From political movements based on falsehoods to QAnon to numerous Netflix documentaries on cults, we’ve been learning a lot about what draws people, often in search of meaning and connection, to these groups. But are people who succumb to the draw of cult leaders that much different from the rest of us? Zoë Heller in The New Yorker: What Makes a Cult a Cult? “The line between delusion and what the rest of us believe may be blurrier than we think … In recent decades, scholars have grown increasingly adamant that none of our beliefs, rational or otherwise, have much to do with logical reasoning. ‘People do not deploy the powerful human intellect to dispassionately analyze the world,’ William J. Bernstein writes, in ‘The Delusions of Crowds.’ Instead, they ‘rationalize how the facts conform to their emotionally derived preconceptions.'” (Don’t let this academic, elitist hogwash distract you from your true calling: to subscribe to my point of view, follow my links wherever they may lead, and wear your t-shirt/uniform to protect you from the gamma rays. Actually, one of my most popular shirts does have a cult vibe.)