Yeah, it’s a big family until your boss gets mad and you can’t talk back. Or get fired. ………when you disagree with how things are and want to try something more efficient……..
I grew up in a cult, and spent most of my life hopping from one cult to another. I finally got out when a friend who had grown up similar to me helped me see there truth of my situation. It took me years of therapy to begin to find some sense of recovery. Since I left, I've lost most of my family, but this is fairly normal among cults. Those who think they are too smart to join a cult are some of the easiest to trap. Cults look for intelligent and idealistic people. They are the best targets for recruitment.
A quote from The Gervais Principle: “[Sociopathic cult leaders learn that] the key, when betraying the idealistic, is to get them to blame themselves. With other followers, the key is to get them to blame each other. Each pattern of blame redirection gives us a particular theater… and the Sociopath derives different rewards” depending on the type of betrayal and the blame redirection used to ‘sell’ it I think cult leaders target the idealistic because they have the most accessible levers to manipulate. Less idealistic people are more likely to go along with the group, while idealistic types will follow what they believe to be true and morally right.
I’ve always been in the habit of calling any employer “they”instead of “we”. I like to keep a safe distance. If they look at me as a liability and as an expense, then I am going to look at them as a necessary, temporary, evil. I work, they pay me. Anything else is a non-starter. If you’ve gotta do team building exercises, you’re doing it wrong. Just pay people a living wage and treat them with respect. It’s really as simple as that.
I like to treat things a bit "mercenary" (aka "I pay you to do things for me" or "you pay me to do things for you") but apparently that's too spooky for people so
If employees are treated fairly employees have no reason to go after one another in the workplace. If you find out you get paid less than the new guy and the new guy only makes more because the boss was desperate to fill a spot that new employee has now become a target to every other employee in the workplace because they're getting preferential treatment. If companies actually promoted from within and paid people based off of seniority or time invested in the workplace instead of paying people to bribe them into staying or to draw new people in we'd have a lot less toxicity in the workplace. But the way it works now is you get treated really good for the first year and then after that they usually stop investing in an employee unless they're far above average, but those far above average individuals are also being shorted on their perspective value too. So the only way to get ahead is to job hop and demand a new job pay you more than the place you left, or to threaten your current boss with you quitting so they give you a bonus so you don't quit. If you go the old fashioned route and try hard work consistency and dedication you just get ignored and taken advantage of until you decide you don't want to deal with it anymore, only then do they offer you a raise.
Yeah. The minute it describes itself as such, red flag. Run away. You are a business, a job, a career choice. You want ppl to get along, but you are and will never be a family. They call themselves a family, that immediately tells me they blur lines between work and life outside of work, have issues with boundaries, and have a cult-like mentality that demands loyalty while giving none in return. Never wanna work at such a place ever again.
I did, but it's a question of how it is formulated. Not in a cult like manner but it regard to treatment of employees and benefits. Also I live in Germany.
this is really good. i’m autistic so was warned, when i was diagnosed, that was particularly vulnerable to cults. super helpful video in spotting warning signs.
@@Did_Diggie_Die_YetI’m autistic and I was told by the psychologist that diagnosed me with it said that I can be easily manipulated. That was true sadly…
@@kuroenekodemonI think you are doing satire but I can't tell. It is true that autistics like myself are easier to manipulate because we act with honesty and assume others do too. The reality is that by telling the truth we expose our weaknesses and then other people will agree with us. Thinking we have a connection, they will then manipulate us very often. Staying quiet is more powerful but more lonely. I wish it was easier for autistic people to hang out because we actually have shared values.
@@RorschachRevI agree. It’s unfortunate for sure. I’ve never told anyone I was autistic growing up. However I have been tricked a few times…. I’ve been preyed upon a lot as a young girl, even up until my young adult hood. People have always told me I was a good soul, I’ve been in so many situations that were dangerous due to my gullible ass. Narcs, even some neurotypical people do take the more empathetic people, and use them more than not. It’s a sad twisted world, but I still have hope for humanity. God I live in daily misery, constantly reminiscing the times I was lead on, and tricked. Awful thought loops. I’ve actually decided to no longer make any friends due to how many times I’ve been used. My dad is also autistic, and he’s never had a long lasting relationship with women. My step mother I knew my whole life, cheated on my dad for 6 years. We kept trying to tell him, everyone warned him, but he had hope still-- and that bitch capitalized off of it.
You know what gets me? Cult suicide makes us think, “Those people were brainwashed. They couldn’t escape.” And that’s true. But with business suicides, it’s, “If you don’t like your job, just leave. Just get another job.” It’s not always that easy. With my company for example (not going to name them for multiple reasons), one of the most effective ways to quit is to ghost the company. Clock out on break and don’t come back, or stop showing up for your shifts and stop answering the phone. If you go through the proper avenue of putting in your two week notice, they’ll do everything they can to convince you to stay.
My job is currently looking to bring everyone back into office. On the one day they brought everyone into the office because some “representative” from a news outlet came in to do an article on the company, the internet literally shat itself. I don’t know how they make these decisions without the consideration of the workers’ opinions and sleep at night.
Don't get me wrong, I know full well how difficult it can be to leave a job. But if they want you to stay that badly, negotiate. Tell them straight up, here are my terms, meet them and I'll stay. If they change enough that you can tolerate working there, do it. If not, leave. doesn't really matter what it is that you want, it's down to whether or not the company will accommodate you.
Well if they actually do value you that much that is a good place to be in terms of negotiations. I know how that is as well and I take whatever small advantage of it that I can, longer breaks and freedom to do the job how I feel it should be done. You do that long enough and you become absolutely indispensable to whatever company you work for and that is indeed a good place to be. I've pushed the line a few times but it's seriously like they are afraid to fire me. I could definitely get even more than I ask for I'll bet.
All the companies I worked for were very cult like, even subway franchises wanted me to be "like a family" which they use more to try to guilt you into additional work than they ever do to show appreciation, giving a two weeks notice gets a talk about how disappointed they are to lose me, but if I want to just leave them short staffed I can, and then they cut nearly all remaining hours from my schedule to make sure they give the smallest last check they can. A company that values employees would negotiate, a cult will make you feel guilty and convince you they are what is best for you without actually doing anything to be better for you.
Sounds like Liberator Medical Supply. I will out them because they got in trouble for fraud and.. some other things lol.. I literally used all my PTO and quit on vacation lol. Made sure all my files (patients) were taken care of and their Drs signatures were received.. and I acted like I was coming back. And took a 2 week vacation on a farm in TN. GO FIGURE because now that farm is also assumed to be culty (it was called Shut Up and Grow it) before they changed the name.. Needless to say.. I have now realized it is easy to get sucked into the cult mentality when the word family is thrown around. And it's better to just ghost than tell anyone your plans when it affects your literal livelihood
Back in college (in a the 80s) I had the opportunity to talk with a one time member of the Hitler youth and later fought as a Nazi. I asked him how he could have followed such obvious evil? He laughed and told me something that scared me then and still does “ah, you see, we knew that we were the good guys making the world a bette place.” He didn’t think that anymore and his biggest fear for the future was that America and Europe were so sure they could never do something like that. Now as an adult I share his fear.
that's insane really. the idea that the less wrong you assume that you can do, the more wrong that you actually are capable of doing. it checks out with psychopaths and sociopaths, I'm sure it goes deeper down the rabbit hole.
@@thefourthdymensionmusic “the less wrong you assume that you can do, the more wrong that you actually are capable of doing”. I think that statement applies to almost everyone. Everyone thinks that they’re on the right side of history. Everyone thinks that they are a good person. And that belief we all have has the potential to be incredibly dangerous if we don’t question and check ourselves.
@@thefourthdymensionmusicit's frustrating because it's easy to know if you're making the right choices.... but so many people have grown up and lived in such a convoluted family and community. In the US we have "ghettos" and "sundown towns" as opposite bubbles on the same isolation spectrum. Both make it hard to learn any better viewpoint than what one was told to them by parents and church. We don't place enough emphasis on learning how to researching actual sources besides our own favorite biased talk show news. That's why Propaganda working on people, is able to happen at all.
@@kayleighgroenendal8473 yeah I think the root of a lot of our societal problems is how people and where people are being raised. my generation got severely fucked up by last generation and the generation before that.
I completely agree. I was working at a lab where we were all paid minimum wage for highly specialized work. When I asked for a raise, I remember how I was told that this is a “passion driven industry” and that everyone else is here bc they want to be here and that I’m just not passionate enough or willing to give myself entirely to the field. Which in hind sight is 5000% cult like speech. I’m so glad I quit
Thats when you say, "Cool, but unfortunately my land lord and the local grocery store doesn't accept 'passion' as a form of payment. And, as a human, I require basic necessities."
Companies have become cults. Think of how often CEOs fail only to get shuffled around, false promises and such just to raise the net worth. People start dissassociating with other people and identifying by the company. It's weird
So many research labs operate on the false predicate of your time being less valuable than the potential breakthrough you can reach if you “just spend more time in the lab” or just “focus on the task at hand” when in reality, prepping samples, operating sensitive instruments, doing data analysis, and creating in depth reports are extremely time consuming processes that are draining and will not satisfy you socially or emotionally. To think that your time and precious moments of life are worth being tolled away for the possibility of a breakthrough is nefarious, even if your project is promising. I know many a lab mate who missed their child’s birth, their first steps, marriages of loved ones who are now deceased, all just to run a few more samples and reach that breakthrough that their advisor wanted so badly so they could fluff their next proposal. To those wanting to do research as a career, please ask your potential advisor (and their researchers/post docs) how they feel about you taking time off. Ask how they would respond to emergencies and if they’ve dealt with similar issues. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of for a few lines on your cv/resume.
A company that says it’s a family just means that management sees themselves as the parent figure with absolute authority, and the employees are the child figure who must do everything the parent says with zero questions
Eh. I'd say that's 50/50 of jobs now so not necessarily. More important to take note of how management works or doesn't work with each other and how management connects or doesn't connect with the workers.
@@nomemeshere4807 yeah, the term "we're a family" is so pervasive it's largely lost any real meaning as a red flag; in fact, its absence may as well be a red flag in signifying a place where the attitude is worse by design I'm not saying I dig the whole "we're family" thing, it's junk, just saying I don't think it's predictive of company culture, to nomemesphere4807's point.
I needed this video, I’m about to hit my 10 years of working at an Apple retail store and they truly exemplify this culture. I’ve been struggling to quit because even my friends and family that don’t work there, see it as the pinnacle of a career and don’t understand why I want to quit. There’s no opportunity for growth and they want you to work harder and harder but then say things like “we pay cost of labor not cost of living”.
I was trapped in a job that was slowly destroying me. I didn't realise how badly at the time, and you would not be able to see it all now. It's 5 years later and I still dont feel as happy as I should be. Leave brother, if anyone challenges you, talk about the 150 people on the roof at Foxconn. They were building apple products. Look after yourself.
Wow that’s really sick. Cost of labor, not cost of living?? Disgusting. I mean I guess that’s most places these days but still. Saying it out loud should be shameful. It’s not even shameful anymore to say the quiet parts out loud.
@@Flawda986idk how any human can say that to another person in full seriousness. Openly acknowledging that what they are paying you is not even MEANT to get them by in life, let alone live comfortably.
Apple is a cult… for years my friend tried to get me on to an iPhone and would say things like everyone he knows uses one… then the green/blue bubble stuff. There is the everything just works thing too… which is kind of true as long as you buy more apple products. Outside looking in, the ecosystem and culture is designed to pressure you into joining the group and force you into buying more apple products. Btw, got ticked with google and bought my first iPhone a couple months ago and the lady helping me said “welcome to the family “…
This video reminds me of when we tried to persuade our boss (twenty-something multi-millionaire startup founder) that we needed more holidays. As in, the same amount of holidays most other companies in the country have (and this is Japan we're talking about, which has notoriously few anyway!) He got extremely angry, seemed genuinely offended that we didn't want to work as much as possible for him, even though we were also being paid pretty badly. He told me I had a 'bad attitude' for not wanting to work more than the 8 hours a day that was stipulated in my contract. And he also knew full well I had a pregnant wife at home, to top it all off. Final straw was when I got a written reprimand the day after I came back from taking sick leave from having covid, at which point I quit on the spot. So fucking glad I did so. If you're working for one of these assholes, either quit, or if you're not in a financial situation to do so yet, start making a concrete exit plan. You won't regret leaving.
I have had so many lowkey abusive employers, and people don’t really seem to talk about the subject. Lots of us can relate to having bad managers or something, but it doesn’t seem to be an public discussion. And I think it should be. It’s no wonder there’s so many entrepreneurs these days.
In my youth I'd work extra for free at computer programming co-op-ed jobs got via the process at a university. I'd even go in on weekends (via special permission), so I could learn as much as I could of the new programming language to do the job better. In other blue-colar jobs later, I'd work more than the others who often took breaks to eat or smoke. I'd work thru those breaks in the hot sun, that I bore wearing full-sleeve shirts (cotton of course!) while the others would go shirtless lol. Now-a-days I'm a full-time volunteer caregiver for my mom, and my greedy dad won't even pay a living allowance, not even one enough to match the defined poverty-line. Can't go on strike & can't leave.
Tried to send this to my partner on the tablet I got for grad school, only to learn that RUclips for ios doesn't allow you to share videos that are deemed "inappropriate." The share button doesn't even exist. Had to pull up my watch history on my phone just to be able to send it. There's some very terrifying implications of a company deciding who can and can't see information about sensitive topics, and having that happen on this video of all things gave me chills.
Def a bug and probably not updated that up to date. Still weird that it happened, but can also easily be explained off unlike some other things. For over 2 months I couldn't share things from my tablet as well. It was mad annoying. Because I didn't do much on it I factory reset and let all the updates go through and finally it worked. My tablet had many bugs like constantly being slow for no reason, opening apps or closing apps without me doing anything. Turning off randomly. Shit was mad annoying. Apparently waiting to update instead of when the tablet says can cause buggy things. I hate tablets ngl. I've only ever had problems.
Hiding the share button does prevent harmful conspiracies from being spread around, unfortunately sometimes there are false positives Or this may be because of the mention of the s word, even talking about it can increase s word tendencies
I walked into Walmart one morning only to witness all the employees being called into a gathering where they began CHANTING some silly slogans over and over. After they were done they all were meant to cheer and clap, but I could tell most of them weren’t feeling it. It reminded me of stuff I witnessed when I almost got mixed up in a cult at age 17.
I remember doing that, I just took it as building morale, it’s not like they were sacrificing to a Sun God or anything, or had someone up there getting Pentecostal preacher on us.
I observed the same thing at a Walmart early one morning. It was creepy! I also got that vibe attending a Tupperware rally with a friend who was a sales consultant back in the 1980’s. They had what seemed like an invocation, followed by singing at the beginning. Then there was something like liturgy interspersed in the program. It made me exceedingly uncomfortable. I wasn’t religious, but still, it felt like idolatry.
💔 when you said “They could be fooled but I couldn’t” I originally was thinking “pfft not me!” Then you started talking about corporate cults and I realized I am part of one currently. I just put in my two week notice on Monday and they tried to guilt trip me into staying. They require mandatory overtime and told me I need to learn two other job functions but they don’t intend to pay me more… I was a little shocked they said all this with a straight face. It got really bad over the last year. I cross a bridge on my way into the office every day. The thoughts of driving off it were growing more and more. The day I put my notice in I honestly felt a weight come off my shoulders. I’m just going to pull my retirement and try to build my own art business. Even if I fail at least I will have know I tried.
Good for you for getting out of that environment. I’m becoming more and more intolerant of abusive working conditions in my own career. It’s good to have high standards.
@@jp-gy3vhI feel like a lot of people are waking up to how terrible work environments are. They call us a family and talk about work life balance but honestly it’s all talk. No amount of money is worth my mental health. Just knowing I’m working my last two weeks currently has boosted my mood so much! I will probably find another job to supplement my life but I’m going to take my time picking a better company this time.
After reading Cultish as part of my corporate job’s book club, I couldn’t stop bringing up how closely it resonated that our company was so similar, but the difference was we didn’t feel “as desperate” as some victims. P.S. Glad you didn’t stray away from the usage of the word suicide. Makes me feel weird it’s getting removed from the internet.
Yeah, I personally hate the trend of saying "unaliving" or just censoring the word altogether. It seems to undercut the severity of possibly the most severe thing a person can do to oneself. But the almighty algorithm dictates it. Plus, as someone who has dealt with suicidal thoughts myself, I don't mind the word "suicide" at all. It feels like people who haven't dealt with such thoughts firsthand are making the decision on my and like people's behalf, very white knight-like.
The only people who censor it are those who rely on views/advertisement for income. Remember: you (and your attention) are the product if they are changing what is said/seen to meet the algorithm
I've been studying high-control groups for years - high control groups (or cults) can be varied. Business organisations, karate dojos, MLMs, MAGA, internet-only groups. One thing I learned is that anyone who sees themselves as too savvy and intelligent to get sucked into a group like this, is actually just as vulnerable as your everyday "searcher". Everyone is vulnerable. Even former cult-members. The best thing to do is recognise the features of a high control group and recognise you're not immune. Anyhoo, thanks for the vid.
It was such a red-flag for me at my sales job, my boss had sent a few of us to a sales convention and I pointed out to him 1 of the things on the program: "how to build a cult-like following out of your team." To me it was the grossest thing I'd seen, but for him, you could practically see his eyes flash with excitement. Fast forward to now, and I guess he got what he wanted. A bunch of new hires that post constantly in the group chat about how much they love work. And when he asks what prizes should be for milestones, instead of saying cash like normal people, they ask for company outings... Yeah I don't work there anymore. I need a more jaded workplace please.
There's a whole lot of information on how minimum wage laws actually backfire on the people they purport to help. HOWEVER that should not mean work conditions should be dangerous or abusive. Stuff like not being able to take bathroom breaks, having dangerous stuff, or bosses being cruel or insulting, etc. is NOT cool.
@@pizza-pi Consider a summer part time job that a kid who still lives at home and is on their parents’ insurance and everything gets. There are actually a lot fewer of those to go around now than there used to be for people to build up experience prior to move out, because employers can’t afford it. Also, another weird thing about the minimum wage besides reducing the number of jobs available for younger workers is that it ALSO makes it easier for an employer to discriminate! You wouldn’t think, but if you have more people competing for fewer slots, it leads to a lot more opportunities for people to get picky and start letting things influence their rationale that shouldn’t be relevant. The economist Thomas Sowell can explain it a lot better though, and I think there may be some videos around here where he does lectures and audiobook readings from his work and I recommend it because he’s very factual and generally stays out of mudslinging and other irrational things to stick with just the facts. That’s a rare commodity these days. After all, I think a lot of people have good intentions and the ideas they espouse (like very high minimum wage laws) really do sound awesome on paper but have unintended consequences. So like I said, I’m more interested in working conditions, safety, behavior, and other things of that nature because those are to me much more unambiguous in being genuinely helpful and not backfiring in unintended ways.
@@fourierbirdyes, we are seeing it in America. Trump openly admits he will be a dictator... but only for "one day" 🙄 him and other conservative politicians are openly telling us what they are planning on doing and we can see what they've been doing and it looks very "authoritarian" to me. promising to give Trump unlimited presidential power, to send people to concentration camps, to shut down media they don't agree with, to give military more power inside us borders aka over us citizens, banning books, banning words and phrases, banning forms of entertainments they don't agree with "drag shows" among others, trying to control what goes on between patient and doctor, trying to control who people can sleep with or date, trying to put big gov into our churches while pretending it's the other way around (putting church in gov), and I can go on. they want to control what they average person does by constructing perimeters to our "freedom". it has to be agreeable to their version of freedom or its not acceptable. they are perpetual victims always blaming others for things they bring on themselves all while supporting one Almighty leader they see as a god among men.
That, and because the idea of spirituality has been sidelined, so cults are free to fill that void for those who need it. Quick social experiment: if you rolled your eyes or cringed at the word "spirituality", why is that?
Starbucks was like this. the "specialized language," the emphasis on family and teamwork and community, the idea that we were "changing the world one cup at a time," and especially the language that the corporate leaders would use to talk about the union.
If anything, Starbucks is actively making the world a worse place by enabling people to more easily indulge in their coffee addictions, and promoting the stress and anxiety that caffeine is known to cause. Not to mention all the humanitarian and environmental atrocities taking place along the coffee supply chain...
in ottawa the teachers don't say, "he' or 'she' anymore. It;'s they for every lecture. they have a cultish Canadian language being used now. are any other countries this dumb and cultish?
@@MicahMicahellmao that’s not cult-like language, that’s just regular language being used the way it has for hundreds of years to refer to someone whose gender is unknown (ie. “someone forgot their keys”). maybe instead of being so worried about what’s happening in schools, you should actually attend one.
"I'm making this because currently it's a time of social and economic instability, and historically this is when cults tend to thrive." Thank you man. Awareness is key. Everyone, check in with friends and family from time to time. If we all did that, people wouldn't feel so desperate and wouldn't end up in places like this as easily
I've been trying to tell my friends for years cults are the behaviors, not the beliefs. Thank you for this, it took the analysis to places I hadn't gone before.
@@bmoe4609 you can believe in aliens and believe they're talking to people or whatever, but if you don't demand others believe and sell your life to someone over it, than it's not a cult, it's just a quirky bit if nonsense that appeals to you. And perhaps it makes you easier to target, but cult leaders would just choose different topics if they couldn't get people to follow them, which is why some cults look sensible, or comparable to other systems from the outside. Making it your whole identity... The way one follows a leader, etc. That makes it a cult.
@@Banana_Slammait depends what you're calling beliefs. They're probably talking about spirituality or mysticism not being cultish. As a good rule of thumb if they're "personal" beliefs rather than group ideologies it's not cultish.
My mother was one of the lawyers for the victims of the France Télécom trial; apparently nobody learnt their lessons about what happens when you take a national utility and privatize it and try to squeeze as much profit from it as possible because they're doing the exact same thing with the post office (La Poste)
The fact that the US military uses all of these tactics is wild (I served 6yrs active duty). You learn a whole different language and set of customs. You're even held to special laws called the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. From week 1 you wear a uniform to create an "us and them", they separate you from any outside influence for 2-6 months(depending on branch), sleep deprivation, constant exercise, and above all obedience to those appointed above you under threat of punishment.
@@letsgetreal6402 Depends. If the training is about what needs to be achieved is ckear and legit, then yes. But it is my experience that dumbing down just for the sake of cohesiveness achieves poor results. Its not the best men that gets recruited in armies as well.
I grew up in a cult and somehow found the courage to leave on my own, and thinking of cults as a spectrum is going to change the way I see cults forever
My maternal family seems to be a cult of the matriarchal figure ( my grandma). She shames the family into compliance with her at the risk of exhile ( you can leave but it's for good and she'll never talk to you again "I've disowned you") and she's a fickle woman. I haven't talked to her in years, but she still has my mom feeling depressed about herself since she was a teenager... and she just can't walk away from the toxicity. And if the family still ensnared talks to the exhiled family she shames them for that so they will join her in cutting them off from family contact. Does that sound cultish to you?
@@polyesterbees i believe its called that because this type of abuse is seen in narcissists and those with disorders that have narcissism as a symptom. theres no way to make it pretty or happy, nor should there be.
The crazy thing is I'm watching this while thinking "why didn't they leave their job before it got so bad" while I'm on year 4 of recovering from a job that lowkey gave me PTSD. It's so true. There's such a disconnect from these stories because you can't visualize what leads to this state of mind but it creeps up on you.
Exactly. I didn’t realize how badly my workplace had destroyed my mental and emotional health until I literally had a breakdown and ended up in the hospital. I didn’t see the decline until I crashed.
Well said! I wholeheartedly hope that you’re mentally healing from the substantial stress/traumatic environment you were exposed to, and that your situation is improving with time. Take care; you deserve to be at peace, healthy, fulfilled, and without ANY guilt for needing this time to recover from whatever you were put through! Keep fighting for yourself, friend ❤
@@thejokersmistress15So sorry you’ve been through this also! I pray you are recovering your health and sense of well-being … it’s beyond sick that we all have to work to live, and founders down to lower-level bosses so pervasively take advantage of this to the point of treating employees as punching bags, like psychopathic children abusing little animals they’ve caught.
I’ve studied the case of France Telecom several times for school projects, and the only nuance I’d give to what you said is that people were not just pressured to achieve business goals, they were purposefully sabotaged to force them out of the company, while avoiding to compensate them for firing them. They had strategies that involved maximizing uncertainty, reducing familiarity with one’s working environment by forcing people to change services, changing their management roles. They put people in a perpetual change to make them lose all sense of purpose and/or self confidence. I’d argue that this particular example doesn’t quite illustrate the point that companies are cults (they were not trying to change the world, they were trying to bypass the law in order to avoid financial loss), but more so that companies have the power to push people to their limit, and that it can lead to terrible consequences… But yeah, businesses are not our friends. Of course we can look to have our fun at work, and create some feeling of belonging, but it also makes it harder to keep our thoughts clear when it starts to go too far …
It might be helpful to replace the word "cult" with "abusive organization" and "cult member" with "abuse victim" because that's basically what it is. It's narcissistic abuse on a large scale and anyone can be a victim.
@@fire4funnobody is saying that the disorder is solely responsible for the abuse. The reason people phrase it that way is because abuse done by a narcissist tends to be distinct from other forms of abuse, and it's an easy way to be specific.
@@fire4fun narcissists are well known for certain behaviours and types of abuse other abusers aren't. That's the reason it's called narcissistic abuse - because it's abuse committed by a narc, and positions of authority and power tend to attract narcissistic personalities.
@@ShintogaDeathAngel that's just it. abuse committed by a narcissist. so it's abuse, you just want to specify that it's from a narcissist. i'm a narcissist. abuse is abuse no matter who does it. there's no need to specify if it's from a disorder. if a bipolar person abuses you, would you call it bipolar abuse? if someone with DID abuses you, would you call it DID abuse? you just want to demonize a disorder because the disorder revolves around the self. NPD is a personality disorder. disorders don't make you abusive. being abusive makes you abusive.
The Union busting clip gave me chills. I think that kind of mindset circulated around a lot, I grew up in an environment where they really are convinced it's taboo to even consider your right as an employee. That i should be always on my best behavior. It's so disgusting to realize how it permeated our culture and our parents who taught us to be company-compliant zombies
It's always interesting talking with Americans and seeing how deeply this has influenced the culture. @struthless I'd love to see a video around how fear of communism/mccarthyism fueled this anti-union and anti-worker rights culture!
@@_KiwiDad American here, weighing in! I think part of it is that in our country, we have the ability to step outside the system after we’re participated for a while. The “American dream” for some of us is to save money, buy a small plot of land, and live on our own, grow our own food, and not worry about what other people are doing. I think part of that comes from being around so many people that we’re exposed to the worst of humanity on a daily basis. Ask anyone that’s worked retail or in a call center, and you’ll hear horror stories of rudeness and anger. It seems much harder in a communistic country to say, “No thanks, I’ve done this long enough, and I’d like to focus on the happiness of myself and my family. Society can work on its own issues without me. I’m retiring to my farm!” It’s almost a selfishness brought on by the trauma of having such a vast and diverse country, where values and goals can differ immensely from family to family, which sometimes results in conflict. It seems like functional communist countries are much more socially homogeneous than Americans could ever imagine.
Idk I’m from Washington state which has a rich history in labor unions and has very strong unions. Most people I know who are unionized hate them to some degree. They’re just another power hungry, greedy entity in your life that rarely helps you when you need them. More often the union’s are focused on political power than improving the life of their members. The employees get bilked for union dues, the negotiating is so bad it takes YEARS and there are actually really bad policies the union instituted that are almost impossible to change. I’ve had better experiences working for government or companies that actually care about people because the leadership isn’t toxic.
@@pnwlady oof that sucks :( for us in the Philippines, we barely even get started with union stuff. We're just stuck getting shit jobs and have to live with nepotism and company politics
@@_KiwiDad I'm not American, I'm from the Philippines -- then again we were an American colony in some ways for quite a long time so I guess we are culturally following American work standards and politics? Lol
What an incredibly powerful and well-done video. I've done creative work with a bunch of startups and sometimes the culture just felt weird to me... and now I know why
Well all "culture" is basically cultish. I mean, really think about think. It's shaping the way you think and act because you think you're apart of some group that you can't leave. Because it's "your" culture. I haven't looked into it but I wouldn't be surprised if culture is derived from cult
@@jamesp7271when the microorganisms completely take over, the benefits of a "cultured" (tempered) approach vanish as the concentrated organisms go anaerobic in their highly competitive environment and start pumping out toxins.
Lol yes, I also worked in the tech sector pre Covid and absolutely. Lots of specialized languages. Lots of sex in the workplace via sponsored events tbh. It was crazy time lol “Should we hire this person that is qualified for the job?” “Idk if they are “xyzian”
I can't tell you how true it is. IF YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT SUSCEPTIBLE YOU ARE WRONG. Everyone is capable of getting dragged into things and most of the time they won't realise it's happening
As a two time Amway participant, I have seen the cult atmosphere of corporate "team building". Thankfully it was never something I've bought into. I think it's always been because of my experience with sports throughout my life. I have always been "last-picked", so I have an innate distrust of anyone trying to be so deliberately inclusive. I see through the BS they're shoveling for what it is.
I think it's disgusting how scared unions make business owners Like god forbid we want a safe work environment where I can get sick without fear of losing my job for example
Unfortunately it isn't that unions "scare" corporations, it's just that unions are bad for business, workers have power through unions, and if and when they use that power then they can force a company to listen, and listening costs companies money. Yes this is an oversimplification of the issue at hand, if you would like me to write a long winded reply I will happily do so, but if not I'll leave it here.
It's importants that unions don't become TOO powerful though. A healthy work economy requires the workers and leaders to have equal negotiating power. Right now, business leaders have too much power and the workers don't have nearly enough. However, if workers get too much power, you get shit like the police union refusing to fire corrupt officers. Balance is everything
@@olianims Look. We're the market that all the businesses are selling stuff to. If the pay scale goes up, it costs companies _in the short term._ Long term, _it actually expands the middle class and expands the market that businesses are selling to._ When we make more money, we can buy more stuff. So fighting against better pay is actually putting short-term loss ahead of long-term benefits for the entire market. Companies don't do long-term thinking well, they think in quarter-year terms.
@@KaspYAR Unions are great for business, they're just bad for the profit of the bosses. You see, they increase worker health, happiness, motivation, and wellbeing. This increases worker retention, reduces worker sick days, increases productivity both quantitatively and qualitatively, and all that together leads to a better market position. And all it costs is a fairer division of the profits. But since the ones who decide how to divide the profits are the ones that get the most profits, they're not incentivized to vote against their own interests.
@@grmpEqweer u misunderstand me. I'm all for unions. But even more so, I'm for proper balance. The job market is way too favorable for employers now at the cost of employees, but we shouldn't get carried away with unions and completely flip the scale
This is a big problem in the non-profit sector where they can't motivate employees using wages, so they use ideology to keep them instead. As you said in your video, idealistic people who want to make the world a better place are susceptible to this kind of marketing... and that's exactly the type of person who non-profits attract. They're willing to sacrifice their time and money as long if they can make an impact in their community. That's a good thing, but there's lots of people willing to exploit it.
I worked for a place like this for an abusive boss of a "non-profit" (the profits had to be reinvested into the company, meaning he could pay himself millions and bankroll his entire family who worked there). The company's mission seems great but everyone there gets treated like garbage and he would get angry at people doing things that helped the mission if it didn't have a profit incentive attached to it. All while trying to gaslight people into believing things that aren't true but make sense in his fucked-up world view, telling you "its not about the money", acting like he treated everyone like family (based on how he acts he probably treats his family like garbage too) and lording the mission over people who complain. It seems like he's trying to do the whole cult leader thing but isn't very successful at it; the only people drinking his kool-aid are his family members. But still, the people who stayed don't leave because they genuinely care about their job which helps the world, enough that they could put up with the bullshit of one small man. I feel bad for falling for his crap but I hear about it a lot in the tech industry. It didn't help that he sounded so damn confident saying things that clearly were untrue, leaving us questioning things constantly while he never gave anything a second thought. I hope that we as a society can learn to see through these narcissists/sociopaths/whatever it is that they are and not actively reward this kind of behavior. It fucks me up knowing that these people (if you can call them that) are lurking everywhere, pretending they're one of us, constantly looking for new ways to exploit everyone around them.
so much this.... lost my friend to actual volunteer group. Like you can't tell her "stop helping people!" but she is taken advantage of so easily and it derailed the crucial decade of her life that cannot be recovered even if attempt was made and it's not...
My experience was therapy was very much a cult experience. It took a lot to break away from it and recover. The worst part is how therapy abuse is downplayed and therapy is so encouraged.... its so easy for vulnerable people to be brainwashed and abused.
Med system/healthcare is often like this. Don’t question the guru. Bullied into meds/treatments. Testing/surgeries glorified. When something goes wrong, you are gaslighted or “dead to them”. The recent global injection campaign used cult tactics (language, a “uniform”, authority worship, brainwashing, bullying/peer pressure, group think, penalties for leaving the cult, etc).
I discovered this by accident. I had been to quite the number of therapists years ago. I’d stay with one until they started to “tell” me what I should be doing. At about the 5th one, this happened quickly. It finally dawned on me they were all like this; total control freaks. If you didn’t follow what they thought was best to them, you weren’t getting better. This last one, I called and left a message canceling my appointment. She had the nerve to call me next day and demand I make another one. I told her if I ever heard from her again I’d sue her for harassment. I’ve never gone to another counselor again.
- Job that claims it’s going to give you a sense of belonging and higher purpose and a new lifestyle -promises stability and certainty and benefits -sings a bunch of songs celebrating the workplace -has ritualistic celebrations of the workplace -has a charismatic leader, that branches down to a chain of command -found dead wearing all the same clothes, but the victims are martyrized … The US Military has joined the chat
But it does do those things And it is not too difficult to get kicked out… And it does change you for the rest of your life in a good way For most people… And you also KNOW and are quite aware of what you signed up for For most people…
@@NotThisShipSister1 lmao, ma’am. Let’s let the veterans decide if that’s true. Go interview them. You can usually find at least a few in your local homeless camp! 😊
@@NotThisShipSister1Changes their life in a good way? What about all the currently homeless vets? What about life-changing injuries? It’s hard to understand what you’re signing up for when the horrors of war aren’t openly talked about, instead they’re replaced by recruiters parroting all the benefits and “what a hero!” You’ll be. Michelle, the military is a bonafide cult and YOU have fallen for the propaganda.
The last job that I had was a nightmare, it changed me, I lost any sense of contentment or happiness, I had anxiety, depression, I feared everyday. I was a single Mom of 2 girls, I was so exhausted all the time, trying to find a new job was too overwhelming to even think of adding to my day on top of everything. Being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer saved me, the day I found out I asked my Dr 'when do I stop work to start treatment' and she said 'now if you want.' I was so relieved, because my benefits would kick in and I'd never have to return. I'd never felt so miserable and stuck as I did there. Cancer saved me, pretty wild.
Cancer saved me too, which is a sentence I should never have to say. After the cancer I realised I couldn't push my body that hard anymore and that it had limits. I chose a job that catered to me, not the other way round. I will never put a job first over my health again. I'm fully aware of my employment rights now too. Anyone reading this please get Critical Illness insurance cover. It'll save you financially if the worst happens and has allowed me to work part time.
My illness saved me from a religious cult and an abusive marriage. Ten years later and I'm still trying to recover my health, my mind and my children. I don't know if I will ever get there but I keep trying.
That’s not “wild” that’s just stupid! All that negativity in your life from hating a job you force yourself to endure, is more than likely what contributed to your cancer. You could have just as much put more positive energy and effort into finding a job you love a lot more than dealing with all of that crap AND not made yourself sick in the process.
@@Lacroix999 Come on, show some empathy. When you have depression and are constantly burned out because you're a single mom and have a job that makes you miserable, you can't "just" change you mindset to a more positive one. You would probably have barely enough energy to make it through everyday life, and maybe not even that. Looking for a new job is exhausting, especially when you have two kids to account for. It's not stupid, it's just beeing a human in a difficult situation.
@@Hendrik_F Thank you. I have three kids to support, and these jobs have this routine down to a science. They keep you exhausted so that you don't have the time or will to get your stuff together and leave. They bleed you for extra hours and more work, knowing that they'll burn you out and replace you with another just like you, and you're stuck because you have responsibilities.
I've joined a cult. It was a religious one called SGI Buddhism which stands for sokka gakkai international. I didn't know it was a cult until I joined. It's a huge cover for human trafficking too. I escaped but I'm technically still registered as a member, I just kinda ghosted them. Edit: also when I worked at Chipotle it had special language, tried to make us work off the clock and all sorts of weird things that reminded me straight up as a cult, which is why I would joke it was Chipotle-Cult-le. Lol
I was a member of SGI, guess I still am but I only went because I had a workmate that was involved and I just went for chats. Didn’t know about hunan trafficking.
@@Eeveeswhimsicalwonders Chipotle have an internationally recognised b /o y / l o v e symbol that is registered on the FBIs website in how to recognise the 'feet people'
I was also part of SGI for a while and can confirm. I always knew it was a cult so I basically went to watch the shenanigans and hang out... Once they tried to get me to start paying for membership I disappeared. I could give entire lists of cultish things they did...
My parents were hippies and my dad, being a coalminer from WV, was a lifetime member of the UMWA (United mine workers of America). I have always been leery of corporations and their staunch rejection of worker unionization, especially with the 'right to work' laws and various other strategies big business uses to disguise their domination over employees lives. The biggest threat to their success is worker organization and solidarity. Nothing is more thrilling than videos like this, revealing truth and spreading the word! Thank you brother!
My wife worked for Trader Joe's for a couple years. When she came home and told me how things are ran, the terminology they use, etc. my response was she was joining a cult.
The author of Cultish, Amanda Montell, also has a phenomenal podcast called “Sounds Like a Cult.” They’re pretty tongue in cheek and cover the cultishness of “normal” things, like “the cult of Disney Adults” or “the cult of Peloton,” so it’s a very fun listen. But at the same time, they’re pointing out how a lot of things we blindly accept have these troubling undertones in common with more overt cults. Highly recommend.
Yeah I feel the same way about lots of things, but sports fans come to mind. They literally go through a fit of rage and depression when their team is losing or loses. The sense of identity fans feel is too much lol. There isn't anything on planet Earth worth getting that worked up over
Same, I didn't work there long (thank the lord) but I already knew how bad it was and I never wanna work there again... If there were no other jobs in the world and an amazon werehouse was the last job ever... I'd rather go homeless and d1e
as someone who escaped a suicide cult when i was in high school and college, they are so predatory on exactly what you think you need and want. they are.. extremely manipulative and it so fucking terrifying when you look back after you’ve been removed. it’s never the fault of the people dragged in, only the fault of the leaders. i truly want people to understand that there’s no such thing as consenting to a cult. it is so so hard to think of that. as a survivor. but you are always harmed if you’re bought into a cult.
I worked for a company that I genuinely believe is a cult. They used cult indoctrination tactics on us. They isolated us and made us feel like our coworkers were our only community. I was so stressed out at that job because I felt I was constantly at risk of loosing my job, and in turn loosing my community and identity.
17:30 When I started working corporate again this year after about 6 being self-employed, I was shocked to have a 20-minute anti-union video as part of the computer-based “training”. It makes sense since unions are more active now than they’ve been in ages, but it was so blatant and dishonest…reminded me a lot of my mother trying to scare me out of calling CPS when I was a kid.
OOF LOL my mom used to tell us all the time that the cops would just make everything worse… I think the most chilling part is that she was probably right, who knows what the foster system would've done to us.
@@ZhovtoBlakytniyI think it’d be better to tell future employees that for example you were not treated right and now you are pursuing something better, I think that’s admirable or should be 😢
Mate, this essay has absolutely blown my tiny mind. I was one of those people, suicidal over my workplace. I ended up hospitalised. It was only a year ago. I was bullied, ostracised, gaslit, and I believed I deserved it all. But this video, man, this video has absolutely reframed my thoughts around the whole situation. The people bullying me were absolutely displaying cult like behaviour. Amazing when you're with them, demonised if you're not. I'm actually just sitting on my couch rethinking every interaction, nasty comment, purposeful exclusion, the list goes on. I am so grateful I'm still here, that I was able to leave and find myself again. I am so grateful that you made this video, and I found it. Thank you.
I know we don’t know each other but I am really happy you’re still here. ❤ Unless someone has gone through this they just don’t understand, I’ve been there too. Hugs to you!
I’ve been there too. It’s beyond painful when the ideals you do carry are used against you, toward making you doubt and blame yourself. I’m glad you got out of that situation, and I’m glad you’re still here 💜
"Amazing when you're with them, demonised if you're not. I'm actually just sitting on my couch rethinking every interaction, nasty comment, purposeful exclusion, the list goes on." --This is me now, thinking about my family that won't talk to me! Well put!
I think a good video to make would be one of how people trapped in cults found ways to leave them. Because as you said, these members are people, and people deserve to be empowered. As a person who wants to change the world for the better, I find that many such folk have minds that are open to new ideas. Cults will play to that and lure people in with such talk. I was accosted by a cult member, and she mentioned the name of her organization (can't remember) but she invited me off campus to watch some movies. It turned out only her husband, she, and I would be the only ones there, in a bare room, with a bare chair, and an old-fashioned 16-mm film reel projector. That, and she and her husband appeared incongruous to me. Though that was back in 1983, that projector was still ancient technology. VCR's were the current tech. I begged off saying I had an appointment and I was late. This lady walked me out and tried to ask me for information on my address. I put her off while saying I really had to run. And I did. I ran inside one of my college buildings and ran up one staircase and down another on the opposite end of the building before I was sure I was rid of her. I say look for things that seem unusual for your current culture as you experience it. Are there any misalignments in your encounter? One might not be enough to ring an alarm bell, but others might. Do they take you out of familiar settings? Off campus, away from your neighborhood? Are you taken by yourself away from friends and family? As much as you might feel estranged from your family that you live with, a cult member can take you out of your familiar surroundings and secure settings. This is a way they can make you vulnerable, and they can start saying they can provide you with your needs and security. If you think that what they do is stupid, don't be afraid to act on that feeling and leave. Don't give them any information about yourself or your friends and family. Pay attention to details. It might seem to feel disingenuous, impolite or even prejudiced, but even that can help you put the cult pieces together. When you leave, do not think you owe them anything, not even politeness. Use any excuse, no matter how lame, if you need to. I hope my experience of a near miss can help you avoid cults. I was lucky in 2 ways: I got away, and I found an article in the newspaper about that cult and where they were-exactly where I was the previous day. Not too long after that, they were no longer there. Okay, lucky 3 ways-or more. You won't necessarily know if what you walked away from was a cult. But don't think you did anything wrong by doing what you did. Even if you don't get confirmation.
Every major corporation worldwide, and especially America has their own body count. Inadequate wages, outrageous expectations of their employees, deliberate understaffing, micro managing, vacation time that can never be taken, long hours, and a constant state of paranoia caused by being told all day every day they’re not preforming up to “standards”. I wish I had a true number on those that simply checked out, rather than suffer the depression and humiliation of leaving the insanity. And the simple answer to that by corporate America is “next”…..
This is what Cinema Therapy would call a vegetables video - not fun and fluffy, but important to consume to keep you healthy. Fantastic video Cam, one of your best yet.
While working as an event technician, I saw something wild at a big company meeting. A guy with stage 4 cancer told everyone he'd work until his last breath because being without work was worse than dying. His family was there, crying. The whole thing was just messed up - felt like a cult.
To be frank, it may just be how he perceives life. What's the point of wasting away my days doing nothing, when I can do something? I wouldn't necessarily attribute his beliefs to a cult-like following.
@@ghoultooth you are missing the point. Some people find value in contributing in some way, shape, or form to society. That's what they feel makes them purposeful in life. You can say maybe it is a flawed belief, but it is completely wrong to say it is cult-like.
@@troybaxterthe idea that one’s only use in society and only purpose is to work, to help fund a business, is inherently cultish. The engrained idea that the most important thing you can do is work is cultish.
Dude. Thank you for this. My dad spent decades under the boot of corporate culture. I saw how he was torn apart by being a cog in the machine. We are all susceptible. We're all on the same team. Damn man, what a good video!
From the beginning, thank you for treating this topic with respect and for calling out the Spectacle that people make cults into. Cult members are vulnerable people in society, often no different from any homeless person other than who they hung out with.
Thank you for this. It's a shame RUclips restricts this. This is important stuff we all need to address, especially in this modern age of misinformation and institutional gaslighting. Respect.
@bbbean Big brand tv shows have suicide mentioned in their shows, and yt still sells episodes. They are a cult like company that takes advantage of the children who are victimized on this platform and takes advantage of the urge for communication that humans have.
I'm really happy to see the topic covered so thoughtfully. The erasure of the word Suicide from our acceptable online vocabulary doesn't erase the problem, it only heightens the stigma and discourages productive discussion about the nuanced circumstances surrounding a choice like that. Sometimes it is because of a religion, a cult, or a job, but it's never not a tragedy.
The HBO Max Heaven’s Gate documentary is the best documentary I have ever seen about any cult. I felt like it was devoid of the dehumanization or the blaming of the victims and the art style is beautiful. I haven’t actually finished it because even tho I’ve known about Heaven’s Gate since I was a child before watching the documentary, the weight of it all haven’t downed on me and I kept sobbing and it all got a bit too much. But I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is interested in Heaven’s Gate or cults in general. It’s a very human depiction.
I want to personally thank this video. Today was my last day at a start up that definitely carried itself like a cult as you described in this video. A start up that destroyed my mental health but I felt like I had no agency to leave. This helped me come to an important self reflection I needed to come to terms with
Are you… trying to get me to join your cult? If so, mission accomplished! In all seriousness, this video was almost like a public service announcement and I appreciate the care and empathy you have for your fellow man. Stay the course, Cam! 🙏❤️
My life partner of many years and certified wonderful person once got caught up in what was effectively a cult. A friend of hers had recommended she'd take a look at what seemed to be a "coaching group" around a self proclaimed expert of things generally. Over time she started loosening and severing ties with family members, me and friends and parted from a small fortune to the profit of the group leader. It took her a few years to get out and get an idea what had happened. She lost a lot of money and not all her relationships could be built back to what they were before. She is smart, hard working, down to earth and the kindest heart you'll ever meet. She then had solid and loving family, a safe and caring relationship and friends who were committed and full of adoration for her. Yet, in a relatively minor spiritual crisis or introspective period she fell for the cult. If it can happen to her, it really can happen to anybody. It happens to people, that's all they are. And that's what all of them are.
This is great ! Well not the cult part . But this definitely needs to be talked about. I was raised in a cult as a child and understand the very subtle manipulation. That opened my mind and saw the patterns in everything from religion, fashion ,social media platforms, celebrity to business. Once you see you can't unsee. So glad you are bringing this subject to light !
You could go on much longer about this topic. I'm currently in therapy largely for how the work conditions of companies I've worked for have caused me trauma. I won't get into it here, but you did a very good thing by making this video. Thank you for shedding light on this correlation
I believe it. I've been there. I don't know how old you are; but I started noticing the abundance of uncontrollable bullies in the workforce about a decade ago. It's never been perfect, but now they can bully with impunity.
I worked for a company that made me suicidal. I got out, but it’s is affirming to have you confirm my suspicions. I have been learning about cults recently, and have slowly realized that the company was decidedly cultish. It’s nice to have someone else connect these dots as well.
It's interesting the concept of the word cultish. You wouldn't say a scam is scammy. It's either a scam or not. So wouldn't that be the same for something that is a cult. It occurs to me this video explains that there is a spectrum but, I'd argue they would still be considered a cult and not cultish.
I applied at Amazon and made it through the zero-day initiation, but it gave me the cultiest vibes. They were insistent on making sure we knew the Face of Bezos, and had a two-man team singing alternating praises of his business acumen. They even said that they didn't need to run a single advertisement until around 2016, which is a bald-faced and easily disproven LIE! 2000 or so, they were expanding their stock and hyping up that they had toys for the holidays. And it was just too memorable, I had to call them out on it. Didn't really push the issue any, but it left a funny tingle in the back of my brain and I just walked off the job before even starting. All this "great man" myth garbage, he came from wealth and he got lucky. If he'd won a lottery nobody would respect his money, but it's basically the same event.
I applied to Amazon once at a career fair in college. It was all the crap that they started sending me that felt like straight up war time propaganda that made me just skip orientation. I got a poster that was an Uncle Sam away from trying to get me to buy war bonds and plant a victory garden. It was so creepy.
@@kermeinchara4328Sharing their local warehouse on the internet probably isn’t the smartest idea, but there’s evidence of similar stuff online if you look it up.
I considered doing an Amazon job once and I remember the online orientation felt so manipulative, like they made you do a trivial task and then hype you up about it like "wow!!! Amazing!!! Not everyone is able to complete this!!!" When I imagine that is only barely true
There was a short-lived cult a few years ago that I was involved with (though not fully involved in, as much as I wanted to be at the time). It was run by a group of young people that were promoting this community, this “family” to minorities and folks that were vulnerable to wanting a safer place to exist or be accepted: disabled people, POC, women, it was prominently promoted to queer people in particular. Literally part of their phrasing was the phrase ‘Welcome home’, the cult preyed on folks that felt like they didn’t belong wherever they were, people that wanted to feel love and support. I got into it the same way everyone else did. I was insecure, I was lonely, I wanted a place where I felt welcomed. While it was mostly a spread out online space, being run through social media community spaces like discord and instagram, they used that to their advantage of reaching a wider audience. Few people had direct contact with those at the top, the people running it all, but it was easy to see in hindsight that predatory and manipulative behavior run rampant on all levels of the social ladder. Everyone I’ve spoken to about that space has mentioned at least one occasion of either seeing someone being taken advantage of, financially or emotionally or even sexually, or has been taken advantage of themself (me included). I always thought I’d never fall for a cult, but that’s the point- you don’t “fall for” anything. Even on the inside you can be convinced that the cult is for your benefit, for a greater good than you might realize. I was a victim of months of emotional and financial abuse from people that held a more powerful position in that space than I did. I may have never spoken to the leaders of the cult, or even the inner circle of victims that were kept at the center of the organization, but the place practically protected manipulative people, everything either being overlooked or defended as a “misunderstanding” or “nice gesture being taken for granted”. Not every cult is like Heavens Gate or Jonestown. Not everyone is joining because of aliens or government conspiracy. It all comes from people seeking something better than what they’re handling in life, it’s all just hope being used against them.
Almost ended my life over my last job. I’m so traumatized I no longer think I’m capable of working again and am applying for disability. My mental state was already bad, but Panda Express was the final straw. Don’t work in fast-food.
I recently escaped a cult for a twitch streamer. This was a deeply covert mysogynist and narcissist. My “friends” immediately started the smear campaign and gang stalking when I decided to disconnect from all of them. The rage was within them all, like a shared flame, all from the same source. Wicked, blind, and insidious abuse.
Well this solidified my worries of communities that form in a vacuum. Most of the time, it's harmless. Like Vinny Vinesauce and his community's inside jokes plus their propensity to roast him. Then we have something like Sniperwolf's community where the audience obeys the whims of the streamer.
The strange corporate cult mentality is what made me leave Walmart. The morning chants and claps that ended in “meditation” sat wrong with me (even at the tender age of 19). Management buys into bullshit and the forces it onto employees that don’t comply. I had to tell Mark (my manager at the time) to fuck off because he tried to enforce that culture onto me after he asked me to do something and I took the liberty of doing it 5 minutes after he asked. Needless to say, that was my last day 😂
I had a feeling like that about Walmart. I worked nights doing a remodeling of the whole store and it was with a team that went around with special shelf moving equipment. The lady that was the head of it was extremely optimistic and cheery "if you have any questions or anything, come to me. We're a big family!" But if you had an actual question or needed help she just couldn't hear you and would remind you to be happy and cheerful. Cheerfully confused and in pain!
@@ZhovtoBlakytniy they had (probably still have) a bunch of managers that are like that. Mostly young-ish women that just kinda float around for to try to keep morale up and make people feel like they’ve got a “friend” At the job. It’s all weird.
Yes!!! I had a breakdown working at Walmart and I heard the subliminals that play over the speakers all day, in my dreams. It says shop at Walmart so many times an HOUR
Many American BIG Box stores are using bullying their employees, yelling and screaming at an employee in front of customers to embarrass and stop other employees from complaining- obiden wants us to do things the Chinese way?? What does that mean and why would he say that if he wasn’t under the control of the CCP how much does China own stock in these companies??
On another level where I worked was like a cult. We were routinely not only criticized but told we need to be grateful for the opportunity to work at such a generous company, there was no one like them. We felt a weird loyalty but also a sort of loss since it get we couldn’t leave. You couldn’t trust anyone as anything you said or did might be “reported” Absences were not allowed and if you were gone even for a day you might face a different harder postion. They had a point system available for everyon to see and if you gained too many points (doctors notes excused was half a point) you could be demoted or punished.
As someone who was born and raised in a cult, thank you for this video! Very well done, very well put. We who have been victims of cults have to deal with so much shame because of the dehumanising connotation of the words cult member and cult victim.
I hope I don’t hurt you by asking: what’s the connotation there? I’ve always taken the words literally, and with the understanding that “cult members” were taken advantage of, slowly robbed of their agency and their lives. Until watching this video I never knew that these words carried a dehumanizing tone. What did I miss?
@@leamubiu thanks for asking. I use the terms too and I do take them literally. But here are some real life examples I have heard, some of them countless times: -Oh, those people, they're just idiot cult members. -Oh, those cults members are all crazy, that's why they're in a cult! -Only half-brained dimwits become cult members. -Like, sure they are victims, but they were in a cult, what did they expect? -if they didn't like it, they shouldn't have joined a cult. -cult members are basically robots, they don't have their own brains. I have literally been told that since I grew up a cult victim I couldn't be trusted to make important life decisions as I was obviously too stupid to avoid crazy cults and the state should have power of attorney over me. And the number of times I've been asked how I could "fall for that bullshit" even after explaining that I was born and raised in.... Of course, not every one says uninformed remarks like this. And the more cults have been in the zeitgeist the better it has been. And like I said I do use the terms myself but recently I've started to switch the words around, I don't say I'm a cult victim. I say "I was a victim of a cult" and that actually seems to make people rethink their response a bit.
@@2ndGemStockholmSyndromeso true, we humans like to distance ourselves from others of different ideologies or with behaviours we don't agree with. Dehumanising is easy, orcs, cult members, freaks, zealots. We forget that we are also indoctrinated in so many ways we don't realize. Pity you had to learn the hard way but I think direct experience is the only way we learn. Second hand accounts get into the 'won't happen to me' box
Thank you for shining a light on this. I don't think my last job was a cult, but I almost ODed because I felt overworked and saw no other way out. Thankfully I quit before that happened. Employers need to take working conditions seriously.
Wow, this was an essential video, and thanks so much. I had a friend go join a cult in the early 80's, and they did the standard (?) exclusive weekend seminar brain washing technique; keeping the people awake for days, not letting them go to the bathroom, or controlling that to the point of desperation, telling them all their friends and family were ignorant and against their life progress... She told me briefly about all this when she got back and was ending our friendship. Sad, but she didn't end up offing herself, thankfully. The idea that these crazy times are ripe for this cult stuff is right on the money, but it's an insight that surprised me. Now I am indeed watching out for it, and I don't think I would have otherwise, so thank you again. 💗
2:34 "they could be fooled, but i couldn't". This is such a powerful statement to me.. i was raised in a cult my parent joined when i was young. And into my teens and early 20s i would sit, listening to speeches and talks and think "im so glad i wouldn't get caught in a cult" WHILE SITTING IN MY CULT 😅😖🤦 Noone thinks it could happen to them ..
I have a good friend who was caught up in a religious cult for years. He's smart, he's very progressive and wants the best for everyone; he's out of it now, thank goodness, but if he could get caught, anybody can.
@@retriever19golden55 thank you for that. I heard someone once say that people who do get caught in cults are generally people who are looking for something better in the world, and are sure they're gonna find it... and that sounds like your friend ❣️
Well this video hit like a ton of bricks. As a young adult who's struggling with corporate work and knowing that every place is just fucked up like this... it's hard to be hopeful
Not every place is like that. But every place can become like that. Just try to keep a healthy distance between you and your companies goals. And never agree to an all-in working contract 😉
Try thinking about your job as a means to an end. You, then decide on what the end result is! If the company you are working for wants all your time, find another job. Look outside the job for your fulfillment.😊😊
The big red flag I would say for corporate job is extended, unnecessary “training” where they do nothing but try to convince of the greatness of the company and its leaders. I’ve been in a corporate job who did this l and I had never been in a corporate job before so I didn’t identify it as a red flag. Come to find out the longer I worked there that they greatly underpaid everyone and did absolutely nothing to accomodate anyone to work within comfortable ranges despite espousing accommodation and diversity. Now I’m in a job where my training in this vein was only 4 hours of one day…. I am still a bit underpaid, but my working conditions are way better and no one is trying to gaslight me about the conditions of the job. There are good companies out there, but like others said, don’t close off your other options right away and DO NOT drink the company kool aid
This video reminds me of the situation at Enron, a very cult-like company. Even people not inside the company were fooled into thinking it was actually doing something useful, such as Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the federal reserve at the time. Enron, of course, collapsed, ruining the careers and destroying the savings of large numbers of people.
I believe that studies have shown that intelligence is a risk factor for joining a cult, because intelligence improves one's capacity to justify and rationalise decisions made for emotional reasons, such as seeking a sense of security or belonging.
THIS. I was born into Jehovahs Witnesses and although my family was disfellowshipped (that's what getting kicked out is called), I carried a very dangerous mix of intelligence, curiosity and early-childhood cult programming throughout my life and have experienced some of the most horrifying things anyone could imagine, for exactly the reasons you've just stated. Thank you so much for saying something so succinctly that I've struggled to understand myself much less explain to those closest to me. I'm humiliated, ashamed and traumatized completely for what I've allowed in my life. I'm at a point (in my late 30s) where I can't shake the feeling that I'm too broken now to fix myself and finally live up to even 1/4 of my potential. I'm sorry for the little novel there but I'm just really blown away by your comment because I've never felt so understood by so few words. Screenshotting & Printing ❤
@@SavannahSunshine49 Oh wow, I'm so happy to hear that you found that helpful! And I'm very sorry to hear about your trauma, but you don't need to carry shame over things that aren't your fault. It's so easy to fall into thoughts like "I'm smarter than this" and "I shouldn't have let that happen", but the reality is that everyone has vulnerabilities, no matter how smart, strong, or virtuous they are; and we're ALL vulnerable to people telling us what we want to hear. Safe travels 😊
Another corporate cult that came to mind from this documentary is WeWork. Charismatic worldly leader who throws weird team-building parties with plenty of alcohol and meditation work-shops, makes the members live together in special WeWork buildings isolated from the outside world and preaches about how office leasing is making the world "a better place" lol. Great video, such an interesting watch!
It's just like being in any abusive relationship. Often it starts out great, but you're like a frog being boiled alive. Once you're in, it can be dangerous to get out.
@hpgdovin I've been in several abusive relationships and it's not fair to say it's 1 : 1. Often a good abuser will manipulate others to Aid in the abuse wittingly or unwittingly, and we'll have a whole Squadron of flying monkeys lined up to come in and try to destroy the Target in a smear campaign so this really is not a normal one on one relationship
i thing something that definitely supports the startup-cult connection is the framing of society to applaud hustle culture, and working harder than necessary for a paycheck. the current drive towards individualism also tends to attract people towards the promise of community that cults and religions offer. when youre lonely and told to work harder than you can and tie your self-esteem to your work, you will inevitably implode. cult communities can feel like a refreshing taste of connection in an isolating world.
The steps to being apart of a cult are so small and so many that it's hard to tell where it all began. You'll find a uniquely similar pattern with "beaten wife syndrome", something which develops with a charismatic narcissistic entity followed by someone who holds out hope. Some call it naive, some call it broken
@@finestructureconstant3921 Definitely search it up. There are actually resources out there for folks who came out of those sorts of things. Highly recommend Jordan and McKay's stuff, as well.
Same. For me it was Christianity. 10 years ago I made the best decision of my life to cut ties with every single person I knew and flee and start again. Hard, but worth it. Well done to you too.
I was laid off a year ago from AWS. We never saw that video, but we saw many others. Good god the "leadership principles" double speak will forever be etched into my brain
Having worked for starb*cks for 4 years, going through the pandemic and watching the battle between employee and employer has been so insane and this video really shows how similar they are to a lot of these other corporations, despite always trying to appear like they are for the employee. Not to be triggering but, I’ve definitely been in the headspace of some of these workers and have seen how much corporate is willing to push us to our limits and then expects us to worship them while offering us little support when we need it most. They refer to us each other as “partners” to make us feel like we’re on an even player field, just because they give us a small share in the company, but watching this and seeing your point about special language just…wow yeah it really does give the ick
As a fresh 18 year old I joined a startup and worked with them for 1.5 years until having a breakdown that made me quit. With some time away and some hindsight, that experience helped me to understand the experiences of people who join cults so much more and see that really anyone can get sucked in to these things
Thank you so much for this video. My wife and I have always hated how the phrase “drank the Kool-Aide” is used so carelessly and callously in everyday conversation, and you perfectly articulate how language can dehumanize cult victims. This video needs to be seen by more people ❤
I have this weird and no doubt annoying quirk of always correcting people who use the phrase "Drink the Kool-aide" because the drink mix actually used was Flavor aid. A petty correction perhaps, but it's my sarcastic little way of reminding people that it's a real, historical event in which people died. It's terrifying what people can be talked into when they feel like they have nowhere else to turn.
@@ZeonTwilight It could be one of those words that's just become common in the language. Like coolant for an air conditioner. Nearly everyone who isn't familiar with coolant calls it Freon, and it's not. Freon is a brand name, or Tylonol, and so on.
@@Dirshaun I'm sure it's very much that. Paired with the natural numbness that comes with colloquialisms that come from frequent use. But it's nice to give a little history check to make sure folks know what they are actually referencing when they say "Don't drink the Kool aid" as not everyone does.
I’ve watched several of your videos but this one gets me to subscribe. We all need to see how the ancient need to “belong” which is buried deep in our biological and cultural programming has been perverted by modern material life and is weaponized against our even more basic need to simply exist. This video is brave, profound and incredibly important. That RUclips does not give us an easy way to share this exceptional video is shameful and revealing. Thank you for making this and for speaking the Truth ….. so vital!!! ❤
Everything you've said about cults and the victims that get ensnared in them, is absolutely spot on. I was born in and grew up in a small cult. My father weaponized money and fear and with his crazy charisma, mentally trapped my siblings, myself, and my mother into being too afraid to speak anything that wasn't praise towards him and into genuinely believing that the abuse he did to us was not only normal, but the right thing to do. Out of the five of us, I was the lucky one because I escaped. It never sat right with me to blindly listen to someone just because they said you're supposed to, and it made the abuse towards me worse than anyone else's there. Today my brothers and mother are still mentally trapped by him. They still deep down believe that his word is gospel, and speaking/acting against him is the worst thing in the world to do. Today my father has disowned me, my brothers and mother secretly communicate with me, and I've been left with life long mental problems because of this upbringing. I don't regret escaping, and I would do it again every chance I get. But it makes me sad thinking that I might never be able to save the rest of my family until my dad's medical problems become the best of him. Thanks for talking openly and clearly about things like this. It's a topic that is equally scary and important to know and talk about.
Is there any way to report your father for psychological abuse? You have the mental scars and stories to go against him and possibly help your family. If that isn’t possible, it’s understandable and I wish you all well.
I don't intend to come across as disrespectful, but is that not just an emotionally manipulative household as opposed to a cult? He's not recruiting people into it so it seems fairly odd to me to call your family's experience a cult
@@nyancat8828 Sorry but I gotta respond to this one. Big mistake I know. But just to let you know, as long as the ACTIONS (& Words for that matter) are in line with Cult Activity, *then it is one.* Really what these things/people do is DEAD STAMP what this person you are responding to described. You DON'T need the "Recruitment of Outsiders" for it to "Count As A Cult". And since you have been molded to believe such a thing, then it very much makes me want to tell you to look around yourself, you seem to be pretty manipulated yourself. Your power (& mind for that matter) is being taken away by Someone in your life, and they convinced you that for it to be an Cult it MUST be drawing in outsiders. Usually the ones who speak like you are already being manipulated & oddly enough they Defend CRUELLY (even dying for) the very person/ideas/beliefs/things that convinced them that they are currently "Free"/"Normal". Sounds like you have a lot of searching you need to do, whether it be family, friends, etc. Something (or someone) is CLEARLY going on in your life, and you have been raised to believe it's "Normal", when it very much is NOT. PLEASE WAKE UP & Save Yourself! (You sound like my own Sister & Brother before THEY got out.) & Yes, I know you'll bully me horrifically, cause that's what you types do, but I'm telling you this in HOPE that you actually Wake The F Up.
I worked at a cult. Nice realisation for a Sunday morning. Good day for you all too! 🎉 Also, there’s a lot of similarities of cults and abusive relationships. I’d say cults are organised abusive relationships on steroids.
Narcissists operate in the same ways of a cult. They will sink their claws into everyone and everything around you until nobody opposes them because they’ve all been roped into the lies, smoke & mirrors for the narcissists gain. Next thing you know, they also play the victim, employing the shared friends & family to do their abuse for them once they’ve been figured out. Then comes the gaslighting, you second guess yourself, blame, shame, and the cycle repeats. The true victim is stuck in this cult-like cycle or also known as the cycle of narcissistic abuse. These people feed like vampires and keep you weak enough where you can’t run but you can regenerate just enough for them to keep feeding off of you like a parasite.
Jesus, this was so well done it gave me the chills and gave me a realisation that I have been in a cultish scenario in a sporting association... It was brutal, loads of emotional torture and guilt, and all just for fencing. And my workplace also decided it would be fun to use a similar approach as the shoes company and call themselves with the name of the company+ian to not assume the gender of somone which i cringed at, but didnt understand why i didnt like it. Now it makes more sense...
Clicking my heels and clapping at this from the intro. Good on you. You explained the importance. You didn’t shy from truth or “scary words” that define **reality!** It can particular irritate me when people act like you can somehow “baby talk” life and death. Good grief. Grow up. Still. You didn’t judge. You showed compassion. You presented a clear idea. Definitely, worth a look.
First off - I love the compassion you have toward cult members. They are vulnerable people looking for a sense of belonging and we shouldn't paint them as inferior or stupid. Second, I often hyper-fixate on things and one night I read and watched videos about the Jim Jones story. It's absolutely heartbreaking and I am so shocked for a multitude of reasons, but one thing that sticks out is Jackie Speier. She was the congresswoman who flew down to Guyana and somehow made it back alive. If you haven't dove deep into this story, please approach it when your mental health is well because for days after I did this research, I couldn't sleep. I had nightmares about this event and the news coverage that still exists online. It's heartbreaking.
Felt this as a manager for Starbucks back in the day. Howard Schultz was worshiped. Having grown up Mormon, I knew the feeling all too well. During my first managers conference, he spoke to a stadium full of “partners” from store managers up and the excitement was palpable. Reminded me immediately of church, especially the monthly testimony meeting where members got up in front of the congregation to declare their testimony that the church was the true church. I left the church completely when I was 17. It was hard. Leaving Starbucks was worse. Lost my entire social circle, and felt more outcast than ever. Took a couple of years to recover completely, and realize the how similar many of the tactics between the two organizations were. Happy to say I’m not under the thumb of either, and have learned enough that I hope to never let my life and emotions be taken away from me again.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t a cult. It is no more a cult than any other organized religion. Yes it is true that there are religious cults. Your disillusionment from the church is due to differing beliefs, not from behavior. That is an important distinction to note. One should not label a belief as cultish, otherwise one could argue that every religion is a cult, which would be ridiculous.
@@zacharyfunk1705the big issues with Mormonism are the rejection of critical thinking and the flip flopping of doctrine since it’s invention. It’s the secrets that give it the cult label, whether you agree with that label or not. I mean, they might kill you for leaving Islam but nothing’s a secret.
@@zacharyfunk1705I would argue that most religions have cult like language and beliefs, but I'd also say that mormonism is more of a cult than other religions. They tell you to cut off any relationship that doesn't support the religion, including your own children and close family members. That's the number one thing a cult does is isolate their members from non believers.
@@zacharyfunk1705 You're correct, and thank you for speaking up. Alot of Protestant Christians say that, and have no idea what Is a cult. Also, I just subscribed. Godspeed to all
Very educational - never give up your own personal power - and behind it all is someone who is narcissistic - establish boundries and follow your own voice. Thank you for putting this video out. Reminds me about the urban legand about the frog and a pot of water on a burner, it happens slowly and incrementally. Under the right circumstances it could happen to anyone.
I remember working somewhere where I made the mistake of mentioning I had a "life threatening condition" to HR & what my needs were, which made them get even more controlling & manipulative with my doctor, until it was a "go spend 3 months unpaid" & fix it. There is just a real lack of compassion in "suck it up, do the things we tell you"
Who also thought that Amazon film was about noticing signs that your coworker was suicidal?
As if Amazon's management would care.
I thought it was about mass shootings.
Thank god I left that place.
And then, I thought: ok, time to end my prime membership. But it's paid until next year...
I’m surprised that wasn’t the intent. I thought there was a cut to a separate Amazon video about unions
Every job I’ve had has called its employees a “family”, and I’ve always hated it.
Yeah, it’s a big family until your boss gets mad and you can’t talk back. Or get fired. ………when you disagree with how things are and want to try something more efficient……..
And there should be a government agency that protects "the children" from abusive "parents"
Sounds just like family to me lol
(sorry)
My job calls its employees family, most of them are family tho
@@toasture9119 to be fair... Getting through Thanksgiving does feel like like a lot of work
I grew up in a cult, and spent most of my life hopping from one cult to another. I finally got out when a friend who had grown up similar to me helped me see there truth of my situation.
It took me years of therapy to begin to find some sense of recovery. Since I left, I've lost most of my family, but this is fairly normal among cults.
Those who think they are too smart to join a cult are some of the easiest to trap. Cults look for intelligent and idealistic people. They are the best targets for recruitment.
A quote from The Gervais Principle:
“[Sociopathic cult leaders learn that] the key, when betraying the idealistic, is to get them to blame themselves.
With other followers, the key is to get them to blame each other.
Each pattern of blame redirection gives us a particular theater… and the Sociopath derives different rewards” depending on the type of betrayal and the blame redirection used to ‘sell’ it
I think cult leaders target the idealistic because they have the most accessible levers to manipulate. Less idealistic people are more likely to go along with the group, while idealistic types will follow what they believe to be true and morally right.
@@ttcc5273Heck your own family does this without the help of others.
Congratulations for leaving the democrats.
@@richardhineman6458VERY FUNNY JOKE DICK.
BEST REGARDS
ESTHER
@@richardhineman6458my guy actually said this without seeing any form of irony
I’ve always been in the habit of calling any employer “they”instead of “we”. I like to keep a safe distance. If they look at me as a liability and as an expense, then I am going to look at them as a necessary, temporary, evil. I work, they pay me. Anything else is a non-starter. If you’ve gotta do team building exercises, you’re doing it wrong. Just pay people a living wage and treat them with respect. It’s really as simple as that.
Yes thank you.
I like to treat things a bit "mercenary" (aka "I pay you to do things for me" or "you pay me to do things for you") but apparently that's too spooky for people so
If employees are treated fairly employees have no reason to go after one another in the workplace. If you find out you get paid less than the new guy and the new guy only makes more because the boss was desperate to fill a spot that new employee has now become a target to every other employee in the workplace because they're getting preferential treatment. If companies actually promoted from within and paid people based off of seniority or time invested in the workplace instead of paying people to bribe them into staying or to draw new people in we'd have a lot less toxicity in the workplace. But the way it works now is you get treated really good for the first year and then after that they usually stop investing in an employee unless they're far above average, but those far above average individuals are also being shorted on their perspective value too. So the only way to get ahead is to job hop and demand a new job pay you more than the place you left, or to threaten your current boss with you quitting so they give you a bonus so you don't quit.
If you go the old fashioned route and try hard work consistency and dedication you just get ignored and taken advantage of until you decide you don't want to deal with it anymore, only then do they offer you a raise.
Nothing scares me more than a company that refers to itself as a family...
1 in 8 American families are at least somewhat abusive, FWIW.
This. I don't think I've ever seen anything good come out of that.
Yeah. The minute it describes itself as such, red flag. Run away. You are a business, a job, a career choice. You want ppl to get along, but you are and will never be a family. They call themselves a family, that immediately tells me they blur lines between work and life outside of work, have issues with boundaries, and have a cult-like mentality that demands loyalty while giving none in return. Never wanna work at such a place ever again.
I did, but it's a question of how it is formulated. Not in a cult like manner but it regard to treatment of employees and benefits.
Also I live in Germany.
@@Fl4shback Gegrüßet seist du auch Hitler, deutscher Landsmann!
A thrilling reminder that we are, in fact, not immune to propaganda.
We are the most propagandized society in history.
We face propaganda every day and the vast vast vaaaaast majority of the time it is absorbed without even realizing
Mainstream media wouldn't be a thing if people were immune to propaganda.
All of you may be subject to propaganda but not me
/s
It's wild how all of us could buy into propaganda without question.
I am immune to it.
this is really good. i’m autistic so was warned, when i was diagnosed, that was particularly vulnerable to cults. super helpful video in spotting warning signs.
i’m autistic and i’ve never heard that before, good to know ig
@@Did_Diggie_Die_YetI’m autistic and I was told by the psychologist that diagnosed me with it said that I can be easily manipulated. That was true sadly…
Very true!
@@kuroenekodemonI think you are doing satire but I can't tell. It is true that autistics like myself are easier to manipulate because we act with honesty and assume others do too. The reality is that by telling the truth we expose our weaknesses and then other people will agree with us. Thinking we have a connection, they will then manipulate us very often. Staying quiet is more powerful but more lonely. I wish it was easier for autistic people to hang out because we actually have shared values.
@@RorschachRevI agree. It’s unfortunate for sure. I’ve never told anyone I was autistic growing up.
However I have been tricked a few times…. I’ve been preyed upon a lot as a young girl, even up until my young adult hood.
People have always told me I was a good soul, I’ve been in so many situations that were dangerous due to my gullible ass.
Narcs, even some neurotypical people do take the more empathetic people, and use them more than not.
It’s a sad twisted world, but I still have hope for humanity.
God I live in daily misery, constantly reminiscing the times I was lead on, and tricked. Awful thought loops.
I’ve actually decided to no longer make any friends due to how many times I’ve been used.
My dad is also autistic, and he’s never had a long lasting relationship with women. My step mother I knew my whole life, cheated on my dad for 6 years. We kept trying to tell him, everyone warned him, but he had hope still-- and that bitch capitalized off of it.
You know what gets me? Cult suicide makes us think, “Those people were brainwashed. They couldn’t escape.” And that’s true. But with business suicides, it’s, “If you don’t like your job, just leave. Just get another job.” It’s not always that easy.
With my company for example (not going to name them for multiple reasons), one of the most effective ways to quit is to ghost the company. Clock out on break and don’t come back, or stop showing up for your shifts and stop answering the phone. If you go through the proper avenue of putting in your two week notice, they’ll do everything they can to convince you to stay.
My job is currently looking to bring everyone back into office. On the one day they brought everyone into the office because some “representative” from a news outlet came in to do an article on the company, the internet literally shat itself. I don’t know how they make these decisions without the consideration of the workers’ opinions and sleep at night.
Don't get me wrong, I know full well how difficult it can be to leave a job. But if they want you to stay that badly, negotiate. Tell them straight up, here are my terms, meet them and I'll stay. If they change enough that you can tolerate working there, do it. If not, leave. doesn't really matter what it is that you want, it's down to whether or not the company will accommodate you.
Well if they actually do value you that much that is a good place to be in terms of negotiations. I know how that is as well and I take whatever small advantage of it that I can, longer breaks and freedom to do the job how I feel it should be done. You do that long enough and you become absolutely indispensable to whatever company you work for and that is indeed a good place to be. I've pushed the line a few times but it's seriously like they are afraid to fire me. I could definitely get even more than I ask for I'll bet.
All the companies I worked for were very cult like, even subway franchises wanted me to be "like a family" which they use more to try to guilt you into additional work than they ever do to show appreciation, giving a two weeks notice gets a talk about how disappointed they are to lose me, but if I want to just leave them short staffed I can, and then they cut nearly all remaining hours from my schedule to make sure they give the smallest last check they can. A company that values employees would negotiate, a cult will make you feel guilty and convince you they are what is best for you without actually doing anything to be better for you.
Sounds like Liberator Medical Supply. I will out them because they got in trouble for fraud and.. some other things lol..
I literally used all my PTO and quit on vacation lol. Made sure all my files (patients) were taken care of and their Drs signatures were received.. and I acted like I was coming back. And took a 2 week vacation on a farm in TN. GO FIGURE because now that farm is also assumed to be culty (it was called Shut Up and Grow it) before they changed the name..
Needless to say.. I have now realized it is easy to get sucked into the cult mentality when the word family is thrown around.
And it's better to just ghost than tell anyone your plans when it affects your literal livelihood
Back in college (in a the 80s) I had the opportunity to talk with a one time member of the Hitler youth and later fought as a Nazi. I asked him how he could have followed such obvious evil?
He laughed and told me something that scared me then and still does “ah, you see, we knew that we were the good guys making the world a bette place.”
He didn’t think that anymore and his biggest fear for the future was that America and Europe were so sure they could never do something like that. Now as an adult I share his fear.
that's insane really. the idea that the less wrong you assume that you can do, the more wrong that you actually are capable of doing. it checks out with psychopaths and sociopaths, I'm sure it goes deeper down the rabbit hole.
@@thefourthdymensionmusic “the less wrong you assume that you can do, the more wrong that you actually are capable of doing”. I think that statement applies to almost everyone. Everyone thinks that they’re on the right side of history. Everyone thinks that they are a good person. And that belief we all have has the potential to be incredibly dangerous if we don’t question and check ourselves.
@@thefourthdymensionmusicit's frustrating because it's easy to know if you're making the right choices.... but so many people have grown up and lived in such a convoluted family and community. In the US we have "ghettos" and "sundown towns" as opposite bubbles on the same isolation spectrum. Both make it hard to learn any better viewpoint than what one was told to them by parents and church. We don't place enough emphasis on learning how to researching actual sources besides our own favorite biased talk show news. That's why Propaganda working on people, is able to happen at all.
@@kayleighgroenendal8473 yeah I think the root of a lot of our societal problems is how people and where people are being raised. my generation got severely fucked up by last generation and the generation before that.
It's already happening now. Look at the Democrat Party
I completely agree. I was working at a lab where we were all paid minimum wage for highly specialized work. When I asked for a raise, I remember how I was told that this is a “passion driven industry” and that everyone else is here bc they want to be here and that I’m just not passionate enough or willing to give myself entirely to the field. Which in hind sight is 5000% cult like speech. I’m so glad I quit
Thats when you say, "Cool, but unfortunately my land lord and the local grocery store doesn't accept 'passion' as a form of payment. And, as a human, I require basic necessities."
"I can't give my 100% to any job if I'm stressing about living paycheck to paycheck, along with the risk of becoming homeless or starving to death."
Companies have become cults. Think of how often CEOs fail only to get shuffled around, false promises and such just to raise the net worth. People start dissassociating with other people and identifying by the company. It's weird
So many research labs operate on the false predicate of your time being less valuable than the potential breakthrough you can reach if you “just spend more time in the lab” or just “focus on the task at hand” when in reality, prepping samples, operating sensitive instruments, doing data analysis, and creating in depth reports are extremely time consuming processes that are draining and will not satisfy you socially or emotionally. To think that your time and precious moments of life are worth being tolled away for the possibility of a breakthrough is nefarious, even if your project is promising. I know many a lab mate who missed their child’s birth, their first steps, marriages of loved ones who are now deceased, all just to run a few more samples and reach that breakthrough that their advisor wanted so badly so they could fluff their next proposal. To those wanting to do research as a career, please ask your potential advisor (and their researchers/post docs) how they feel about you taking time off. Ask how they would respond to emergencies and if they’ve dealt with similar issues. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of for a few lines on your cv/resume.
@@Othique😅 "Passion ain't paying the rent, bro!"
If a company says they're family - run. It will be a nightmare.
A company that says it’s a family just means that management sees themselves as the parent figure with absolute authority, and the employees are the child figure who must do everything the parent says with zero questions
Eh. I'd say that's 50/50 of jobs now so not necessarily. More important to take note of how management works or doesn't work with each other and how management connects or doesn't connect with the workers.
Do family businesses count? Because in my experience. It's the family members that get screwed more than the hired help.
@@nomemeshere4807 yeah, the term "we're a family" is so pervasive it's largely lost any real meaning as a red flag; in fact, its absence may as well be a red flag in signifying a place where the attitude is worse by design
I'm not saying I dig the whole "we're family" thing, it's junk, just saying I don't think it's predictive of company culture, to nomemesphere4807's point.
@@Quinellipe ^^That exactly
I needed this video, I’m about to hit my 10 years of working at an Apple retail store and they truly exemplify this culture. I’ve been struggling to quit because even my friends and family that don’t work there, see it as the pinnacle of a career and don’t understand why I want to quit. There’s no opportunity for growth and they want you to work harder and harder but then say things like “we pay cost of labor not cost of living”.
I was trapped in a job that was slowly destroying me. I didn't realise how badly at the time, and you would not be able to see it all now. It's 5 years later and I still dont feel as happy as I should be. Leave brother, if anyone challenges you, talk about the 150 people on the roof at Foxconn. They were building apple products. Look after yourself.
Leave. Leave and if anyone says anything you point out that they were not there and were not experiencing what you have.
Wow that’s really sick. Cost of labor, not cost of living?? Disgusting. I mean I guess that’s most places these days but still. Saying it out loud should be shameful. It’s not even shameful anymore to say the quiet parts out loud.
@@Flawda986idk how any human can say that to another person in full seriousness. Openly acknowledging that what they are paying you is not even MEANT to get them by in life, let alone live comfortably.
Apple is a cult… for years my friend tried to get me on to an iPhone and would say things like everyone he knows uses one… then the green/blue bubble stuff. There is the everything just works thing too… which is kind of true as long as you buy more apple products. Outside looking in, the ecosystem and culture is designed to pressure you into joining the group and force you into buying more apple products.
Btw, got ticked with google and bought my first iPhone a couple months ago and the lady helping me said “welcome to the family “…
This video reminds me of when we tried to persuade our boss (twenty-something multi-millionaire startup founder) that we needed more holidays. As in, the same amount of holidays most other companies in the country have (and this is Japan we're talking about, which has notoriously few anyway!)
He got extremely angry, seemed genuinely offended that we didn't want to work as much as possible for him, even though we were also being paid pretty badly. He told me I had a 'bad attitude' for not wanting to work more than the 8 hours a day that was stipulated in my contract. And he also knew full well I had a pregnant wife at home, to top it all off.
Final straw was when I got a written reprimand the day after I came back from taking sick leave from having covid, at which point I quit on the spot.
So fucking glad I did so.
If you're working for one of these assholes, either quit, or if you're not in a financial situation to do so yet, start making a concrete exit plan. You won't regret leaving.
People should also consult with a labor lawyer. That guy broke laws.
And if you can actively sabotage that company in the process by all means do so.
I have had so many lowkey abusive employers, and people don’t really seem to talk about the subject. Lots of us can relate to having bad managers or something, but it doesn’t seem to be an public discussion. And I think it should be. It’s no wonder there’s so many entrepreneurs these days.
In my youth I'd work extra for free at computer programming co-op-ed jobs got via the process at a university. I'd even go in on weekends (via special permission), so I could learn as much as I could of the new programming language to do the job better. In other blue-colar jobs later, I'd work more than the others who often took breaks to eat or smoke. I'd work thru those breaks in the hot sun, that I bore wearing full-sleeve shirts (cotton of course!) while the others would go shirtless lol. Now-a-days I'm a full-time volunteer caregiver for my mom, and my greedy dad won't even pay a living allowance, not even one enough to match the defined poverty-line. Can't go on strike & can't leave.
@@rswowSo what lessons did you learn from all that work?
Tried to send this to my partner on the tablet I got for grad school, only to learn that RUclips for ios doesn't allow you to share videos that are deemed "inappropriate." The share button doesn't even exist. Had to pull up my watch history on my phone just to be able to send it. There's some very terrifying implications of a company deciding who can and can't see information about sensitive topics, and having that happen on this video of all things gave me chills.
Might be an update thing. My Samsung used to be the same way. I had to go into history but not anymore. I think it happens on RUclips kids as well.
Who exactly are they preventing from sharing a video?
I have an iPhone, and the share button is there on mine.
Def a bug and probably not updated that up to date. Still weird that it happened, but can also easily be explained off unlike some other things. For over 2 months I couldn't share things from my tablet as well. It was mad annoying. Because I didn't do much on it I factory reset and let all the updates go through and finally it worked. My tablet had many bugs like constantly being slow for no reason, opening apps or closing apps without me doing anything. Turning off randomly. Shit was mad annoying. Apparently waiting to update instead of when the tablet says can cause buggy things. I hate tablets ngl. I've only ever had problems.
Hiding the share button does prevent harmful conspiracies from being spread around, unfortunately sometimes there are false positives
Or this may be because of the mention of the s word, even talking about it can increase s word tendencies
I walked into Walmart one morning only to witness all the employees being called into a gathering where they began CHANTING some silly slogans over and over. After they were done they all were meant to cheer and clap, but I could tell most of them weren’t feeling it.
It reminded me of stuff I witnessed when I almost got mixed up in a cult at age 17.
I remember doing that, I just took it as building morale, it’s not like they were sacrificing to a Sun God or anything, or had someone up there getting Pentecostal preacher on us.
I observed the same thing at a Walmart early one morning. It was creepy! I also got that vibe attending a Tupperware rally with a friend who was a sales consultant back in the 1980’s. They had what seemed like an invocation, followed by singing at the beginning. Then there was something like liturgy interspersed in the program. It made me exceedingly uncomfortable. I wasn’t religious, but still, it felt like idolatry.
@@letsallgotothelobby11if you had a dangerous cult history, you might have seen it differently. We all come from different perspectives and history.
@@shewho333 Thanks, I needed the obvious pointed out for giving my perspective. Mighty intelligent of you.
Joining a cult is easy, because, by the time you realize it's a cult, you're in too deep to leave. That is, if you ever realize at all.
💔 when you said “They could be fooled but I couldn’t” I originally was thinking “pfft not me!” Then you started talking about corporate cults and I realized I am part of one currently. I just put in my two week notice on Monday and they tried to guilt trip me into staying. They require mandatory overtime and told me I need to learn two other job functions but they don’t intend to pay me more… I was a little shocked they said all this with a straight face. It got really bad over the last year. I cross a bridge on my way into the office every day. The thoughts of driving off it were growing more and more. The day I put my notice in I honestly felt a weight come off my shoulders. I’m just going to pull my retirement and try to build my own art business. Even if I fail at least I will have know I tried.
Good for you for getting out of that environment. I’m becoming more and more intolerant of abusive working conditions in my own career. It’s good to have high standards.
@@jp-gy3vhI feel like a lot of people are waking up to how terrible work environments are. They call us a family and talk about work life balance but honestly it’s all talk. No amount of money is worth my mental health. Just knowing I’m working my last two weeks currently has boosted my mood so much! I will probably find another job to supplement my life but I’m going to take my time picking a better company this time.
take care!! i wish you lots of strength and you did the right thing!
Holy shit well done ❤ take care
Definitely did the right thing! I wish you all the success, happiness and peace you deserve.
After reading Cultish as part of my corporate job’s book club, I couldn’t stop bringing up how closely it resonated that our company was so similar, but the difference was we didn’t feel “as desperate” as some victims.
P.S. Glad you didn’t stray away from the usage of the word suicide. Makes me feel weird it’s getting removed from the internet.
Yeah, I personally hate the trend of saying "unaliving" or just censoring the word altogether. It seems to undercut the severity of possibly the most severe thing a person can do to oneself. But the almighty algorithm dictates it.
Plus, as someone who has dealt with suicidal thoughts myself, I don't mind the word "suicide" at all. It feels like people who haven't dealt with such thoughts firsthand are making the decision on my and like people's behalf, very white knight-like.
Right! Call it what it is! Not acknowledging something that exists is the opposite of helpful.
Doing what's necessary, rather than what appeases investors.
Funny thing about this censoring is it censors nothing. People who'd mute the word will end up being bombarded by the concept itself in another term.
The only people who censor it are those who rely on views/advertisement for income. Remember: you (and your attention) are the product if they are changing what is said/seen to meet the algorithm
I've been studying high-control groups for years - high control groups (or cults) can be varied. Business organisations, karate dojos, MLMs, MAGA, internet-only groups. One thing I learned is that anyone who sees themselves as too savvy and intelligent to get sucked into a group like this, is actually just as vulnerable as your everyday "searcher". Everyone is vulnerable. Even former cult-members. The best thing to do is recognise the features of a high control group and recognise you're not immune. Anyhoo, thanks for the vid.
MAGA is high-control?? Where is your evidence?
You left out the Boston Celtics and the girl scouts. 😅
You left out the buttsex rainbow people.
It was such a red-flag for me at my sales job, my boss had sent a few of us to a sales convention and I pointed out to him 1 of the things on the program: "how to build a cult-like following out of your team." To me it was the grossest thing I'd seen, but for him, you could practically see his eyes flash with excitement.
Fast forward to now, and I guess he got what he wanted. A bunch of new hires that post constantly in the group chat about how much they love work. And when he asks what prizes should be for milestones, instead of saying cash like normal people, they ask for company outings... Yeah I don't work there anymore. I need a more jaded workplace please.
Amazon being afraid of the term "living wage" tells you everything you need to know about them (that and the warehouse pee bottles)
Or the convenient bathroom shutdowns.
fr!!
There's a whole lot of information on how minimum wage laws actually backfire on the people they purport to help. HOWEVER that should not mean work conditions should be dangerous or abusive. Stuff like not being able to take bathroom breaks, having dangerous stuff, or bosses being cruel or insulting, etc. is NOT cool.
@@nerysghemor5781 Your employer not giving you a high enough wage that you can afford to live is dangerous and abusive.
@@pizza-pi Consider a summer part time job that a kid who still lives at home and is on their parents’ insurance and everything gets. There are actually a lot fewer of those to go around now than there used to be for people to build up experience prior to move out, because employers can’t afford it. Also, another weird thing about the minimum wage besides reducing the number of jobs available for younger workers is that it ALSO makes it easier for an employer to discriminate! You wouldn’t think, but if you have more people competing for fewer slots, it leads to a lot more opportunities for people to get picky and start letting things influence their rationale that shouldn’t be relevant. The economist Thomas Sowell can explain it a lot better though, and I think there may be some videos around here where he does lectures and audiobook readings from his work and I recommend it because he’s very factual and generally stays out of mudslinging and other irrational things to stick with just the facts. That’s a rare commodity these days. After all, I think a lot of people have good intentions and the ideas they espouse (like very high minimum wage laws) really do sound awesome on paper but have unintended consequences. So like I said, I’m more interested in working conditions, safety, behavior, and other things of that nature because those are to me much more unambiguous in being genuinely helpful and not backfiring in unintended ways.
Our time is ripe for cults. The hopelessness and disenfranchisement some feel makes them excellent candidates for cult recruitment.
Many feel!
Is there a parallel to be drawn here with the rise in authoritarianism?
@@fourierbirdyes, we are seeing it in America. Trump openly admits he will be a dictator... but only for "one day" 🙄 him and other conservative politicians are openly telling us what they are planning on doing and we can see what they've been doing and it looks very "authoritarian" to me. promising to give Trump unlimited presidential power, to send people to concentration camps, to shut down media they don't agree with, to give military more power inside us borders aka over us citizens, banning books, banning words and phrases, banning forms of entertainments they don't agree with "drag shows" among others, trying to control what goes on between patient and doctor, trying to control who people can sleep with or date, trying to put big gov into our churches while pretending it's the other way around (putting church in gov), and I can go on. they want to control what they average person does by constructing perimeters to our "freedom". it has to be agreeable to their version of freedom or its not acceptable. they are perpetual victims always blaming others for things they bring on themselves all while supporting one Almighty leader they see as a god among men.
That, and because the idea of spirituality has been sidelined, so cults are free to fill that void for those who need it.
Quick social experiment: if you rolled your eyes or cringed at the word "spirituality", why is that?
Starbucks was like this. the "specialized language," the emphasis on family and teamwork and community, the idea that we were "changing the world one cup at a time," and especially the language that the corporate leaders would use to talk about the union.
If anything, Starbucks is actively making the world a worse place by enabling people to more easily indulge in their coffee addictions, and promoting the stress and anxiety that caffeine is known to cause. Not to mention all the humanitarian and environmental atrocities taking place along the coffee supply chain...
in ottawa the teachers don't say, "he' or 'she' anymore. It;'s they for every lecture. they have a cultish Canadian language being used now. are any other countries this dumb and cultish?
@@MicahMicahelThat sounds less like a cult “collective identity” thing and more like a gender inclusivity thing
@@MicahMicahellmao that’s not cult-like language, that’s just regular language being used the way it has for hundreds of years to refer to someone whose gender is unknown (ie. “someone forgot their keys”). maybe instead of being so worried about what’s happening in schools, you should actually attend one.
Corporate speak is a actual thing like legal speak and federal speak
Love getting a warning from the RUclips site itself saying viewer discretion. Gonna be a damn good video.
"I'm making this because currently it's a time of social and economic instability, and historically this is when cults tend to thrive." Thank you man. Awareness is key. Everyone, check in with friends and family from time to time. If we all did that, people wouldn't feel so desperate and wouldn't end up in places like this as easily
I've been trying to tell my friends for years cults are the behaviors, not the beliefs. Thank you for this, it took the analysis to places I hadn't gone before.
Nah it's both honestly
@@bmoe4609 you can believe in aliens and believe they're talking to people or whatever, but if you don't demand others believe and sell your life to someone over it, than it's not a cult, it's just a quirky bit if nonsense that appeals to you. And perhaps it makes you easier to target, but cult leaders would just choose different topics if they couldn't get people to follow them, which is why some cults look sensible, or comparable to other systems from the outside.
Making it your whole identity... The way one follows a leader, etc. That makes it a cult.
You sure it ain't both?
The beliefs can be part of it. If they exist to enforce the behaviors
@@Banana_Slammait depends what you're calling beliefs. They're probably talking about spirituality or mysticism not being cultish.
As a good rule of thumb if they're "personal" beliefs rather than group ideologies it's not cultish.
My mother was one of the lawyers for the victims of the France Télécom trial; apparently nobody learnt their lessons about what happens when you take a national utility and privatize it and try to squeeze as much profit from it as possible because they're doing the exact same thing with the post office (La Poste)
The fact that the US military uses all of these tactics is wild (I served 6yrs active duty). You learn a whole different language and set of customs. You're even held to special laws called the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. From week 1 you wear a uniform to create an "us and them", they separate you from any outside influence for 2-6 months(depending on branch), sleep deprivation, constant exercise, and above all obedience to those appointed above you under threat of punishment.
You don't think it makes sense for a military to be a unit?
@@letsgetreal6402 Depends. If the training is about what needs to be achieved is ckear and legit, then yes. But it is my experience that dumbing down just for the sake of cohesiveness achieves poor results. Its not the best men that gets recruited in armies as well.
@@cobusbrits2 dumbing down.... OP described training getting you prepared for being functional in wartime.
What's your experience you speak from
Don't you think that brainwash is required to turn humans into killing machines?
I grew up in a cult and somehow found the courage to leave on my own, and thinking of cults as a spectrum is going to change the way I see cults forever
My maternal family seems to be a cult of the matriarchal figure ( my grandma). She shames the family into compliance with her at the risk of exhile ( you can leave but it's for good and she'll never talk to you again "I've disowned you") and she's a fickle woman. I haven't talked to her in years, but she still has my mom feeling depressed about herself since she was a teenager... and she just can't walk away from the toxicity.
And if the family still ensnared talks to the exhiled family she shames them for that so they will join her in cutting them off from family contact.
Does that sound cultish to you?
@@ZhovtoBlakytniySounds like narcissistic abuse but yeah I'd say that sounds cultish, sorry she's such a horrible woman
What cult? What was it like?
@@SimBitsthe phrase narcissistic abuse isn't a real one and demonizes cluster-b personality disorders :/ it's just abuse
@@polyesterbees i believe its called that because this type of abuse is seen in narcissists and those with disorders that have narcissism as a symptom. theres no way to make it pretty or happy, nor should there be.
The crazy thing is I'm watching this while thinking "why didn't they leave their job before it got so bad" while I'm on year 4 of recovering from a job that lowkey gave me PTSD.
It's so true. There's such a disconnect from these stories because you can't visualize what leads to this state of mind but it creeps up on you.
Exactly. I didn’t realize how badly my workplace had destroyed my mental and emotional health until I literally had a breakdown and ended up in the hospital. I didn’t see the decline until I crashed.
Well said! I wholeheartedly hope that you’re mentally healing from the substantial stress/traumatic environment you were exposed to, and that your situation is improving with time. Take care; you deserve to be at peace, healthy, fulfilled, and without ANY guilt for needing this time to recover from whatever you were put through! Keep fighting for yourself, friend ❤
@@thejokersmistress15So sorry you’ve been through this also! I pray you are recovering your health and sense of well-being … it’s beyond sick that we all have to work to live, and founders down to lower-level bosses so pervasively take advantage of this to the point of treating employees as punching bags, like psychopathic children abusing little animals they’ve caught.
I am also recovering from an awful job and I feel like I'm out of an abusive relationship. Glad you got out too.
“It creeps up on you” That part. You never see it coming until you’re in the middle of it
I’ve studied the case of France Telecom several times for school projects, and the only nuance I’d give to what you said is that people were not just pressured to achieve business goals, they were purposefully sabotaged to force them out of the company, while avoiding to compensate them for firing them.
They had strategies that involved maximizing uncertainty, reducing familiarity with one’s working environment by forcing people to change services, changing their management roles. They put people in a perpetual change to make them lose all sense of purpose and/or self confidence.
I’d argue that this particular example doesn’t quite illustrate the point that companies are cults (they were not trying to change the world, they were trying to bypass the law in order to avoid financial loss), but more so that companies have the power to push people to their limit, and that it can lead to terrible consequences…
But yeah, businesses are not our friends. Of course we can look to have our fun at work, and create some feeling of belonging, but it also makes it harder to keep our thoughts clear when it starts to go too far …
It might be helpful to replace the word "cult" with "abusive organization" and "cult member" with "abuse victim" because that's basically what it is. It's narcissistic abuse on a large scale and anyone can be a victim.
Absolutely 100% this.
narcissistic abuse doesn't exist. it's abuse by a person, not abuse by the disorder.
@@fire4funnobody is saying that the disorder is solely responsible for the abuse. The reason people phrase it that way is because abuse done by a narcissist tends to be distinct from other forms of abuse, and it's an easy way to be specific.
@@fire4fun narcissists are well known for certain behaviours and types of abuse other abusers aren't. That's the reason it's called narcissistic abuse - because it's abuse committed by a narc, and positions of authority and power tend to attract narcissistic personalities.
@@ShintogaDeathAngel that's just it. abuse committed by a narcissist. so it's abuse, you just want to specify that it's from a narcissist.
i'm a narcissist.
abuse is abuse no matter who does it. there's no need to specify if it's from a disorder.
if a bipolar person abuses you, would you call it bipolar abuse? if someone with DID abuses you, would you call it DID abuse?
you just want to demonize a disorder because the disorder revolves around the self.
NPD is a personality disorder. disorders don't make you abusive. being abusive makes you abusive.
The Union busting clip gave me chills. I think that kind of mindset circulated around a lot, I grew up in an environment where they really are convinced it's taboo to even consider your right as an employee. That i should be always on my best behavior. It's so disgusting to realize how it permeated our culture and our parents who taught us to be company-compliant zombies
It's always interesting talking with Americans and seeing how deeply this has influenced the culture. @struthless I'd love to see a video around how fear of communism/mccarthyism fueled this anti-union and anti-worker rights culture!
@@_KiwiDad American here, weighing in! I think part of it is that in our country, we have the ability to step outside the system after we’re participated for a while. The “American dream” for some of us is to save money, buy a small plot of land, and live on our own, grow our own food, and not worry about what other people are doing. I think part of that comes from being around so many people that we’re exposed to the worst of humanity on a daily basis. Ask anyone that’s worked retail or in a call center, and you’ll hear horror stories of rudeness and anger. It seems much harder in a communistic country to say, “No thanks, I’ve done this long enough, and I’d like to focus on the happiness of myself and my family. Society can work on its own issues without me. I’m retiring to my farm!” It’s almost a selfishness brought on by the trauma of having such a vast and diverse country, where values and goals can differ immensely from family to family, which sometimes results in conflict. It seems like functional communist countries are much more socially homogeneous than Americans could ever imagine.
Idk I’m from Washington state which has a rich history in labor unions and has very strong unions.
Most people I know who are unionized hate them to some degree. They’re just another power hungry, greedy entity in your life that rarely helps you when you need them.
More often the union’s are focused on political power than improving the life of their members. The employees get bilked for union dues, the negotiating is so bad it takes YEARS and there are actually really bad policies the union instituted that are almost impossible to change.
I’ve had better experiences working for government or companies that actually care about people because the leadership isn’t toxic.
@@pnwlady oof that sucks :( for us in the Philippines, we barely even get started with union stuff. We're just stuck getting shit jobs and have to live with nepotism and company politics
@@_KiwiDad I'm not American, I'm from the Philippines -- then again we were an American colony in some ways for quite a long time so I guess we are culturally following American work standards and politics? Lol
What an incredibly powerful and well-done video. I've done creative work with a bunch of startups and sometimes the culture just felt weird to me... and now I know why
one cannot spell culture without 'cult' in it 😬
@@jgangganganoh that hit hard lol
Well all "culture" is basically cultish. I mean, really think about think. It's shaping the way you think and act because you think you're apart of some group that you can't leave. Because it's "your" culture.
I haven't looked into it but I wouldn't be surprised if culture is derived from cult
@@jamesp7271when the microorganisms completely take over, the benefits of a "cultured" (tempered) approach vanish as the concentrated organisms go anaerobic in their highly competitive environment and start pumping out toxins.
Lol yes, I also worked in the tech sector pre Covid and absolutely. Lots of specialized languages. Lots of sex in the workplace via sponsored events tbh. It was crazy time lol
“Should we hire this person that is qualified for the job?”
“Idk if they are “xyzian”
I can't tell you how true it is. IF YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT SUSCEPTIBLE YOU ARE WRONG. Everyone is capable of getting dragged into things and most of the time they won't realise it's happening
I'm not though
As a two time Amway participant, I have seen the cult atmosphere of corporate "team building". Thankfully it was never something I've bought into. I think it's always been because of my experience with sports throughout my life. I have always been "last-picked", so I have an innate distrust of anyone trying to be so deliberately inclusive. I see through the BS they're shoveling for what it is.
I think it's disgusting how scared unions make business owners
Like god forbid we want a safe work environment where I can get sick without fear of losing my job for example
Unfortunately it isn't that unions "scare" corporations, it's just that unions are bad for business, workers have power through unions, and if and when they use that power then they can force a company to listen, and listening costs companies money.
Yes this is an oversimplification of the issue at hand, if you would like me to write a long winded reply I will happily do so, but if not I'll leave it here.
It's importants that unions don't become TOO powerful though. A healthy work economy requires the workers and leaders to have equal negotiating power. Right now, business leaders have too much power and the workers don't have nearly enough. However, if workers get too much power, you get shit like the police union refusing to fire corrupt officers. Balance is everything
@@olianims
Look. We're the market that all the businesses are selling stuff to.
If the pay scale goes up, it costs companies _in the short term._
Long term, _it actually expands the middle class and expands the market that businesses are selling to._
When we make more money, we can buy more stuff.
So fighting against better pay is actually putting short-term loss ahead of long-term benefits for the entire market.
Companies don't do long-term thinking well, they think in quarter-year terms.
@@KaspYAR Unions are great for business, they're just bad for the profit of the bosses. You see, they increase worker health, happiness, motivation, and wellbeing. This increases worker retention, reduces worker sick days, increases productivity both quantitatively and qualitatively, and all that together leads to a better market position. And all it costs is a fairer division of the profits. But since the ones who decide how to divide the profits are the ones that get the most profits, they're not incentivized to vote against their own interests.
@@grmpEqweer u misunderstand me. I'm all for unions. But even more so, I'm for proper balance. The job market is way too favorable for employers now at the cost of employees, but we shouldn't get carried away with unions and completely flip the scale
This is a big problem in the non-profit sector where they can't motivate employees using wages, so they use ideology to keep them instead. As you said in your video, idealistic people who want to make the world a better place are susceptible to this kind of marketing... and that's exactly the type of person who non-profits attract. They're willing to sacrifice their time and money as long if they can make an impact in their community. That's a good thing, but there's lots of people willing to exploit it.
I worked for a place like this for an abusive boss of a "non-profit" (the profits had to be reinvested into the company, meaning he could pay himself millions and bankroll his entire family who worked there). The company's mission seems great but everyone there gets treated like garbage and he would get angry at people doing things that helped the mission if it didn't have a profit incentive attached to it. All while trying to gaslight people into believing things that aren't true but make sense in his fucked-up world view, telling you "its not about the money", acting like he treated everyone like family (based on how he acts he probably treats his family like garbage too) and lording the mission over people who complain. It seems like he's trying to do the whole cult leader thing but isn't very successful at it; the only people drinking his kool-aid are his family members. But still, the people who stayed don't leave because they genuinely care about their job which helps the world, enough that they could put up with the bullshit of one small man.
I feel bad for falling for his crap but I hear about it a lot in the tech industry. It didn't help that he sounded so damn confident saying things that clearly were untrue, leaving us questioning things constantly while he never gave anything a second thought. I hope that we as a society can learn to see through these narcissists/sociopaths/whatever it is that they are and not actively reward this kind of behavior. It fucks me up knowing that these people (if you can call them that) are lurking everywhere, pretending they're one of us, constantly looking for new ways to exploit everyone around them.
They WON'T motivate employees with wages. They refuse to pay substantially and instead use the ill form of "values" marketing.
This was such a helpful and insightful comment, thank you
^yes! And ditto public service
so much this.... lost my friend to actual volunteer group. Like you can't tell her "stop helping people!" but she is taken advantage of so easily and it derailed the crucial decade of her life that cannot be recovered even if attempt was made and it's not...
My experience was therapy was very much a cult experience. It took a lot to break away from it and recover. The worst part is how therapy abuse is downplayed and therapy is so encouraged.... its so easy for vulnerable people to be brainwashed and abused.
Therapy can both be the way out and a new prison depending on the issue and on the therapist. And this can be... terrifying
A lot of people become therapists for the power it gives them. There should be much better oversight.
Med system/healthcare is often like this. Don’t question the guru. Bullied into meds/treatments. Testing/surgeries glorified. When something goes wrong, you are gaslighted or “dead to them”.
The recent global injection campaign used cult tactics (language, a “uniform”, authority worship, brainwashing, bullying/peer pressure, group think, penalties for leaving the cult, etc).
What kind of therapy was it and how was it a cult?
I discovered this by accident. I had been to quite the number of therapists years ago. I’d stay with one until they started to “tell” me what I should be doing. At about the 5th one, this happened quickly. It finally dawned on me they were all like this; total control freaks. If you didn’t follow what they thought was best to them, you weren’t getting better. This last one, I called and left a message canceling my appointment. She had the nerve to call me next day and demand I make another one. I told her if I ever heard from her again I’d sue her for harassment. I’ve never gone to another counselor again.
- Job that claims it’s going to give you a sense of belonging and higher purpose and a new lifestyle
-promises stability and certainty and benefits
-sings a bunch of songs celebrating the workplace
-has ritualistic celebrations of the workplace
-has a charismatic leader, that branches down to a chain of command
-found dead wearing all the same clothes, but the victims are martyrized
… The US Military has joined the chat
Bruh
But it does do those things
And it is not too difficult to get kicked out…
And it does change you for the rest of your life in a good way
For most people…
And you also KNOW and are quite aware of what you signed up for
For most people…
@@NotThisShipSister1 lmao, ma’am. Let’s let the veterans decide if that’s true. Go interview them. You can usually find at least a few in your local homeless camp! 😊
@@NotThisShipSister1Changes their life in a good way? What about all the currently homeless vets? What about life-changing injuries? It’s hard to understand what you’re signing up for when the horrors of war aren’t openly talked about, instead they’re replaced by recruiters parroting all the benefits and “what a hero!” You’ll be. Michelle, the military is a bonafide cult and YOU have fallen for the propaganda.
@@NotThisShipSister1Not everything is a cult. Lol
If everything is something, then everything is nothing.
The last job that I had was a nightmare, it changed me, I lost any sense of contentment or happiness, I had anxiety, depression, I feared everyday. I was a single Mom of 2 girls, I was so exhausted all the time, trying to find a new job was too overwhelming to even think of adding to my day on top of everything. Being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer saved me, the day I found out I asked my Dr 'when do I stop work to start treatment' and she said 'now if you want.' I was so relieved, because my benefits would kick in and I'd never have to return. I'd never felt so miserable and stuck as I did there. Cancer saved me, pretty wild.
Cancer saved me too, which is a sentence I should never have to say. After the cancer I realised I couldn't push my body that hard anymore and that it had limits. I chose a job that catered to me, not the other way round. I will never put a job first over my health again. I'm fully aware of my employment rights now too. Anyone reading this please get Critical Illness insurance cover. It'll save you financially if the worst happens and has allowed me to work part time.
My illness saved me from a religious cult and an abusive marriage. Ten years later and I'm still trying to recover my health, my mind and my children. I don't know if I will ever get there but I keep trying.
That’s not “wild” that’s just stupid! All that negativity in your life from hating a job you force yourself to endure, is more than likely what contributed to your cancer. You could have just as much put more positive energy and effort into finding a job you love a lot more than dealing with all of that crap AND not made yourself sick in the process.
@@Lacroix999 Come on, show some empathy. When you have depression and are constantly burned out because you're a single mom and have a job that makes you miserable, you can't "just" change you mindset to a more positive one. You would probably have barely enough energy to make it through everyday life, and maybe not even that. Looking for a new job is exhausting, especially when you have two kids to account for.
It's not stupid, it's just beeing a human in a difficult situation.
@@Hendrik_F Thank you. I have three kids to support, and these jobs have this routine down to a science. They keep you exhausted so that you don't have the time or will to get your stuff together and leave. They bleed you for extra hours and more work, knowing that they'll burn you out and replace you with another just like you, and you're stuck because you have responsibilities.
I've joined a cult. It was a religious one called SGI Buddhism which stands for sokka gakkai international. I didn't know it was a cult until I joined. It's a huge cover for human trafficking too. I escaped but I'm technically still registered as a member, I just kinda ghosted them.
Edit: also when I worked at Chipotle it had special language, tried to make us work off the clock and all sorts of weird things that reminded me straight up as a cult, which is why I would joke it was Chipotle-Cult-le. Lol
I was a member of SGI, guess I still am but I only went because I had a workmate that was involved and I just went for chats. Didn’t know about hunan trafficking.
Dude, working at Chipotle had the weirdest vibe
@@Eeveeswhimsicalwonders
Chipotle have an internationally recognised b /o y / l o v e symbol that is registered on the FBIs website in how to recognise the 'feet people'
@@Eeveeswhimsicalwondersagreed
I was also part of SGI for a while and can confirm. I always knew it was a cult so I basically went to watch the shenanigans and hang out... Once they tried to get me to start paying for membership I disappeared.
I could give entire lists of cultish things they did...
My parents were hippies and my dad, being a coalminer from WV, was a lifetime member of the UMWA (United mine workers of America). I have always been leery of corporations and their staunch rejection of worker unionization, especially with the 'right to work' laws and various other strategies big business uses to disguise their domination over employees lives. The biggest threat to their success is worker organization and solidarity. Nothing is more thrilling than videos like this, revealing truth and spreading the word! Thank you brother!
My wife worked for Trader Joe's for a couple years. When she came home and told me how things are ran, the terminology they use, etc. my response was she was joining a cult.
The author of Cultish, Amanda Montell, also has a phenomenal podcast called “Sounds Like a Cult.” They’re pretty tongue in cheek and cover the cultishness of “normal” things, like “the cult of Disney Adults” or “the cult of Peloton,” so it’s a very fun listen. But at the same time, they’re pointing out how a lot of things we blindly accept have these troubling undertones in common with more overt cults. Highly recommend.
Ooooh, definitely gonna check that out. Thanks for the rec.
Thanks for this recommendation!
I fucking love that podcast and I always reference the disney and peloton cults when i explain the pod to someone too
Yeah I feel the same way about lots of things, but sports fans come to mind. They literally go through a fit of rage and depression when their team is losing or loses. The sense of identity fans feel is too much lol. There isn't anything on planet Earth worth getting that worked up over
@@EhurtAfyor political parties 😱 I hate both sides 😂
After working at Amazon, watching this feels so creepy and relatable. I'm glad I got out
Congratulations on your escape - from another ex… employee (I won’t use the word we both know I could use).
Same, I didn't work there long (thank the lord) but I already knew how bad it was and I never wanna work there again...
If there were no other jobs in the world and an amazon werehouse was the last job ever... I'd rather go homeless and d1e
I still work there but am trying to get out once I get my CDL, it's so bad there it's not even funny
@@jaycool1114 wishing you a speedy and safe escape!
What’s wrong with Amazon?
as someone who escaped a suicide cult when i was in high school and college, they are so predatory on exactly what you think you need and want. they are.. extremely manipulative and it so fucking terrifying when you look back after you’ve been removed. it’s never the fault of the people dragged in, only the fault of the leaders. i truly want people to understand that there’s no such thing as consenting to a cult. it is so so hard to think of that. as a survivor. but you are always harmed if you’re bought into a cult.
Jesus Christ, you poor soul. ;w;
I worked for a company that I genuinely believe is a cult. They used cult indoctrination tactics on us. They isolated us and made us feel like our coworkers were our only community. I was so stressed out at that job because I felt I was constantly at risk of loosing my job, and in turn loosing my community and identity.
17:30 When I started working corporate again this year after about 6 being self-employed, I was shocked to have a 20-minute anti-union video as part of the computer-based “training”. It makes sense since unions are more active now than they’ve been in ages, but it was so blatant and dishonest…reminded me a lot of my mother trying to scare me out of calling CPS when I was a kid.
It sucks because quitting a job that is really bad makes you look like a quitter to future employers.
Read Marx
OOF LOL my mom used to tell us all the time that the cops would just make everything worse… I think the most chilling part is that she was probably right, who knows what the foster system would've done to us.
@@ZhovtoBlakytniyI think it’d be better to tell future employees that for example you were not treated right and now you are pursuing something better, I think that’s admirable or should be 😢
my god thats such a dark comparison. wishing you love and peace.
Mate, this essay has absolutely blown my tiny mind. I was one of those people, suicidal over my workplace. I ended up hospitalised. It was only a year ago. I was bullied, ostracised, gaslit, and I believed I deserved it all. But this video, man, this video has absolutely reframed my thoughts around the whole situation. The people bullying me were absolutely displaying cult like behaviour. Amazing when you're with them, demonised if you're not. I'm actually just sitting on my couch rethinking every interaction, nasty comment, purposeful exclusion, the list goes on. I am so grateful I'm still here, that I was able to leave and find myself again. I am so grateful that you made this video, and I found it. Thank you.
I know we don’t know each other but I am really happy you’re still here. ❤
Unless someone has gone through this they just don’t understand, I’ve been there too. Hugs to you!
❤
I’ve been there too. It’s beyond painful when the ideals you do carry are used against you, toward making you doubt and blame yourself. I’m glad you got out of that situation, and I’m glad you’re still here 💜
"Amazing when you're with them, demonised if you're not. I'm actually just sitting on my couch rethinking every interaction, nasty comment, purposeful exclusion, the list goes on." --This is me now, thinking about my family that won't talk to me! Well put!
I think a good video to make would be one of how people trapped in cults found ways to leave them. Because as you said, these members are people, and people deserve to be empowered.
As a person who wants to change the world for the better, I find that many such folk have minds that are open to new ideas. Cults will play to that and lure people in with such talk.
I was accosted by a cult member, and she mentioned the name of her organization (can't remember) but she invited me off campus to watch some movies.
It turned out only her husband, she, and I would be the only ones there, in a bare room, with a bare chair, and an old-fashioned 16-mm film reel projector. That, and she and her husband appeared incongruous to me. Though that was back in 1983, that projector was still ancient technology. VCR's were the current tech.
I begged off saying I had an appointment and I was late. This lady walked me out and tried to ask me for information on my address. I put her off while saying I really had to run.
And I did. I ran inside one of my college buildings and ran up one staircase and down another on the opposite end of the building before I was sure I was rid of her.
I say look for things that seem unusual for your current culture as you experience it. Are there any misalignments in your encounter? One might not be enough to ring an alarm bell, but others might.
Do they take you out of familiar settings? Off campus, away from your neighborhood? Are you taken by yourself away from friends and family? As much as you might feel estranged from your family that you live with, a cult member can take you out of your familiar surroundings and secure settings. This is a way they can make you vulnerable, and they can start saying they can provide you with your needs and security.
If you think that what they do is stupid, don't be afraid to act on that feeling and leave. Don't give them any information about yourself or your friends and family.
Pay attention to details. It might seem to feel disingenuous, impolite or even prejudiced, but even that can help you put the cult pieces together. When you leave, do not think you owe them anything, not even politeness. Use any excuse, no matter how lame, if you need to.
I hope my experience of a near miss can help you avoid cults.
I was lucky in 2 ways: I got away, and I found an article in the newspaper about that cult and where they were-exactly where I was the previous day. Not too long after that, they were no longer there. Okay, lucky 3 ways-or more. You won't necessarily know if what you walked away from was a cult. But don't think you did anything wrong by doing what you did. Even if you don't get confirmation.
Every major corporation worldwide, and especially America has their own body count. Inadequate wages, outrageous expectations of their employees, deliberate understaffing, micro managing, vacation time that can never be taken, long hours, and a constant state of paranoia caused by being told all day every day they’re not preforming up to “standards”. I wish I had a true number on those that simply checked out, rather than suffer the depression and humiliation of leaving the insanity. And the simple answer to that by corporate America is “next”…..
This is what Cinema Therapy would call a vegetables video - not fun and fluffy, but important to consume to keep you healthy. Fantastic video Cam, one of your best yet.
While working as an event technician, I saw something wild at a big company meeting. A guy with stage 4 cancer told everyone he'd work until his last breath because being without work was worse than dying. His family was there, crying. The whole thing was just messed up - felt like a cult.
To be frank, it may just be how he perceives life. What's the point of wasting away my days doing nothing, when I can do something?
I wouldn't necessarily attribute his beliefs to a cult-like following.
@@troybaxterBecause there’s much more to do than work. He could have spent his time with family, travelling. There’s just so much.
@@ghoultooth you are missing the point. Some people find value in contributing in some way, shape, or form to society. That's what they feel makes them purposeful in life.
You can say maybe it is a flawed belief, but it is completely wrong to say it is cult-like.
@@troybaxter I'd say it's cult-like in the same way capitalism as a whole is.
@@troybaxterthe idea that one’s only use in society and only purpose is to work, to help fund a business, is inherently cultish. The engrained idea that the most important thing you can do is work is cultish.
Dude. Thank you for this. My dad spent decades under the boot of corporate culture. I saw how he was torn apart by being a cog in the machine. We are all susceptible. We're all on the same team. Damn man, what a good video!
From the beginning, thank you for treating this topic with respect and for calling out the Spectacle that people make cults into. Cult members are vulnerable people in society, often no different from any homeless person other than who they hung out with.
Thank you for this.
It's a shame RUclips restricts this. This is important stuff we all need to address, especially in this modern age of misinformation and institutional gaslighting.
Respect.
That's because those that run RUclips match the cult descriptiin.
It’s because the video mentions suicide. If that was censored it wouldn’t be restricted. Still kind of dumb, but, those are the rules
@bbbean
Big brand tv shows have suicide mentioned in their shows, and yt still sells episodes.
They are a cult like company that takes advantage of the children who are victimized on this platform and takes advantage of the urge for communication that humans have.
@@bbbeanSee, the dumbest thing about this is that discussing suicide does _not_ cause it, despite what moralists have assumed since forever.
Yeah, which is why dumb euphemisms like “unaliving”, “self deletion”, “graping”, etc are having to be used to prevent demonetization.
I'm really happy to see the topic covered so thoughtfully. The erasure of the word Suicide from our acceptable online vocabulary doesn't erase the problem, it only heightens the stigma and discourages productive discussion about the nuanced circumstances surrounding a choice like that. Sometimes it is because of a religion, a cult, or a job, but it's never not a tragedy.
The HBO Max Heaven’s Gate documentary is the best documentary I have ever seen about any cult. I felt like it was devoid of the dehumanization or the blaming of the victims and the art style is beautiful. I haven’t actually finished it because even tho I’ve known about Heaven’s Gate since I was a child before watching the documentary, the weight of it all haven’t downed on me and I kept sobbing and it all got a bit too much. But I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is interested in Heaven’s Gate or cults in general. It’s a very human depiction.
I want to personally thank this video. Today was my last day at a start up that definitely carried itself like a cult as you described in this video. A start up that destroyed my mental health but I felt like I had no agency to leave. This helped me come to an important self reflection I needed to come to terms with
Are you… trying to get me to join your cult? If so, mission accomplished!
In all seriousness, this video was almost like a public service announcement and I appreciate the care and empathy you have for your fellow man. Stay the course, Cam! 🙏❤️
My life partner of many years and certified wonderful person once got caught up in what was effectively a cult. A friend of hers had recommended she'd take a look at what seemed to be a "coaching group" around a self proclaimed expert of things generally. Over time she started loosening and severing ties with family members, me and friends and parted from a small fortune to the profit of the group leader. It took her a few years to get out and get an idea what had happened. She lost a lot of money and not all her relationships could be built back to what they were before. She is smart, hard working, down to earth and the kindest heart you'll ever meet. She then had solid and loving family, a safe and caring relationship and friends who were committed and full of adoration for her. Yet, in a relatively minor spiritual crisis or introspective period she fell for the cult. If it can happen to her, it really can happen to anybody. It happens to people, that's all they are. And that's what all of them are.
This is great ! Well not the cult part . But this definitely needs to be talked about. I was raised in a cult as a child and understand the very subtle manipulation. That opened my mind and saw the patterns in everything from religion, fashion ,social media platforms, celebrity to business. Once you see you can't unsee.
So glad you are bringing this subject to light !
This is scary and worse we have disabled people running this things.
You could go on much longer about this topic. I'm currently in therapy largely for how the work conditions of companies I've worked for have caused me trauma. I won't get into it here, but you did a very good thing by making this video. Thank you for shedding light on this correlation
I believe it. I've been there. I don't know how old you are; but I started noticing the abundance of uncontrollable bullies in the workforce about a decade ago. It's never been perfect, but now they can bully with impunity.
I worked for a company that made me suicidal. I got out, but it’s is affirming to have you confirm my suspicions. I have been learning about cults recently, and have slowly realized that the company was decidedly cultish. It’s nice to have someone else connect these dots as well.
Glad you’re still here
a lot of companies fit into the Steven hassan’s Bite model Its a really scary world out there
Can you say what company it was?
This is how school makes me feel 😇
It's interesting the concept of the word cultish. You wouldn't say a scam is scammy. It's either a scam or not. So wouldn't that be the same for something that is a cult. It occurs to me this video explains that there is a spectrum but, I'd argue they would still be considered a cult and not cultish.
I applied at Amazon and made it through the zero-day initiation, but it gave me the cultiest vibes. They were insistent on making sure we knew the Face of Bezos, and had a two-man team singing alternating praises of his business acumen. They even said that they didn't need to run a single advertisement until around 2016, which is a bald-faced and easily disproven LIE! 2000 or so, they were expanding their stock and hyping up that they had toys for the holidays. And it was just too memorable, I had to call them out on it. Didn't really push the issue any, but it left a funny tingle in the back of my brain and I just walked off the job before even starting. All this "great man" myth garbage, he came from wealth and he got lucky. If he'd won a lottery nobody would respect his money, but it's basically the same event.
I applied to Amazon once at a career fair in college. It was all the crap that they started sending me that felt like straight up war time propaganda that made me just skip orientation. I got a poster that was an Uncle Sam away from trying to get me to buy war bonds and plant a victory garden. It was so creepy.
What warehouse was this? Just curious cause I never experienced this dueing my orientation
@@kermeinchara4328Sharing their local warehouse on the internet probably isn’t the smartest idea, but there’s evidence of similar stuff online if you look it up.
@@kermeinchara4328I had a similar experience in Kent, WA. My roommate and I worked in neighboring facilities and were bombarded with propaganda.
I considered doing an Amazon job once and I remember the online orientation felt so manipulative, like they made you do a trivial task and then hype you up about it like "wow!!! Amazing!!! Not everyone is able to complete this!!!" When I imagine that is only barely true
There was a short-lived cult a few years ago that I was involved with (though not fully involved in, as much as I wanted to be at the time). It was run by a group of young people that were promoting this community, this “family” to minorities and folks that were vulnerable to wanting a safer place to exist or be accepted: disabled people, POC, women, it was prominently promoted to queer people in particular.
Literally part of their phrasing was the phrase ‘Welcome home’, the cult preyed on folks that felt like they didn’t belong wherever they were, people that wanted to feel love and support.
I got into it the same way everyone else did. I was insecure, I was lonely, I wanted a place where I felt welcomed. While it was mostly a spread out online space, being run through social media community spaces like discord and instagram, they used that to their advantage of reaching a wider audience. Few people had direct contact with those at the top, the people running it all, but it was easy to see in hindsight that predatory and manipulative behavior run rampant on all levels of the social ladder. Everyone I’ve spoken to about that space has mentioned at least one occasion of either seeing someone being taken advantage of, financially or emotionally or even sexually, or has been taken advantage of themself (me included).
I always thought I’d never fall for a cult, but that’s the point- you don’t “fall for” anything. Even on the inside you can be convinced that the cult is for your benefit, for a greater good than you might realize. I was a victim of months of emotional and financial abuse from people that held a more powerful position in that space than I did. I may have never spoken to the leaders of the cult, or even the inner circle of victims that were kept at the center of the organization, but the place practically protected manipulative people, everything either being overlooked or defended as a “misunderstanding” or “nice gesture being taken for granted”.
Not every cult is like Heavens Gate or Jonestown. Not everyone is joining because of aliens or government conspiracy. It all comes from people seeking something better than what they’re handling in life, it’s all just hope being used against them.
Almost ended my life over my last job. I’m so traumatized I no longer think I’m capable of working again and am applying for disability. My mental state was already bad, but Panda Express was the final straw. Don’t work in fast-food.
Is that FoodPanda? The food delivery people?
I recently escaped a cult for a twitch streamer. This was a deeply covert mysogynist and narcissist. My “friends” immediately started the smear campaign and gang stalking when I decided to disconnect from all of them. The rage was within them all, like a shared flame, all from the same source. Wicked, blind, and insidious abuse.
you’re strong man. props to you.
Oh my god! What happened? I’m hope you’re safer now.
Well this solidified my worries of communities that form in a vacuum.
Most of the time, it's harmless.
Like Vinny Vinesauce and his community's inside jokes plus their propensity to roast him.
Then we have something like Sniperwolf's community where the audience obeys the whims of the streamer.
Flying monkeys
Athenes ?
The strange corporate cult mentality is what made me leave Walmart. The morning chants and claps that ended in “meditation” sat wrong with me (even at the tender age of 19). Management buys into bullshit and the forces it onto employees that don’t comply. I had to tell Mark (my manager at the time) to fuck off because he tried to enforce that culture onto me after he asked me to do something and I took the liberty of doing it 5 minutes after he asked. Needless to say, that was my last day 😂
I had a feeling like that about Walmart.
I worked nights doing a remodeling of the whole store and it was with a team that went around with special shelf moving equipment. The lady that was the head of it was extremely optimistic and cheery "if you have any questions or anything, come to me. We're a big family!" But if you had an actual question or needed help she just couldn't hear you and would remind you to be happy and cheerful. Cheerfully confused and in pain!
@@ZhovtoBlakytniy they had (probably still have) a bunch of managers that are like that. Mostly young-ish women that just kinda float around for to try to keep morale up and make people feel like they’ve got a “friend” At the job. It’s all weird.
@@ZhovtoBlakytniyThis has been my whole life so far. 🤷🏼♀️‼️🤷🏼♀️
@@CupUhhJo... 🤯‼️🤯... This sounds like my whole life so far. ... WTF am I **IN**???????
Yes!!! I had a breakdown working at Walmart and I heard the subliminals that play over the speakers all day, in my dreams. It says shop at Walmart so many times an HOUR
I really, really respect your opinion in how the word cult member dehumanizes people. Never would have thought about it but you are so right
Many American BIG Box stores are using bullying their employees, yelling and screaming at an employee in front of customers to embarrass and stop other employees from complaining- obiden wants us to do things the Chinese way?? What does that mean and why would he say that if he wasn’t under the control of the CCP how much does China own stock in these companies??
On another level where I worked was like a cult. We were routinely not only criticized but told we need to be grateful for the opportunity to work at such a generous company, there was no one like them.
We felt a weird loyalty but also a sort of loss since it get we couldn’t leave. You couldn’t trust anyone as anything you said or did might be “reported”
Absences were not allowed and if you were gone even for a day you might face a different harder postion. They had a point system available for everyon to see and if you gained too many points (doctors notes excused was half a point) you could be demoted or punished.
As someone who was born and raised in a cult, thank you for this video! Very well done, very well put. We who have been victims of cults have to deal with so much shame because of the dehumanising connotation of the words cult member and cult victim.
I was too. This makes sense why i always hated corporate culture. Turns out i was recognizing the same mechanisms.
I hope I don’t hurt you by asking: what’s the connotation there? I’ve always taken the words literally, and with the understanding that “cult members” were taken advantage of, slowly robbed of their agency and their lives. Until watching this video I never knew that these words carried a dehumanizing tone. What did I miss?
@@leamubiu thanks for asking. I use the terms too and I do take them literally. But here are some real life examples I have heard, some of them countless times: -Oh, those people, they're just idiot cult members. -Oh, those cults members are all crazy, that's why they're in a cult! -Only half-brained dimwits become cult members. -Like, sure they are victims, but they were in a cult, what did they expect? -if they didn't like it, they shouldn't have joined a cult. -cult members are basically robots, they don't have their own brains.
I have literally been told that since I grew up a cult victim I couldn't be trusted to make important life decisions as I was obviously too stupid to avoid crazy cults and the state should have power of attorney over me. And the number of times I've been asked how I could "fall for that bullshit" even after explaining that I was born and raised in.... Of course, not every one says uninformed remarks like this. And the more cults have been in the zeitgeist the better it has been. And like I said I do use the terms myself but recently I've started to switch the words around, I don't say I'm a cult victim. I say "I was a victim of a cult" and that actually seems to make people rethink their response a bit.
@@2ndGemStockholmSyndromeso true, we humans like to distance ourselves from others of different ideologies or with behaviours we don't agree with. Dehumanising is easy, orcs, cult members, freaks, zealots. We forget that we are also indoctrinated in so many ways we don't realize. Pity you had to learn the hard way but I think direct experience is the only way we learn. Second hand accounts get into the 'won't happen to me' box
@@dreankiI'd be so interested to hear what culture were in
Thank you for shining a light on this. I don't think my last job was a cult, but I almost ODed because I felt overworked and saw no other way out. Thankfully I quit before that happened. Employers need to take working conditions seriously.
I hope things have got better for you ❤
While I agree, I think all people need to assume their corporate boss is a psychopath until proven otherwise. Just to be safe.
Always quit never OD - God saved you from a job that was harming you
⛪
Wow, this was an essential video, and thanks so much. I had a friend go join a cult in the early 80's, and they did the standard (?) exclusive weekend seminar brain washing technique; keeping the people awake for days, not letting them go to the bathroom, or controlling that to the point of desperation, telling them all their friends and family were ignorant and against their life progress... She told me briefly about all this when she got back and was ending our friendship. Sad, but she didn't end up offing herself, thankfully. The idea that these crazy times are ripe for this cult stuff is right on the money, but it's an insight that surprised me. Now I am indeed watching out for it, and I don't think I would have otherwise, so thank you again. 💗
"I can't Believe how free that made me feel", said the castrated man, clearly holding back tears.
2:34 "they could be fooled, but i couldn't". This is such a powerful statement to me.. i was raised in a cult my parent joined when i was young. And into my teens and early 20s i would sit, listening to speeches and talks and think "im so glad i wouldn't get caught in a cult" WHILE SITTING IN MY CULT 😅😖🤦 Noone thinks it could happen to them ..
I have a good friend who was caught up in a religious cult for years. He's smart, he's very progressive and wants the best for everyone; he's out of it now, thank goodness, but if he could get caught, anybody can.
@@retriever19golden55 thank you for that. I heard someone once say that people who do get caught in cults are generally people who are looking for something better in the world, and are sure they're gonna find it... and that sounds like your friend ❣️
Well this video hit like a ton of bricks. As a young adult who's struggling with corporate work and knowing that every place is just fucked up like this... it's hard to be hopeful
couldnt agree more
Not every place is like that.
But every place can become like that.
Just try to keep a healthy distance between you and your companies goals. And never agree to an all-in working contract 😉
Try thinking about your job as a means to an end. You, then decide on what the end result is! If the company you are working for wants all your time, find another job. Look outside the job for your fulfillment.😊😊
The big red flag I would say for corporate job is extended, unnecessary “training” where they do nothing but try to convince of the greatness of the company and its leaders. I’ve been in a corporate job who did this l and I had never been in a corporate job before so I didn’t identify it as a red flag. Come to find out the longer I worked there that they greatly underpaid everyone and did absolutely nothing to accomodate anyone to work within comfortable ranges despite espousing accommodation and diversity. Now I’m in a job where my training in this vein was only 4 hours of one day…. I am still a bit underpaid, but my working conditions are way better and no one is trying to gaslight me about the conditions of the job. There are good companies out there, but like others said, don’t close off your other options right away and DO NOT drink the company kool aid
This video reminds me of the situation at Enron, a very cult-like company. Even people not inside the company were fooled into thinking it was actually doing something useful, such as Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the federal reserve at the time. Enron, of course, collapsed, ruining the careers and destroying the savings of large numbers of people.
Greenspan was probably in on it.
I believe that studies have shown that intelligence is a risk factor for joining a cult, because intelligence improves one's capacity to justify and rationalise decisions made for emotional reasons, such as seeking a sense of security or belonging.
THIS.
I was born into Jehovahs Witnesses and although my family was disfellowshipped (that's what getting kicked out is called), I carried a very dangerous mix of intelligence, curiosity and early-childhood cult programming throughout my life and have experienced some of the most horrifying things anyone could imagine, for exactly the reasons you've just stated. Thank you so much for saying something so succinctly that I've struggled to understand myself much less explain to those closest to me.
I'm humiliated, ashamed and traumatized completely for what I've allowed in my life. I'm at a point (in my late 30s) where I can't shake the feeling that I'm too broken now to fix myself and finally live up to even 1/4 of my potential.
I'm sorry for the little novel there but I'm just really blown away by your comment because I've never felt so understood by so few words.
Screenshotting & Printing ❤
@@SavannahSunshine49 Oh wow, I'm so happy to hear that you found that helpful! And I'm very sorry to hear about your trauma, but you don't need to carry shame over things that aren't your fault. It's so easy to fall into thoughts like "I'm smarter than this" and "I shouldn't have let that happen", but the reality is that everyone has vulnerabilities, no matter how smart, strong, or virtuous they are; and we're ALL vulnerable to people telling us what we want to hear. Safe travels 😊
@@thalastian_thundercleese Thank you and you as well! 💗
Another corporate cult that came to mind from this documentary is WeWork. Charismatic worldly leader who throws weird team-building parties with plenty of alcohol and meditation work-shops, makes the members live together in special WeWork buildings isolated from the outside world and preaches about how office leasing is making the world "a better place" lol. Great video, such an interesting watch!
I think that guy got fired, but yes
Yeah- adult summer camps, that were mandatory. Absolute nightmare.
And it was subsidised by the canadian government { i think)
It's just like being in any abusive relationship. Often it starts out great, but you're like a frog being boiled alive. Once you're in, it can be dangerous to get out.
I mostly agree with you, except in a relationship it's one person gaslighting and threatening you. In a cult it's your whole community.
@@hpgdovin Unless your own family is enabling said abuser. They turn your family against you! It's the same cult behaviour.
@hpgdovin I've been in several abusive relationships and it's not fair to say it's 1 : 1. Often a good abuser will manipulate others to Aid in the abuse wittingly or unwittingly, and we'll have a whole Squadron of flying monkeys lined up to come in and try to destroy the Target in a smear campaign so this really is not a normal one on one relationship
@subwayfacemelt4325 yes, absolutely!
i thing something that definitely supports the startup-cult connection is the framing of society to applaud hustle culture, and working harder than necessary for a paycheck. the current drive towards individualism also tends to attract people towards the promise of community that cults and religions offer. when youre lonely and told to work harder than you can and tie your self-esteem to your work, you will inevitably implode. cult communities can feel like a refreshing taste of connection in an isolating world.
The steps to being apart of a cult are so small and so many that it's hard to tell where it all began. You'll find a uniquely similar pattern with "beaten wife syndrome", something which develops with a charismatic narcissistic entity followed by someone who holds out hope. Some call it naive, some call it broken
I am a survivor of a high-demand religion, having been born into it. I think this video is spot on. The connections are there and worth interrogating.
Useful term:- high-demand religion.
Thank you.
@@finestructureconstant3921 Definitely search it up. There are actually resources out there for folks who came out of those sorts of things. Highly recommend Jordan and McKay's stuff, as well.
Same. For me it was Christianity.
10 years ago I made the best decision of my life to cut ties with every single person I knew and flee and start again.
Hard, but worth it.
Well done to you too.
@@pingu3984 And to you! It's so worth it. Wishing you the best.
I was recently laid off from Amazon - I immediately recognized the Amazon video. It’s real and severely disturbing.
Which amazon video?
I was laid off a year ago from AWS. We never saw that video, but we saw many others. Good god the "leadership principles" double speak will forever be etched into my brain
@@SophiesWorld2024 starts @ 16:40, embedded in this video.
As a former lululemon employee.. you’re correct sir ✅
Having worked for starb*cks for 4 years, going through the pandemic and watching the battle between employee and employer has been so insane and this video really shows how similar they are to a lot of these other corporations, despite always trying to appear like they are for the employee. Not to be triggering but, I’ve definitely been in the headspace of some of these workers and have seen how much corporate is willing to push us to our limits and then expects us to worship them while offering us little support when we need it most. They refer to us each other as “partners” to make us feel like we’re on an even player field, just because they give us a small share in the company, but watching this and seeing your point about special language just…wow yeah it really does give the ick
As a fresh 18 year old I joined a startup and worked with them for 1.5 years until having a breakdown that made me quit. With some time away and some hindsight, that experience helped me to understand the experiences of people who join cults so much more and see that really anyone can get sucked in to these things
Thank you so much for this video. My wife and I have always hated how the phrase “drank the Kool-Aide” is used so carelessly and callously in everyday conversation, and you perfectly articulate how language can dehumanize cult victims. This video needs to be seen by more people ❤
I have this weird and no doubt annoying quirk of always correcting people who use the phrase "Drink the Kool-aide" because the drink mix actually used was Flavor aid. A petty correction perhaps, but it's my sarcastic little way of reminding people that it's a real, historical event in which people died. It's terrifying what people can be talked into when they feel like they have nowhere else to turn.
@@ZeonTwilight It could be one of those words that's just become common in the language. Like coolant for an air conditioner. Nearly everyone who isn't familiar with coolant calls it Freon, and it's not. Freon is a brand name, or Tylonol, and so on.
@@Dirshaun I'm sure it's very much that. Paired with the natural numbness that comes with colloquialisms that come from frequent use. But it's nice to give a little history check to make sure folks know what they are actually referencing when they say "Don't drink the Kool aid" as not everyone does.
There are lots of phrases we use, that we have no idea where the phrase originally came from.
I’ve watched several of your videos but this one gets me to subscribe. We all need to see how the ancient need to “belong” which is buried deep in our biological and cultural programming has been perverted by modern material life and is weaponized against our even more basic need to simply exist. This video is brave, profound and incredibly important. That RUclips does not give us an easy way to share this exceptional video is shameful and revealing. Thank you for making this and for speaking the Truth ….. so vital!!! ❤
Are you on a crApple device?
Brilliant! Subtile, nuanced, intelligent, critical without being cynical, human
Everything you've said about cults and the victims that get ensnared in them, is absolutely spot on.
I was born in and grew up in a small cult. My father weaponized money and fear and with his crazy charisma, mentally trapped my siblings, myself, and my mother into being too afraid to speak anything that wasn't praise towards him and into genuinely believing that the abuse he did to us was not only normal, but the right thing to do.
Out of the five of us, I was the lucky one because I escaped. It never sat right with me to blindly listen to someone just because they said you're supposed to, and it made the abuse towards me worse than anyone else's there.
Today my brothers and mother are still mentally trapped by him. They still deep down believe that his word is gospel, and speaking/acting against him is the worst thing in the world to do. Today my father has disowned me, my brothers and mother secretly communicate with me, and I've been left with life long mental problems because of this upbringing. I don't regret escaping, and I would do it again every chance I get. But it makes me sad thinking that I might never be able to save the rest of my family until my dad's medical problems become the best of him.
Thanks for talking openly and clearly about things like this. It's a topic that is equally scary and important to know and talk about.
Ditto. Very ditto. 😭🫂💜😭‼️
I’m so sorry you had to face that. It was brave of you to escape him, and hopefully your siblings will find courage to follow your path one day
Is there any way to report your father for psychological abuse? You have the mental scars and stories to go against him and possibly help your family. If that isn’t possible, it’s understandable and I wish you all well.
I don't intend to come across as disrespectful, but is that not just an emotionally manipulative household as opposed to a cult? He's not recruiting people into it so it seems fairly odd to me to call your family's experience a cult
@@nyancat8828 Sorry but I gotta respond to this one. Big mistake I know. But just to let you know, as long as the ACTIONS (& Words for that matter) are in line with Cult Activity, *then it is one.* Really what these things/people do is DEAD STAMP what this person you are responding to described. You DON'T need the "Recruitment of Outsiders" for it to "Count As A Cult". And since you have been molded to believe such a thing, then it very much makes me want to tell you to look around yourself, you seem to be pretty manipulated yourself. Your power (& mind for that matter) is being taken away by Someone in your life, and they convinced you that for it to be an Cult it MUST be drawing in outsiders. Usually the ones who speak like you are already being manipulated & oddly enough they Defend CRUELLY (even dying for) the very person/ideas/beliefs/things that convinced them that they are currently "Free"/"Normal". Sounds like you have a lot of searching you need to do, whether it be family, friends, etc. Something (or someone) is CLEARLY going on in your life, and you have been raised to believe it's "Normal", when it very much is NOT. PLEASE WAKE UP & Save Yourself! (You sound like my own Sister & Brother before THEY got out.)
& Yes, I know you'll bully me horrifically, cause that's what you types do, but I'm telling you this in HOPE that you actually Wake The F Up.
I worked at a cult. Nice realisation for a Sunday morning. Good day for you all too! 🎉
Also, there’s a lot of similarities of cults and abusive relationships. I’d say cults are organised abusive relationships on steroids.
Yes, and bad work environments are imo equally abusive relationships on steroids. Super dangerous…
A relationship with a narcissist is a relationship with a cult of one.
Narcissists operate in the same ways of a cult. They will sink their claws into everyone and everything around you until nobody opposes them because they’ve all been roped into the lies, smoke & mirrors for the narcissists gain. Next thing you know, they also play the victim, employing the shared friends & family to do their abuse for them once they’ve been figured out. Then comes the gaslighting, you second guess yourself, blame, shame, and the cycle repeats. The true victim is stuck in this cult-like cycle or also known as the cycle of narcissistic abuse. These people feed like vampires and keep you weak enough where you can’t run but you can regenerate just enough for them to keep feeding off of you like a parasite.
Me too. Answers in Genesis
The government is a cult, too.
Jesus, this was so well done it gave me the chills and gave me a realisation that I have been in a cultish scenario in a sporting association... It was brutal, loads of emotional torture and guilt, and all just for fencing. And my workplace also decided it would be fun to use a similar approach as the shoes company and call themselves with the name of the company+ian to not assume the gender of somone which i cringed at, but didnt understand why i didnt like it. Now it makes more sense...
Clicking my heels and clapping at this from the intro. Good on you. You explained the importance. You didn’t shy from truth or “scary words” that define **reality!** It can particular irritate me when people act like you can somehow “baby talk” life and death. Good grief. Grow up. Still. You didn’t judge. You showed compassion. You presented a clear idea. Definitely, worth a look.
First off - I love the compassion you have toward cult members. They are vulnerable people looking for a sense of belonging and we shouldn't paint them as inferior or stupid.
Second, I often hyper-fixate on things and one night I read and watched videos about the Jim Jones story. It's absolutely heartbreaking and I am so shocked for a multitude of reasons, but one thing that sticks out is Jackie Speier. She was the congresswoman who flew down to Guyana and somehow made it back alive. If you haven't dove deep into this story, please approach it when your mental health is well because for days after I did this research, I couldn't sleep. I had nightmares about this event and the news coverage that still exists online. It's heartbreaking.
I studied this when I was a child. 2020 onward has reminded me of a combination of the Jim Jone’s cult and the N@z1 youth. Chilling.
Felt this as a manager for Starbucks back in the day. Howard Schultz was worshiped. Having grown up Mormon, I knew the feeling all too well. During my first managers conference, he spoke to a stadium full of “partners” from store managers up and the excitement was palpable. Reminded me immediately of church, especially the monthly testimony meeting where members got up in front of the congregation to declare their testimony that the church was the true church. I left the church completely when I was 17. It was hard. Leaving Starbucks was worse. Lost my entire social circle, and felt more outcast than ever. Took a couple of years to recover completely, and realize the how similar many of the tactics between the two organizations were. Happy to say I’m not under the thumb of either, and have learned enough that I hope to never let my life and emotions be taken away from me again.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t a cult. It is no more a cult than any other organized religion. Yes it is true that there are religious cults. Your disillusionment from the church is due to differing beliefs, not from behavior. That is an important distinction to note. One should not label a belief as cultish, otherwise one could argue that every religion is a cult, which would be ridiculous.
@@zacharyfunk1705the big issues with Mormonism are the rejection of critical thinking and the flip flopping of doctrine since it’s invention.
It’s the secrets that give it the cult label, whether you agree with that label or not.
I mean, they might kill you for leaving Islam but nothing’s a secret.
@@zacharyfunk1705I would argue that most religions have cult like language and beliefs, but I'd also say that mormonism is more of a cult than other religions. They tell you to cut off any relationship that doesn't support the religion, including your own children and close family members. That's the number one thing a cult does is isolate their members from non believers.
@@jenniferb.awesome No, the Church doesn't teach that-- it's coming from specific members that know better
@@zacharyfunk1705 You're correct, and thank you for speaking up. Alot of Protestant Christians say that, and have no idea what Is a cult. Also, I just subscribed. Godspeed to all
Very educational - never give up your own personal power - and behind it all is someone who is narcissistic - establish boundries and follow your own voice. Thank you for putting this video out. Reminds me about the urban legand about the frog and a pot of water on a burner, it happens slowly and incrementally. Under the right circumstances it could happen to anyone.
I remember working somewhere where I made the mistake of mentioning I had a "life threatening condition" to HR & what my needs were, which made them get even more controlling & manipulative with my doctor, until it was a "go spend 3 months unpaid" & fix it. There is just a real lack of compassion in "suck it up, do the things we tell you"
That's awful. Punishment in response to stating your needs is such an abusive pattern...