inside an all white community in arkansas

[8enotto]

Happened in Wisconsin too. The exclusive communities had to use public schools and work where the rest of us did .

If the cult kids hung on to the cult standards hard enough they were hard to like. They canceled themselves socially and couldn't understand how it happened.
To adapt to life outside the cult they had to disappoint thier parents or live two separate lives.

Cult being a religious thing or a racial ideal (or both) the parents held didn't matter.
What's weird is when my dad thought one schoolmate might be great friends with us, but they were intolerable jerks. And the Latino kid or the pizza faced kid from the poor family were solid people we could like.
He identified with the parents ideals and we were repelled.

 

[ahhell]

Happened in Wisconsin too. The exclusive communities had to use public schools and work where the rest of us did .

If the cult kids hung on to the cult standards hard enough they were hard to like. T
hey canceled themselves sociallyand couldn't understand how it happened.
To adapt to life outside the cult they had to disappoint thier parents or live two separate lives.

Cult being a religious thing or a racial ideal (or both) the parents held didn't matter.
What's weird is when my dad thought one schoolmate might be great friends with us, but they were intolerable jerks. And the Latino kid or the pizza faced kid from the poor family were solid people we could like.
He identified with the parents ideals and we were repelled.

That on is on every list of cult like behavior. Isolate the members. Not always physically, that's most of the reason the Westboro Babtists protests funerals, their leader knew it would make everyone hate them and keep them more tightly bound to the group.

 

[Trausti]

When the children grow up. Some will drink the flavor aid, but the most will see the town for the prison the racists have made for themselves.

Compared to living somewhere else in SA? They're living in paradise.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Cults think they are "special", above everyone else. Any hate directed towards them reinforces that feeling of superior exclusivity. It is perceived as jealousy that the "outsiders" can't have what they have, or be what they are.

Meh. If they want to live exclusive lives, let them. The Amish seem to muddle through reasonably well.

In my view, this is also how MAGA and white nationalists view their lives. They have "seen the light" and are special somehow. Their guru and prophet, Trump, knows all and leads then on. They should be treated like the Amish treat themselves: confined to a geographical space and fenced off from society, there to lead their own lives untouched by modern life or national laws.

 

[Trausti]

Cults think they are "special", above everyone else. Any hate directed towards them reinforces that feeling of superior exclusivity. It is perceived as jealousy that the "outsiders" can't have what they have, or be what they are.

Meh. If they want to live exclusive lives, let them. The Amish seem to muddle through reasonably well.

In my view, this is also how MAGA and white nationalists view their lives. They have "seen the light" and are special somehow. Their guru and prophet, Trump, knows all and leads then on. They should be treated like the Amish treat themselves: confined to a geographical space and fenced off from society, there to lead their own lives untouched by modern life or national laws.

What makes them a cult? Is every group that prefers to lives amongst themselves a cult?

 

[Thermal]

What makes them a cult? Is every group that prefers to lives amongst themselves a cult?

Any group that refuses what they consider 'outsiders' who will contaminate the group's purity is pretty definitionally a cult, yes.

 

[Trausti]

Any group that refuses what they consider 'outsiders' who will contaminate the group's purity is pretty definitionally a cult, yes.

Thank you, I needed that affirmation. I've been trying to move onto an Indian reservation for some time now. They keep stopping me. Damn cult.

 

[Thermal]

Thank you, I needed that affirmation. I've been trying to move onto an Indian reservation for some time now. They keep stopping me. Damn cult.

Them injuns isn't keeping you out, Kemosabe. Our treaties with them make them the property of their sovereign nations. The white man can and do enter and occasionally live there. My grandfather did for quite some time. Not so for brothers trying to settle in the OP Cracker Barrel.

 

[arthwollipot]

What makes them a cult? Is every group that prefers to lives amongst themselves a cult?

Definitions of the word "cult" aren't difficult to find. Cultism has been studied extensively since the 1930s.

Characteristics of a cult include but are not limited to:

• Veneration of a charismatic leader who can do no wrong
• Isolation of members from outside influence
• Control of behaviour such as dress, relationships, and work
• Suppression of dissent from the leader's rule and social or physical punishment for infractions
• The group assumes moral superiority over the outside world, which is viewed as corrupt and evil
• The use of shame and guilt to make members feel inadequate without the leader's guidance
• Specific language and jargon used within the cult to identify cult members and exclude others

So no, not every group that prefers to live amongst themselves is a cult. Some are, but without other indicators it cannot be assumed that every isolated community is a cult. Not even every small religious group is a cult. Eg. Scientology as a whole is probably not a cult (though it definitely has a few characteristics of one), but the Sea Org absolutely is.

 

[Trausti]

So no, not every group that prefers to live amongst themselves is a cult.

Yeah, I wouldn't think so. It pretty natural for folks to prefer being among their own group. Gentrification is bad because other groups are moving in. If you ever went to a multi-racial or multi-ethnic school, it's remarkable how kids group among their own kind - especially self-segregating to their own tables during lunch.

 

[arthwollipot]

I don't know where you grew up but my school was self-segregated into cool kids and nerds.

Guess which group I was with.

 

[Darat]

As an aside, looks like Scientology is fading away.

 

[arthwollipot]

As an aside, looks like Scientology is fading away.

Good riddance.

 

[Donal]

Yeah, I wouldn't think so. It pretty natural for folks to prefer being among their own group.

Yes, but the issues arise with how they define "their own kind" and jsut what they are willing to do to form and maintain those separations.

Gentrification is bad because other groups are moving in.

That's not the problem with gentrification

If you ever went to a multi-racial or multi-ethnic school,

Ya, that would be me

it's remarkable how kids group among their own kind - especially self-segregating to their own tables during lunch.

Yes, but those divides weren't necessarily along racial or ethnic lines. Some of it was, but there was also along specific denominations of faiths, what clubs they were in, what if any sport they played, what neighborhood they were from, what activities they enjoyed outside of school, etc. And those groups weren't static. You might start early freshman year gravitating to the kids from your neighborhood but make more friends and sit with different groups as the months and years move on.

 

[Trausti]

Yes, but those divides weren't necessarily along racial or ethnic lines. Some of it was, but there was also along specific denominations of faiths, what clubs they were in, what if any sport they played, what neighborhood they were from, what activities they enjoyed outside of school, etc. And those groups weren't static. You might start early freshman year gravitating to the kids from your neighborhood but make more friends and sit with different groups as the months and years move on.

I dunno man. I got to experience multi-racial, urban, US public schools (including forced busing, hurrah!). Black kids went with black kids. White kids went with white kids. Hispanic kids went with Hispanic kids. That was just the way it was. I think one handicap White progressives have in their worldview is that they were mostly raised in homogenous White communities - they just don't know how the world really is.

 

[jimbob]

I dunno man. I got to experience multi-racial, urban, US public schools (including forced busing, hurrah!). Black kids went with black kids. White kids went with white kids. Hispanic kids went with Hispanic kids. That was just the way it was. I think one handicap White progressives have in their worldview is that they were mostly raised in homogenous White communities - they just don't know how the world really is.

Bollocks

In the UK at least

 

[Trausti]

Bollocks

In the UK at least

Teen Friendships More Racially Segregated at Moderately Diverse Schools: Integrated Friendships More Likely at Highly Diverse Schools

Why We Sit at Different Tables: Self-Segregation at San Rafael High School

“At San Rafael High School, we celebrate diversity.”

This is a common phrase you are likely to hear from SRHS representatives. However, the moment you step on campus, the racial divide is evident. At lunch, during class, between classes, even in the hallways. The groups that gather are segregated by race, and with few exceptions, it is always self inflicted.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Got a lot of relative down that way. Don't visit much. Ghost of Rush Limbaugh still walks the land.

 

[Lithrael]

If you ever went to a multi-racial or multi-ethnic school, it's remarkable how kids group among their own kind - especially self-segregating to their own tables during lunch.

These experiences may be common but they're not universal. Once again I'm feeling the 'what am I, chopped liver?' of hearing what things are really like in the real world because whatever happened around me didn't count.

Many people do that, yes. Not everybody, though, and it doesn't take that much nudging to get more people out of the habit of grouping up racially just because it comes naturally to them. The story at your first link sounds pretty accurate. Your second link explains that the secondary school is like that because the local primary schools are de facto segregated, and the kids are simply following the habit of a lifetime.

 

[arthwollipot]

I dunno man. I got to experience multi-racial, urban, US public schools (including forced busing, hurrah!). Black kids went with black kids. White kids went with white kids. Hispanic kids went with Hispanic kids. That was just the way it was. I think one handicap White progressives have in their worldview is that they were mostly raised in homogenous White communities - they just don't know how the world really is.

When was that, again? How many decades ago were you at school?