Cult influence can be found everywhere online, including the political sphere we see when we scroll on social media. Understanding how authoritarian control operates is urgent to preserve our autonomy and individuality. In this new episode of The Influence Continuum, I talk with Dr. Stephen Kent, professor emeritus of sociology, who taught courses on alternative and sectarian religions. His research concentrates on issues related to harm caused by groups to individuals and society.
Our conversation draws lines between our collective decades of research into high-control groups and today’s authoritarian movements, disinformation wars, and the dangerous erosion of democratic norms. What once felt like niche academic work, terms like “cults” and “authoritarian control” have become central to understanding our political world.
The Politicization of Mind Control
“When I was younger,” Kent told me, “I used to wonder what I would’ve done if I’d lived in pre-Nazi Germany. It felt like a thought experiment. But now people are living in those kinds of conditions.”
Drawing from his background studying fascism and religious extremism, Kent explains that we’re seeing the convergence of historical patterns of authoritarianism.
The rise of charismatic leaders like Trump and other authoritarian leaders worldwide follows a similar formula. They create an us-versus-them worldview, isolate followers from dissent, and cultivate blind loyalty through fear and misinformation/disinformation.
Similar to Pre-Nazi Germany, there is also a growing tolerance for hate under the guise of national identity, such as what is happening to immigrants being deported from America to El Salvador.
Yale scholars like Jason Stanley, Timothy Snyder, and Marci Shore, experts on fascism and propaganda, have left Yale to teach at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Narcissistic Leaders: From Moon to Trump
There are similarities between Sun Myung Moon, L. Ron Hubbard, Jim Jones, and Donald Trump, as Kent points out— they are authoritarian leaders. Moon and Hubbard built elaborate, self-serving institutions to expand their power. Trump, in contrast, is actively destroying an existing American democracy. He bulldozes over norms, defies judges, and publicly threatens immigrants and opponents.
I added another layer: many authoritarian leaders aren’t just narcissists; they’re also puppets on strings. They are manipulable, surrounded by advisors and influencers who whisper ideas and agendas into their ears, which they repeat as if they were their own.
As Edward Bernays, father of Public Relations, wrote in Propaganda, “We are governed, our minds are molded… largely by men we have never heard of.”
Cults, AI, and the New Information War
When I was recruited into the Moonies, a group of women approached me in person at my college. Now, cultic influence can reach you at any time, anywhere. It’s in search engines, social media, and algorithm-driven feeds. You could stumble onto one with one video, interact with it once, and an algorithm can suck you down a rabbit hole.
Kent and I discussed how cults exploit AI, Wikipedia, and search engine optimization (SEO) to control public narratives today. An example is how some cult members create fake websites pretending to be ex-members, lure in families or researchers, and feed them misleading or sanitized accounts. Also, cult insiders actively monitor and edit Wikipedia pages to scrub critical content. This is a problem because AI models trained on those doctored sources amplify misinformation under the guise of neutrality. A vicious cycle begins.
As Kent put it bluntly:
“It’s information warfare. They’re flooding people’s brains.”
These groups understand that controlling language means controlling perception. They adapt to a world where influence isn’t earned through credentials or credibility but through repetition, emotion, and volume. It is time we adapt, too.
Academic Co-optation: How Cults Undermine Scholarship
In our academic research, Kent and I discovered that cults systematically infiltrate academia to protect their groups.
An example of this is how Kent described being invited, while still a graduate student, to lavish international conferences hosted by cult groups like the Unification Church. The offer? All expenses are paid, and access is provided to curated members. All you have to do is leave your skepticism at the door. This isn’t persuasion—it’s grooming.
Some scholars, like the late Brian R. Wilson and Massimo Introvigne, became frequent defenders of high-control groups. They dismissed survivors’ testimonies as “apostate narratives.” In one case, Kent even had his work pulled from a publisher after cult-aligned academics threatened legal action.
This tactic is similar to what corporate disinformation campaigns by Big Tobacco and fossil fuel companies look like. They court the experts, discredit the critics, and maybe even pay them off.
We must ask: why are so many academics silent when cults violate human rights while being so quick to defend their “religious freedom”?
The Battle Over Language: Cults, Brainwashing, and Legitimacy
There is more trouble in academics for cult survivors. Particularly in legal and academic circles, some are looking to get rid of the terms cult and brainwashing. They believe the words are too emotionally charged or unscientific to be scholarly.
But Kent and I argue the opposite: these are precise, historical terms that reflect fundamental psychological dynamics. And refusing to use them is often a strategic choice to shield powerful groups from accountability.
As Kent shared, the Oxford English Dictionary defines a cult as:
“a relatively small group of people having especially religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.”
The definition still holds. It helps survivors understand what happened to them and can help them find ways to heal.
Religious Freedom as a Shield for Abuse
“Democracies bend over backward to make space for authoritarian groups,” Kent warned. “But these groups don’t believe in democracy. They exploit it.”
We explored how organizations like Scientology and the Unification Church operate under nonprofit status deemed by the I.R.S., using the protections of religious freedom while committing psychological abuse, forced labor, and financial fraud.
In Japan, for instance, the Moonies perpetrated the largest consumer fraud scheme in that country’s history. They targeted grieving families with “spiritual sales” scams totaling over a billion dollars. It took the assassination of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to trigger public outrage and government action, finally.
Meanwhile, these same groups operate NGOs inside the United Nations, host “World Peace” conferences attended by heads of state, and pay prominent figures, including Trump and Mike Pence, millions to attain credibility for their events. In other words, this is reputational laundering.
Why This Matters Now
We are living through a global authoritarian wave. And many of its architects are psychological manipulators.
With 4th generation warfare, they don’t need to stage coups. They don’t need guns. All they need is a WiFi connection.
They rely on information control, emotional manipulation, and identity-based recruitment to build allegiance. They create echo chambers online with the help of algorithms, where dissent is vilified, and obedience is sanctified.
Cults have evolved.
They wear suits. They have PR firms. They host galas and sit on international panels. However, their methods remain the same: coercion, deception, fear, isolation.
As Kent noted:
“The study of cults is no longer niche. It’s essential to understanding where the world is going.”
Thanks for Reading
Who shapes what we believe, and how do we reclaim that power?
If this conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to listen, reflect, and share it.
