you seem pretty ... emotional about this topic. had a bad experience with a cult or somebody you know?

Humans being social creatures, the "us/them" mentality has motivated grossly horrible events throughout human history. Romans would decorate the road from the port city (whatever it's name was. Boat-ius or whatever) to Rome with 10,000 slaves on special occasions. why? cuz the slaves weren't Romans. therefore, it must be ok. I wonder what 10,000 people would be, proportional to the entire world's recorded population at the time... wonder if it's a greater percentage than 6 million Jewish people in 1944.

anyways, I digress. Ostracization from the social group from which you derive Meaning is a bad thing for 2 reasons, 1) you get kicked outta the group and lose your friends. 2) you lose your source of deriving Meaning. Therefore, to avoid such a fate, you're motivated to enmeshing yourself deeper.

although, who can really say for certain? Humans are such immensely complex things and our behavior hinges upon the smallest, most obscure details.