In case anyone still thinks I’m indulging in hyperbole when I call the Left a fanatical Death Cult, let’s compare their practices to pioneering psychologist Robert J. Lifton’s methods that cults use to brainwash people.
Lifton called the following mind control methods Thought Reform. If that strikes an eerily familiar chord, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.
Milieu control
All communication with outside world is limited, either being strictly filtered or completely cut off. Whether it is a monastery or a behind-closed-doors cult, isolation from the ideas, examples and distractions of the outside world turns the individuals attention to the only remaining form of stimulation, which is the ideology that is being inculcated.
Mystical manipulation
A part of the teaching is that the group has a higher purpose than others outside the group. This may be altruistic, such as saving the world or helping people in need. It may also be selfish, for example that group members will be saved when others outside the group will perish.
Confession
Individuals are encouraged to confess past ‘sins’ (as defined by the group). This creates a tension between the person’s actions and their stated belief that the action is bad, particularly if the statement is made publicly. The consistency principle thus leads the person to fully adopt the belief that the sin is bad and to distance themselves from repeating it.
Self-sanctification through purity
Individuals are encouraged to constantly push towards an ultimate and unattainable perfection. This may be rewarded with promotion within the group to higher levels, for example by giving them a new status name (acolyte, traveller, master, etc.) or by giving them new authority within the group.
Aura of sacred science
The beliefs and regulations of the group are framed as perfect, absolute and non-negotiable. The dogma of the group is presented as scientifically correct or otherwise unquestionable.
Rules and processes are therefore to be followed without question, and any transgression is a sin and hence requires atonement or other forms of punishment, as does consideration of any alternative viewpoints.
Loaded language
New words and language are created to explain the new and profound meanings that have been discovered. Existing words are also hijacked and given new and different meaning.
Doctrine over person
The importance of the group is elevated over the importance of the individual in all ways. Along with this comes the importance of the the group’s ideas and rules over personal beliefs and values.
Past experiences, beliefs and values can all thus be cast as being invalid if they conflict with group rules. In fact this conflict can be used as a reason for confession of sins. Likewise, the beliefs, values and words of those outside the group are equally invalid.
Dispensed existence
There is a very sharp line between the group and the outside world. Insiders are to be saved and elevated, whilst outsiders are doomed to failure and loss (which may be eternal).
Who is an outsider or insider is chosen by the group. Thus, any person within the group may be damned at any time. There are no rights of membership except, perhaps, for the leader.
We are not dealing with a political ideology. A heretical cult is making war upon the remnants of Christendom for total control of the West.
The only way to defeat this false faith is with true faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brian
Rogatio:
Once The witch test Is invoked
Engage? Ignore? Block?
xavier
Depends if the subject passes or fails.
Brian,
Thanks!
I pointed out the ghoulish New York abortion law to a death cult member. At first he denied that it existed. "Citation please."
Then he nitpicked Britebart as a source, while using the same article as a source to prove me wrong. (fail. He misread.)
Finally he settled on right to life being just as bad because somewhere a woman died because she couldn't have a 3rd trimester abortion. My turn to ask for a citation.
So if getting to murder your baby after it's born saves even one life, it's totes worth it to the death cult.
It's veruca-salt-ism – "Don't Care How. I Want it now!"
Anton LaVey was more candid: Do what thou wilt, and so forth. The witches are just as bad, with a no-harm-no-foul band-aid slapped on "My Will be Done!"
"So if getting to murder your baby after it's born saves even one life, it's totes worth it to the death cult."
Note how an appeal to morality undergirds the Moloch worshiper's whole argument.
Pin him down on that level. Ask him why legally sanctioned baby murder is morally preferable to a single death from pregnancy complications. Ask him why ANY circumstance is morally preferable to any other.
At the end of the day, Death Cultists are nihilists out to destroy truth–including moral truth. They crib from another moral system–and it's always Christian morality.
Simply deny it to them. Expose the contradiction.
Brian,
I did exactly as you suggested. The result? It didn't matter if a whole bunch of kids died because it saved one life. (I left that part out of the first comment because the death cultist didn't change stance or move the goal posts further.)
It's disgisting and evil. How far can you be in the death cult, and a dipshit atheist, and not become evil yourself? Any thoughts?
Dreams,
I would suppose that, in this case, a death cultist flips from bad to evil when the apologist for infanticide actually gets one or actively helps someone else procure one. On the other hand, the person you're dealing with now may be vehemently rationalizing infanticide as a post hoc defense of having done that already. I would also guess, hope, and pray that said person is vocally defending the indefensible because somewhere deep within, the Still Small Voice of God is still (in)audibly whispering "That was wrong. Repent. I love you. Come back before it's too late."
A self-correction, in the interest of truth: Infanticide is an act, so the correct verb would be 'to commit' or 'to commission'. It is not a product, so one doesn't 'get' an infanticide any more than one 'commits' a taco.
We're all created good in God's image, and we're all fallen.
God can save anyone, no matter how black his deeds, provided he turns from sin and repents. The question is, at what point is someone so frozen in his own sins that he will never repent, barring some catastrophic intervention?
Only God knows. A lot of these people need deliverance ministry or an exorcism before repentance is possible.
That's why the point of debating with them isn't to change the Death Cultist's minds. You can't. It's to show onlookers how evil the Cult is, which you did.
This was an IRL conversation that I dove into headfirst because I'm sick of this individual's shenanigans. So… Kinda like smacking the bottom of the pool, but not breaking anything.
The death cult with gladly make use of false gods old and new, and happily pretend that our God is no better than theirs. Reading The City of God has been a lot of fun, but St Augustine's points about the essential villainy of the Greco-Roman gods merely reinforces what anyone reading Edith Hamilton would notice: that Zeus and Hera and the rest are selfish, vindictive, and dishonest. A decent, honest Hellene was by definition a better person than his gods.
Yes, the Death Cult denies Christ while simultaneously co-opting His Church's morals. Once you point that out, their whole house of cards topples.
Robert Heinlein (through his
literary alter ego Lazarus Long) once said men rarely, if ever, create a god superior to themselves. While that does seem true for most of human history, Christianity looks like the exception. Maybe that's because the truth doesn't need to be made up.
The Bradford Walker aphorism:
You can't use Christian morality to undermine it.
xavier