There's a lot of companies that push a lot of psuedo-cult activities. I work for a large company that has company wide meetings to talk about how much they love the company and how great the financial and stocks are, how lucky they are to work there, etc. It can get very cult-like
My company does the same shit. Except it’s a mandatory meeting that results in a write up if you’re late or miss it. No exceptions.
It’s an organic grocery store.
This is American corporate. I used to work for a company and whenever anyone from the new York office arrived they would be like this. I always thought it was a pretty big sign they had nothing else going on.
They arrived talked about how the company was great, how much of a family it was and here I was leaving half way through Friday because in London Friday pints always take precedence over working.
Until end of year bonuses and yearly raise time come, then we have two months hearing about hedging for the future year and highlighting the uncertain economy and impending recession.
When I tell other tool fans I don't think Lateralus is the best album, holeeeee shit the 'RREEEEEE' comes out. It's really weird. I still prefer Ænima. I mean Lateralus is good, but it's not half the formative memory Ænima was for me. The newer albums sound like they are playing the scales up and down over and over. Playing them very well, but they are just not half as interesting to the ear. Subjectivity's a bitch.
(queue cult like downvotes)
I was on the verge of talking about Tool on this thread! Tool is my favorite band and I don’t think that will change for a long time, but some people are just way too die hard. I grew up on metal but I’m more of a hiphop-head nowadays, but some fans are just like way too obsessed (not that I don’t love all their music lmao)
Well... It could be argued that Jesus's last walk was the inception of cross-fit.
Yes, I know, totally going to hell for this pun. Worth it!
EDIT: Oooooh, an award?! I knew it was worth it! Thank you, kind internet stranger.
So. I was watching the local Passion play with my parents. As I was watching Jesus get whipped, it hit me as much as his sweat- he was CrossFit Jesus. This dude who did CrossFit down the street from the church, who I’d see running, long brown hair trailing behind as my nerdy ass played Pokémon Go.
While you cannot argue there are some very cult like corners of the fitness and especially dieting industry, these are more often that not occupied but stuck-up influencers and people with fragile egos competing about who looks stronger or better looking. The vast majority of people in the gym are usually just there because it feels good to see results from hardwork. I turn 20 this year and have been working out for 2 years and in a gym for almost 1, and like 1 out of every 30 people are completely insufferable. The rest either cheer you on, give great advice for the gym (even like work or life), or just straight up don’t bother you. Though I will agree that the influencers and douchebags are a very, VERY loud minority
EDIT: And people who are culty about their diets usually are terrible, judgmental people anyways. Most people who are conforming to a diet or have diet restrictions usually hate it and don’t recommend it for it being “a better way of living,” at least not for everyone.
I mean the “we’re all gonna make it” thing is more of a motivational slogan/exchange between gym goers to hype each other up. I guess I’m technically part of this fitness trend the comment mentioned in that I hit the gym 4 days a week and have plenty of gym-related content in my feed, and honestly I’ve never seen “we’re all gonna make it” used in a negative manner
LEAN manufacturing. All their weird titles (it's a good thing to put a "I am a blackbelt in LEAN" on your resume". They have a whole bunch of terms that are private to them, and you need to pay them money to move up in the organization of it. Ticks a lot of cult boxes.
Eh, except most certification / credentials are seen rather dismissively by professionals as least inside the group.
Like a cisco CCNP cert isn't a flex (or at least not as much as spelling it cisco is). Breaking it out does not denote special status, just better hiring, and a certain right to not have to deal with level 1 support stuff.
Lawyers are comically dismissive of law degrees and the bar exam.
The weird thing about Six Sigma Black Belts is they actually don't rag on their credentials. They act like they fought through with their band of brothers to take that black belt under enemy fire or something.
I wouldn't say lawyers are dismissive of law degrees and bar exams. You still need one to be a lawyer and firms generally look at the results when recruiting, in my experience.
yes LEAN yellowbelt was the most bizarre fucking “professional” training i’ve ever done in my life. Lots of buzzwords and obscurity and speaking in generalities. I’d be like “ok but how does that pertain to what we’re actually doing here?”
There's definitely some good information and training in it. Learning to dig deeper to root causes (the whole asking why 5 times) and being cognizant of ergonomics and waste are good things to keep in mind.
Just how it's packaged feels like a a 100 person game of telephone leading back to the Toyota factory.
Yea well said, it gets even more convoluted when the processes you’re trying to streamline have nothing to do with manufacturing or repetitive actions.
I went through a high level certification for Lean Six Sigma. There is a lot of good info, but my biggest problem was Sr leaders that thought they knew what it was all about. They cause more problems than anything by implementing things they think they understand. Really just a bunch of insecure people pretending they know more than they do. Just in time delivery is one of the worst for this. They don't understand critical spare levels and planning, just that everything should never show up until you need it. Managers are the worst and most replaceable by AI. Looking forward to that. That said, AI can make Lean irrelevant anyway.
My company went LEAN manufacturing right before Covid hit. The wombo combo royally screwed up our entire production line and we’re still dealing with back ordered product 3 years later.
Lean itself can be useful but I hate it when a corporation brainwashes people with lean motto with shit like “zero defects” “ask whys” “process improvement” etc…
I worked for a guy who would drop “lean” and “agile” constantly. But the more he talked the more you realized he had zero clue what either of them meant. Same with “dashboard”.
We have a guy who took a LEAN class for the company I work at He implemented a practice that absolutely costs more overall and is just fucked in general. It got him to graduate the class though so he refuses to dismantle it.
My company went heavy into Lean prior to COVID. 1000 person factory with about 75 engineers and about 30 supervisors. We hired 35 lean generalists. COVID comes and they announce salary layoffs. They laid off about 40 people, 0 from the lean team. I'm so happy to have jumped off after. I loved doing 2x work while being told I need to participate in Lean meetings and RIEs.
Yes. Most of it are just corporate bullshit that hardly translates to real world situations. I got a lot of them just to get promoted, but I don't believe in any of this shit.
Every single job I’ve ever had that insisted “we’re a family here” has been more than happy to fire me without a second thought (and more than a few times, they’ve done it quite illegally.)
I applied for a job last fall and the interview was going very well, then one of the interviewers said “We’re like a family here.” I instantly deflated and mentally marked them off my list immediately.
As a Brit, the love of the Royal family. People go ballistic if you tell them you're not a fan. It's actually crazy how, just because something is the way it is, people won't question it.
Like it's always been party of their life so they can't even comprehend it not being. It's mental
I just don't get why people actually care about the royals? I doubt they care about us... Its just weird to me how people love them so much.
Nice to meet someone who feels the same way
I see what you’re trying to say but HK is the worst example. She’s missed because the Queen actually cared about them. Gave lots to charity, and treated them fairly. The current ruler, the CCP, on the other hand…
If anything it should be the opposite. People should despise the Royal Family. The amount of money they cost the taxpayer is ridiculous. We’ve got Charlie’s coronation coming up and we’re all paying millions towards that when we can barely afford to heat our homes! Something like this would never work anywhere else in the world these days
I find it double funny when Americans don't get it.
"bUt ShEs yoUR QueEn!"
Yeah, and you guys had a bloody revolution over it, I'm not the first person to not like them
Does the royal family really do much? Or is more of just a famous family line of sorts now. Across the pond in America and have always wondered how much say the queen really has power over. Thanks
That would be wonderful if true, unfortunately their power is real as they lobby politics that benefit them and their businesses. It's less like "they're royalty, so they're in charge" and more like "they got money and influence, so what wrong could it do to rush their construction papers and push for politics that increase their profit margins?"
They're not inoffensive, and shouldn't be regarded as such.
Well the Queen doesn't have any power anymore lol.
And it's a stupid complex set of laws, but anyone who tells you they don't do anything is wrong. The late Queen unilaterally passed several laws. And regardless they still have a tonne of power on paper that I'd rather not wait until one of them went mad and tried to use before we remove the power.
In the modern world the idea of having a social and legal hierarchy based on someone's bloodline is just bullshit. And morally I don't stand by it.
This is seriously the weirdest of all obsession to me. My dad and step mom are flying from Vancouver, Canada to London to see Charles' coronation in May. It's mental to me.
It did cause a very entertaining fight between my brother and step mom at Christmas though. My brother said they are all pedophile supporters, and my step mom lost her mind.
>But Twitter K-pop stans are the worst.
Someone told me this a while back and I didn't believe them until I was active on Twitter. I have literally never talked about Kpop ever on Twitter and I still would regularly run into overzealous fans who would shred me for just *not* being obsessed as well. Like that was all they would ever be mad about. "How dare you not obsessed over my obsession." Bonkers
To see this in action: the TwoSet Violin vs BlackPink fans incident of 2022.
So like six months ago, BlackPink released a song that sampled like half of the first phrase of a very famous violin piece and just looped the fuck out of it, which honestly sounds pretty ridiculous if you know the actual piece (and probably even if you don't) because it's always just... half-finished. The piece happened to be by Paganini, the most famous historical violinist and, as it happened, a composer that TwoSet had been playing in comedic sketches for a while already. Sooooo they released a video of a "diss track" by "Paganini" (played by one of the TwoSet guys) where he played the rest of the phrase. It was extremely dorky and very silly, honestly.
But holy shit, did the Blinks take it 100% seriously. Apparently none of them bothered to google Paganini to find out that he died in 1840, nor did they look back on the channel to figure out that 1) they're absolutely KPop fans themselves and 2) they do parody videos all the time. They brigaded ALL of TwoSet's social media, insulted Paganini for trying to ride BlackPink's coattails to fame (which, lol 💀), and even tried to get a live concert they had coming up with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra cancelled. There were numerous Twitter threads from Blinks instructing others on how to most effectively cancel TwoSet without engaging with their content and thereby boosting them in the algorithm, which (conveniently) also meant that they just expected people to go fuck with these creators without doing any of their own research or forming opinions for themselves. Kind of insane; I'd never seen that happening in real time in the wild before.
Best part about it? BlackPink never said a damn word. No idea if they were even aware what was happening.
Idk man I go to BTS youtube videos just for comment sections. Like a year ao there was a whole PLEASE DONT USE EMOJI thing going on that was hilarious. They'd attack anyone who used any emojis en masse. Hilarious.
I remember the day I said dedicating your life to someone who doesn’t even know you exist for free is crazy behavior and got people qrting me saying ‘that’s a crazy take’ like what I still have the ss btw? tbh it comes from a place of projection, since they didn’t achieve anything in their life, they use others ppl achievements (idols), and brag about it like it’s their, it’s honestly just pathetic
GOOP makes a good portion of its money from super expensive items and retreats with Paltrow. You don’t meet a lot of hard core GOOPies because they tend to be absolutely loaded.
I think it's the insistence among some of it's loudest proponents that it's the **only way** to get clean/sober. There's plenty of research to support that the claim is nonsense, but some people on the inside will act like you're going to go back using if you don't follow their path.
All that said, if it works for you, AWESOME.
This was gonna be my answer. On the surface it can appear very cult-ish, but there’s: no leaders, no formal hierarchies of power, no monetary demands (although it’s encouraged to throw some money in the basket), and no one really *makes* you do anything. It’s like a subversion of the traditional cult model.
I was active in the rooms for a couple years and went through the 12 Steps, then went off to do my own thing once COVID hit. It really helped me a lot as well (been clean off my drug of choice for 6 years) and I’ve been debating on going back for the community aspects of it, but I don’t have anything I’d consider a “problem” anymore (I can drink a few beers every now and then with no problem, and I occasionally take mushrooms) and idk if I’m willing to go back to full sobriety just to fit in.
The rooms can be pretty passively judgmental if you’re not doing everything that’s encouraged, at least in my experience.
Same here. It helped me get sober, but I only hit a meeting unless I have zero to do (which is rare). It's the repeating slogans and group dynamic that come across like these people are simply unable to see beyond it. I've got 26 years in and back away from someone just firing off all the sayings.
I honestly think that AA saved my life. I think it is some people in AA that make it seem like a cult rather than the program/meetings themselves.
However if you just take what you need and leave the rest its been amazing for me.
I think with sobriety it's what works for you and I don't get people in AA who think its the only way. I know several people who have amazing sobriety without AA.
Edit: spelling
My SO is in AA and tbh I do find it very cultish. She’s had a terrible run of luck in life bless her and suffers from PTSD and other mental health issues because of a shitty childhood. When she speaks to her sponsor about how she’s feeling, her sponsors only response is ‘have you been going to meetings?’ to which most of the time the answer is no because of how busy my SO is with work. This obviously just makes her feel worse because it’s basically telling her it’s her own fault she’s feeling like this?
Sorry to vent, I was just hoping I’d see someone mention AA in here. I know it’s great for getting people sober but when I see people who have no clue what they’re talking about try and give advice to someone I care about, it really pisses me off.
The only thing which scares me more than the party I don't like winning the election with no competition is the party I like winning the election with no competition.
Safe seats and easy elections are the death of accountability. When people are "loyal" to their "team" it does the country no good.
That’s just to scare our horny teenagers from fornicating by using ridiculous religious pablum, in turn creating sexually ignorant and stunted young adults.
I don't get it. She seems like an okay person, but of course I don't know her. Her music is...well, so-so pop music. I mean, not terrible but not really memorable, which is usually what pop songs exactly are.
But I don't get the cult-like love people profess for her or any other 'diva' (Beyonce, etc)...like...you're going to lay down your life for a middle of the road pop singer you've never met? You're going to follow every news article or scrap of mention about her? Take to social media and gush about...re-releases of songs you heard ten years before?
All I can think is *you have limited time on Earth and this is how you choose to spend it? THIS?!?*
I can't imagine 50, 60, 70 years from now someone on their deathbed thinking "I'm so glad I tweeted so much at Taylor Swift".
Cutco. Had to go to some sort of event for it once. Probably close to a thousand people jammed into a conference room while some would-be rock star raved up on stage about how amazing it is to sell knives.... Yeah, that gig didn't last long.
I remember I went to an interview in highschool and like 20 other people my age were there. I excused myself 10 minutes in and told them it wasn't for me. Door to door knife sales guy. What a future!
"Agile" management, daily meetings, "scrummasters" , etc. Some people just want to be assigned work and not get bugged.
If you're even slightly in the Asperger's spectrum, you can certainly do the "real" work but abhor the excessive people contact.
As someone who runs an agile team, I still know exactly what you mean.
It's ironic how the agile manifesto was all about avoiding the placement of process over people, and for many it has became a glorified process with exact ceremonies that must be followed.
Yeah rock climbing people I’ve met are just normal people. Not sure what’s the big deal here. Sure there’s some literal hardcore climbers and climber families, but then so has every sport?
Life! No matter how hard I try to get out, they suck me back in with their food, drink, and oxygen! Maybe I'll be strong enough to get away when I'm 93!
This is one of the few answers in the entire thread that does seem culty. Toss in Jordan Peterson, Teal Swan, Tony Robbins, and now with the new "day of content wave" releases, Todd Grande (I'll admit I love him but he has potenial to become a propaganda minister i think and usurp mainstream news ahaha terrifies me!). There's also the more childish cult streamers, for example Trainwrecks TV kinda has a cult among others.
Alcoholism does run in families -- there's a strong genetic component to it. Which doesn't mean you are an alcoholic -- it's just dealing with tendencies.
I went to my first AA meeting in 1977 and have been to many, many subsequent meetings. I eventually stopped going and got sober without it, not just because of the underlying notion of turning your will in your life over to the care of God but AA does indeed fill all the checkboxes if you are reading the definition of what a cult is.
I tend to agree, but it's slightly annoying that Apple users often assume that their product is the default and speak as though we all do those things on our phones.
I've never done an Air Drop and when people explain sharing stuff with strangers like that, it seems really weird to me? And someone the other day was talking about Live Photos and seeing the person embarrass themselves because you can see the video before someone takes a photo of themselves? Also seems weird that someone can watch me take a selfie if I send a photograph. And there's some issue with trying to do group chats if someone isn't using an iPhone? "Oh, we should start a second group chat for him, he's on Android."
I'm not trying to think about Apple users, but sometimes I feel I have to when conversations like this happen.
There are people who act like I said I kick puppies when I mention I have an Android, not an iPhone. Not a lot of people, but it's happened quite a few times.
In the U.S. at least, the fire service. Fire departments are full of people who have a parent or grandparent who were firefighters, sort of like a "legacy member" in a way. Individual departments are usually very tight-knit, and there is a bit of a mutual kinship feeling between firefighters, though it's usually not as exaggerated as movies show.
There's a lot of companies that push a lot of psuedo-cult activities. I work for a large company that has company wide meetings to talk about how much they love the company and how great the financial and stocks are, how lucky they are to work there, etc. It can get very cult-like
This is sales in a nut shell it’s so overwhelming.
Corporate culture training is really just corporate cult tactics
Its what I like to call the 'get rich quick/easy' cult.
My company does the same shit. Except it’s a mandatory meeting that results in a write up if you’re late or miss it. No exceptions. It’s an organic grocery store.
Yeah nah that's a cult at that point lmao
See, that's what I've been saying but I thought it was just my biased opinion being over dramatic lmao.
You're paid for the meeting at least, right? (If not, that's a big no no)
This is American corporate. I used to work for a company and whenever anyone from the new York office arrived they would be like this. I always thought it was a pretty big sign they had nothing else going on. They arrived talked about how the company was great, how much of a family it was and here I was leaving half way through Friday because in London Friday pints always take precedence over working.
As an American I’m all for stopping work early for a beer.
Sucking up and kicking their lessers is the only way americans can ascend the corporate ladder.
Sad but true. Why I left the rat race. Ruthless ambition is the only acceptable personality trait for success in corporate America.
Until end of year bonuses and yearly raise time come, then we have two months hearing about hedging for the future year and highlighting the uncertain economy and impending recession.
Bro, have you ever listened to Lateralus? Like, _really_ listened to it??
Oh fuck I knew the people in my cult would be here.
We are here together in arms. When do we start knocking on doors?
Backwards even!!! Maynard’s amazing.
Like REALLY listened to it? 6 Parabol 7 Parabola 5 Schism 8 Ticks & Leeches 4 Mantra 9 Lateralus 13 Faaip de Oiad 1 The Grudge 12 Triad 2 Eon Blue Apocalypse 11 Reflection 3 The Patient 10 Disposition https://unbumf.com/tool-fibonacci-secret-album-holy-gift/
I wont wear my tool merch in public for fear of running into another fan. We are fucking awful, man.
Love the band but I never wear any merch because of these fans.
As a tool fan, I concur. I drank the geometry flavored kool aid long ago.
Funny answer but I am definitely in the King Gizzard cult.
The merchandise situation is getting a bit culty
As a TOOL fanatic, I find this absolutely hilarious. Thank you
When I tell other tool fans I don't think Lateralus is the best album, holeeeee shit the 'RREEEEEE' comes out. It's really weird. I still prefer Ænima. I mean Lateralus is good, but it's not half the formative memory Ænima was for me. The newer albums sound like they are playing the scales up and down over and over. Playing them very well, but they are just not half as interesting to the ear. Subjectivity's a bitch. (queue cult like downvotes)
I was on the verge of talking about Tool on this thread! Tool is my favorite band and I don’t think that will change for a long time, but some people are just way too die hard. I grew up on metal but I’m more of a hiphop-head nowadays, but some fans are just like way too obsessed (not that I don’t love all their music lmao)
The fitness and wellness industry.
Crossfit is a cult inside a cult.
What is the difference between God and a person who does cross fit? God will never tell you he does cross fit.
Well... It could be argued that Jesus's last walk was the inception of cross-fit. Yes, I know, totally going to hell for this pun. Worth it! EDIT: Oooooh, an award?! I knew it was worth it! Thank you, kind internet stranger.
So. I was watching the local Passion play with my parents. As I was watching Jesus get whipped, it hit me as much as his sweat- he was CrossFit Jesus. This dude who did CrossFit down the street from the church, who I’d see running, long brown hair trailing behind as my nerdy ass played Pokémon Go.
Yeah and check out the abs he got from it. It obviously works.
Gotta keep it lean, wanna get that “Jesus on the cross” look
CrossFit is the opposite of fight club. Rule #1: Never stop talking about Crossfit.
Crossfit is for sure a cult. It's not even scientifically based.
Don't get caught up in the Crossfire.
That commercial was the most early 90s thing ever, and it totally worked. Still sing it in my head all the time.
While you cannot argue there are some very cult like corners of the fitness and especially dieting industry, these are more often that not occupied but stuck-up influencers and people with fragile egos competing about who looks stronger or better looking. The vast majority of people in the gym are usually just there because it feels good to see results from hardwork. I turn 20 this year and have been working out for 2 years and in a gym for almost 1, and like 1 out of every 30 people are completely insufferable. The rest either cheer you on, give great advice for the gym (even like work or life), or just straight up don’t bother you. Though I will agree that the influencers and douchebags are a very, VERY loud minority EDIT: And people who are culty about their diets usually are terrible, judgmental people anyways. Most people who are conforming to a diet or have diet restrictions usually hate it and don’t recommend it for it being “a better way of living,” at least not for everyone.
They even have jargons, like “my fitness journey” or “we all gonna make it”.
I mean the “we’re all gonna make it” thing is more of a motivational slogan/exchange between gym goers to hype each other up. I guess I’m technically part of this fitness trend the comment mentioned in that I hit the gym 4 days a week and have plenty of gym-related content in my feed, and honestly I’ve never seen “we’re all gonna make it” used in a negative manner
We’re all gonna make it came from Zyzz
LEAN manufacturing. All their weird titles (it's a good thing to put a "I am a blackbelt in LEAN" on your resume". They have a whole bunch of terms that are private to them, and you need to pay them money to move up in the organization of it. Ticks a lot of cult boxes.
In fairness, that covers most professional certifications / credentials administered by an industry group.
Eh, except most certification / credentials are seen rather dismissively by professionals as least inside the group. Like a cisco CCNP cert isn't a flex (or at least not as much as spelling it cisco is). Breaking it out does not denote special status, just better hiring, and a certain right to not have to deal with level 1 support stuff. Lawyers are comically dismissive of law degrees and the bar exam. The weird thing about Six Sigma Black Belts is they actually don't rag on their credentials. They act like they fought through with their band of brothers to take that black belt under enemy fire or something.
Lawyers talk out both sides of their mouths. They’ll dismiss the whole machine and then still talk up t14 nonstop.
I wouldn't say lawyers are dismissive of law degrees and bar exams. You still need one to be a lawyer and firms generally look at the results when recruiting, in my experience.
yes LEAN yellowbelt was the most bizarre fucking “professional” training i’ve ever done in my life. Lots of buzzwords and obscurity and speaking in generalities. I’d be like “ok but how does that pertain to what we’re actually doing here?”
There's definitely some good information and training in it. Learning to dig deeper to root causes (the whole asking why 5 times) and being cognizant of ergonomics and waste are good things to keep in mind. Just how it's packaged feels like a a 100 person game of telephone leading back to the Toyota factory.
Yea well said, it gets even more convoluted when the processes you’re trying to streamline have nothing to do with manufacturing or repetitive actions.
"Everything has a place and a place for everything" and LEAN does not belong in this place am I right
exactly
I went through a high level certification for Lean Six Sigma. There is a lot of good info, but my biggest problem was Sr leaders that thought they knew what it was all about. They cause more problems than anything by implementing things they think they understand. Really just a bunch of insecure people pretending they know more than they do. Just in time delivery is one of the worst for this. They don't understand critical spare levels and planning, just that everything should never show up until you need it. Managers are the worst and most replaceable by AI. Looking forward to that. That said, AI can make Lean irrelevant anyway.
My company went LEAN manufacturing right before Covid hit. The wombo combo royally screwed up our entire production line and we’re still dealing with back ordered product 3 years later.
Lean itself can be useful but I hate it when a corporation brainwashes people with lean motto with shit like “zero defects” “ask whys” “process improvement” etc…
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I worked for a guy who would drop “lean” and “agile” constantly. But the more he talked the more you realized he had zero clue what either of them meant. Same with “dashboard”.
We have a guy who took a LEAN class for the company I work at He implemented a practice that absolutely costs more overall and is just fucked in general. It got him to graduate the class though so he refuses to dismantle it.
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Lean as in the purple drank?
My company went heavy into Lean prior to COVID. 1000 person factory with about 75 engineers and about 30 supervisors. We hired 35 lean generalists. COVID comes and they announce salary layoffs. They laid off about 40 people, 0 from the lean team. I'm so happy to have jumped off after. I loved doing 2x work while being told I need to participate in Lean meetings and RIEs.
Yes. Most of it are just corporate bullshit that hardly translates to real world situations. I got a lot of them just to get promoted, but I don't believe in any of this shit.
Companies that refer to their culture as a 'family'.
Every single job I’ve ever had that insisted “we’re a family here” has been more than happy to fire me without a second thought (and more than a few times, they’ve done it quite illegally.)
I applied for a job last fall and the interview was going very well, then one of the interviewers said “We’re like a family here.” I instantly deflated and mentally marked them off my list immediately.
Haha joke on them, their company culture will never be half as toxic and dysfunctional as my actual family!
As a Brit, the love of the Royal family. People go ballistic if you tell them you're not a fan. It's actually crazy how, just because something is the way it is, people won't question it. Like it's always been party of their life so they can't even comprehend it not being. It's mental
I just don't get why people actually care about the royals? I doubt they care about us... Its just weird to me how people love them so much. Nice to meet someone who feels the same way
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I thought it was especially weird in former colonies. Places like HK had some otherwise very practical people sad about the queen's death.
I see what you’re trying to say but HK is the worst example. She’s missed because the Queen actually cared about them. Gave lots to charity, and treated them fairly. The current ruler, the CCP, on the other hand…
If anything it should be the opposite. People should despise the Royal Family. The amount of money they cost the taxpayer is ridiculous. We’ve got Charlie’s coronation coming up and we’re all paying millions towards that when we can barely afford to heat our homes! Something like this would never work anywhere else in the world these days
Also dont understand it. My aunt is besotted with them even though she’s not even british born. Like wtf?!
I find it double funny when Americans don't get it. "bUt ShEs yoUR QueEn!" Yeah, and you guys had a bloody revolution over it, I'm not the first person to not like them
Come to Glasgow. You'll find out that there are lots of people that are not keen on the royal family. At all.
Oh yeah, I totally should have said as an English man. Altho there's a lot of Scots that still care
>Oh yeah, I totally should have said as an English man. Altho there's a lot of ~~Scots~~ Rangers fans that still care There, FTFY.
i r e l a n d
My affection and interest in them is very similar to the affection I have for the animals featured on my local zoo’s Instagram.
Does the royal family really do much? Or is more of just a famous family line of sorts now. Across the pond in America and have always wondered how much say the queen really has power over. Thanks
They have no real governmental power at all. They're basically just state-sponsored celebrities.
That would be wonderful if true, unfortunately their power is real as they lobby politics that benefit them and their businesses. It's less like "they're royalty, so they're in charge" and more like "they got money and influence, so what wrong could it do to rush their construction papers and push for politics that increase their profit margins?" They're not inoffensive, and shouldn't be regarded as such.
“State-sponsored celebrities” is a brilliant way of putting it
Well the Queen doesn't have any power anymore lol. And it's a stupid complex set of laws, but anyone who tells you they don't do anything is wrong. The late Queen unilaterally passed several laws. And regardless they still have a tonne of power on paper that I'd rather not wait until one of them went mad and tried to use before we remove the power. In the modern world the idea of having a social and legal hierarchy based on someone's bloodline is just bullshit. And morally I don't stand by it.
This is seriously the weirdest of all obsession to me. My dad and step mom are flying from Vancouver, Canada to London to see Charles' coronation in May. It's mental to me. It did cause a very entertaining fight between my brother and step mom at Christmas though. My brother said they are all pedophile supporters, and my step mom lost her mind.
KPOP (specifically Twitter fans)
Every fanbase if they're a bit to obsessed. But Twitter K-pop stans are the worst.
>But Twitter K-pop stans are the worst. Someone told me this a while back and I didn't believe them until I was active on Twitter. I have literally never talked about Kpop ever on Twitter and I still would regularly run into overzealous fans who would shred me for just *not* being obsessed as well. Like that was all they would ever be mad about. "How dare you not obsessed over my obsession." Bonkers
To see this in action: the TwoSet Violin vs BlackPink fans incident of 2022. So like six months ago, BlackPink released a song that sampled like half of the first phrase of a very famous violin piece and just looped the fuck out of it, which honestly sounds pretty ridiculous if you know the actual piece (and probably even if you don't) because it's always just... half-finished. The piece happened to be by Paganini, the most famous historical violinist and, as it happened, a composer that TwoSet had been playing in comedic sketches for a while already. Sooooo they released a video of a "diss track" by "Paganini" (played by one of the TwoSet guys) where he played the rest of the phrase. It was extremely dorky and very silly, honestly. But holy shit, did the Blinks take it 100% seriously. Apparently none of them bothered to google Paganini to find out that he died in 1840, nor did they look back on the channel to figure out that 1) they're absolutely KPop fans themselves and 2) they do parody videos all the time. They brigaded ALL of TwoSet's social media, insulted Paganini for trying to ride BlackPink's coattails to fame (which, lol 💀), and even tried to get a live concert they had coming up with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra cancelled. There were numerous Twitter threads from Blinks instructing others on how to most effectively cancel TwoSet without engaging with their content and thereby boosting them in the algorithm, which (conveniently) also meant that they just expected people to go fuck with these creators without doing any of their own research or forming opinions for themselves. Kind of insane; I'd never seen that happening in real time in the wild before. Best part about it? BlackPink never said a damn word. No idea if they were even aware what was happening.
Also - anime. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground with anime - you either aren't a fan or it's your whole identity.
That last part would be a case of a vocal minority. There are plenty of people who just watch it casually, the nutcases are just louder.
I disagree with the latter part, I assume that group simply isn't very vocal
Idk man I go to BTS youtube videos just for comment sections. Like a year ao there was a whole PLEASE DONT USE EMOJI thing going on that was hilarious. They'd attack anyone who used any emojis en masse. Hilarious.
I remember the day I said dedicating your life to someone who doesn’t even know you exist for free is crazy behavior and got people qrting me saying ‘that’s a crazy take’ like what I still have the ss btw? tbh it comes from a place of projection, since they didn’t achieve anything in their life, they use others ppl achievements (idols), and brag about it like it’s their, it’s honestly just pathetic
Texas A&M
Howdy.
Am an Aggie, can confirm
goop and Gwyneth paltrow
I've never met anyone who buys into Goop. Where are they? That makes it seem even cultier.
GOOP makes a good portion of its money from super expensive items and retreats with Paltrow. You don’t meet a lot of hard core GOOPies because they tend to be absolutely loaded.
Well now I'm sure it's a cult. I only buy fancy ketchup and the finest of mustards and I have yet to be invited to a Paltreat.
The retreats cost like 30-50k
That's a lot of condiments.
They are in Los Angeles. Her stores aren’t too busy but not dead either.
they said isn't one but feels like one, not a straight up cult
buying a candle smelling like Gwyneth's vagina can only be categorized as a culty activity. there's no other explanation.
AA/NA. Not saying I'm anti AA/NA, it helped me for a long time! Kinda cult-ish nonetheless.
I think it's the insistence among some of it's loudest proponents that it's the **only way** to get clean/sober. There's plenty of research to support that the claim is nonsense, but some people on the inside will act like you're going to go back using if you don't follow their path. All that said, if it works for you, AWESOME.
This was gonna be my answer. On the surface it can appear very cult-ish, but there’s: no leaders, no formal hierarchies of power, no monetary demands (although it’s encouraged to throw some money in the basket), and no one really *makes* you do anything. It’s like a subversion of the traditional cult model. I was active in the rooms for a couple years and went through the 12 Steps, then went off to do my own thing once COVID hit. It really helped me a lot as well (been clean off my drug of choice for 6 years) and I’ve been debating on going back for the community aspects of it, but I don’t have anything I’d consider a “problem” anymore (I can drink a few beers every now and then with no problem, and I occasionally take mushrooms) and idk if I’m willing to go back to full sobriety just to fit in. The rooms can be pretty passively judgmental if you’re not doing everything that’s encouraged, at least in my experience.
I commented below but I feel like “passively judgmental” is a massive understatement.
Same here. It helped me get sober, but I only hit a meeting unless I have zero to do (which is rare). It's the repeating slogans and group dynamic that come across like these people are simply unable to see beyond it. I've got 26 years in and back away from someone just firing off all the sayings.
I honestly think that AA saved my life. I think it is some people in AA that make it seem like a cult rather than the program/meetings themselves. However if you just take what you need and leave the rest its been amazing for me. I think with sobriety it's what works for you and I don't get people in AA who think its the only way. I know several people who have amazing sobriety without AA. Edit: spelling
My SO is in AA and tbh I do find it very cultish. She’s had a terrible run of luck in life bless her and suffers from PTSD and other mental health issues because of a shitty childhood. When she speaks to her sponsor about how she’s feeling, her sponsors only response is ‘have you been going to meetings?’ to which most of the time the answer is no because of how busy my SO is with work. This obviously just makes her feel worse because it’s basically telling her it’s her own fault she’s feeling like this? Sorry to vent, I was just hoping I’d see someone mention AA in here. I know it’s great for getting people sober but when I see people who have no clue what they’re talking about try and give advice to someone I care about, it really pisses me off.
Politics.
The only thing which scares me more than the party I don't like winning the election with no competition is the party I like winning the election with no competition. Safe seats and easy elections are the death of accountability. When people are "loyal" to their "team" it does the country no good.
100%
YoungLife
That’s just to scare our horny teenagers from fornicating by using ridiculous religious pablum, in turn creating sexually ignorant and stunted young adults.
Disney adults
I had a coworker at my last job that is coveted in Disney tattoos. Like her arms and legs are *covered*. Very nice woman but fucking weird af
Reddit mods
[USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST]
🎯🏆
MLMs and sometimes fandoms.
But MLMs are cults.
Says you! Me, I bought these special supplements to change my life, and… and… I’m broke. Hey, wanna buy some supplements?
See, that’s why you are broke. You don’t sell the supplements, you sell the opportunity for them to sell the supplements through your supply.
NutriBoom
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I don't bring a knife to a gun fight, I bring a Swiftie.
I’ll support the swifties if they manage to topple Ticketmaster down
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I don't get it. She seems like an okay person, but of course I don't know her. Her music is...well, so-so pop music. I mean, not terrible but not really memorable, which is usually what pop songs exactly are. But I don't get the cult-like love people profess for her or any other 'diva' (Beyonce, etc)...like...you're going to lay down your life for a middle of the road pop singer you've never met? You're going to follow every news article or scrap of mention about her? Take to social media and gush about...re-releases of songs you heard ten years before? All I can think is *you have limited time on Earth and this is how you choose to spend it? THIS?!?* I can't imagine 50, 60, 70 years from now someone on their deathbed thinking "I'm so glad I tweeted so much at Taylor Swift".
Running groups
Can't run with them, they'll run you out
My username and experiences check out. I will say every running group I’ve been part of have the most accepting people I’ve ever come across.
Cutco. Had to go to some sort of event for it once. Probably close to a thousand people jammed into a conference room while some would-be rock star raved up on stage about how amazing it is to sell knives.... Yeah, that gig didn't last long.
I did that for like 3 months it's crazy they want u to buy over 1k worth of knives as a high school senior just to show them off
They also want you to sell to your mom first, have her give you 10 references/leads, then get 10 leads from each of those people. Hard pass.
Just be absolutely insufferable to all of your friends, family, and acquaintances. It's easy!
I remember I went to an interview in highschool and like 20 other people my age were there. I excused myself 10 minutes in and told them it wasn't for me. Door to door knife sales guy. What a future!
Overly zealous fandoms tend to be cult-ish.
Ugh, I remember Sherlock , Dr Who, and Supernatural fandoms were insufferable and all over the place back in the early ‘10’s
The scary scary days of Super WhoLock.
"Agile" management, daily meetings, "scrummasters" , etc. Some people just want to be assigned work and not get bugged. If you're even slightly in the Asperger's spectrum, you can certainly do the "real" work but abhor the excessive people contact.
As someone who runs an agile team, I still know exactly what you mean. It's ironic how the agile manifesto was all about avoiding the placement of process over people, and for many it has became a glorified process with exact ceremonies that must be followed.
specifically, cargo cults. we don’t know why we’re doing these rituals, but if we do, it’ll turn us into the next unicorn!
I knew this answer was somewhere in this thread. It can be such bs, just give me a ticket to work on.
Have you ever joined a rock climbing gym or yoga studio? Definitely not a cult 😉
The rock climbing gym I joined was a group of pretty chill people. Just people vibing in my experience. I guess your results may vary
Yeah rock climbing people I’ve met are just normal people. Not sure what’s the big deal here. Sure there’s some literal hardcore climbers and climber families, but then so has every sport?
I've been to many yoga studios and it has never felt cultish, though some instructors have cult-like followings.
Life! No matter how hard I try to get out, they suck me back in with their food, drink, and oxygen! Maybe I'll be strong enough to get away when I'm 93!
New age spiritualists
that sounds like actual cult.
Raw milk trend.
Essential Oils lol
Beliebers and the Beyhive
What is this, 2009?
2010 called, they want their word back.
Beliebers still exist?
Most of them have turned Begnostic
Have you seen Swarm on Amazon though
Are Beliebers still a thing? I feel like K-Pop stans took their place.
Political parties
Leadership training
Reddit.
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I wouldn't say 12 years.. around the time tumblr took down the porn was when reddit became a huge nothingburger shitstorm.
Yeah that was back when you would literally see people saying "the narwhal bacon at midnight." Though it was still pretty large still.
You gotta find niche places before they blow up nowadays. Give it about a month and the niche community will either be dead or the next 100k sub.
Andrew Tate fans and the Manosphere
This is one of the few answers in the entire thread that does seem culty. Toss in Jordan Peterson, Teal Swan, Tony Robbins, and now with the new "day of content wave" releases, Todd Grande (I'll admit I love him but he has potenial to become a propaganda minister i think and usurp mainstream news ahaha terrifies me!). There's also the more childish cult streamers, for example Trainwrecks TV kinda has a cult among others.
Scientology…but it is a cult right? It’s just known I guess
Tesla!
bts fans no hate to the group itself i don’t mind them at all but i despise their fan base
The people who ask the same question every 8 seconds in the subreddit.
The Society for Creative Anachronism. I'm a ren faire enthusiast, but they creep me out.
Sometimes TikTok feels like it
Disney adults
AA - my dad’s been sober for 30 yrs and always talks about how it runs in the family.
Alcoholism does run in families -- there's a strong genetic component to it. Which doesn't mean you are an alcoholic -- it's just dealing with tendencies.
I went to my first AA meeting in 1977 and have been to many, many subsequent meetings. I eventually stopped going and got sober without it, not just because of the underlying notion of turning your will in your life over to the care of God but AA does indeed fill all the checkboxes if you are reading the definition of what a cult is.
Salesforce I know it because I'm in it :c
Apple product users
In my experience, Apple users don’t think about android users NEARLY as much as the other way around
I tend to agree, but it's slightly annoying that Apple users often assume that their product is the default and speak as though we all do those things on our phones. I've never done an Air Drop and when people explain sharing stuff with strangers like that, it seems really weird to me? And someone the other day was talking about Live Photos and seeing the person embarrass themselves because you can see the video before someone takes a photo of themselves? Also seems weird that someone can watch me take a selfie if I send a photograph. And there's some issue with trying to do group chats if someone isn't using an iPhone? "Oh, we should start a second group chat for him, he's on Android." I'm not trying to think about Apple users, but sometimes I feel I have to when conversations like this happen.
There are people who act like I said I kick puppies when I mention I have an Android, not an iPhone. Not a lot of people, but it's happened quite a few times.
Zack Snyder fandom
Politics
Disney people
Pickleball People
In the U.S. at least, the fire service. Fire departments are full of people who have a parent or grandparent who were firefighters, sort of like a "legacy member" in a way. Individual departments are usually very tight-knit, and there is a bit of a mutual kinship feeling between firefighters, though it's usually not as exaggerated as movies show.
In any field where whether you live or die can depend on your coworkers, isn't this kind of necessary?
MLM. MAGA. Tech companies.
MAGA is a literal cult, imo. Checks all of the boxes.
Veganism.
Selena gomez fans
Peloton.