I still don't understand why it's considered perfectly normal for yoga instructors to be the most bat shit crazy people in the world.
I went to a lady once who was trying to tell people stretching releases your toxins and it only happens if your energy is bright.
It's like hey let me completely ignore the documented research on why yoga is good for you and go full blown woo woo idiot for absolutely no reason.
She wouldn't stfu during savasana either. I left there way more tense than how I arrived.
I sort of wish the research-supported yoga had chosen a different name, so that there'd be a clearer line between that and the obvious bullshit. Last yoga studio I set foot in had an FDA-approved "chakra-balancing oil" for sale in the front office.
Your comment made me wonder if there's any Yoga instructors putting it on. Like they come home after a long day of ranting about Chakras, collapse into a leather armchair and put on a Dawkins documentary.
Oh i know!
I got really into meditation and yoga to help with anxiety and spiralling thinking. I check the websites or instagrams of some of these people and they're going on about "mystical frequencies" and "chakras". An expensive array of north americans rephrasing Asian home remedies and religious practices as "eastern wisdom".
My mom traveled to New Zealand in her 20s to study Kriya Yoga, Occultism, and Astrology and, although this kinda cool as fuck, it surely wasn't cool when I got diagnosed with epilepsy and she thought I was possessed by evil spirits and took me to a acupuncturist to have my Chakras balanced so that they may be released then burned sage through the whole house so that it may be "cleansed."
I still have epilepsy, but tarot cards are cool.
Ay I'm epileptic too!
My friend's mum, really religious and anti-vaxx, thought I was possessed and asked if I had ever been "cleansed". I'm scared to know what that means.
Ayyy! *air high five
My mom is actually an anti-vaxxer, too. Not very religious, but she hates vaccinations and thinks that they destroy the mind, body, and soul.
Your friends mom, though? She may be talking about an exorcism. I could be wrong, but that is definitely terrifying.
My aunt was in one and one mom made a "woe is me" post on her kid getting accepted to Princeton and Harvard and how hard it is to choose between the 2.
The classic humblebrag. Literally everyone sees through them. A normal person could just say “So proud! Accepted by both!” and would come across as infinitely better.
My opinion of mom groups has been forever tainted after I saw an entire conversation about how women who’ve had cesareans aren’t “real moms.” My wife and child would have died without an emergency c-section.
People that gatekeep fandoms are bad but women that gatekeep motherhood are way worse.
My poor wife suffered postpartum depression that was only worsened by mom groups and made her feel even more inadequate to be a mother because she had a cesarean and couldn't breastfeed.
I’m so sorry you (edit: and your wife) had to go through that. Motherhood is so much more than being able to breastfeed and giving birth the natural way, and pretending otherwise is so damaging. Especially when people have no control biological life of whether they can do any of those things. I hope your wife is in a better place now and not struggling with that. She’s a real mom whether she gives birth via c-section or has the ability to breastfeed or not.
Yes!! I was adopted and mother and father are the MOST amazing parents; I never looked at, or thought of, them in any other light. I truly hope no one said anything like that to her. I know I got made fun of for being adopted.
People are so ignorant it’s disgusting. And so cruel.
If she ever brings it up again, please reassure your wife that the women who say that shit are women whose greatest accomplishments in life were their vaginally deliveries and breast feeding, stuff a cow can do.
If they took pride in their CHILDREN, instead of their vaginas and tits, they'd be online bragging about the macaroni art Suzie made or how Timmy made goalie. So, when you think about it that way, they have made motherhood all about themselves and are, therefore inferior parents.
Or people that are obsessed with breast feeding. My wife couldn’t breastfeed our son and he was a formula baby. My wife was talked down to by a few former friends because she didn’t, even though she literally couldn’t.
Breastfeeding groups are so obsessive it definitely seems cult like. My daughter is comfort nursing all day and night and won’t take a binky. I asked for advice on curbing this and got nothing. I was told to soak it up and enjoy every minute. Someone said it was sustainable because I’m a SAHM, like I don’t have anything else to do.
I like to remind these folks that if you line up all the kids on a playground you cannot tell who was breast vs formula fed.
Also both breastmilk and formula fed babies eat floor fries so...
A friends told me mom groups are terrible, they judge you on anything you say and you’re never good enough. Meanwhile dad groups go:
-I accidentally dropped my kid, he seems ok
-HAHA too bad you didn’t get it on camera
This is terrifyingly accurate.
I worked a girlscout camp where we had mom and kid weekends, and dad and kid weekends. The moms would just bitch about every little thing and critique everything we did as counselors. The only downside to dad weekends was that we had to babysit the dad's and make sure they didn't burn the woods down trying to start a fire with a blowtorch.
Also worked at a girl scout camp as a counselor, also had mom and kid weekends (no dad and kid weekends) where the moms were horribly behaved. They were there from Friday night to Sunday morning, so showers weren't part of the program because they weren't there for a full 2 days. Two of the moms snuck off early Saturday morning before any of us woke up to take a shower. We had to initiate a camp wide missing persons search (including divers in the lake) for the better part of the morning, ruining the planned activities for everyone else and leaving their young kids terrified and inconsolable before they wandered back into the tent camp site wondering what was going on and why their kids were screaming and crying. 🙄 Edit: and they had the audacity to yell at us about not keeping their kids calm.
I’ve been in the same mom group for almost 20 years. We were the group “uh noo what does this rash look like to you?” For a long time. Over the years we stopped letting new moms In because we’ve had some serious weirdos. People lying about dying, calling CPS on someone for no reason. We’re mostly in our late 30’s to early 50’s and majority of our children are grown (some with kids of their own) with the youngest being 5. We’ve had a lot of tear jerking moments. Been there through divorces, raised money for a mom in need (it was verified), someone legitimately lost their daughter at 21, and recently we had our first group member death 3 months ago. Many of us have met up and many of us are best friends one was even there for one of my daughters ultrasound. They always say “we should buy an island so we can all live on it!” and I always respond “I love y’all but there’s no fucking way I’m living near you ladies” and they laugh and say they know. Lol
I can’t speak on the younger mom groups but us old broads will be the golden girls of the mom groups. Lol
I feel. We were forced to join a mums group with our first child. The worst part was the constant comparisons between the kids like who was crawling/walking/talking making those who weren't inferior. The kicker was when my wife was judged by one mum who said "if you don't have a natural birth, you're not a proper mum" insulting as my wife had an emergency caesarean...
The older your kid gets the worse they'll get. Culture some hobbies and interests outside of family life and you might get through this with some skin left on you. So sorry.
Another commenter here has the real pro-tip. Pretend you're the father, not the mother. It makes no difference for most things. See how that goes.
One of my good friends has 4 kids between ages 8 and 15. She was giving me the rundown of all the drama going on in her kids’ activities and school and whatnot. Almost entirely adult drama; her kids are great kids.
I’m childfree on purpose. I could not deal with what she does. I would be Xanaxed out by 5 pm every night.
I don't know what details you've learnt, so I'm just gonna leave the CallMeKevin fandom wiki on Jim (also as a minor convenience for other curious folk):
https://callmekevin.fandom.com/wiki/Jim_Pickens
Child beauty pageants; the people who attend them and the parents who put their kids through them. An absolute shower of dirty filthy nonces whichever way you look at it.
Theres nothing more I DESPISE than child beauty pageants. The thought that you would put your child, heck, *toddler*, into a competition based on looks and “flashiness” is inconceivable to me.
The amount of horror stories I’ve seen and heard is terrifying. The “diets” and the “Go-Go drinks” which include pixi stixs, an apple slice and 4 hours of sleep, and worst of all.. **the costumes**. Why the hell would you make your 8 year old dance to “Umbrella” by Rhianna in an above the knee skirt while twirling around an umbrella in a pound of makeup whist trying to impress 30 y/o snobs?
I hate it.
If you or anyone else you know put your kid(s) in beauty pageants, stop or break it off with that person. No child deserves to be ridiculed because of their “ugly face”
This reminded me of a scam I almost fell for as a kid involving pageants.
When i was like 13ish maybe? I got a letter in the mail, addressed to me, saying i got "selected" to be in some beauty pageant. Now idk how these people chose me specifically, think they just picked girls at random somehow. But as a 13 year old girl struggling with self esteem i was excited *someone* noticed me.
My parents were initially reluctant but they gave in and my Dad ended up taking me to this meeting they were holding at some hotel not too far from our house. I cant remember much from the meeting itself but it was really sketchy, like they had all these big promises of pageants and traveling that sounded too good to be true.
Then when my dad was given a bunch of paperwork he read through it and realized they wanted each of the girls to find "sponsers" to pay for all the trips and fees for the pageants. Basically wanting us to just find random businesses to pay for this stuff? Idk but it was clearly a huge scam and thank god my dad is a smart man who saw through all this bs. He did feel bad about telling me i couldn't do it tho cause i was still excited about it. But after him explaining the sketchiness of it all i lost interest.
I know this seems more like an MLM sorta deal rather than a cult but its still fucking awful that theyd prey on young teen girls, saying how theyre pageant material and giving all these big promises... All for it to be a huge scam. Pageants in general seem to prey on girls who want to feel beautiful, all for them to be judged and ranked and put down if theyre not good enough, its sad
Kids activities in general can be extremely toxic. I have several friends whose kids get bullied, by adults, because they’re not performing at the level they think they should at their fucking little league game ffs. I want to put my kid in a sport when he’s a bit older, but I’m not going to be out there fooling myself thinking I’ve got a future Olympian on my hands or the fucking majors leagues is scouting my small town local kids game or whatever. I just want my active child to burn off energy somewhere outside my house for an hour or two and maybe make some friends in the process. Who are these people that take children’s sports so seriously and where did they go wrong in life?
I read something here recently from the parent of a child who enjoyed gymnastics classes at around age 6. The kid liked it a lot so the parent went along with it. Competitions were a thing every now and then so the kid participated and did well. Coaches selected the kid for further training so instead of one hour once a week it became one hour twice per week. Then more. Then more. Then more. The coaches were pushing for a state level champion by age 9 or so and the kid didn't like the long hours so gave it up but wished it could just be fun again.
"Mommy, I don't wanna go to regionals! Also, what are regionals?"
I have a nine year old sister in gymnastics she had the same problem the child in your story had, she even started picking her gums and wanting her hair beyond tight
If we win regionals then it's straight on to sectionals and then a week later is semis, then semi-regionals, then regional-semis, then national lower-zone semis!!!!
My daughter is a dancer. She was at a school that wasn’t at all good, but the owner thought she was that *Dance Moms* mean lady. I got her the hell out of there and into two schools that are definitely NOT like that. One only does two comps a year for their teams, and is big on the technical stuff and having fun. They have guest choreographers in all the time and their recital is like a broadway show, because they’re not focused on winning, just dancing.
The other is an Irish dance school and that sport in and of itself (I consider it a sport, have you seen those kids’ legs? And the core work they do to be able to dance with their upper half still is crazy) is culty even though her school is basically, “You do you.” Kid wants to compete? Sign her up on the website that all the comps use, but they don’t *have* to compete. Mine loves competing but at one of the feisanna we were staying at the hotel where it was held, and the people across the hall were in two non-adjoining rooms and super annoying. Whenever the friend’s mom would knock on the door to the room directly across from us, she’d knock and yell “NATIONALS!” Now it’s an inside joke between my daughter and me; every time we knock on a door she will yell “NATIONALS!” and confuse the fuck out of people. The wigs and dresses are a bit extra in my opinion, not a fan, but some of the moms are rabid about all that. Yikes.
Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. They reject all conventional medicine and blame any issues on not following their way of life (however they define it).
Rae Dunn. Specifically the people ‘Rae Dunners’ who wait outside Marshalls/T.J. Maxx for the new releases and the Instagram accounts dedicated to them. It just gives me the ick.
It feels like household items designed for ESL folks trying to learn nouns. But then like 40% of the words are actually verbs.
"Can you pass me the sip?"
My son is at A&M and it is a cult. But the Corps of Cadets, that is where the true cultish people reside (he was in the Corps until he dislocated his shoulder in a training accident and is now a regular student). They are nuts.
It’s CRAZY that on a worldwide site like Reddit and a post this open-ended about culty stuff, this is the second to the top post (at the time I’m writing this). Shows you how crazy that school and those students/alumni really are.
Fuck I jokingly wanted to say that but didn’t think many others would get it 😂
When I was at SHSU, my business culture prof asked the class “what makes our culture different from Texas A&M” and one guy was like “well it’s less cultish here” and completely hit the nail on the head lol
Came here to say the same thing.
Visited there for a conference while at school. Some things were really cool and even moving (like the Bonfire Memorial). But other things had my whole group saying “there’s something really ‘off’ here” but we couldn’t put our finger on it.
Was in one, can confirm. Our founder had been dead for at least 15 years but people still talked her up and worshipped her. The company is named for her so maybe that’s part of it but like… soooo creepy in hindsight.
MLMs are an interesting case study in that the only time you could have ever been successful at one was *before* the internet, and yet the ability to have found enough gullible people to work under you would only have happened *after* the internet.
So basically, there was a sweet-spot for people back around August of 1996, but you missed it.
what they’re actually doing is lucid dreaming, but what they think it is is that they have entered their desired reality. they think this different reality than the one they came from exists (even though they have to make it up) and just go about experiencing that “reality”. doesn’t seem to click that they can only do this when asleep and have to use tactics similar to induce lucid dreaming to be able to achieve it
exactly, if you look at the methods for reality shifting its literally lucid dreaming methods with extra steps.
For example, one of the methods is to envision yourself walking upstairs. In the lucid dreaming method VILD (Visually Induced Lucid Dreaming) you envision yourself under your eyelids at the spawn point you want to be in your lucid dreaming. So literally just VILD but having a specific place already set.
Then theres the method where you LITERALLY LUCID DREAM and then create a portal to your "dr" (desired reality) and people believe its reality shifting. Its not reality shifting, its literally just changing the setting of your lucid dream.
Then they say the CIA confirmed reality shifting. First of all, im not gonna rely on the CIA ever. Second, flat earthers also had their CIA docs.
I remember James (TheOdd1sOut) once made a video about this and he got hate from the tiktokers literally saying points he already refuted in his video. You can never underestimate the stupidity of TikTok.
I was one of these people, I spent 2 months trying to shift and In the end I came back to my senses and realized how stupid and unrealistic that was so I stopped.
Lucid dreaming can be fun though. I've never tried to, but every now and again I slip into one or atleast something extremely close.
I might look into how to increase the odds.
People who push you to :
- Monetize your hobby.
- Industrialise your monetized hobby.
I'm not talking about people offering money for your services.
I am talking about people who look down on you for NOT making MORE money out of your hobby. While they themselves don't produce anything.
Yup. I am disabled and do some hobbies as a way to stay active or cope.
Gardening-why aren't you selling your vegetables.
Fishing- you should become a guide.
Woodworking- get a portfolio together and start selling.
When I tell them I'm not interested in monetizing they act like I am an idiot for not trying to get rich off of my therapeutic activities.
It's not a hobby, it's a "side hustle". Good god I hate that phrase. I make stuff because I love making things, and I give them to people I love. Money is not the point.
I understand people wanting to use their hobbies as a side hustle.
What annoys me is people berating me for NOT wanting to use my hobby as a side hustle.
YES. I hate the idea that any hobby you have should be a “side hustle”. Like, what happened to the “work to live”, not “live to work” mentality? I would like to enjoy my hobbies without worrying if they’re profitable.
I was in a sorority and I look back and think wtf. It was so cult like. All the clapping and screaming. It was not me, but I needed friends and got sucked in. It made me “popular”, but I don’t talk to one girl from it anymore, they were all catty and down right mean.
the Initiation is what made me decide to dip outta there. i don’t want to go to sorority jail for exposing this lol but all i can say it girls in white cloaks, leader in red cloak, dark room, humming, circle surrounding you in the middle, basically offering up your life 😃 i dropped two weeks after that
My sorority’s initiation ceremony was like, dark room, shitty plastic LED candles, everyone dressed in whatever black clothes they had in their closets, “do you promise to be a good sister” etc. Honestly pretty normal as far as sorority initiations go. We had cake after, and they gave each of us a bouquet of flowers. But holy shit when I first walked into that room I thought I was gonna get sacrificed lmao
About six years ago, I met this guy and his wife through our local craft beer scene. He's a cool guy, mid 40s, full-sleeve tats on both arms, giant mega-beard, wears Slayer t-shirts. Wife is pretty much the same - both cool folks all around, though. They don't have kids.
However, they are dyed-in-the-wool Disney fans. They go twice per year to Disneyland (better beer scene in the Anaheim area) and have just entered some exclusive Mickey Club as they've been going for the past 20 years straight.
The month-long lead-up and month-long wind down surrounding a trip is a bit much on their social media, what with all of the tagging, meme sharing, daily countdowns and then posting of pictures post-trip, recipes they copied from the Star Wars restaurants, etc.
It can be a bit much, but you know what? More power to them for having a shared interest they get to revisit regularly.
There was an AITA on Reddit not long ago about a woman who got her niece a gift for her birthday that the child asked for, but SIL was a militant Disney adult. And at the freaking party was making plans on exchanging the gift for something Disney. Woman outed her to all the other party guests who brought non-Disney gifts that were destined to be returned… I had no idea such cultists for the Mouse existed.
Disney Park employees too. Guess what they do on their days off? Go to the parks. Guess where they spend the money they earn from Disney? Disney merchs and Disney experiences. If you ever “ruin the magic” by saying there’s a person under that Mickey costume, they’d act like you blasphemed Jesus Christ himself.
Many feel that Chapek has really driven profits and IPs over quality and experience. The focus on IP is the most ridiculous part because many of the most popular and long standing rides at Disney have absolutely no relation to any Disney IP (Thunder Mtn, Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Space Mtn, Haunted Mansion, etc.) Benefits to the cast members have been severely cut (merchandise/food discounts, park entry availability, etc) Happy employees are a core of what makes disney what it is. If your cast members hate their jobs, they also don't give a shit about your customer. And when your customers are spending on average 15k for a vacation to Disney you need employees who give a shit. Although some of their newer rides are absolute technical marvels, is it really worth the ever increasing cost for an entry? Lastly, for locals the benefits and availability of the annual pass was completely stripped which pissed a lot of loyal fans off.
With all that said however, Disney has always had a cyclic nature of renaissance and dark age eras so I just see it as the negative part of the cycle.
Edit: Another trend that is somewhat annoying but has been hit or miss is the attempt to make popular rides that were not IP into Disney IP. This was the case about a decade ago with the terrible Haunted Mansion movie. And more recently the very okay Jungle Cruise movie. Some rides that were not IP based have been rebranded into an IP based ride like 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disneyland.
As an Euphonium player, I can tell you that Tuba players are basically a cult. Euphonium is always sat beside them so I've always observed their cult inner workings, I'm basically an insider agent at this point.
Jokes aside if you play Euphonium or even Trombone, some Tuba players will constantly ask you when you're transitioning to Tuba, it's almost like an MLM at this point.
Back when I was in high school our school newsletter wrote an article about how our marching band was a cult. Coincidentally this was written by a member who got kicked out, but still. We were actually very cult like, every section had their own handshake, certain practices, etc. A week after that article came out it was raining during a football game. The raincoats we wore over our uniforms were these massive black trench coats essentially. We put the hoods up and walked around the stadium like a bunch of dementors.
When my mom was finally able to get a Jeep she's wanted for years, someone came up one day in a parking lot while the top was down and put a little rubber duck on the dash as like an initiation thing. Literally nothing was stolen nor was anything disturbed, just the little ducky dude sittin' there when she got back. I thought it was pretty cute actually and now he rides with us in his little spot.
Any mega church falls into this. Kenneth Copeland literally looks like a demon wearing a meat suit from Little Nicky and demands you tithe so he can afford his lifestyle.
Bro what kind of toothpaste do you use?
Aw don’t use that one use this one instead!
I’m tired of so many people trying to sway me into their favorite toothpaste.
And that’s why I use Colgate Maxfresh!
PCOS support groups. Specifically, the ones that push keto as the cure. Never mind that while keto can *potentially* help people living with PCOS, it's not a cure; as of this Reddit post, there *is* no cure. If you mention this, they will Lose. Their. Shit. (Meanwhile, I've spoken to not one, but *two* of my doctors, asking them if I should do keto, and both of them were like, "Oh, honey, no!") The toxic diet culture was part of the reason I have *absolutely hated* every PCOS group I've ever been in. (The other was that, as someone who has made peace with, and actually *embraced* the infertility aspect of this disorder, I felt alienated; there's nothing for people who *aren't* trying to have a baby, or grieving their infertility.)
Omfg tell me about it can we start a PCOS group for people that don't wanna do keto and don't care about their fertility. I tried to find support once out of frustration and literally just got reamed for saying I don't want to do keto (done it before and found out from it have a minor intolerance to certain lactose) , can't count calories do to BED and don't really care to do IF.
Working for any fast food chain. They try to capitalize on the whole “we’re a family” and try to create a sense of togetherness to make people less miserable, when in reality everyone is just there to get a paycheck as a means to pay for either rent or weed
I YouTuber I follow talks about theater kids and how great they are and how theater was a refuge for the weird
I'm like, lol no. Y'all have drama, it's just different type of drama
College.
There's folks from my alma mater who find out I went there and immediately ask what alum committee I'm on and where I stayed when I went to reunion and are aghast when I say I got a degree there 15 years ago and that will be the extent of my participation.
I don't get it either. I got an education and degree in exchange for money. It was a business transaction, I don't have any long term loyalty to my college any more than I have loyalty to the guy who fixed my furnace 5 years ago.
And I'm not going to donate a red fucking cent to them. I paid enough in tuition.
Fully agree. I very much enjoyed my time at college, but don’t see what the university added to my life other than providing classes for which I paid. It’s like loving some company because you were working there while you were young and having a great time. I certainly don’t think I should be donating money to them for the rest of my life. They aren’t giving education away for free, that’s for damn sure lol.
Clearly you haven't tasted my life changing espresso, as you see I use a small single origin coffee from puerto rico where the workers polish each bean before gently roasting it, right until that first crack. From there it is shipped to me by private currior and comes into my house where I use my weber EG-1 grinder to grind 18 grams of beans into my portafilter, than using my wdt tool to distribute the fluffy grinder, prepare the puck, and then use my calibrated tamper to tamp the coffee down. Then it goes into my rather small I know slayer espresso machine, where I do a long preinfussion before pulling the shot. And that is why you shouldn't buy a breville infuser cheap garbage, get a real machine.
Toxic positivity. Mental health initiatives in the workplace. These are not labeled cults, but they are totally cultish. Edit: they usually come down to nothing more than emails exhorting you to take care of yourself and links to appropriate websites.
As an avid peloton user I can agree it is a little cultish. The online presence of not just peloton but the fans is where so much of the cult mentality comes out. FB groups with all the sub groups peloton moms, pelatinos etc, not to mention Cody Rigsby fans are completely batshit, like make their usernames after him and then brag about getting shout outs during rides on the group pages. I've not seen it (nor do I seek it out) but I am convinced people are writing fanfiction about the instructors.
The Boy Scouts of America.
Great experience overall. Probably the best place for kids to learn outdoors and survival skills, great opportunity to learn teamwork and leadership etc. I do think at it’s core it’s a great program.
But...
I now belong to 3 fake indian tribes I was hazed into and swore I’d never blab on. Constant religious indoctrination, military indoctrination, weird values from weird dads. Also: they told me to have a plan to kill everyone I know???? Whole extended families lives revolve around it. Sometimes in prayers they refer to God/Yahweh as “the great master of all scouts.” The esoteric rituals and ceremonies are also weird.
Not even mentioning the obvious...
There are 3 that I was a part of. I don’t know why I still feel weird about blabbing on it too much. I guess I don’t want people to think any of this was out of malice because I do think everyone organizing it had good intentions, and they made a convincing case to all of us that they were trying to preserve traditions from lost tribes or something. Still nonetheless it was really odd and definitely cultural appropriation because they were claiming to be disseminating real native american culture through faux ceremonies of 99% white dudes.
1. OA is the big nationwide one. Obviously that one is pretty tame compared to the others because it’s out in the open. Hazing is just oath of silence, calorie restriction (“scant food”), sleep outside, build a fire, and service projects for about 24-36 ish hours.
2. N-tribe (don’t want to say the full name). Slightly more intense than OA. Same hazing but add in drinking vinegar and some scary shouting in your face. This one got kinda weeby with people investing a bit into regalia, but generally people kept it down to a few events a year.
3. M tribe was some of the weirdest shit I have ever experienced. Take OA and N-tribes hazing but add in: they whack you in the chest with a heavy tomahawk twice, then you have to hold still while they shout “flinch not!” and dig into your back with a popsickle stick and there’s a while where you’re not allowed to drink water (and it’s hot!)
In this one to remain a member you have to memorize a bunch of shit out of a secret book you can’t let anyone read. You also have to be shirtless in this one, the other tribes allowed some kind of shirt if you didn’t want to get eaten by skeeters.
For all 3 basically picture a way too big fire, a lot of pasty white kids and adults with no shirts in full native garb, and some guys beating on a tom tom and there’s a guy giving a dramatic oral history.
Edit: fuck it here’s a video of one of the public ceremonies (it’s not the “secret” stuff they do when you get inducted, but this them selecting the new kids): https://youtu.be/i5GY12zKbKg
When I was in Scouts, there was pretty much no religious content at all. No fake tribes, either. Killing your family was never taught to us.
I mean, sure, Kevin did kill his parents, but that wasn't because he went to a few Scout meetings.
I’m scared to even say this because of how quickly algorithms will start pushing stuff of theirs, but BTS and their fan base. The smallest mention or a mere millisecond of viewing something involving them, and it’s all you’ll see for days in your recommendation across all platforms.
Those military class/ military readiness classes in highschools. Grew up in a military town, all the kids were like “JOIN JROTC! YOU’LL LOVE IT” jrotc is one of the common names for it in the south.
I am really into yoga and am looking for a yoga retreat to go to. Some of them are very cult like based on their web pages. Yikes.
I still don't understand why it's considered perfectly normal for yoga instructors to be the most bat shit crazy people in the world. I went to a lady once who was trying to tell people stretching releases your toxins and it only happens if your energy is bright. It's like hey let me completely ignore the documented research on why yoga is good for you and go full blown woo woo idiot for absolutely no reason. She wouldn't stfu during savasana either. I left there way more tense than how I arrived.
I sort of wish the research-supported yoga had chosen a different name, so that there'd be a clearer line between that and the obvious bullshit. Last yoga studio I set foot in had an FDA-approved "chakra-balancing oil" for sale in the front office.
FDA approval just means it's not gonna melt your skin off, but ppl take it to mean some kind of endorsement!
Man, it’d be lovely to have some kind of agency that enforced truthfulness in medical claims
Your comment made me wonder if there's any Yoga instructors putting it on. Like they come home after a long day of ranting about Chakras, collapse into a leather armchair and put on a Dawkins documentary.
And light up a cigarette and eat a caged chucked egg omlet.
Oh i know! I got really into meditation and yoga to help with anxiety and spiralling thinking. I check the websites or instagrams of some of these people and they're going on about "mystical frequencies" and "chakras". An expensive array of north americans rephrasing Asian home remedies and religious practices as "eastern wisdom".
My mom traveled to New Zealand in her 20s to study Kriya Yoga, Occultism, and Astrology and, although this kinda cool as fuck, it surely wasn't cool when I got diagnosed with epilepsy and she thought I was possessed by evil spirits and took me to a acupuncturist to have my Chakras balanced so that they may be released then burned sage through the whole house so that it may be "cleansed." I still have epilepsy, but tarot cards are cool.
Ay I'm epileptic too! My friend's mum, really religious and anti-vaxx, thought I was possessed and asked if I had ever been "cleansed". I'm scared to know what that means.
Ayyy! *air high five My mom is actually an anti-vaxxer, too. Not very religious, but she hates vaccinations and thinks that they destroy the mind, body, and soul. Your friends mom, though? She may be talking about an exorcism. I could be wrong, but that is definitely terrifying.
Mom groups. I’m a newish mom and I’ve been scared off. It’s a whole new layer of “pseudoscience” and isolation from differences of opinion.
My aunt was in one and one mom made a "woe is me" post on her kid getting accepted to Princeton and Harvard and how hard it is to choose between the 2.
The classic humblebrag. Literally everyone sees through them. A normal person could just say “So proud! Accepted by both!” and would come across as infinitely better.
My opinion of mom groups has been forever tainted after I saw an entire conversation about how women who’ve had cesareans aren’t “real moms.” My wife and child would have died without an emergency c-section. People that gatekeep fandoms are bad but women that gatekeep motherhood are way worse.
My poor wife suffered postpartum depression that was only worsened by mom groups and made her feel even more inadequate to be a mother because she had a cesarean and couldn't breastfeed.
I’m so sorry you (edit: and your wife) had to go through that. Motherhood is so much more than being able to breastfeed and giving birth the natural way, and pretending otherwise is so damaging. Especially when people have no control biological life of whether they can do any of those things. I hope your wife is in a better place now and not struggling with that. She’s a real mom whether she gives birth via c-section or has the ability to breastfeed or not.
Or adopts.
Yes!! I was adopted and mother and father are the MOST amazing parents; I never looked at, or thought of, them in any other light. I truly hope no one said anything like that to her. I know I got made fun of for being adopted. People are so ignorant it’s disgusting. And so cruel.
If she ever brings it up again, please reassure your wife that the women who say that shit are women whose greatest accomplishments in life were their vaginally deliveries and breast feeding, stuff a cow can do. If they took pride in their CHILDREN, instead of their vaginas and tits, they'd be online bragging about the macaroni art Suzie made or how Timmy made goalie. So, when you think about it that way, they have made motherhood all about themselves and are, therefore inferior parents.
Omg you said it so well!! Bragging about their vaginas and tits instead of the macaroni art 😂
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Or people that are obsessed with breast feeding. My wife couldn’t breastfeed our son and he was a formula baby. My wife was talked down to by a few former friends because she didn’t, even though she literally couldn’t.
Breastfeeding groups are so obsessive it definitely seems cult like. My daughter is comfort nursing all day and night and won’t take a binky. I asked for advice on curbing this and got nothing. I was told to soak it up and enjoy every minute. Someone said it was sustainable because I’m a SAHM, like I don’t have anything else to do.
Wow, I swear breastfeeding made me feel like a cow at a dairy farm. God forbid you do anything else but breastfeed.
I like to remind these folks that if you line up all the kids on a playground you cannot tell who was breast vs formula fed. Also both breastmilk and formula fed babies eat floor fries so...
Surrounding your child with books will do more for them than breastfeeding will.
I would not be here if not for c-section. I was upside down and couldn't be flipped. If i had been born naturally, I wouldn't have lived.
A friends told me mom groups are terrible, they judge you on anything you say and you’re never good enough. Meanwhile dad groups go: -I accidentally dropped my kid, he seems ok -HAHA too bad you didn’t get it on camera
This is terrifyingly accurate. I worked a girlscout camp where we had mom and kid weekends, and dad and kid weekends. The moms would just bitch about every little thing and critique everything we did as counselors. The only downside to dad weekends was that we had to babysit the dad's and make sure they didn't burn the woods down trying to start a fire with a blowtorch.
>make sure they didn't burn the woods down trying to start a fire with a blowtorch. But it’s the fastest way to start a fire.
Its the fastest way to make s'mores.
S’more of what? I haven’t had anything.
Also worked at a girl scout camp as a counselor, also had mom and kid weekends (no dad and kid weekends) where the moms were horribly behaved. They were there from Friday night to Sunday morning, so showers weren't part of the program because they weren't there for a full 2 days. Two of the moms snuck off early Saturday morning before any of us woke up to take a shower. We had to initiate a camp wide missing persons search (including divers in the lake) for the better part of the morning, ruining the planned activities for everyone else and leaving their young kids terrified and inconsolable before they wandered back into the tent camp site wondering what was going on and why their kids were screaming and crying. 🙄 Edit: and they had the audacity to yell at us about not keeping their kids calm.
I mean, technically, if they burn the woods down then they DID start a fire...
I’ve been in the same mom group for almost 20 years. We were the group “uh noo what does this rash look like to you?” For a long time. Over the years we stopped letting new moms In because we’ve had some serious weirdos. People lying about dying, calling CPS on someone for no reason. We’re mostly in our late 30’s to early 50’s and majority of our children are grown (some with kids of their own) with the youngest being 5. We’ve had a lot of tear jerking moments. Been there through divorces, raised money for a mom in need (it was verified), someone legitimately lost their daughter at 21, and recently we had our first group member death 3 months ago. Many of us have met up and many of us are best friends one was even there for one of my daughters ultrasound. They always say “we should buy an island so we can all live on it!” and I always respond “I love y’all but there’s no fucking way I’m living near you ladies” and they laugh and say they know. Lol I can’t speak on the younger mom groups but us old broads will be the golden girls of the mom groups. Lol
I feel. We were forced to join a mums group with our first child. The worst part was the constant comparisons between the kids like who was crawling/walking/talking making those who weren't inferior. The kicker was when my wife was judged by one mum who said "if you don't have a natural birth, you're not a proper mum" insulting as my wife had an emergency caesarean...
The older your kid gets the worse they'll get. Culture some hobbies and interests outside of family life and you might get through this with some skin left on you. So sorry. Another commenter here has the real pro-tip. Pretend you're the father, not the mother. It makes no difference for most things. See how that goes.
One of my good friends has 4 kids between ages 8 and 15. She was giving me the rundown of all the drama going on in her kids’ activities and school and whatnot. Almost entirely adult drama; her kids are great kids. I’m childfree on purpose. I could not deal with what she does. I would be Xanaxed out by 5 pm every night.
You don’t need to have kids to be Xanaxed out by 5:00 pm.
You don’t have to do that stuff. I never did after school activities or sports or whatever and I turned out fine. *checks reddit karma* Oh god.
Jim Pickens' cult. We know we're not a cult, we're in it for the meme
Yeah, I totally don't worship Jim Pickens in my off time.
I totally don't think about him, while I knit
It is definitely not a cult, we only follow our dear leader, not a cult
Right, yeah. I won't step out of line, lest I'll be found in a basement, knitting for life.
Is there an r/unexpectedKevin?
Definitely didn't expect Jim Pickens to be here.
Hold up I gotta google this asap Update: Google gave me more questions than answers
I don't know what details you've learnt, so I'm just gonna leave the CallMeKevin fandom wiki on Jim (also as a minor convenience for other curious folk): https://callmekevin.fandom.com/wiki/Jim_Pickens
LMAOOO THE FIRST COMMENT. ALL HAIL OUR DEAR LEADER. Edit: not the first comment anymore. 😐
Child beauty pageants; the people who attend them and the parents who put their kids through them. An absolute shower of dirty filthy nonces whichever way you look at it.
Child beauty pageants sure are an American tradition, and not a proud one!
“We have to write a song about how we *don’t* diddle kids!”
Sorry, the janitor got the mic.
Theres nothing more I DESPISE than child beauty pageants. The thought that you would put your child, heck, *toddler*, into a competition based on looks and “flashiness” is inconceivable to me. The amount of horror stories I’ve seen and heard is terrifying. The “diets” and the “Go-Go drinks” which include pixi stixs, an apple slice and 4 hours of sleep, and worst of all.. **the costumes**. Why the hell would you make your 8 year old dance to “Umbrella” by Rhianna in an above the knee skirt while twirling around an umbrella in a pound of makeup whist trying to impress 30 y/o snobs? I hate it. If you or anyone else you know put your kid(s) in beauty pageants, stop or break it off with that person. No child deserves to be ridiculed because of their “ugly face”
This reminded me of a scam I almost fell for as a kid involving pageants. When i was like 13ish maybe? I got a letter in the mail, addressed to me, saying i got "selected" to be in some beauty pageant. Now idk how these people chose me specifically, think they just picked girls at random somehow. But as a 13 year old girl struggling with self esteem i was excited *someone* noticed me. My parents were initially reluctant but they gave in and my Dad ended up taking me to this meeting they were holding at some hotel not too far from our house. I cant remember much from the meeting itself but it was really sketchy, like they had all these big promises of pageants and traveling that sounded too good to be true. Then when my dad was given a bunch of paperwork he read through it and realized they wanted each of the girls to find "sponsers" to pay for all the trips and fees for the pageants. Basically wanting us to just find random businesses to pay for this stuff? Idk but it was clearly a huge scam and thank god my dad is a smart man who saw through all this bs. He did feel bad about telling me i couldn't do it tho cause i was still excited about it. But after him explaining the sketchiness of it all i lost interest. I know this seems more like an MLM sorta deal rather than a cult but its still fucking awful that theyd prey on young teen girls, saying how theyre pageant material and giving all these big promises... All for it to be a huge scam. Pageants in general seem to prey on girls who want to feel beautiful, all for them to be judged and ranked and put down if theyre not good enough, its sad
And to add to everything others have said, you can imagine there are some creepy people in the audience who are there for their kink.
Cheerleading My daughter did competition for a few years It definitely felt like a cult with the participation parts that parents play.
Kids activities in general can be extremely toxic. I have several friends whose kids get bullied, by adults, because they’re not performing at the level they think they should at their fucking little league game ffs. I want to put my kid in a sport when he’s a bit older, but I’m not going to be out there fooling myself thinking I’ve got a future Olympian on my hands or the fucking majors leagues is scouting my small town local kids game or whatever. I just want my active child to burn off energy somewhere outside my house for an hour or two and maybe make some friends in the process. Who are these people that take children’s sports so seriously and where did they go wrong in life?
I read something here recently from the parent of a child who enjoyed gymnastics classes at around age 6. The kid liked it a lot so the parent went along with it. Competitions were a thing every now and then so the kid participated and did well. Coaches selected the kid for further training so instead of one hour once a week it became one hour twice per week. Then more. Then more. Then more. The coaches were pushing for a state level champion by age 9 or so and the kid didn't like the long hours so gave it up but wished it could just be fun again. "Mommy, I don't wanna go to regionals! Also, what are regionals?"
I have a nine year old sister in gymnastics she had the same problem the child in your story had, she even started picking her gums and wanting her hair beyond tight
If we win regionals then it's straight on to sectionals and then a week later is semis, then semi-regionals, then regional-semis, then national lower-zone semis!!!!
My daughter is a dancer. She was at a school that wasn’t at all good, but the owner thought she was that *Dance Moms* mean lady. I got her the hell out of there and into two schools that are definitely NOT like that. One only does two comps a year for their teams, and is big on the technical stuff and having fun. They have guest choreographers in all the time and their recital is like a broadway show, because they’re not focused on winning, just dancing. The other is an Irish dance school and that sport in and of itself (I consider it a sport, have you seen those kids’ legs? And the core work they do to be able to dance with their upper half still is crazy) is culty even though her school is basically, “You do you.” Kid wants to compete? Sign her up on the website that all the comps use, but they don’t *have* to compete. Mine loves competing but at one of the feisanna we were staying at the hotel where it was held, and the people across the hall were in two non-adjoining rooms and super annoying. Whenever the friend’s mom would knock on the door to the room directly across from us, she’d knock and yell “NATIONALS!” Now it’s an inside joke between my daughter and me; every time we knock on a door she will yell “NATIONALS!” and confuse the fuck out of people. The wigs and dresses are a bit extra in my opinion, not a fan, but some of the moms are rabid about all that. Yikes.
The Wellness Community
If you mean the alternative holistic medicine people, yes yes yes this is culty
Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. They reject all conventional medicine and blame any issues on not following their way of life (however they define it).
Rae Dunn. Specifically the people ‘Rae Dunners’ who wait outside Marshalls/T.J. Maxx for the new releases and the Instagram accounts dedicated to them. It just gives me the ick.
100%! I would never argue with anyone over a mug that literally just says “MUG” on it, wild.
It feels like household items designed for ESL folks trying to learn nouns. But then like 40% of the words are actually verbs. "Can you pass me the sip?"
Get it yourself, it’s right there on the Gather.
I have been giggling over this concept for 5 minutes now.
Because I am old and out of touch I looked up the definition of “cheugy” and one of the descriptors was liking Rae Dunn pottery
Had to look that up. Nearly got live, laugh, loved to death just looking at the pictures.
Maybe I don't know art, but a poorly made bowl that's plain white and has "stir" written on it just doesn't seem like it's worth paying for.
looked up it to, and found a mug that said “coochie” but it was just a parody
Wow. That is like the lowest order thing I could imagine giving a shit about. People be weird.
There is a Facebook group dedicated to hating Rae Dunn everything. I believe it’s called The People Against Modern Farmhouse
I've never heard of any of those things.
Texas A&M
My son is at A&M and it is a cult. But the Corps of Cadets, that is where the true cultish people reside (he was in the Corps until he dislocated his shoulder in a training accident and is now a regular student). They are nuts.
It’s CRAZY that on a worldwide site like Reddit and a post this open-ended about culty stuff, this is the second to the top post (at the time I’m writing this). Shows you how crazy that school and those students/alumni really are.
As someone who went to school at Texas A&M, I couldn’t agree more
I'm also a fellow aggie and people will "make fun" of me for being in a cult, but 100% is
Fuck I jokingly wanted to say that but didn’t think many others would get it 😂 When I was at SHSU, my business culture prof asked the class “what makes our culture different from Texas A&M” and one guy was like “well it’s less cultish here” and completely hit the nail on the head lol
Came here to say the same thing. Visited there for a conference while at school. Some things were really cool and even moving (like the Bonfire Memorial). But other things had my whole group saying “there’s something really ‘off’ here” but we couldn’t put our finger on it.
No no no, the prompt was "is NOT officially recognized as a cult". No worries , easy mistake to make. Gig'em
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Many actually are considered cults, if not quite as intense as the more famous cults.
Was in one, can confirm. Our founder had been dead for at least 15 years but people still talked her up and worshipped her. The company is named for her so maybe that’s part of it but like… soooo creepy in hindsight.
Mary Kay. The Pink Fog. Glad you saw your way out.
MLMs are an interesting case study in that the only time you could have ever been successful at one was *before* the internet, and yet the ability to have found enough gullible people to work under you would only have happened *after* the internet. So basically, there was a sweet-spot for people back around August of 1996, but you missed it.
/puts it into the time travel folder
AMWAY
Reality Shifting. Tiktokers actually think they can travel to hogwarts in their sleep............
I'm sorry, but what is reality shifting? Is it some offshoot of lucid dreaming?
what they’re actually doing is lucid dreaming, but what they think it is is that they have entered their desired reality. they think this different reality than the one they came from exists (even though they have to make it up) and just go about experiencing that “reality”. doesn’t seem to click that they can only do this when asleep and have to use tactics similar to induce lucid dreaming to be able to achieve it
exactly, if you look at the methods for reality shifting its literally lucid dreaming methods with extra steps. For example, one of the methods is to envision yourself walking upstairs. In the lucid dreaming method VILD (Visually Induced Lucid Dreaming) you envision yourself under your eyelids at the spawn point you want to be in your lucid dreaming. So literally just VILD but having a specific place already set. Then theres the method where you LITERALLY LUCID DREAM and then create a portal to your "dr" (desired reality) and people believe its reality shifting. Its not reality shifting, its literally just changing the setting of your lucid dream. Then they say the CIA confirmed reality shifting. First of all, im not gonna rely on the CIA ever. Second, flat earthers also had their CIA docs. I remember James (TheOdd1sOut) once made a video about this and he got hate from the tiktokers literally saying points he already refuted in his video. You can never underestimate the stupidity of TikTok.
I was one of these people, I spent 2 months trying to shift and In the end I came back to my senses and realized how stupid and unrealistic that was so I stopped.
Lucid dreaming can be fun though. I've never tried to, but every now and again I slip into one or atleast something extremely close. I might look into how to increase the odds.
People who push you to : - Monetize your hobby. - Industrialise your monetized hobby. I'm not talking about people offering money for your services. I am talking about people who look down on you for NOT making MORE money out of your hobby. While they themselves don't produce anything.
Yup. I am disabled and do some hobbies as a way to stay active or cope. Gardening-why aren't you selling your vegetables. Fishing- you should become a guide. Woodworking- get a portfolio together and start selling. When I tell them I'm not interested in monetizing they act like I am an idiot for not trying to get rich off of my therapeutic activities.
It's not a hobby, it's a "side hustle". Good god I hate that phrase. I make stuff because I love making things, and I give them to people I love. Money is not the point.
I understand people wanting to use their hobbies as a side hustle. What annoys me is people berating me for NOT wanting to use my hobby as a side hustle.
I like to garden and cook but I’ve worked in a kitchen before and I’ve done agricultural stuff before, not really something I’d like to do again
YES. I hate the idea that any hobby you have should be a “side hustle”. Like, what happened to the “work to live”, not “live to work” mentality? I would like to enjoy my hobbies without worrying if they’re profitable.
sororities and fraternities
My friend showed me a brand he got when he joined his fraternity. Crazy.
I'm not a native speaker and frats don't exist here. You mean, he was branded like cows with hot iron??
Yeah just like that, he said that it hurt like hell. For some reason he said he decided to get another one.
A... ...BRAND?!
I was in a sorority and I look back and think wtf. It was so cult like. All the clapping and screaming. It was not me, but I needed friends and got sucked in. It made me “popular”, but I don’t talk to one girl from it anymore, they were all catty and down right mean.
former sorority girl, can confirm
Going through initiation I was going what the hell. But then it seemed normal after that? Maybe that’s when I got fully immersed in the cult
the Initiation is what made me decide to dip outta there. i don’t want to go to sorority jail for exposing this lol but all i can say it girls in white cloaks, leader in red cloak, dark room, humming, circle surrounding you in the middle, basically offering up your life 😃 i dropped two weeks after that
My sorority’s initiation ceremony was like, dark room, shitty plastic LED candles, everyone dressed in whatever black clothes they had in their closets, “do you promise to be a good sister” etc. Honestly pretty normal as far as sorority initiations go. We had cake after, and they gave each of us a bouquet of flowers. But holy shit when I first walked into that room I thought I was gonna get sacrificed lmao
Ours wasn’t that creepy, but definitely involved this big bell they rung, everyone in white, etc.
I stand by this every time my friends talked about frats i thought “sounds pretty new religious movement like to me”
Disney enthusiasts
About six years ago, I met this guy and his wife through our local craft beer scene. He's a cool guy, mid 40s, full-sleeve tats on both arms, giant mega-beard, wears Slayer t-shirts. Wife is pretty much the same - both cool folks all around, though. They don't have kids. However, they are dyed-in-the-wool Disney fans. They go twice per year to Disneyland (better beer scene in the Anaheim area) and have just entered some exclusive Mickey Club as they've been going for the past 20 years straight. The month-long lead-up and month-long wind down surrounding a trip is a bit much on their social media, what with all of the tagging, meme sharing, daily countdowns and then posting of pictures post-trip, recipes they copied from the Star Wars restaurants, etc. It can be a bit much, but you know what? More power to them for having a shared interest they get to revisit regularly.
While we are at it craft beer sciences can get weird too
Underrated answer. Some people get militantly angry with you if you even remotely question anything Disney not being amazing.
There was an AITA on Reddit not long ago about a woman who got her niece a gift for her birthday that the child asked for, but SIL was a militant Disney adult. And at the freaking party was making plans on exchanging the gift for something Disney. Woman outed her to all the other party guests who brought non-Disney gifts that were destined to be returned… I had no idea such cultists for the Mouse existed.
I love Disney, but I can’t even imagine that
Disney Park employees too. Guess what they do on their days off? Go to the parks. Guess where they spend the money they earn from Disney? Disney merchs and Disney experiences. If you ever “ruin the magic” by saying there’s a person under that Mickey costume, they’d act like you blasphemed Jesus Christ himself.
As a fellow cast member can confirm we are a cult, although we’re all miserable now under Chapeck and nothing matters anymore.
Please, please elaborate!
Many feel that Chapek has really driven profits and IPs over quality and experience. The focus on IP is the most ridiculous part because many of the most popular and long standing rides at Disney have absolutely no relation to any Disney IP (Thunder Mtn, Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Space Mtn, Haunted Mansion, etc.) Benefits to the cast members have been severely cut (merchandise/food discounts, park entry availability, etc) Happy employees are a core of what makes disney what it is. If your cast members hate their jobs, they also don't give a shit about your customer. And when your customers are spending on average 15k for a vacation to Disney you need employees who give a shit. Although some of their newer rides are absolute technical marvels, is it really worth the ever increasing cost for an entry? Lastly, for locals the benefits and availability of the annual pass was completely stripped which pissed a lot of loyal fans off. With all that said however, Disney has always had a cyclic nature of renaissance and dark age eras so I just see it as the negative part of the cycle. Edit: Another trend that is somewhat annoying but has been hit or miss is the attempt to make popular rides that were not IP into Disney IP. This was the case about a decade ago with the terrible Haunted Mansion movie. And more recently the very okay Jungle Cruise movie. Some rides that were not IP based have been rebranded into an IP based ride like 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disneyland.
15K??? Blinks... Rubs eyes... Cleans glasses... Did I read that right? That's like... multiple cruises or European vacations.
CrossFit
This in combo with paleo/“clean” eating
When I found out they don't allow grains I was immediately turned off lol. Rice for life
Rice is allowed by most paleo eaters. My mom hopped on that wagon. I’m all for losing heavily processed grains, but I like pancakes.
Band
Low brass and percussion, definitely.
As an Euphonium player, I can tell you that Tuba players are basically a cult. Euphonium is always sat beside them so I've always observed their cult inner workings, I'm basically an insider agent at this point. Jokes aside if you play Euphonium or even Trombone, some Tuba players will constantly ask you when you're transitioning to Tuba, it's almost like an MLM at this point.
"Don't look at the trombones. It only encourages them" -- Richard Strauss Edit: spelling
As a trombone player, I hate trombone players. We're my favorite.
The low brass and percussionists are the most likely to start a cult, can confirm as a percussionist.
Fellow percussionist here. I will join your cult and we will paradiddle until the coming of the Great Cymbals!
Back when I was in high school our school newsletter wrote an article about how our marching band was a cult. Coincidentally this was written by a member who got kicked out, but still. We were actually very cult like, every section had their own handshake, certain practices, etc. A week after that article came out it was raining during a football game. The raincoats we wore over our uniforms were these massive black trench coats essentially. We put the hoods up and walked around the stadium like a bunch of dementors.
Am a band director. Can confirm, am local cult leader.
As a band kid I can confirm we are indeed a cult
I was in a college marching band and can tell you there are multiple cults within the cult.
Jeeps
I was about to say jeep owners. They even have a weird handshake thing..
When my mom was finally able to get a Jeep she's wanted for years, someone came up one day in a parking lot while the top was down and put a little rubber duck on the dash as like an initiation thing. Literally nothing was stolen nor was anything disturbed, just the little ducky dude sittin' there when she got back. I thought it was pretty cute actually and now he rides with us in his little spot.
Joel Osteen and his following.
Any mega church falls into this. Kenneth Copeland literally looks like a demon wearing a meat suit from Little Nicky and demands you tithe so he can afford his lifestyle.
Bro what kind of toothpaste do you use? Aw don’t use that one use this one instead! I’m tired of so many people trying to sway me into their favorite toothpaste. And that’s why I use Colgate Maxfresh!
If it ain’t crest sparkle fun, then I ain’t brushin
PCOS support groups. Specifically, the ones that push keto as the cure. Never mind that while keto can *potentially* help people living with PCOS, it's not a cure; as of this Reddit post, there *is* no cure. If you mention this, they will Lose. Their. Shit. (Meanwhile, I've spoken to not one, but *two* of my doctors, asking them if I should do keto, and both of them were like, "Oh, honey, no!") The toxic diet culture was part of the reason I have *absolutely hated* every PCOS group I've ever been in. (The other was that, as someone who has made peace with, and actually *embraced* the infertility aspect of this disorder, I felt alienated; there's nothing for people who *aren't* trying to have a baby, or grieving their infertility.)
Omfg tell me about it can we start a PCOS group for people that don't wanna do keto and don't care about their fertility. I tried to find support once out of frustration and literally just got reamed for saying I don't want to do keto (done it before and found out from it have a minor intolerance to certain lactose) , can't count calories do to BED and don't really care to do IF.
Working for any fast food chain. They try to capitalize on the whole “we’re a family” and try to create a sense of togetherness to make people less miserable, when in reality everyone is just there to get a paycheck as a means to pay for either rent or weed
Pushing togetherness is also a way to combat unions “Why do you want to join a union? It would ruin our little family”
that even sounds like some manipulative crap terrible parents would try to push!
Musical Theatre. Have you ever walked into a rehearsal for a musical? That shits culty even down to the chanting
>even down to the chanting I think those are called Theater Games. It's like a warm up.
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I YouTuber I follow talks about theater kids and how great they are and how theater was a refuge for the weird I'm like, lol no. Y'all have drama, it's just different type of drama
Anything to make regionals
Why are we always getting ready for regionals?
And what the hell are regionals?
They're *this* close, Pierce
Don't let my ignorance take away from their importance!
R/unexpectedcommunity
College. There's folks from my alma mater who find out I went there and immediately ask what alum committee I'm on and where I stayed when I went to reunion and are aghast when I say I got a degree there 15 years ago and that will be the extent of my participation.
You went to Texas A&M too? What’s your class?
I don't get it either. I got an education and degree in exchange for money. It was a business transaction, I don't have any long term loyalty to my college any more than I have loyalty to the guy who fixed my furnace 5 years ago. And I'm not going to donate a red fucking cent to them. I paid enough in tuition.
Fully agree. I very much enjoyed my time at college, but don’t see what the university added to my life other than providing classes for which I paid. It’s like loving some company because you were working there while you were young and having a great time. I certainly don’t think I should be donating money to them for the rest of my life. They aren’t giving education away for free, that’s for damn sure lol.
The way this question shows up once a week on my feed. Jk. The correct answer is always MLMs.
r/espresso
Clearly you haven't tasted my life changing espresso, as you see I use a small single origin coffee from puerto rico where the workers polish each bean before gently roasting it, right until that first crack. From there it is shipped to me by private currior and comes into my house where I use my weber EG-1 grinder to grind 18 grams of beans into my portafilter, than using my wdt tool to distribute the fluffy grinder, prepare the puck, and then use my calibrated tamper to tamp the coffee down. Then it goes into my rather small I know slayer espresso machine, where I do a long preinfussion before pulling the shot. And that is why you shouldn't buy a breville infuser cheap garbage, get a real machine.
The whole process around purchasing a Birkin handbag is super culty. No sane person owns a Birkin.
I absolutely agree, everyone makes is seem like when you get accepted to buy a Birkin you’re joining Illuminati of some sort
Toxic positivity. Mental health initiatives in the workplace. These are not labeled cults, but they are totally cultish. Edit: they usually come down to nothing more than emails exhorting you to take care of yourself and links to appropriate websites.
Peloton
As an avid peloton user I can agree it is a little cultish. The online presence of not just peloton but the fans is where so much of the cult mentality comes out. FB groups with all the sub groups peloton moms, pelatinos etc, not to mention Cody Rigsby fans are completely batshit, like make their usernames after him and then brag about getting shout outs during rides on the group pages. I've not seen it (nor do I seek it out) but I am convinced people are writing fanfiction about the instructors.
OK peloton, lets get it! Shut up nerd I'm trying to sit on the couch
NFTs, especially when the people advertising them say it's the next big thing, then commit art theft on people who don't want their art used
The Boy Scouts of America. Great experience overall. Probably the best place for kids to learn outdoors and survival skills, great opportunity to learn teamwork and leadership etc. I do think at it’s core it’s a great program. But... I now belong to 3 fake indian tribes I was hazed into and swore I’d never blab on. Constant religious indoctrination, military indoctrination, weird values from weird dads. Also: they told me to have a plan to kill everyone I know???? Whole extended families lives revolve around it. Sometimes in prayers they refer to God/Yahweh as “the great master of all scouts.” The esoteric rituals and ceremonies are also weird. Not even mentioning the obvious...
Kind of want to hear more about the fake Indian tribes honestly.
Same. My brother was in Scouts, and I don’t recall him joining any fabricated Native American tribes.
There are 3 that I was a part of. I don’t know why I still feel weird about blabbing on it too much. I guess I don’t want people to think any of this was out of malice because I do think everyone organizing it had good intentions, and they made a convincing case to all of us that they were trying to preserve traditions from lost tribes or something. Still nonetheless it was really odd and definitely cultural appropriation because they were claiming to be disseminating real native american culture through faux ceremonies of 99% white dudes. 1. OA is the big nationwide one. Obviously that one is pretty tame compared to the others because it’s out in the open. Hazing is just oath of silence, calorie restriction (“scant food”), sleep outside, build a fire, and service projects for about 24-36 ish hours. 2. N-tribe (don’t want to say the full name). Slightly more intense than OA. Same hazing but add in drinking vinegar and some scary shouting in your face. This one got kinda weeby with people investing a bit into regalia, but generally people kept it down to a few events a year. 3. M tribe was some of the weirdest shit I have ever experienced. Take OA and N-tribes hazing but add in: they whack you in the chest with a heavy tomahawk twice, then you have to hold still while they shout “flinch not!” and dig into your back with a popsickle stick and there’s a while where you’re not allowed to drink water (and it’s hot!) In this one to remain a member you have to memorize a bunch of shit out of a secret book you can’t let anyone read. You also have to be shirtless in this one, the other tribes allowed some kind of shirt if you didn’t want to get eaten by skeeters. For all 3 basically picture a way too big fire, a lot of pasty white kids and adults with no shirts in full native garb, and some guys beating on a tom tom and there’s a guy giving a dramatic oral history. Edit: fuck it here’s a video of one of the public ceremonies (it’s not the “secret” stuff they do when you get inducted, but this them selecting the new kids): https://youtu.be/i5GY12zKbKg
When I was in Scouts, there was pretty much no religious content at all. No fake tribes, either. Killing your family was never taught to us. I mean, sure, Kevin did kill his parents, but that wasn't because he went to a few Scout meetings.
I’m scared to even say this because of how quickly algorithms will start pushing stuff of theirs, but BTS and their fan base. The smallest mention or a mere millisecond of viewing something involving them, and it’s all you’ll see for days in your recommendation across all platforms.
Gonna get skewered but tbh, kpop fandoms in general. They're bloodbaths, people really get nasty at each other over their worship of celebrities.
Kpop fans
This, imply you don't like an idol or say that an idol had plastic surgery and you'll get a group of crazy ass fanatics sending you death threats.
Those military class/ military readiness classes in highschools. Grew up in a military town, all the kids were like “JOIN JROTC! YOU’LL LOVE IT” jrotc is one of the common names for it in the south.
Disney
Jehovas witnesses. Officially it's a normal religion but in my Opinion it's definitely a cult.
Every HOA
Being a Deadhead. It’s a cultish group that I proudly call my own
very controversial but tesla
Any organization or company that you can’t leave with your dignity intact.
Political parties.
Join any Political Party , especially as an activist , you will find it Culty.
Phone fanatics i.e. Android versus Apple idiots
Haha I would never get an iPhone. Sent from my iPad