How Living in the United States Is Like Being in a Cult
The other day I was driving through the mountains of southern Spain on my way to Málaga Airport to return a rental car. I had my phone connected to the car’s radio and I put on NPR to catch up on some American news. I couldn’t take it for more than 10 minutes. I had to switch it off. Why? Because the reporter was talking to me like I was a child, with exaggerated emotional reading of the news, hitting key words with a high, raised pitch similar to the tone used by an elementary school teacher trying to keep bored students paying attention to key terms that will be on the exam. Beyond the tone, the reporter used cutesy phrasing and seemed to use a “sad” or “disappointed” tone of voice when speaking about something sad (like the Florida high-rise collapse) or disappointing (humans are doing next to nothing about climate change). I felt like this reporter thought I was stupid. Maybe she thought everyone listening was stupid, or dense, or childlike, or maybe just really distracted?
News is news. You can be saddened or disillusioned by humanity from hearing news stories, but they are what they are — events happening in the real world. I wondered: what’s the goal of keeping the listenership feeling like they’re being explained something by a patient 4th grade teacher? Do listeners not understand the emotions of a story if the reporter doesn’t act them out for us? And why does so much American media sound this way? Is it simply a unique speaking style that has developed within the cult of American media, and do they realize the rest of the world thinks they sound ridiculous?
Hear me out for a wild claim I’ve happened upon from researching Scientology and other cults over the last five years. I have come to see a lot of parallels and similarities in the way cult members behave with the behaviors of average American citizens. Americans — as I see it — are cult members, and like members in all cults, they can’t see they’re in a cult. Everything outside the cult is just negative noise to be ignored in order to maintain the calm inside the cult. You can’t see the walls until you wake up, until you scale the ramparts and view the cult from the outside. The United States is the Truman Show and you’re all — well most of you — Jim Carrey, conditioned by media, capitalism and politicians to feel like you’re just fine inside the bubble, as long as you don’t leave the bubble. It’s scary out there.
The truth is there is no more freedom in America than there is in the People’s Republic of China or other authoritarian systems, but the system is all set up to make Americans feel like they’ve got limitless freedom. People are given enough choices to make and the propaganda of freedom and the American Dream is so ingrained in the culture that the people simply can’t see past the high walls of servitude and slavery that comes in the way of ultra-Capitalist fervor and the belief that identity politics, political groups, and politicians themselves can somehow save the country. They certainly can’t, because it’s the whole system that’s broken — rigged against everyone but the most powerful — and the media helps this system along, furthering the illusion of free choice and a conceptual freedom that is so vague it almost doesn’t exist. The cult mindset makes it all hum smoothly, with very few asking the tough questions, with even fewer willing to be the one meerkat that sends out the warning call.
Hollywood movies, much of the music, and certainly the news, tacitly support the system as it is — because these media interests are also controlled by the most powerful among us and they have no intention of losing their grasp on the wallets and minds of the American population. There is a vast amount of capital to be reaped, so these powerful interests benefit greatly from keeping Americans deep in the cult.
To affirm my suspicions about American news, I just listened to an hour of NPR, then an hour of CNN and after, I compared it with an hour of BBC News and then DW, a German news outlet that broadcasts in 30 languages. The differences between the two American news outlets and the European organizations was striking and evident almost immediately. The American broadcasters were all performing or acting in some way, whether the goal of this acting was making the news feel more friendly, or sad, or serious. The European news outlets reporters still perform to a certain extent. This, after all, is part of their job — but they do not seek to heighten and reinforce the emotional landscape of the stories with their performances. When they report of COVID deaths, they don’t enlist a sad tone. When they report on good news — the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for example — they don’t interject the story with their happy voice. When they report on complex scientific data — for example, climate change — they don’t emphasize key terms with a higher pitch like they do on American news outlets. In other words, the European news networks talk to their viewers like adults, and the American news networks talk to their viewers like children. This must parallel a larger difference in audience perception. Do American news networks think their audiences are like children? I think they do, and this perception then creates a negative feedback loop, when those on the right of the political spectrum sense this and reject these news networks for other networks that they feel respects them more as adults. Like Fox News. At least they talk to their audience like adults, even if they are in the business of scare mongering and creating false narratives about how the world is such a scary place.
This difference in media styles might not convince you that Americans are living in a cult, so lets draw some comparisons from one of the U.S.’s most powerful and well known cults — the Church of Scientology — an organization started by L. Ron Hubbard in 1950 that holds over $5 billion in assets, all from its paying members around the world.
Scientologists are instructed — through conditioning, community persuasion and peer pressure — that they have to seem happy, both to other members of the church and to outsiders — to keep up the charade that this is a vibrant, successful and thriving group of people. Americans also practice this peer-pressure happiness act. We smile and ask “How’s your day going?” to people we don’t know anything about or care about in any real way. When someone gets out a camera, the entire group erupts in almost maniacally happy smiles, beaming toward the lens like superheroes who’ve just conquered the world. There is no acceptable response to “how are you?” other than a positive response. Americans make big deals of greetings, flinging arms around friends, often accompanied by high pitched squeals. There is no denying we’re acting much of the time, portraying a happiness that isn’t really there for most of us, at least much of the time.
When Scientologists leave the church, their family members are “disconnected,” or shunned, and they no longer see that family member as much as possible. When an American says something negative about the U.S., especially something about America’s imperialist behavior (toppling regimes, installing right wing leaders, funding terrorists), you’re likely to be told something like: if you don’t like it here, then leave. When thinking of this facet of the American character, I often think of that lyric from West Side Story, where one character sings, “Everywhere grime in America / Organised crime in America / Terrible time in America” and the reply is, “I know a boat you can get on. Bye Bye!” The message is always: don’t focus on the problems, the complex issues, the travesties and hundred of thousands killed. Just move away if you don’t like it. Don’t partake in self-examination whatever you do.
Scientologists worship L. Ron Hubbard and his books and Americans worship their Founders and the Constitution and the other founding documents. (Never mind that the term “Founders” is so sci-fi I’m surprised that hardly anyone ever picks up on its weirdness.) The fact that most Americans can’t name all their Founders does not matter. Americans think that the Constitution and the people who wrote it are infallible, as if they were men thousands of years ahead of their time, wise and fair, perfect and benevolent. Like aliens. Except for the Amendments already on the books, it seems unlikely that this document will ever be changed again because Americans hold it up like the Bible, a foundational text that has no fault. They worship it just as much as any Scientologist workshops Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, one of the founding texts of the church.
Like Scientologists, Americans refuse to see the negative impact they’ve had on the world, instead focusing on the good stuff, like helping to win World War II. It is very cult-like in nature to focus almost entirely on the good of the organization without taking into account that even the benevolent acts were motivated by self-interest. For the church, this leads to good publicity, maintains member devotion and perhaps attracts a few new consignees. For the United States, it maintains global dominance while keeping the people believing in the tale the government wants us to believe: we are good. We make the world better. We spread freedom.
Here are four common signs people can use to determine if they, or something they know, is in a cult, with comments about how they apply to America following each one:
1. You revere your leader and/or cause with absolute devotion.
Most Americans would say they don’t admire their presidents to this degree, but I think most do. It was especially true during the terrifying “reign” of Donald Trump, when his followers were willing to overlook porn star payments, blackmail, tax evasion and imprisonment of children to maintain their devotion. His followers even stormed the Capitol to prove how much they loved him. But one could argue that the devotion to Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, or even Joe Biden is almost just as extreme. Biden has delivered, thus far, little of the sweeping changes he promised, yet the news media is largely silent on this. The cult around Obama was largely unjustified because he was a typical ne0-liberal leader, but that “O” hope logo was omnipresent, with no real meaning behind it besides cult-like devotion.
This also applies to movements like Black Lives Matter in my opinion. To show devotion to this group, which is led by people who are profiting enormously off this charitable foundation, people were willing to go out and congregate in large groups during a worldwide pandemic, risking being infected with a virus which at the time had no viable vaccine. We can only wonder how many died or got seriously ill because of these protests.
Americans are so devoted to the trans cause that you can’t even question this movement and phenomenon without being shut down almost immediately as a bigot or transphobic. J.K. Rowling has been partially “cancelled” for speaking up for the rights and experiences of biological women as separate from trans women. She points out that growing up biologically female is indeed a prerequisite of being a woman and those who are allowed to turn “female” one day without any girlhood or other women’s experiences don’t share the same pasts or deserve the same rights in many cases. But as Americans, these assertions aren’t socially allowed. We turn out heads, plug our ears and stick our heads in the sands because this isn’t the fashionable political bent of the moment. If this isn’t cult-like behavior, I don’t know what is.
2. You think you are superior to people on the outside.
Americans believe they are superior to most of the world’s cultures and countries, even if they don’t admit it — of course not everyone, but most people. Americans basically think the rest of the world is a pain in the ass, with narrow cobbled streets that are difficult to walk on, with strange opening hours, with cities that are too hot or too cold or not air-conditioned or clean enough, or too loud, or peppered with restaurants full of strange foods, or strange parts of familiar animals like intestines, and so on… Bascially anyplace where you can’t drive your late-model car to a Whole Foods to load the groceries in the back and drive home to your single family house is inferior in the mind of most Americans. In fact, driving as an activity and perceived freedom is highly important to the identity of Americans.
Americans think the U.S. is superior in lifestyle, but also in politics and economics. They often declare the economic strength of the United States, as if this economic might came without exploiting less powerful countries. They chuckle at the arguments inside the House of Commons in London, but somehow refuse to see that their own backwards houses of government are dysfunctional at a scale rarely experienced on earth.
They think America “rules” and they scream “USA, USA, USA” at any given opportunity. Asked why they think it’s superior to the rest of the world, a Quora forum that asks participants this question elicits answers like: “freedom,” “freedom of speech,” “all types of natural environments,” “the ability to drive everywhere,” “guns” and “we’re the world’s sole superpower,” but also a couple skeptical responses, such this comment from Katie Powell: “I think they’re [Americans] kind of brainwashed into it [thinking the U.S. is the best country] by a culture that makes kids at school pledge allegiance to a flag and thinks kneeling during a national anthem is a big deal, as though there is some kind of way you’re supposed to act when you hear it.”
3. You feel a constant sense of fear.
Fear is pervasive in America. I can only imagine that fear is so widespread and so all encompassing that it must approach the levels of fear experienced by people living in authoritarian states. Americans fear that they’ll be persecuted for their beliefs, though they rarely are. They also fear that their power will be taken away from their particular group. What were are witnessing now in the U.S. — with the brief interlude of January 2021 to January 2025, when Biden loses re-election to Trump or a Trump devoted politician — is the last gasp of fear motivated white male supremacy and control of the vast resources and military power of the United States of America. They’re willing to burn it all down to prevent their loss of power. Think Jonestown or Waco. This fear at the ballot box drives voters harder than any other instinct. It’s what gave us Trump and it will give us someone worse in the near future. Until you remove what a society is fearful about, you get bad results.
Beyond this, Americans are terrified of money and capitalism, even if they think they love these things. They’re terrified of banks, credit card companies, credit score reporting companies and landlords. The country has gotten so unrealistically expensive — especially housing — and money has been inserted into nearly every human interaction. Even buying coffee for a friend is followed by a Venmo request for being paid back. Americans seem to be unaware that the rest of the world doesn’t work this way. For example, they think the Spanish tradition of a free tapa (olives or potato chips) is insane. Why would a business owner give something away for free when the patron is buying the drinks anyway? You don’t give things away for free in the cult. It’s an important American tenant.
Many Americans are afraid of going to the hospital or going to the pharmacy because it could bankrupt them. They choose between diabetes and heart medication and chicken and rice at the grocery store. This is one the most fearful societies I’ve ever witnessed, but no one seems to realize how pervasive the fear is. Don’t let outsiders in, some propose as a solution, but the fear, the guns, the drug addiction, the racism, and the lack of desire to explore the world outside the U.S. is enough evidence to prove that America is deathly afraid, but unwilling to analyze why. This is cult behavior 101. Keep them afraid and they’ll do what you want.
Cults need boogeymen and America has never been short of those. From the masses and caravans of people making their way up from poorest Central America to Russia and China, there’s always a bad man to unite the will of Americans. During the Trump era, he even succeeded in making Europe the enemy, while piling on support for Russia, but one thing remains a constant. Without a Satan to oppose your Jesus, both concepts lose a lot of rhetorical value to persuade.
This is also why America has had — and will continue to have — just two main political parties. We have an addiction to hating and fearing the other side. This fear is deserved at times of course, but it further divides a people already fearful and insecure about their futures.
4. You find it easier to go along than reject your group’s ideology.
It’s easier to go along with the crowd than have a substantive argument about anything, so Americans have simply stopped arguing altogether. As a teacher in a California community college, I was continually amazed that no one wanted to have an argument about any issue. You’re simply not allowed to argue for the most part. And maybe in the current climate, it’s best this way. Have you ever tried to argue with a Trump supporter about holding children on the border in cages? It won’t go well. Have you ever brought up Biden definition of infrastructure to a Republican? Don’t bother.
You see, not having arguments about the tenants and main issues of the day is very cult-like in behavior, because in cults, you’re to assume that what the group and/or leader tells you is correct. No second thoughts. Don’t use analytical skills, don’t try to forge unlikely bonds over political divide — just accept the information as it comes and move on.
Americans are not Scientologists — well most of them at least — but they are very skilled at not questioning the bubble that is their large, rich, powerful country. Perhaps more people can wake up, and while they’re at it, show their friends and family that the United States needs a lot of work, very soon, or it risks becoming a very confining and limiting place — the opposite of the idea of freedom that it espouses with zeal to the rest of the world.
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