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 Cults are not a modern invention, they're an evolutionary advantage that has always been utilized by good and bad leaders 
 There is no good use of cult manipulation. That's one of the first lies in the deck of cards.

Cults inherently shrink the capacity of people to think, by creating phobias and addictions that would not otherwise exist, wasting their lives on shit they don't need and fearing stuff they shouldn't fear. 
 I suppose "cult" implies bad. With different intentions, we'd use words like charismatic leadership or movement 
 Making up in group ephemisms is also classic cult manipulation.

Every single example I have seen in my life left damage in it's path. Psytrance parties, self help systems, Blockchain social networks. Baghwan Sri Rajneesh had a lot of useful things to say but his cars and his groupies nullified it. Bitcoin has cults attached to it as does nostr.

Nothing good comes out of them. They are all on a spectrum from distraction to assisted suicide.