Documentaries on cults or other high control groups/individuals

[gcat]

I've been watching documentaries on cults and realized while there is a collections for all cult movies, there not one that focuses on documentaries on cults. Which is what I'm interesting in watching right now.
I also want a list that I could give if someone wanted to learn more about cults.

I also struggled to decided if I wanted only group or include individuals. The Bad Vegan is about a man who had a cult of one and I thought it important to make sure these type don't get left out. I'm still unsure about the individuals though.
I put in the words "High control groups" because of documentaries like The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. Was it a cult? It was a high control group for sure.

Please help me make this a great collection so I have a place to go to when I'm looking for something to watch. ^o^

https://www.criticker.com/films/?filter=e90813

[iconogassed]

I've been watching documentaries on cults and realized while there is a collections for all cult movies, there not one that focuses on documentaries on cults.

No, but you can filter collections by genre, and thus filter the Cults collection to exactly what you're looking for (and the filtered collection URL is share-able as well). So your collection would overlap almost entirely with the existing collection, save for the not-quite-cult high-control groups that wouldn't strictly qualify for the other collection.

Not to rain on your parade. But that's quite a lot of work already done.

And no, Theranos was not a "cult" (though it's a notoriously slippery concept). NXIVM, however, was. Both were companies whose methods of organization featured strong cultish elements, but NXIVM is set apart by its transcendent aspirations and secret, elaborate sexual rituals and power exchange that existed independently of the financial aims of the company. Theranos' abuse was solely for the benefit of their bottom line. And I guess the satisfaction of Holmes' savior complex, but still, that was tied to the viability of her product, perceived or genuine.

[gcat]

I didn't know a collection could be filtered like that. If I had known I probably wouldn't have created this collections, but I believe it is needed because the cult collection doesn't include other groups that meet the BITE model.

If you put Theranos through the BITE model it hits a lot of the markers. It was a cult, not just a bottom line. If it had been for the corporate bottom line, it would ironically have been more successful because they would have focused on what was working instead of trying to make things smaller and pretending it worked. She was a personality and not a leader, it was about her and not the bottom line, she and the people at Theranos were going to "save the world" and if you couldn't commit to what it take to do that she wanted people to get out! This shows some of the cult part of it.

NXIVM business side was not independent to the rest of it. It was an integral part of the cult, it was selling the transcendent aspirations. Like most cults you can take a few classes and not get caught up into the culty part of it. The business part also gave the head man power and prestige and a pool of people to funnel to the smaller groups inside of it that were more toxic and damaging and feed his other needs of control in various ways (including sexual.)

It I need to add some things like the Enron documentary to the collection. I need to add the BITE model to the description so people can better understand what should be added. I wonder if I should change the title to add BITE model instead of Cult/high control groups.

[iconogassed]

It seems strange to assume familiarity with and defer inclusion to the BITE model. Hassan is more huckster than academic. (Yes, he has degrees. Good for him. He also hawks his wares with AS SEEN ON TV! and proclaims himself "America's Leading Cult Expert".)

If you put Theranos through the BITE model it hits a lot of the markers. It was a cult, not just a bottom line. If it had been for the corporate bottom line, it would ironically have been more successful because they would have focused on what was working instead of trying to make things smaller and pretending it worked. She was a personality and not a leader, it was about her and not the bottom line, she and the people at Theranos were going to "save the world" and if you couldn't commit to what it take to do that she wanted people to get out! This shows some of the cult part of it.

I already said it exhibited strong cultlike characteristics and served Holmes' savior complex. But to refer to it without qualification as a cult overly dilutes the concept. Much like a Theranos blood sample.

By bottom line I meant the interests of the company as Holmes conceived it, not some hypothetical version of the company that wouldn't have imploded. And for many years, outside of actually building a working prototype it would have been impossible for Theranos to have been more "successful" (especially if more practical). You seem to be using "leader" in some idealistic, motivational sense. She was absolutely the leader of the company. That she was not what life coaches mean when they say "be a leader" is immaterial.

NXIVM business side was not independent to the rest of it. It was an integral part of the cult, it was selling the transcendent aspirations. Like most cults you can take a few classes and not get caught up into the culty part of it. The business part also gave the head man power and prestige and a pool of people to funnel to the smaller groups inside of it that were more toxic and damaging and feed his other needs of control in various ways (including sexual.

I didn't say the business was independent to the rest of it. I said the ritualized sex, abuse, sadism, etc. was independent of the business in the sense that it didn't exist to aid the business. It was a 'secret society' within the company that existed for its own purposes. That the business supplied bodies for abuse was the point of the distinction between Holmes and Raniere.

edit: to be clear, I think Theranos was closer to "a cult" than "not a cult", but that it lacked that transcendent quality necessary to really "join the club". But I am interested in a collection that highlights high-control groups in general and not just cults, so good luck!