Thread by @the_absurd_life

Red Pills and Cultic Behaviours: A Thread
One i've been wanting to make for a while, using Singer's (1996) six conditions as a framework. with a few little additions to the structure of certain areas of the 'manosphere'.

Honestly there's going ot be a little bit of conjecture in this thread, purely because I can't be bothered finding any niche research into the points i'll be making. A lot will be based on my experiences with the groups.

So I suppose to many of you it isn't new information that the 'red pill' community, and by extension the 'manosphere', has certain cult like qualities to it. I just wanted to put some research on top of those suspicions.

For those who don't know, Singer's six conditions are, by definition, six conditions that clinical psychologist Margaret Singer identified when determining whether a grroup is a cult or not. These are found in the 1996 book "Cults in our Midst", co-authored by Janja Lalich.

I'm going to introduce each condition individually, and talk about how the red pill community ties in with each one. I've also decided to shorten 'Red Pill Community' as RPC, bc I can't be bothered to type it out each time. So without further ado, I'm five tweets in so lets go.

Condition One: "Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at a time"
The aims of the RPC are pretty clear, at least what they present their aims as; "You are going to see the world for what it truly is".

By joining this community, and hearing our red pills, you are going ot take off your blinders, and see the truth (something thats all too common for these types of groups). Only 'our' group and its teachings can show you how things truly exist in reality.

I'm sure most have seen the matrix, so I won't waste time on that. However, what the RPC presents its goals as, and what they actually are, are very different. By taking these 'red pills', you become hateful and vitriolic; ostricised for seeing the world as it truly is.

This ostricisation leads the person to spend more time with the group, in this case the RPC. You often see see threads on 4chan etc dedicated to how the normies or 'blue pilled cucks' have turned on them after their 'awakening'.

This isn' because they're speaking the truth to the masses, it's because the sort of hate-filled rhetoric employed by these groups fundamentally changes their attitude; anger and vitriol becomes the norm, most time online is spent being angry at something or someone.

This obviously leaks into 'real life', as their time within the group increases due to the ostricisation thanks to their hate-filled views. It's a cycle.

For a comparision regarding "how 'normies' etc have turned on them", i'm sure many of you remember the giant threads on reddit's r/the_donald dedicated to championing how many family members have cut ties with them bc they 'see the truth' about trump.

Oops, I've only talked about one condition. Luckily for all of you, I went way off track and have incidentally covered some of the other conditions.

Condition Two: "Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the persons time"
While the RPC doesn't require members to live in close proximity with each other, Singer states that "... members ... led to think about the group and its content- (cont)

- during as much of their waking time as possible". While this isn't achieved through conventional methods of group meditation and reflection sessions, this does still exist within the RPC. Members are told, once they've 'taken the red pill', to take a second look at the world.

The guy paying for his date at a restaurant? He's being bled dry by a girl who just wants a free meal.
The girl posting pictures to her instagram account? She's a vapid person with zero personality trying to bait 'betas'.

The point is to view the world through their lens; to force (even when doing so would be a giant assumption) their worldview onto situations they have no context for. This is constantly reinforced back online with 'hate threads' and cherry picked articles that support their view

So, even if people in these communities don't actually meet up and get forced to think about how great the RPC is, they are still influenced to do this through how they interpret the world.

Condition Three: "Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person"
This is one I talked about with the first condition. This is all about creating a sense of dependancy on the group.

As more and more people ostracise the person, their support systems (family, friends etc) are replaced by other members of the group. Again, their are countless threads revolving around people becoming more reclusive bc of how bad they think the world is

But this again is due to the ostracisation they've experienced coupled with the worldview they hold. Singer also points out an in-group language. I think the manipulation of a persons language furthers this ostracisation, when no one irl understands you, where do you go? Online

Coincidentally, the RPC has their own glossary.
reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/c…

Condition Four: "Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity"
This one is fairly easy, if any of you have posted a comment disagreeing with the accepted rhetoric of the RPC-

-I'm sure you've been met with the inevitable barrage of insults such as "blue pilled cuck", "beta", or the instant assumption that you're a woman (or "roastie", as they like to say)
There's not really much more I need to say about this condition, bc it speaks for itself

Condition Five: "Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors"
This leads into a point I'd like to make later about gamification of the group.

Any experience you post that reinforces ther worldviwe is met with sympathy, congratulations, and supportive comments, because you've 'experienced the world as it truly is'. Again, any experience that contradicts this is met with derision, or the accusation of ouright lying.

Condition Six: "Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order"
This is the most important imo (I don't know if I've already said that for point one)

'Red pills' to the RPC, are not a subjective interpretation of reality; they are universal truths, not to be questioned, otherwise you are objectively wrong.
It's interesting that a lot of the members of these communities have overlap with the 'logic and facts' group

They take a premise (Women are parasitic and will ruin your life), and this is the truth. All further assumptions are based on this and so, by extension, must be true as well.

It fits formally with their view of logic, and they're not allowed to question whether the initial premise is true or not, as they risk losing their new support system (which coincidentally replaced their old one)

So is the RPC a cult? Yeah, I think so. If we accept Singer's six conditions as the requirements for a group to be considered a cult then I think there's more than enough evidence to say with some amount of confidence that that is the case.

I mentioned briefly earlier about the gamification of the RPC. I had an idea that this was common within cults (especially in their representation in pop culture; "you've ascended to level 2, now you may know a deeper truth")

but i can't find the academic literature to back that argument up, so bah humbug.
HOWEVER.
There DOES exist a gamification within the RPC, which manifests as the more 'difficult' 'red pills' to swallow.

https://twitter.com/TakedownMRAs/status/1075695776154570752

These 'difficult to swallow' 'red pills' are, as I'm sure you can guess, just more hateful versions of the 'lesser' red pills. Pills/views that, if you express them publicly, will land you with very few friends. Again, further ostracisation.

On top of this, again, views that, if you accept them as true, will lead to a hatred of people, society, and the way things are. Shut yourself off, because you don't want to participate in the society that exists within your head.

Now, why gamification important? I'm sure you've guessed. The RPC's target audience; the people they want to recruit. Lonely gamer boys.

I'm not saying that all "gamers" are susceptible to the red pill rhetoric, but to deny that there's an overlap between the 'gaming' community and the manosphere would be pretty naive.

I should clarify here that I'm making a distinction between "gamers", and "people who play games".

The RPC promises you the world. The way to get women, how to be more assertive and 'alpha', I can't tell you how many people fall into the community because 'I'm just in it for the self-improvement part', I don't agree with what they think about women

And that's fine, you want to improve yourself? Go for it! But there are plenty of communities that will fulfil that desire without the subterfuge that occurs in the RPC.

SO MUCH of the RPC revolves around getting women. How to manipulate them, how to 'game the system', tell her exactly what she wants to hear so she'll sleep with you

So many reassuring posts that tell impressionable young men how many women they've slept with (we don't need to get into the consentuality of it all, thats an entirely different thread), despite the fact that, guess what, anyone can post anything, regardless of it being true

It's understandable why lonely young men are attracted to this, they're in circles where they're told the most important thing in life is having sex. The only thing you need to do to get that is to swallow these red pills, see the world as it truly is, you can game this system

That's not to excuse it, of course. Thats just a possible explanation for why the RPC is so full of lonely young men.

Moving on, although the RPC is generally quite decentralised, there are a few key figures that a lot of members take advice from:
Roosh V
Morpheus Manfred (yikes, metaphor taken too far)
Weird Mike C
And what do all these people have in common?

They're all middle aged, pretty successful men (I don't know how well off Morpheus is but you get the point with the other two)

So when the key figures of your community are all successful men, it seems wise to follow their advice, right?
This is where the anonymity of online forums comes into play.

In reality, you don't know who is on the other end of a forum post. You don't know their age, financial status, nothing. So who do you imagine is on the other end of a post that speaks with such confidence and seems to have so much experience?

A young 15 year old? Or an older guy, whose experience you could learn from?
This is common in cults, people looking for strong leaders who seem to have all the answers. This is what the RPC promises you.

(Conjecture warning for that last post, obviously)
I'm running out of steam, and didn't really plan the end of this thread.
Overall, I believe the structure of the RPC, and possibly by extension, the manosphere, shares qualities with those identified by Singer.

What was the point of this thread? A boring thursday and some attempt to attach actual sociological research to a topic we've all kind of known about for a while.

If you see someone heading down that road, give them a nudge, question their worldview, and remind them that they have a mother. They usually won't double down and tell you their mother is a parasitic drain on 'civilised society'

Usually

@threadreaderapp unroll please
i want to test this