Ontology talk:9k/RD/Q10,2,71/cult-steps

That "cult recruitment steps" list is really bad, because while they are effective at explaining the similarity between CelestAI and a religion, several of them could also apply to the concept of belonging to a nation-state, or a fandom.
When you belong to any nation-state you have to have a legal name, preferably one the speakers of its major languages can comprehend. When you belong to a nation-state it dangles prizes in front of you, claiming that if you follow the rules you will be able to make money and won't be unfairly punished by bad laws you didn't vote for etc., although in reality people might suffer and that might not be true. When a nation-state has bad laws, such as maybe laws against unions, it can threaten to withhold everything it originally promised you and take away all your rights if you do anything to violate the bad laws or demonstrate against its decisions.
Overall this set of points fails to distinguish between the concept of a "cult" and the concept of a "social contract" and implies that all social contracts are bad.