Many of us will never forget Reverend Jim Jones’ cult committing mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. He told over 900 followers that the government was planning to raid them and that they should therefore drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide and other poison. The group did so. Until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, these deaths were the largest deliberate loss of civilian lives in American history. The world was shocked, unable to comprehend how one leader could compel such mass self-destruction.

Around this time, on New York City streets, young neatly dressed followers of Reverand Sun Myung Moon, known as Moonies, used to stop to talk and invite me and others to free dinner at their nearby church. I was wary. They seemed spacey and odd, but nonetheless attracted thousands of followers, many of whom participated in a mass wedding of fellow cult members in 1982.

More recently, Keith Raniere was imprisoned after Nxivm, a supposed “self-help” group near Albany, New York, that he founded and attracted the heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman, was shown to engage in sexual abuse of minors, trafficking, and racketeering. He forced women who joined the organization to have his initials branded on their pelvis, and serve as his sex “slaves.”

I have been recently thinking about these phenomena as countless observers remain baffled that half of voters continue to support Donald Trump and other political candidates around the world, despite clear evidence of misdeeds and the spread of disinformation.

Crucial questions arise as........

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