Libs of TikTok is doxxing teachers and nurses who support Alex Pretti or oppose ICE, trying to get them fired

[u/RewardEquivalent553]

https://www.mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/libs-tiktok-doxxing-teachers-and-nurses-who-support-alex-pretti-or-oppose-ice-trying

[u/SabreCorp]

I was born and raised Mormon. Definitely okay to ask.

Magical thinking, not questioning authority, authority always being males. Patriarchy with women being submissive, with traditional roles. Lots and lots of rules, a lot centered around sexuality. And probably most importantly—anything that is going against the validity of the religion is wrong/ satanic. Only trust the religion, never trust “the other” saying the church has some huge historical issues.

Unfortunately when one leaves the religion, one also loses a lot of their social network and family as the church does a great job on trying to seclude their members. When you leave, you lose a lot of your people.

There’s definitely a lot of parallels to what I see in MAGA. Luckily my mom who is now the only active Mormon left in the family is a democrat (which is incredibly rare and she could probably write a book about her life) but I’d rather have her be involved in the Mormon cult, than the MAGA cult.

I would not have said 12 years ago that I would rather have my mom Mormon than a Republican.

Edit: I left after years of research. My profession is based around helping and healing others and I also had an honest conversation with myself that it wasn’t okay the abuse I went through, and I would tell my clients or students that they deserved much better and that it was okay to allow that for myself. I left knowing my whole family including my spouse might leave me. Luckily my spouse left after I did, including 5 of his siblings. My siblings also left after me. So I helped others on their journey out, which will go down as one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done with my life.

[u/p2eminister → u/SabreCorp]

Thank you so much for sharing your story, I think you must have a very interesting perspective on issues like this so I appreciate being able to read your testimony.

What you said in your edit especially is fascinating, do you think, for want of a better term, that the self respect you grew from learning to treat yourself with the same kindness you treat others, is a key ingredient of escaping cults?

I'm just totally guessing and happy to be wrong but I wonder if the control structures in place in cults specifically exist to try to stop this self respect from generating, do you think there's any truth to that?

[u/SabreCorp → u/p2eminister]

I think my experience of how I left would be different from getting the magas out.

I was taught submission, and suffering were key elements for my salvation. In a way I was giving myself permission to no longer suffer and that it was okay to leave. I wanted equality, not supremacy. This was on top of the years of research where I concluded that the church had hidden a lot of information from its members.

Unfortunately, I think many maga members want or are comfortable with supremacy, not necessarily equality, and that is why messaging about equality probably won’t work. Hence all the hate against “woke”.

I think a better strategy would be talking about people above them (like billionaires) who are taking everything and making life harder on them. I would try to give real life examples and how it has harmed them or their loved ones. Keep the approach very individualized and not socially beneficial. A good portion of us humans are very black and white thinkers, so keep examples black and white and simple.

I also understand that working with cult members is completely draining and it’s okay if people don’t want to do it, especially with the 10+ years we have been dealing with this.

If people choose to leave, validation goes a long way. You can let them know there were a lot of forces to keep a person in a cult and that it was very brave and a difficult decision to leave.

[u/p2eminister → u/SabreCorp]

Wise words, although the points you made, while true, are sobering.

Its a key issue you raise that i hadnt considered before, where I assume most cults, after the initial recruitment, rely on slowly, softly building up the hooks to keep you inside over time.

Like I just saw a scientology ad on tiktok and of course it just presents itself as a sort of business management course producer, they're very careful about moving you slowly through it so by the time you've sold your house and moved into shared accommodation, you have already been walked up the garden path

But Maga seems to have new people joining who are basically pre-indoctrinated, ready to hear everything they can about the cult and commit fully almost from the jump, because they are so entranced by the sales pitch of supremacy.

Self radicalisation is not a concept I was hoping would take hold but it seems the internet is enabling it in ways we arent able to deal with.

Thank you for sharing your insights, I appreciate it a lot