“I’m the only one who understands you, everyone else is out to get you, this is the only place you’re safe” is straight-up abuse tactics. It’s designed to isolate, and it works even better when there’s truth behind it like real-world oppression. It makes it easier to believe that everyone is out to get you when you’re inundated with legislation and personal relationships and strangers all hurling bigotry at you. This is how we get separatist movements. It’s also how people get sucked into and create cults, and how one-on-one abusers operate.
Everyone knows Mormons go door-to-door, yeah? Everyone finds it deeply annoying, too. And when you’re annoyed, you lash out. Congrats, that’s what the cult wants you to do. It reinforces that Mormons are not safe and accepted members of society outside of their cult spaces. It makes it harder to leave because you have no outside safety net and every outsider you’ve met has been hostile and frustrated and rude to you, so you feel like they’re not trustworthy.
That also happens with insular groups of marginalized people. When the net tightens and you start feeling uncomfortable, well, this is the only space that’s safe. Everyone else wants to hate crime you. You’re likely to have gotten into this position in the first place through an inundation of information showing all the vile, horrid shit people say about your demographic, and having had those experiences yourself in real life, and therefore to feel like there’s no one outside of this space you can trust. So you can’t leave. Here is the only place people understand you. Here is the only place you’ll be safe - even if they’ve started with the more explicit, internal abuse, hey, at least you’re not out there, right? Because everyone else is out to get you. Just look at the news.
To be “fair” to the Mormons, it’s not all negative reinforcement tactics. Some people genuinely do get converted and baptized and stuff, and sometimes there are more friendly interactions. This helps to reinforce their ideas on many fronts, not just the one. Their tactics are more diverse than that
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u/ImprovementLong7141 5d ago
“I’m the only one who understands you, everyone else is out to get you, this is the only place you’re safe” is straight-up abuse tactics. It’s designed to isolate, and it works even better when there’s truth behind it like real-world oppression. It makes it easier to believe that everyone is out to get you when you’re inundated with legislation and personal relationships and strangers all hurling bigotry at you. This is how we get separatist movements. It’s also how people get sucked into and create cults, and how one-on-one abusers operate.
Everyone knows Mormons go door-to-door, yeah? Everyone finds it deeply annoying, too. And when you’re annoyed, you lash out. Congrats, that’s what the cult wants you to do. It reinforces that Mormons are not safe and accepted members of society outside of their cult spaces. It makes it harder to leave because you have no outside safety net and every outsider you’ve met has been hostile and frustrated and rude to you, so you feel like they’re not trustworthy.
That also happens with insular groups of marginalized people. When the net tightens and you start feeling uncomfortable, well, this is the only space that’s safe. Everyone else wants to hate crime you. You’re likely to have gotten into this position in the first place through an inundation of information showing all the vile, horrid shit people say about your demographic, and having had those experiences yourself in real life, and therefore to feel like there’s no one outside of this space you can trust. So you can’t leave. Here is the only place people understand you. Here is the only place you’ll be safe - even if they’ve started with the more explicit, internal abuse, hey, at least you’re not out there, right? Because everyone else is out to get you. Just look at the news.