What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.
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A cult following is a nice way of saying very few people like you.
A cult is a religion with no political power.
One person's religion is another person's cult.
One man's cult is another man's religion.
When people leave cults, they don't know that they left a cult.
On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable.
Even small cults are a serious cost on the world economy, to victims, their families, employers, friends, and credit-card companies.
This may sound insulting to some of my cult studies friends, but there's a lot of cult studies people who ignore, shall we say, the wider canvas - because they simply don't know about its existence or they don't know how it operates.
Many cults start off with high ideals that get corrupted by leaders or their board of advisors who become power-hungry and dominate and control members' lives. No group with high ideals starts off as a 'cult'; they become one when their errant ways are exposed.
I don't think it takes much for a cult to be a cult. Many parts of our society are cultish, and you only need a charismatic leader and some teachings, and before you know it, you have a cult.