Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

I think this is psychologically unrealistic. I agree that this is what should happen, morally. But it's extremely unlikely.

We all have trouble fully believing what's happened, even though we can describe it. You've said many times, "It's a cult."

Yes. It is. Ergo--

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1349509059519655942

--The belief system isn't rational. Heaven's Gate members didn't revise their beliefs because extraterrestrials didn't contact them when the Comet Hale-Bopp passed. To the contrary.

Adherents to a cult won't renounce it no matter what happens.

It's meeting psychological needs at a very different level from any part of the brain with which we can have a debate.

You've observed many times, I think, that this is a cult, yet you can't quite believe it: You're still trying to remonstrate with the adherents. It won't work.

You can't reason them out of it because they weren't reasoned into it. You can't shame them out of it because all that does is activate their defense mechanisms. Talking about their oaths is pointless; they're in the grip of a religion that supersedes it.

This really is what you say it is: a cult. That's not just a figure of speech.

I don't know what will work to get them back, but definitely, this won't.

You won't get the satisfaction of hearing them say, "I was wrong." The best we can hope for is that with the diminished visibility of the cult leader, he loses his grip on people's minds.