I have been on this site since 2009. Over 10,000 posts. I invite you to go through all 10K of them and find a single post in which I made a personal accusation or insult toward any Briefer. I can save you the time. I simply don't do it.
I hold an opinion that a political group known as MAGA is a cult. I think people who love Apple as a brand are a cult. Harley Davidson owners are a cult. People who like David Lynch films are a cult. Any group that shows higher than normal devotion to a cause or figure can be classified as a cult. It was not directed at anyone in particular. Just a general statement, and an opinion I am entitled to hold and express.
I also think Lincoln Republicans are RINOs, an opinion that can apparently be expressed freely on this forum.
Hey
@massadvj good to see you.
I get what you’re saying, and I’ve been around here a minute as well, long enough to remember plenty of those kinds of semantic debates.
But if we take your definition seriously: “any group with higher than normal devotion to a cause or figure”, then the word basically collapses under its own weight.
Because under that umbrella, we’re all in cults.
I’m in a “morning coffee cult.” Probably a “favorite chair in the house cult.” Definitely a “I’ll defend my preferred pizza cult” if pushed far enough. And yeah, by your framing, I guess I’m also in the Pop-Tart club, the Bailey’s Irish Cream cult, and the Smucker’s strawberry jam cult right alongside most of us in here.
The problem isn’t that people don’t show preference or even enthusiasm. They do. The problem is that “cult” has a meaning outside of casual exaggeration; it usually implies coercion, insulation from criticism, or devotion that overrides independent judgment.
Once you stretch it to cover Apple fans, film fans, motorcycle fans, or political coalitions, it stops describing anything useful and just becomes a catch-all insult-shaped word.
And that’s where people push back. Not because they think groups are above criticism, but because flattening everything into “cult” doesn’t really distinguish between “strong preference” and “loss of agency.”
You’ve been here since 2009, so you know how these threads go: once language gets that elastic, nobody is actually talking about the same thing anymore.
Anyway… I think that’s the real disagreement, not whether people like things too much.
Topic: Live Thread: War With Iran Continues #5 (Read 5016 times)
