i don't have a firm grasp on how influential he is

but he seems to have a very far reach

extremely

it's not clear the end game of this stuff is

well assuming he is a sociopath, there is no endgame, there is no big plan

he is just puffing himself up and getting kicks out of it

seems almost religious in nature

yeah that could be likely

the DeFoo shit is religious

he certainly is prolific, and good at speaking uninterrupted

yeah

I mean I wouldn't call it that, but I know what you mean

culty

cult like behaviour, but more importantly

people who become vulnerable by dissociating with their loved ones

are prime manipulating material for the sociopath

it can be difficult to understand what the sociopath gets out of this

because people tend to consider very material motivations

and while these can certainly be what they want in some cases

fallot did you watch that "holy hell" doc

someone of a more cerebral bent, or just fucking bent, may have different motivations

no, what's that

it's a good recent cult documentary

on netflix if you have that

I'll check it out

but what's it about, just the gist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2BG43JW0o

I don't really want to watch some political tirade on faith

nah it's not that

tl;dr tight-knit californian cult revolves around "enlightened one" who is a failed actor and gay porn star

The main feature of cult is charismatic leader

(which his followers didn't know)

yeah, that guy is a sociopath

I can tell you now

not knowing any more details

at the end he had his followers relocate to various places and build him opera houses to perform plays he had written by and about him

I do want to watch that

it was pretty good, although the cult members are a little irritating

you can see how they got pulled in, but things got pushed very far

basically he "acted out" being enlightened and succeeded

he's on steroids too