EDIT: Sorry, somewhat new here and I should have realized this sort of topic has been done to death. This was a brief thought that I decided to post about. TRP's not a cult. Thanks everyone.

I recently found the following definition for a cult online and thought a lot of the descriptions match up with how people become inducted into the Red Pill. Here's a link, but I've quoted the relevant text below.

Three ideas seem essential to the concept of a cult. One is thinking in terms of us versus them with total alienation from "them." The second is the intense, though often subtle, indoctrination techniques used to recruit and hold members. The third is the charismatic cult leader. Cultism usually involves some sort of belief that outside the cult all is evil and threatening; inside the cult is the special path to salvation through the cult leader and his teachings. The indoctrination techniques include

  1. Subjection to stress and fatigue

  2. Social disruption, isolation and pressure

  3. Self criticism and humiliation

  4. Fear, anxiety, and paranoia

  5. Control of information

  6. Escalating commitment

  7. Use of auto-hypnosis to induce "peak" experiences

Of course, there is a positive side to cults. One gets love, a sense of belonging, of fulfilling a special purpose, of being protected, of being free from the evils of the world, of being on the path to eternal salvation, of having power. If the cult did not satisfy needs that life outside the cult failed to satisfy, cults would probably not exist.

No I'm not saying that everything TRP espouses in incorrect. I do think there's a lot of truth in what they have to say about human sexual dynamics. Still, there is an air of cultishness surrounding the community, and I very much got the sense that people weren't all too concerned if you ended up anxious, self critical, and isolated from your friend group. In fact many admit, or even recommend that that will be the case. The Us vs. Them thinking and alienation of women as a whole definitely has a bit of truth to it imo.

Still, I wouldn't be on PPD if I didn't think there was something interesting to be learned from RP ideas and theories. What do you guys think? Does TRP employ recruitment tactics that are similar to those used in cult formation? What does this say about TRP movement as a whole?