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Posts tagged with:  totalism

By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Jul 23

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 57 In Mao Zedong’s CCP-run China, citizens were bullied and brainwashed into accepting “socialist discipline” by the Communist authorities by means of a devastating tool called the “struggle session.” Struggle sessions are nothing short of a form of psychological torture achieved through social means. They are unbelievably difficult to go through, and they can and will polarize and divide an organization while nullifying its best members. They must be understood and resisted at every turn if we are going to stop the American Cultural Revolution. In this long episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay …

Beating a Struggle Session Read More »

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 57 In Mao Zedong’s CCP-run China, citizens were bullied and brainwashed into accepting “socialist discipline” by the Communist authorities by means of a devastating tool called the “struggle session.” Struggle sessions are nothing short of a form of psychological torture achieved through social means. They are unbelievably difficult to go through, and they can and will …

Beating a Struggle Session Read More »


By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Mar 23

Recently, I published an essay describing the structure of cults, particularly the Woke Marxist cult. I explained that cults have an internal structure in three types of layers: an “Outer School” of low-information initiates, an “Inner School” of informed adepts, and then one or more “Inner Circles” of disciples, leaders, and directors. At the end of that essay, I promised to elaborate on the workings of these various levels in greater detail, to which I am now turning. Before elaborating, to make an important note, the internal structure of cults can be quite formal or quite informal and vague. In …

The Workings of the Woke Cult Read More »

Recently, I published an essay describing the structure of cults, particularly the Woke Marxist cult. I explained that cults have an internal structure in three types of layers: an “Outer School” of low-information initiates, an “Inner School” of informed adepts, and then one or more “Inner Circles” of disciples, leaders, and directors. At the end of that essay, I promised …

The Workings of the Woke Cult Read More »


By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 27 Feb 23

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 111 Woke is a cult. In fact, Woke is a cult in exactly the same way Maoism was and is a cult. There’s only a little daylight between them, as we recently explored here on the New Discourses Podcast. Ideological cults like Woke and Maoism operate in an environment Robert Jay Lifton labeled “ideological totalism,” which he described in depth in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China. In one of the later chapters of that book, Lifton details eight characteristics of ideological totalism, and …

Ideological Totalism in the Woke Cult Read More »

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 111 Woke is a cult. In fact, Woke is a cult in exactly the same way Maoism was and is a cult. There’s only a little daylight between them, as we recently explored here on the New Discourses Podcast. Ideological cults like Woke and Maoism operate in an environment Robert Jay Lifton …

Ideological Totalism in the Woke Cult Read More »


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