When Politics Starts to Mirror High-Control Groups

We have all studied cults in hindsight. We know the names, the footage, the outcomes. Jonestown. Heaven’s Gate. NXIVM. Aum Shinrikyo. The Manson Family. We watch the documentaries and wonder how people did not see it. We ask how ordinary individuals ended up defending leaders, repeating slogans, rejecting outside reality checks, and accepting behavior they once would have rejected. That question usually comes with an assumption: if we were there, we would have recognized the warning signs.