People trying to grapple with the meaning of QAnon often call it a cult. There are obvious similarities, from the fact that these ideas could grow in a new follower’s mind to become the most important thing in their lives, to the way that leaders within the movement encourage members to cut off skeptical family members. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, one of the country’s leading cult researchers, has three criteria he uses for any group to be considered a cult: a “charismatic leader,” methods of “thought reform” aimed at changing how followers think in ways that keep them in the cult, and the
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