Right before he took the last plunge he heard your voice, your sweet coice bless his ears. 'Leave him, let me talk to him, maybe i can bring him back home. If not, the elements can take him away. Now, come home Diluc.' He recoiled, putting his bloodied wepon to the side and walked away leaving the bluenett unmoving and breathing shallow in the pelting rain. This moment felt so similar to before but unlike then he was not alone, he had you.

"Thank you Diluc, i see your efforts" you say smiling at him. "That must have been hard but your sacrifice has not been for naught, i now see the intensity your passion for me burns" Diluc nodded but refused to look up at you.

"How do you feel my dear?"

"Sore, a lingering kindle slowly eating at my chest."

"Come here." You instruct him and pull him into your lap where you were seated, no doubt his face in shock for being so close to you all of a sudden. You pull his head into the crook of your neck and shift his thick hair to the side, neared his ear and left him stunned by your word. With that Diluc swore himself, his life and every possesion to your name.

"Im proud of you, Diluc."

[etherslut]

oh 2 be as deranged as joseph seed

[andreai04]

“The worst part about knowing anyone is knowing only that tiny sliver available to you.”

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

bro I straight up never knew that Jonestown was an explicitly socialist Marxist cult

[saturnisfallingdown]

Man I'm a huge fan of this guy. anyone want to start a cult over him

[ID: Digital black and white art of Jasper from Lucids. He's sitting down and smiling, and small changes have been made to his design. These include his boots now having tall heels, a star patch on his jeans, and a pin on his jacket. Around his head are various doodles of space imagery such as planets and stars. He rests in front of a grayscale gradient rectangle. End ID]

[gamer2002]

I laughed my ass off.

[thetalamhclisteach]

In the back corners of the city of Drynyra therein lies all matter of folk bearing with them all matter of sensibilities, some perhaps more generally agreeable than others. While the culture and traditions of the land have grown a reverence for cult votives and deific idols there are still those who practice a more niche form of worship. Beyond even the select familial effigies there are those who have crafted strange figures of… ideals? Goals? Interests? The recesses of the city give a home to such… characters. Some go so far as to praise these crafts in the formalities that one would praise their great gods with offerings of candied delicacies, hive wax, preserved honey sugar juices, carcass remains and gifts of the flesh. Truly, a…

…

Never mind.

[salmonisforthebagel]

Thinking about how when Quinn kidnapped Jasper he took his pants for his disguise, but in the next scene they’re WEARING THE SAME PANTS

Quinn. Why are you Like This

[nkeshyy]

Can you make a bunny explode with the combined force of your eight eyes?

—Mona Awad, Bunny.

[girl-in-the-waves]

Big shocker I’m thinking about UTBOH again...

I’ve been thinking about Jeb and reading “Cultish” by Amanda Montell, and had some sort of epiphany about my feelings leaving the church. I remember growing up I would hear the church called a cult a lot, and all the mormons I would talk to about it had strong opinions. “Of course the church isn’t a cult!” usually followed by laughter, “You can leave whenever you want!”

Can you?

That’s when I started thinking about Jeb again (lets be honest when am I not). Andrew Garfield did a fantastic job with his faith crisis scene, but I could never put my finger on why I connected with it so much, why it meant so much to see it on screen. He shows why the “you can leave whenever you want” counterpoint feels so off: you can leave the church whenever you want, but it’s painful. You can see how painful it is for him in that car. His whole life is crumbling down around him, and that’s exactly what it feels like. Why would you leave when it would bring you so much pain? Everyone he loves would be impacted by his decision to leave the church. Everyone! That is huge crazy immense pressure! That’s not even considering the eternal complications if you’re making the wrong choice, if your doubts really are evil. My family converted when I was like 6 or something, and my biggest motivator in the church was making sure I could get into the celestial kingdom to be with my parents forever. Leaving the church not only meant my whole life was in vain, but if I was wrong, I would be cast out from my family for eternity. And my family was in it for a relatively short time! It’s always the bloodline mormons that say it’s not a cult, even though it would be hardest for them to leave. 

I think I often feel silly for still thinking about the church so much 3 years after I left, but seeing a faith crisis helps me put it back in perspective. So to any other ex-mormons perusing Tumblr: I’m proud of you. Whether you were born in the church or converted, you did a hard thing and I’m proud of you.

[chapterchapterbook]

When you find a gift card to Barnes and Noble, you make a trip to Barnes and Noble! Burnout and Oryx and Crake were purchased from Bookshop.org when I got some books for school. Listen. Do I have too many books on my physical TBR? Yes. Does that change the fact that my go to retail therapy is books? No. Am I going to put myself on a book buying ban until I can make some room on my shelves? Maybe.

[magnificentpaperfest]

"There's a companion tool to loaded language that can be found in every cultish leader's repertoire: It's called the thought-terminating cliché.

Coined in 1961 by the psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton, this term refers to catchphrases aimed at halting an argument from moving forward by discouraging critical thought. Ever since I learned of the concept, I now hear it everywhere-in political debates, in the hashtag wisdom that clogs my Instagram feed.

Cultish leaders often call on thought-terminating clichés, also known as semantic stop signs, to hastily dismiss dissent or rationalize flawed reasoning. In his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Lifton writes that with these stock sayings, "the most far- reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly selective, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. They become the start and finish of any ideological analysis." "

The language of fanaticism, Cultish by Amanda Montell

[the-average-procrastinator]

I was listening to the latest Cultish podcast episode on Burning Man, and one of the guest speakers said something that really just hit me. And I'm not even going to try and put it in my own words, but this is it:

“Do not place this burden of divinity on my shoulders because that is not what I am. . . . You know . . . I observed the language, especially some of the geopolitics around climate change, . . . and we’re always working to ‘save the planet, save the planet, save mother earth’. . . . Hold on. Who made you messiah? Why are we engaging in literally an alternative salvation message? And there’s a reason why, Gen Z, I believe, is one of the most anxious generations. Because they have been bombarded with this message, that the salvation of the planet is on your shoulders."

[kammartinez]

Throughout the world, cultural normativity still has so much to do with a religious group’s perceived legitimacy . . . no matter if its teachings are any weirder or more harmful than a better-established group. After all, what major spiritual leader doesn’t have some trace of blood on their hands? As the religion scholar Reza Aslan famously stated, “The biggest joke in religious studies is that cult + time = religion.”

from Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell

[hecho-a-mano]

if you see cultish behavior in your activist group, get the fuck out from there asap. It's not gonna end well for you otherwise.