Interesting that they didn't seem to try to conceal their association much at all. They all said they were from this place firmly associated with this group, even though they probably weren't even 'from' there in the typical sense of the word (grown up and raised there).
A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
261–270 of 582 posts
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#262Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult. It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly.
>Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult. >It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly. Quoting the article: "The group is well-documented: There are allegations of child abuse, human trafficking, forced abortions, and rape within the group, which has some…
Should we forbid Catholics for the same reason?
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they didn’t cover their tracks very well anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean they actually told him where they were from (geographically, if not organizationally), so clearly they didn't consider it something that needed to be secret. Which is interesting, because it gives us insight into their way of thinking [1]. They clearly don't consider themselves to be in any way toxic like the author thinks they are. Cults are interes…
Jesus Christ dude, they're led by a man who routinely sexually assaults people. Being permissive about that is pretty damning. Kooky beliefs are one thing, but cults combine those with oppressive social structures. It's not that hard unless you're stuck in the middle of one with all it's filtering.
So, like Tesla and SpaceX.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#264I think a key point maybe getting missed here is that cults do not want their members to leave. In Digital Vegan I wrote a short chapter about cults in tech, or rather the "cults of tech". Facebook is one (for the users not employees). Emotional blackmail and tricks are used to keep people from leaving. Here it seems withdrawing membership is a threat to enforce behaviours, as in many secret/privileged societies, hen…
Interesting. At first I thought this was a pedantic distinction but now I'm getting it:
Cliques are exclusive and dispassionate - your will keeps you in a clique. Cults are inclusive and coercive, their will keeps you in the cult.
Are there any books one can read about this distinction? Seems like you could arrive at some pretty interesting conclusions if you talk this out.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult. >It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly. Quoting the article: "The group is well-documented: There are allegations of child abuse, human trafficking, forced abortions, and rape within the group, which has some…
> Quoting the article: > "The group is well-documented: There are allegations of child abuse, human trafficking, forced abortions, and rape within the group, which has some 1,500 members worldwide and makes frequent prophecies of an imminent apocalypse." Those seem like issues for prosecutors to pursue, not for Google, unless the abuses were happening in Google offices or were sponsored by them.
From what I can see, those allegations were from the 90s, but still nothing seems to have been substantiated. I'm not saying I condone this cult, but I don't see how it was having any effect on his work. It didn't become a problem until he himself complained to another manager.
I mean: if you're going to get worked up about cults, why the fuck are we all watching Top Gun? Shouldn't we be protesting or something? Scientology is a lot worse than this lot.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
This explains so much about google
Not really... I love to bash Google as much as anyone but a religious cult within a department within a massive corporation doesn't really mean much about the company as a whole. Especially when you could pretty clearly see the difference between cult's teachings and the public stances for women's rights and for same-sex marriages that many Google employees have taken.
A modern religious ethnographer would distinguish between NRMs (new religious movements) and the minority thereof that are actually criminal, coercive, etc., as the term "cult" has come to imply. That said, NRMs aren't always free of toxicity. Pyramid schemes and actual cults often target them, exploiting a high-trust network of people considered to be gullible.
The typical corporate "cult"--I don't think Google is any more or less toxic than any other company at this point, and the true cult is capitalism itself, not a specific company--is somewhere between NRMs and actual cults in terms of virulence. Companies have displaced communities in modern life and yet they frequently un-person people for economic or petty political reasons. That said, executives usually prefer to keep their child sex abuse and their economic exploitation in different buildings--and, if Epstein is any indicator, on different landmasses--so, there's that, at least.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
The satanic and brainwashing/deprogramming scares of the 80’s changed the way a lot of people use the word, but for the preceding several millennia cult simply suggested: A membership community with secrets and opportunities reserved for members. There are millions of these around us, and we’re all probably members of several. It seems to be pretty normal throughout history. We just don’t acknowledge it as such becau…
Costco: a modern cult.
Partake in the Holy Communion of the Perpetual $1.50 Hot Dog Combo.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
This explains so much about google
Not really... I love to bash Google as much as anyone but a religious cult within a department within a massive corporation doesn't really mean much about the company as a whole. Especially when you could pretty clearly see the difference between cult's teachings and the public stances for women's rights and for same-sex marriages that many Google employees have taken.
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Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#269I think a key point maybe getting missed here is that cults do not want their members to leave. In Digital Vegan I wrote a short chapter about cults in tech, or rather the "cults of tech". Facebook is one (for the users not employees). Emotional blackmail and tricks are used to keep people from leaving. Here it seems withdrawing membership is a threat to enforce behaviours, as in many secret/privileged societies, hen…
> cults do not want their members to leave
It doesn't necessarily work this way. For example, some cults get rid of members after they stop being useful (able to pay money or work for the cult). If you get burned out or seriously sick, if you get unemployed, and if you already donated all your savings to the cult... then you become a burden. The group will kick you out under some pretext, e.g. accuse you of being an unrepentant sinner.
Sometimes the members are psychologically unable to leave. Imagine being in a cult since early childhood (your parents joined the cult), having all your family in the cult, not having any friends outside the cult (because you are forbidden from associating with non-members). Imagine knowing that if you leave the cult for any reason, everyone you know will be forbidden to talk to you. In such case, kicking you out is a serious threat. Also, if the cult believes that members get to heaven and non-members get to hell, and you believe it too, then you are also afraid to be kicked out. You can keep threatening people, if you know there is a 99% chance they will get scared and obey.
(I am not saying that this applies to the group described in the article. Just objecting against the general idea that if a group threatens to kick someone out, it is not a cult.)
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#270So this is a video production department, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. The aesthetic of the modern corporate/tech video is cultish in character and it would make sense that these people know how to do this. And then it’s also interesting because one could assume that these people could do so because the actual engineers in Alphabet probably aren’t all that focused or interacting with this video t…
Obviously it is wrong to influence hiring/firing or purchasing decisions. But do you think there are grounds for removing cults in a general sense from a company? Surely it is an aspect of people private lives in the same way that religion is.
Companies don't like alternate or parallel authority structures inside the organization. This is why there are anti-fraternization rules, for example, because it can be abused.