• TachyonTele@lemm.ee
    30·
    1 month ago

    This reminds me of AA meetings. In my area they all pushed you nonstop to get a sponsor. And then the sponsor would push you nonstop to pray every day. Every meeting was in a church. And the veteran guys would talk about how they haven’t thought about alcohol everyday while talking about alcohol everyday.

    It’s nonsense.

    • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
      8·
      1 month ago

      I worked with addiction services and AA, for me, seemed quite culty. Its not explicit that “acknowledge that you have to hand your personal agency over to an imagined ‘higher power’” is one of the steps.

      They start using these in-group phrases and shit… it always felt like they were seconds away from having secret handshakes and assigning themselves ranks like “deputy high priest of “I used to drink all the time””

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        Don’t they effectively have ranks? You get coins to show your “progress” within the cult. Maybe it’s not treated quite the same as rank, but it’s hard to say it’s that different.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        Trusting in the socially constructed idea of a higher power to keep you sober is a valid strategy according to chaos magick, but it only works if you’re a bottom. You have to have the kind of personality that wants to be dominated by Daddy. Doesn’t work if you’re a top.

          • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
            14·
            1 month ago

            Sure you do. 90% of religious violence is done by bottoms, arguing over which imaginary top everyone should bottom for. Tops only cause problems in places like ancient egypt, where the pharaohs are gods. But in most of the world, religion is pushed not by leaders but by followers. Look at Christianity, Jesus didn’t tell anyone to worship him. In fact, if Jesus had been alive, he’d have said worshipping a physical manifestation of Elohim is idolatry. But Paul came along after Jesus died, telling everyone to worship Jesus, because Paul was the ultimate bottom. And it’s because of Paul that we have the crusades, the conquistadores, the stolen generations, and a whole lot of other acts of religious genocide. All because you bottoms couldn’t agree to disagree on which social construct to bottom for.