I have a bit of a failure of empathy when it comes to people who get sucked into cults.
One popular method for inducting people into cults is called “Love Bombing”. You give the subject a bunch of positive attention, you occupy their social time with in-group events, and you generally just make them feel good when they’re around other members of the group.
People who don’t experience much empathy or friendship in the outside world are easy targets for this approach, because they don’t know where else to get this kind of warmth and affection.
A community devoid of empathy is ripe for cults to ply their trade.
One popular method for inducting people into cults is called “Love Bombing”. You give the subject a bunch of positive attention, you occupy their social time with in-group events, and you generally just make them feel good when they’re around other members of the group.
People who don’t experience much empathy or friendship in the outside world are easy targets for this approach, because they don’t know where else to get this kind of warmth and affection.
A community devoid of empathy is ripe for cults to ply their trade.