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We don't, that's what freedom of religion means. If it gets overly militant or political, then there are already mechanisms that come and raid and disband them, which we have seen many times in the history of America
Sorry, hard disagree.
I also don't want to argue. So feel free to say what you like about this, but I won't respond. I'll just drop some thoughts for consideration.
Jehovas Witnesses, Moonies, Scientology and so many more are still ongoing. Cult mechanism are literally some of closest stuff to brainwashing there is. They are malign. The followers are victims, and collectively this absolutely should be addressed.
Also, I am not offering any kind of solution here, I.e. to just go after the cults and disband them. As others have said it's nuanced.
FWIW, being an ex-JW, I've very rarely heard any other ex-JW suggest banning them outright. Besides moral concerns, nobody really thinks it would work. By all means, come down on them for specific crimes (like hiding pedophiles), but blanket bans are a no.
What about in the case of the aforementioned Rajneeshpuram (prior to the mass food poisoning) where they politically overtook a town and armed themselves? They effectively seized the mechanisms you mentioned on a local level, and it wasn’t until people got directly and clearly hurt by them that a larger governing body interfered in a way which did eliminate their presence.
Yeah, the situation got resolved when harm came in. You gotta commit an actual crime to be punished right? I'm familiar with the documentary and actually have friends who continue to be followers of Osho's teachings. It's not all bad, there was a lot of very good outcomes for some people's health and wellness there too, the documentary frames it as a situation where the second in command basically drugged him and became an egomaniac. Shit happens. When evaluating cults, which are basically just small religions, the best criteria is about how much they help their constituents and community vs how much do they demand from them. It's worth noting that many of the cults of America's past were more Christian branded and became gigantic, with some mix of outcomes. But the alternative of not allowing people to express the freedoms of religion and speech would be much worse in my opinion
I was meaning more so addressing the beliefs in absurdities before they result in committing atrocities, to paraphrase Voltaire.
Yeah you can't do a thought police
I can’t do a thought police, but that is categorically what cults do. It’s not thought policing to advise people to be wary of thought policing or to promote scientific literacy and empathy.
Yeah sure you can do that but people won't listen. What I mean by thought police is actually doing policing, like "no you can't say that or we will arrest you" which goes against the idea of freedom of speech. It's reminiscent of when ussr was jailing karate teachers