wouldn't it be great if we could just ban a cult?

Some of you have been listening to me talk about cults for over eight years now.

So I'm willing to bet there's been at least one time, probably many, when you've heard

about the horrific abuse people have been put through with the hands of some charismatic dipshit,

some grifting leader, and thought, my God, just fucking throw this asshole in jail already. Maybe you've even

thought something along lines of fuck their due process, fuck their freedom of speech. If they are

hurting and abusing people and almost all these groups are in some way, typically to a large

degree emotionally, financially, sexually, physically, why not just get rid of them?

Why not make it illegal to be a member?

Put out a warrant for the arrest of the ringleader or ringleaders,

crush the cult and call it a day.

It's a really nice idea.

But as many nice ideas are, it's one that's much more complicated than it may first

appear.

For one thing, there's the

hairy issue of due process and freedom of religion and freedom of speech. If you're going to

allow people to worship, whatever they want to worship, inevitably, some people are going to start

believing a lot of shit the rest of us find bonkers, crazy in some cases to a degree that truly horrifies many of us.

And invariably, freedom of religion will lead to a lot of cults. Freedom of speech allows

these cults to promote some really stupid, harmful shit like QAnon conspiracy level of stupid.

And the right to do process sometimes does lead to someone running an

obvious grift to lawyer up avoid justice and keep on grifting freedom has its pitfalls setting all

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