Cultivating Compliance
The Cult Connection Part 3
Cultivation
The words cult and culture share a common Latin root, cultus, which means to tend or to worship. Originally, cultus referred to the act of tilling soil and nurturing crops, caring for something with devotion, but over time it took on a more religious meaning and an association with worship and ritual - tending to the gods. From this root, we eventually get “cult” - a group organised around devotion or veneration - and “culture” - the collective practices, values, and ways of life cultivated by a community.
Cults and cultures both shape human thought and behaviour through shared practices and beliefs. Culture encompasses a broad, everyday cultivation of meaning and shared identity across a society. A cult is an intense and insular version of culture with a narrow focus on a leader, an ideology, or a belief system. It’s like a micro-culture taken to an extreme where the mechanisms of belief, ritual, and loyalty are heightened and tightly controlled. This etymological link reminds us that what we call “cults” are not alien phenomena, but rather exaggerated or distorted forms of the same human impulse to belong, to share meaning and find purpose, and to build community.
In part one we looked at what a cult is - a group or movement with a shared commitment to a leader or an ideology, and which uses manipulative techniques of control and persuasion to isolate and dominate members. In part two we examined how information control is a critical and overarching aspect of cult control. Without accurate information we cannot think independently and our ability to make sensible decisions is completely undermined.
According to cult experts Robert Lifton, Janja Lalich, and Steve Hassan, there are several other defining features of cults, all of which bear consideration in the context of the trans movement.
Ideological Totalism and Belief Restructuring
Cult indoctrination reshapes members’ internal belief systems. The cult presents its ideology as the ultimate, unquestionable truth. Robert Lifton calls this the “sacred science” of cults. The doctrine or sacred science of trans ideology is that man/woman/both/neither is determined by how you feel rather than by your actual biology; that it’s possible to be born in the wrong body - one that doesn’t match your feeling of maleness, femaleness or otherness (that is, your gender identity); and when this happens it’s possible to change sex.
Schools and universities are teaching this as fact, and our most trusted institutions and media sources are reinforcing it (see part two). Actual science is ignored and articles like this one in Scientific American, a popular science magazine, tell us that sex is a spectrum. The existence of disorders of sexual development (DSD), more commonly known as intersex, is cited as evidence that sex is not binary when, in fact, a person with a DSD is still ultimately either male or female. DSDs are extremely rare, and have nothing to do with transgenderism, yet activists regularly inflate the statistics and contort the science in order to support the doctrine
Personal experiences are invalidated and dismissed if they contradict the ideology. Lifton calls this “doctrine over person”. The statistics around detransition and regret are diminished or minimised. Detransitioners and desisters are often shunned and told they were never really trans in the first place.
Critical thinking is framed as transphobia and questioning is implicitly forbidden. We are all expected to comply with the tenets of gender ideology and we are expected to comply completely.
Psychological Manipulation
Emotional dependence and fear are central to the maintenance of control within a cult. Members are manipulated through guilt, shame, fear, and reward. Love-bombing - described by Steve Hassan as “the use of excessive affection, attention, and flattery” - is a powerful recruitment and retention tool. The internet, particularly social media, has made love-bombing all too easy. Likes, follows, and affirming comments provide quick and intense dopamine hits for people displaying their allegiance to trans ideology. Here’s influencer Jeffrey Marsh lavishing praise and approval on his almost 700,000 TikTok followers for their commitment to the cause:
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Guilt and shame are then used to keep people in line. Incorrect and inflated statistics on suicide rates of gender-questioning young people are used to silence parents and other critics of the ideology. The narrative is that people who identify as transgender or non-binary are the most marginalised and oppressed - the United Nations says transgender people are “caught in a spiral of exclusion and marginalisation: often bullied at school, rejected by their family, pushed out onto the streets, and denied access to employment”. Pink News claims that a “genocide prevention group…has issued a “red flag” alert in the UK over the government’s treatment of trans people”. This was in response to the UK Supreme Court ruling which simply affirmed that the word “woman” in law refers to biological sex. This scary, divisive, and hyperbolic rhetoric is used as a stick to keep people in line.
Other aspects of psychological manipulation, according to Lifton, are: a demand for purity (for example, pressure to always use correct language, labels, and pronouns); confession (think of grovelling apologies for asking the “wrong” questions, misgendering, or - god forbid - making an inappropriate joke); and mystical manipulation where a leader is seen as the ultimate source of truth and moral guidance, possessing divine insight. The trans movement doesn’t have a leader in the sense of a traditional cult but there are many online influencers, some of whom have huge followings, who particularly appeal to young and/or vulnerable people. Here’s Jeffrey again, telling his followers that being trans is a glorious gift that has made him the most loving and empathetic person to walk this earth.
Behaviour Control
Behaviour control in this context takes the form of social and institutional pressure to use correct, affirmative language and preferred pronouns, and to display visible symbols of support such as badges or flags. In schools, universities, and places of work, many people feel compelled to conform even if privately they’re unsure or uninformed, because deviation is quickly sanctioned through social shaming or accusations of transphobia or bigotry. A recent survey of university students in the US indicated that more than three-quarters of them self-censor their beliefs when it comes to gender identity. Alarmingly, more than 80 percent said they had submitted work that misrepresented their personal views in order to align with their professors.
Online communities reinforce these expectations. Influencers and peer groups urge young people to cut contact with unsupportive family members or friends. In this sense, the trans movement shapes not only beliefs but the day-to-day actions and social lives of adherents. I do apologise, but here’s Jeffrey again talking about “going no contact” in order to “save” the relationship with family:
Bounded Choice
Janja Lalich, in her classic book on cult recovery Take Back Your Life, focuses on how people become trapped in cults by internalising ideology. The cultic influence is not just external pressure, but internalised mental confinement, so people believe they are acting freely, but all choices are actually constrained by the group’s ideology.
Questioning medicalisation of gender dysphoria is seen as transphobic, and therapy to explore the underlying causes of distress is considered akin to conversion therapy. Dissenting views, detransition narratives, and non-medical solutions are systematically excluded or delegitimised. This leaves transition as the only valid or acceptable option. What feels like a self-directed, autonomous decision - to transition - is in fact made within a bounded framework. The only option is the one that aligns with the prevailing ideology.
How Did We Get Here?
In a very short period of time gender ideology has taken hold in the western world and achieved cult-like status. The advent of the internet has enabled and turbocharged this. The digital landscape is fertile ground for modern cults - a massive audience of susceptible people combined with algorithms, targeted marketing, and manipulative online techniques similar to those used in traditional cults has created the perfect storm.
Perplexingly, at the same time it would appear that most people don’t actually believe that it’s possible to change sex (just look at the survey of students, above). What they do know via cultural, and cult-like, messaging is that to say as much would be at the very least unkind and open them up to accusations of transphobia or bigotry. So they stay quiet or pretend and the ideas become more and more embedded. The Emperor’s New Clothes, but make it a cult…
As I dot the i’s and cross the t’s on this article, the internet is alight with the news of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Wherever we fall on the political spectrum, whatever our views on contentious issues like gender ideology, we cannot have a civilised society if we shut down discussion and debate. Silencing and suppression of reasonable discourse has allowed polarised extremes to flourish, with devastating consequences for individual people, for families, and for society as a whole.
Catherine Monaghan is an Irish women’s rights activist and founding member of Wicklow Women 4 Women.
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Yes: "we cannot have a civilised society if we shut down discussion and debate. Silencing and suppression of reasonable discourse has allowed polarised extremes to flourish, with devastating consequences for individual people, for families, and for society as a whole."
I have been subjected to attempts to shut me down, suppress and silence me. I have been told I am not allowed to speak to my own kids or have a conversation about important matters. The cult aspect of gender identity ideology cuts off the parents and tries to silence us. Enough! My voice and that of other parents are important. It is time to give a voice to parents.