Cultism

Cultism refers to the ideological tendency toward cults, the practices and devotions of a cult. Cults are usually defined in some sort of way as organisations that exert an unhealthy and abusive amount of control over their members.

History
Cultism as we know it and the term emerged in 1617, as a way of describing religious cults, but as it is described, it emerged between the years 1829 and 1920. Something similar to cults has existed since antiquity, especially in ancient tribes and societies. An example could be the followers of Pythagoras, known for advancing mathematics and the execution of Hippasus of Metapontum, a mathematician known for discovering the existence of irrational numbers.

Cultivation
The term 'cult' is a cognate of the term 'cultivation'. In the broadest and non-negative sense a cult is any group who participate in cultivation of something, with that thing being seen as holy by the members of the group. This meaning of the word is used by the Roman Catholic and  Eastern Orthodox churches to describe the public veneration of saints.

This meaning of the word 'cult' isn't really what people think when think of 'cults' and one shouldn't conflate this meaning with other meaning.

B.I.T.E. model
B.I.T.E. is an acronym for the four characteristics which according to the mental health counselor define what a cult is. The B.I.T.E. model can generally be said to be what most people think when they think of the word 'cult'.

B.I.T.E. stands for


 * Behaviour control: The organisation takes control over its members' physical activity.
 * Information control: The organisation takes control over its members' source of information.
 * Thought control: The organisation takes control what its members can and cannot think.
 * Emotional control: The organisation takes control over what its members can and cannot feel.

[[File:Cultofpersonality.png]] Cult of Personality
Another meaning of the term 'cult' is found within the term 'cult of personality', which is a practice utilized predominantly by autocratic political regimes. The term means worship of a certain individual (usually the current ruler or one of the founders of the regime). Some of the most well-known cults of personality are:
 * [[File:Cball-USSR.png]] Vladimir Lenin [[File:Lenin.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-USSR.png]] Joseph Stalin [[File:JosephStalin.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-USSR.png]] Leonid Brezhnev [[File:Brezhnev.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-China.png]] Mao Zedong [[File:MaoHair.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-China.png]] Xi Jinping [[File:XiJinpingThoughtf.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-King-Italy.png]] Benito Mussolini [[File:Mussolini.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Germany.png]] Adolf Hitler [[File:Hitler.png]]
 * [[File:Argentina.png]] Juan Perón [[File:JuanPeron.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-North Korea.png]] Kim Il-sung [[File:Juche.png]]
 * [[File:Hochi.png]] Ho Chi Minh [[File:HoChiMinh.png]]
 * [[File:ROT.png]] Mustafa Kemal Atatürk [[File:Ataturk.png]]
 * [[File:ROT.png]] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [[File:Erdoğanism.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Taiwan.png]] Chiang Kai-shek [[File:ChiangKaiShek.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Brazil.png]] Getúlio Vargas [[File:Getulism.png]]
 * [[File:Thailand.png]] Bhumibol Adulyadej [[File:RamaIX.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Libya.png]] Muammar Gaddafi [[File:Gaddaficap.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Syria.png]] Hafez al-Assad [[File:Hafez al-Assad.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-US.png]] Ron Paul [[File:RonPaul.png]]
 * [[File:Thailand.png]] Thaksin Shinawatra [[File:Thaksin.png]] (Post-premiership)
 * [[File:Cball-Russia.png]] Vladimir Putin [[File:Putin.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-Syria.png]] Bashar al-Assad [[File:Neo-Baath.png]]
 * [[File:Cball-US.png]] Milton Friedman [[File:Chilib.png]]

Militant cults

 * [[File:KKKf.png]] Ku Klux Klan
 * [[File:Cball-Isis.png]] Islamic State of Iraq and Levant
 * [[File:Cball-Taliban.png]] Taliban
 * [[File:Aleph.png]] Aum Shinrikyo
 * [[File:LRA.png]] Lord's Resistance Army

Political cults
A political cult is a cult with a primary interest on an ideology or a certain political leader and are usually holding extremist beliefs on both left and right. Political cults may overlap with cults of personality.
 * [[File:Stalin.png]] Stalinism
 * [[File:Esofash.png]] Esoteric Fascism
 * [[File:Juche.png]] Juche
 * [[File:Polpot.png]] Pol Potism
 * [[File:Obj.png]] Objectivism
 * [[File:Austrobert.png]] Austrolibertarianism
 * [[File:Putin.png]] Putinism
 * [[File:Altr.png]] Alt-Right
 * [[File:Niyazov.png]] Turkmenistan Model
 * [[File:Trumpism.png]] Trumpism ([[File:QAnonism.png]] QAnon)
 * [[File:Racenat.png]] Racial Nationalism
 * [[File:Pinochet.png]] Pinochetism ( and [[File:Neolibcult.png]] Neoliberalism in general )
 * Or any ideology for that matter

[[File:VolGeno.png]] Collective suicide/Destructive cults [[File:VHMent.png]]

 * [[File:Scientheo.png]] Scientology
 * [[File:Mansphere.png]] Manosphere (Some)
 * [[File:Heaven's Gate.png]] Heaven's Gate

Cults (To Christians)

 * Unification Church
 * Mormons
 * Shincheonji
 * Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church

Sex cult
W.I.P

[[File:Aryan Nations.png]] Aryan Nations
W.I.P

[[File:ColoniaDignidad.png]] Colonia Dignidad
W.I.P

[[File:DestinyChurchNZ.png]] Destiny Church
W.I.P

[[File:DragonRouge.png]] Dragon Rouge
W.I.P

[[File:Duvalier.png]] Duvalierism
W.I.P

[[File:EasternLightning.png]] Eastern Lightning
W.I.P

[[File:Falun_Gong_Theo.png]] Falun Gong
Falun Gong or Falun Dafa is a new religious movement, known for its anti-communist sentiment and a sect-like organization founded by Li Hongzhi in  China in the early 1990s and since 1999, have been banned by  the Communist Party of China, with its members actively being persecuted and arrested for their beliefs. Falun Gong emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom" — a period that saw a proliferation of similar practices of meditation, and promotion of Confucian values. The movement gained widespread popularity in China throughout the 1990s and by 1999 government sources estimated that there were 70 million practitioners, more than there were CPC members at the time (although this number was most likely a gross overestimate).

Falun Gong initially enjoyed support from the Chinese government which actively promoted the cult despite its right-wing anti-communist leanings. This could be because Deng Xiaoping, after his 1992 Southern Tour, decided to drop socialism completely and fully embrace  free-market capitalism and may have perceived Falun Gong due to its promotion of Confucian values as a counterbalance to  left-wing and  liberal opposition. The fact Falun Gong promotes itself as a "healthy" practice that can cure diseases without one needing to take medicine may have been cost-effective and convenient for the Chinese government as China at the time lacked a proper healthcare system.

In 1995, Li Hongzhi declared that he had finished teaching Falun Gong in China, and began spreading the practice abroad. Between 1995 and 1999, Li traveled the world giving lectures on his beliefs wherever he went. Falun Gong associations and clubs began appearing all throughout Europe, North America, and Australia. Li Hongzhi moved to the United States in 1996 with his wife and daughter, and in 1998 became a U.S. permanent resident, settling in New York, where Falun Gong's headquarters remain to this day.

The Chinese government under President Jiang Zemin had little to no support due to mass poverty,  corruption, nepotism, and repression by state officials which fueled the popularity of Falun Gong which many perceived as an escape from the bitter reality. Jiang Zemin came to perceive the cult as a threat to his power as an increasing number of CPC officials (Possibly including future President Xi Jinping) actively practiced or sympathized with Falun Gong themselves.

On 25 April 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered near the central appeals office in Beijing to demand an end to the escalating harassment against the movement, and on 29 July the same year, Falun Gong was banned by the Central Government. The persecution of Falun Gong enabled Jiang Zemin to seize control of media,  police, and  the military to eliminate dissent. He even went so far as to create his own paramilitary organization called the 610 Office to persecute the cult. Re-education through labor, Laojiao, rapidly expanded with hundreds of camps being built all across the country to jail Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents. The persecution of Falun Gong gave Jiang Zemin unprecedented powers and made it easier for him to maintain a high level of influence over Party politics after his term ended in 2004 when he was forced to formally hand over power to the new Paramount Leader Hu Jintao. Local officials often competed to arrest as many Falun Gong practitioners as possible to show their loyalty to Jiang's faction. The Governor of Liaoning, Bo Xilai, was one of the leading officials in the Anti-Falun Gong campaign which made it easier for him to rise through the ranks of the Party.

The persecution of Falun Gong caused many of its practitioners to flee China. Many settled in the US where they would gain financial support from the US government and the Republican Party to promote conservative anti-communist sentiment. Falun Gong practitioners established a vast global media network consisting of arts and entertainment company Shen Yun, the newspaper Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD Television) broadcaster, and the YouTube channel China Uncensored, among others that promote negative coverage of CCP's China. Falun Gong due to their revisionist views of the ancient dynasties are believers in the mandate of heaven which stresses that when the rulers of China become too corrupt and inept to rule the Chinese people will overthrow the government and a new dynasty will take its place. Falun Gong (among other Chinese dissident groups) alleges the CCP abroad carries out organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience with the organs being sold on black markets. Falun Gong practitioners abroad have signed arrest warrants for Jiang Zemin and Bo Xilai for engaging in genocide. In 2013 Spain ordered the arrest of former President Jiang Zemin meaning that he longer can set foot in Spain without being put on trial.

Falun Gong media often promote views in line with the Republican Party and Western conservative politicians such as Steve Bannon,  Tucker Carlson, and  Ron Paul. This includes political stances like opposition to open immigration, multiculturalism, gun control, and anything perceived to be "left-wing." They are also very critical of "elites" and  "big tech" corporations such as Bill Gates'  Microsoft, Cisco, and  Rupert Murdoch's media empire which they accuse of having helped China set up their surveillance network, Great Firewall, and promoting Chinese state propaganda. Falun Gong support the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan over the  Kuomintang which they perceive to be too friendly to CCP's interests and want China and Taiwan to be recognized as separate countries. They're also highly supportive of other Chinese dissident organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress, the Central Tibetan Administration, and the Hong Kong Democracy Movement and hope that China will be broken into several different states along ethnic and cultural divisions.

Falun Gong media have gained widespread popularity and coverage since Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The cult portrays Trump as messiah-like figure sent from heaven to destroy the Chinese Communist Party. Before 2021, cult-affiliated media such as China Uncensored regularly tried to portray then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and the US Democratic Party as communist sympathizers that would turn the US into a Chinese vassal state should Trump not win the 2020 Presidential Election. Since Trump lost (which the cult initially denied by promoting the election fraud conspiracy) and Biden won the presidency, Falun Gong media has back-tracked on their negative coverage of the Democratic Party as US-China relations have only worsened over the past 2 years contrary to what they had previously told their audience would happen.

Even though former President Jiang Zemin has significantly lost influence within the Communist Party, over the past decade due to losing the power struggle against current Paramount Leader and President Xi Jinping, Falun Gong remains illegal in China, possibly because of Xi's fear that legalizing the cult would mean to admit the CCP did something wrong in the first place which would greatly polarize Chinese society.

[[File:5thMonarchism.png]] Fifth Monarchism
W.I.P

[[File:FLDS church.png]] Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS)
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often abbreviated as FLDS, is a Mormon sect whose members continue to practice polygamy, currently led by Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the sexual assault of two children. He continues to lead the group while behind bars.

The movement was founded in the early 20th century not long after its founding members were excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, primarily because of their refusal to abandon the practice of polygamy after its renunciation in the "Second Manifesto", published in 1904, though the Mormon Church has officially denounced polygamy as early as 1890, by then-church president  Wilford Woodruff because of fears that continued support for the practice could lead to the dismantling of all Mormon temples.

The group has continued to reside in the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border, though there are other FLDS groups in other parts of the United States and  Canada, such as in Eldorado, Texas, Mancos, Colorado, Pringle, South Dakota, Minot, North Dakota, Grand Marais, Minnesota, Bountiful and Creston, British Colombia, and other locations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the FLDS Church as a hate group, citing Warren Jeffs' views on  African Americans,  women,  LGBT+ people,  violence, and  the end of the world and declared the group as "a  white supremacist, , antigovernment,  totalitarian cult".

[[File:Scientheo.png]] Scientology
W.I.P

[[File:LaRouche.png]] LaRouche movement
W.I.P

[[File:Mansonism.png]] Manson Family
W.I.P

[[File:Russconcept.png]] Russian Conceptualism
W.I.P

[[File:World.png]] Unification Church
W.I.P

Personality
Weird and not to be let around kids. Seriously, don't do let him around them. Wait, this isn't Epsteinism…

How to Draw
Cultism flag.png


 * Draw a ball
 * Color it with very dark red
 * Draw an eye in the middle
 * Inside the eye, draw a big X
 * Draw the symbol ✨ glow, only black and in the middle of the symbol, draw a white circle.
 * Draw two horns and you're done.

Blessed

 * [[File:Satan.png]] Satanic Theocracy - Diddle them kids.   WAIT WHAT??? 
 * [[File:Plutocrat.png]] Plutocracy - Multilevel marketing is based!
 * [[File:Auto.png]] Autocracy - Praise [Insert leader]!
 * [[File:Totalitarian.png]] Totalitarianism - Sometimes my system is used by him.
 * [[File:Senatorialism (Tentacles).png]] Senatorialism - Praise be to the Old Gods!
 * [[File:Isolation.png]] Isolationism - The outside world will never understand us, it is best that we stay separate.
 * [[File:Urb.png]] Urbism - Finally a place where we can be left alone.
 * [[File:KKKf.png]] White Nationalism - A.K.I.A
 * [[File:OOTS.png]] Death Worship - C'mon drink the Kool Aid Flavor Aid.

Frenemies

 * [[File:Trumpism.png]] Trumpism - I like your supporters, but why do you call the [[File:KKKf.png]] KKK disgusting?
 * [[File:MLM.png]] Marxism–Leninism–Maoism - The other kind of MLM, also based! Denies he's me and pretends to hate me, though.
 * [[File:Antijap.png]] Anti-Japaneseism - I like your idea of overthrowing the Japanese government. It's just my methods are a little more "direct" Some of you guys are alright though, don't go to the subway tomorrow.
 * [[File:PagTheo.png]] Pagan Theocracy - I like you, your praxis and your tales, but you don't go far enough. Why just sacrifice animals in the occasional ritual blood sacrifice when you could mass-sacrifice thousands. (But your Aztec counterparts were my greatest inspiration.)
 * [[File:Cdem.png]] Christian Democracy - I do occasionally adopt your religion, but Jesus Christ some of you absolutely despise us!

Foes

 * [[File:Christy.png]] [[File:JewTheo.png]] [[File:Muslim 2.png]] [[File:Hind.png]] [[File:Bud.png]] Theocracies - Ew, organized religions with no religious freedom.
 * [[File:Dengf.png]] Dengism - OK I'm a cult, and? Aren't we different? We both like brainwashing!
 * [[File:StateathFedora.png]] State Atheism - Really hate me.

Further Information

 * Cult
 * Cult (religious practice)
 * List of new religious movements
 * Governmental lists of cults and sects
 * BITE model for determining cults

Notable Cults

 * [[File:Duvalier.png]] François Duvalier
 * [[File:Scientheo.png]] Scientology
 * L. Ron Hubbard
 * Tom Cruise
 * Beck (left in 2019)
 * List of Scientologists
 * Charles Taze Russel
 * [[File:Falun Gong Theo.png]] Falun Gong
 * Li Hongzhi
 * Shen Yun
 * Anastasia Lin
 * The Epoch Times
 * NTD Television
 * China Uncensored
 * [[File:EasternLightning.png]] Eastern Lightning
 * Unification Church
 * Sun Myung Moon
 * [[File:Heaven's Gate.png]] Heaven's Gate
 * [[File:Order Of Nine Angles.png]] Order of Nine Angles
 * [[File:Martinism.png]] Martinist Order
 * Gérard Encausse
 * [[File:Black Islamism.png]] Nation of Islam
 * Elijah Muhammad
 * Wallace Fard Muhammad
 * Louis Farrakhan
 * Malcolm X (Left in 1964)
 * [[File:JOS.png]] Joy of Satan
 * [[File:Aleph.png]] Aum Shinrikyo
 * [[File:QAnonism.png]] QAnon
 * [[File:FLDS church.png]] Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
 * [[File:FLDS church.png]] Warren Jeffs
 * Peoples Temple
 * Jim Jones
 * [[File:Cball-Guyana.png]] Jonestown
 * [[File:LaRouche.png]] LaRouche Movement
 * [[File:ColoniaDignidad.png]] Colonia Dignidad
 * Paul Schäfer
 * [[File:Mansonism.png]] Manson Family
 * [[File:Mansonism.png]] Charles Manson
 * [[File:EcoTerrorist.png]] Sandra Good
 * [[File:Blackzio.png]] Black Hebrew Israelites
 * William Saunders Crowdy
 * Frank Cherry
 * Kodak Black
 * [[File:Klep.png]] Synanon
 * [[File:Cball-BrazilianEmpire.png]] Canudos
 * War of Canudos
 * Antônio Conselheiro
 * [[File:DestinyChurchNZ.png]] Destiny Church
 * Brian Tamaki
 * [[File:GHF.png]] Westboro Baptist Church (not really a cult, but their actions are quite cult-like)
 * The fanbase of your favorite show/movie/artist/band