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The word "cult"

topic posted Sat, November 17, 2007 - 4:35 PM by  Lokifreign
Please learn to use it with precision, and don't slip into the trap of using it in the lax / common way.

"Cult" is the root of the word "culture". A cult, anthropologically speaking, is a group of people gathered around a common ideal, object, personage, or place of shared interest.

It's true that Scientology is a cult - just as those who like David Lynch films form a cult, and those who dig Jesus, and those who aren't afraid to cook cabbage in tahini.

The reason it bothers me is that *so many* people use the word cult in a pejorative way - it means that those who like David Lynch films can be that much more easily vilified, dehumanized, and rejected by society. It's not good to use neutral words as insults.

When you're shredding the evil of Scientology and the stupidity of its dupes, please don't automatically cast aspersion over those of us who belong to loving, non-controlling cults. Remember how much everyone hated Hare Krsna? They sell incense. Fucking get over it. For every big scary newsworthy cult that commits mass suicide or believes in something colorful enough to earn ridicule, there are *hundreds* - *thousands* - that do nothing to harm you or anyone else, and it's likely that involvement with these cults is what keeps the members from killing themselves in despair and loneliness - or hunting you and wearing your skin around in revenge. See what I'm saying? Without my cult to provide the family love that has sustained me and continues to do so, I'd be a much much angrier individual and certainly would have found some large-scale way to express my rage and dissatisfaction with the "western" world by now.

Every time I see someone on this forum use the word "cult" as a derogatory label, I think of how stupid and worthless most people are, and how hypocritical it is, after all, for the lot of you taxpayers and car drivers to bitch about Scientology when you'll happily go scarf fast food or play Xbox all fucking day. See what 'm saying? You make it harder for me to agree with you when you suck so royally all the time.


Er uh, yeah.

Read "Strange Gods - The Great American Cult Scare" for more information (don't worry, the author isn't as mean / pissed off at you for being a typical hypocritical dumbfuck bigot as I am (that's what happens when you use words imprecisely without considering the impact - you piss people off; sometimes they get so pissed they make you into an enemy - so.... think about it) )
www.amazon.com/Strange-Go.../0807011096
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Lokifreign
offline Lokifreign
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  • Ali
    Ali
    offline 61

    Re: The word "cult"

    Fri, November 30, 2007 - 11:52 AM
    Etymological fallacy
    An etymological fallacy is a linguistical misconception based on the idea that the etymology of a word or phrase is its actual meaning.

    this has an interesting discussion
    www.grin.com/en/preview/6971.html

    we know the weak need 'cults'. so do 'cult' leaders.

    this is not news.
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    • Ali
      Ali
      offline 61

      Re: The word "cult"

      Fri, November 30, 2007 - 11:55 AM
      btw...

      cult
      1617, "worship," also "a particular form of worship," from Fr. culte, from L. cultus "care, cultivation, worship," originally "tended, cultivated," pp. of colere "to till" (see colony). Rare after 17c.; revived mid-19c. with reference to ancient or primitive rituals. Meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829.

      from online etymology dictionary
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      • Loki...
        Lokifreign
        offline 385

        Re: The word "cult"

        Mon, January 21, 2008 - 7:33 PM
        Sorry, Ali, you're a dupe and a perverter of the young, and your recourse to justification for your deliberate hatred only paints you as a monger of loathing and an enemy of the Good.

        My army of elite lawyers will be harassing you anon.
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        • Max
          Max
          offline 42

          Re: The word "cult"

          Tue, January 22, 2008 - 10:15 AM
          Fair Game! Fair Game!

          Ali gets subscriptions to every magazine we can find reply cards in. Ali's landlord learns about Ali's illegal and immoral habits and starts eviction proceedings. Lots and lots and lots of lawyers start the meters (not e-meters) running and we learn every dirty secret of his past and every asset he has in the present.

          Remember, love your enemy but only after you have rendered him powerless to fuck with you.
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  • Ipsi...
    Ipsissimus
    offline 1

    Re: The word "cult"

    Fri, January 25, 2008 - 11:41 AM
    Loki, your issue with the use of the word CULT is unfounded, it is being used properly in this thread. Remember this is the English language we're using and words can have multiple meanings. Just to clarify here's 3 definitions of the word CULT:

    1. as a noun - Cult - a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. EX: The Cult of St. Olaf or Opus Dei

    2. as a noun - Cult - a relitively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by most people as strange or sinister. EX: Scientology

    3. as an adj. - Cult - a person or thing that is popular or fashionable, especially among a particular section of society. EX: (as mentioned above) David Lynch films

    As a rule, being agnostic, I'm not fond of organized religion to begin with so don't lump me in with the Jesus freaks and scared little people you mentioned here.

    In the future if you must attack people please at least have your facts straight.
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    • Loki...
      Lokifreign
      offline 385

      Re: The word "cult"

      Fri, February 1, 2008 - 9:40 AM
      How dare you imply that my facts are somehow less pertinent than yours, you bigot?!?!?

      You've really offended me. I strongly advise you to seek representation in the upcoming round of litigations. All of you people are going to *pay* - handsomely - for your ruthless and cowardly vilification of hard working and morally upstanding cultists.

      The agnosticism you feel protects you from scrutiny is nothing more than desperate identification with this era's weak and groundless try at secularizing the benefits of cult affiliation, which would be admirable if not for the pogrom of small-minded tyranny and simple detestable bigotry that seemingly necessarily attends subscription to this mistaken premise of hypocritical fence-straddling and pot-shooting. Were you truly agnostic you'd have some scruple preventing, at the very least, these displays of outright hate-fueled reinventions of language. Brandish your bibles at me all you like, Ipsissimus, you ought to know very well what the relevant etymological facts are - but you're apparently too comfortable in the lap of the monotheist dialectic which clearly informs your bias.

      Shame.
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      • Ipsi...
        Ipsissimus
        offline 1

        Re: The word "cult"

        Fri, February 1, 2008 - 10:42 AM
        HAHA you're delusional. Being that I'm not a christian and reject any form of organized religion or the concept of an anthropomorphic god figure, why would I brandish bibles at you? Go cleanse yourself of your thetans or whatever it is that you freaks do. lol

        Thank you Loki, highly entertaining.
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        • Loki...
          Lokifreign
          offline 385

          Re: The word "cult"

          Sat, February 2, 2008 - 6:26 PM
          You know, I *don't know*. Why *do* professing agnostics always brandish bibles? It should seem as insane to everyone else as it does to me: but here you have it.

          Houghton Mifflin, the execrable Webster's, the wholly dubious absence of a pronunciation key in any of these so-called "references" - why do otherwise seemingly intelligent people make recourse to clearly bias-saturated and non-authoritative hodgepodges of fakery when attempting to bolster their nose-led woolen-eyed beliefs about the nature and meaning of words - words that have discrete meanings and discoverable applications?

          It *should* be a tactic which only the most craven and self-loathing of hate-addled ideologues would ever dare resort to, but in the absence of any actually responsible voice, we're left to ponder such things on our own.

          I don't know why you klansmen are here - *I* signed on to fight Scientology's indefensible slander on the cults of America. Who would've guessed I'd walked smack-dab into the center of a slope-browed book-burning nazi redneck rally?

          SHAME. Shame.
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