Do Religious Cults and "Secret Societies" Exist in SL?

[Gilgamesh Alpha]

3 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Oh dear.

I do wish you hadn't posted this.

Now we have to kill you.

/me sighs and reaches into her purse

oh no

[Silent Mistwalker]

10 minutes ago, Gilgamesh Alpha said:

oh no

If @Scylla Rhiadradoesn't get you, I will. 😇

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Gilgamesh Alpha said:

There's a conspiracy theory called "Feted Inner Core" about an alleged group of users that have a relationship with LL that they use to their advantage to gain in-world benefits.

Alleged, huh?

 

[Sammy Huntsman]

Probably RP ones. Lol. I don't think that actual Secret Societies and Cults exist. Lol. I actually helped to make a fun one back when I was a manager for a sim

 

[Rat Luv]

Close!  Trusted members will be given the location of the church in game.

http://world.secondlife.com/group/76e7b698-0f81-a78d-9738-f45d30d3ec65

[Sammy Huntsman]

7 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

Close!  Trusted members will be given the location of the church in game.

http://world.secondlife.com/group/76e7b698-0f81-a78d-9738-f45d30d3ec65

I don't trust scientology as far as I can throw it. Lol 

[Love Zhaoying]

35 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Alleged, huh?

 

I posted earlier about FIC, thought it was "feted inner circle", which one forumite calls "fetid" I think.

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

Close!  Trusted members will be given the location of the church in game.

http://world.secondlife.com/group/76e7b698-0f81-a78d-9738-f45d30d3ec65

If I can't be Pope, y'all can kiss my..ring.

[Silent Mistwalker]

Feted, fetid, tomato, tomahto. Who cares! It's all made in Taiwan.

 

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

35 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

I don't trust scientology as far as I can throw it. Lol 

That one is a cult, as far as I'm concerned anyway

[Sammy Huntsman]

7 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Feted, fetid, tomato, tomahto. Who cares! It's all made in Taiwan.

 

 

You were made in taiwan. Lol 

[Sammy Huntsman]

1 minute ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

That one is a cult, as far as I'm concerned anyway

One actress came out about it. She had some horrible experiences 

 

[Lindal Kidd]

42 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I posted earlier about FIC, thought it was "feted inner circle", which one forumite calls "fetid" I think.

FIC has spawned a number of "meanings" for its acronym over the years.

• Feted Inner Circle
• Feted Inner Child (thank you, @Marianne McCann!)
• Fetid Inner Cheese
• ...and so on.

They're all there simply to engender controversy and arguments over the "true" meaning, deflecting discussion about the actual existence/nature/membership of the alleged "group".

muwahahaha!

[Love Zhaoying]

17 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

FIC has spawned a number of "meanings" for its acronym over the years.

• Feted Inner Circle
• Feted Inner Child (thank you, @Marianne McCann!)
• Fetid Inner Cheese
• ...and so on.

They're all there simply to engender controversy and arguments over the "true" meaning, deflecting discussion about the actual existence/nature/membership of the alleged "group".

muwahahaha!

Feted = celebrated 

Fetid = stinky, like cheese

This always gives me an inner chuckle, similar to how people don't actually laugh when they write "lol".

 

[Persephone Emerald]

14 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Feted = celebrated 

Fetid = stinky, like cheese

This always gives me an inner chuckle, similar to how people don't actually laugh when they write "lol".

 

I do sometimes laugh before I respond with  "lol" , but it's generally a soft chuckle.  So scol ?

[HSHPrincessofCarlisne]

 Hello, everyone! 😄

Thank you for all of your insightful and hilarious replies; this has helped paint a picture of the milieu surrounding possible cults and "cult-like" organisations and institutions in SL. I'm really happy to see all the light-hearted banter amongst you all.

13 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

There are closed communities. There are a variety of them. Some anyone can join for a fee. Others are by invite only. Some RP groups are invite only. Some groups that think of their selves a philosophy clubs are invite only.

Seriously!?!  Of course. I found early on in my SL life that many in the RP communities were very dramatic and emotional. Some of the most hateful, raging chat exchanges happen in RP groups in OOC chats. Those levels of intense chat require true-believers. Plus, the RL propaganda people are subjected to comes with them into SL. Starting about September you can watch the political rhetoric escalate in SL. While 20 to 30% of RL people are extreme in SL it seems higher and online people tend to vent more hate. They all seem to take it seriously.

SL is setup to let people start their own groups. So yes.

The Lab is in San Francisco and thus the Lindens seem inundated in Progressive/Woke thinking and have adopted many of the Marxist's ideas. Since people can leave and that has a cash flow impact the Marxism has to be tempered resulting in a strange mix of Marxist (social side) and Free Market (money side) policies.

The TOS only limits you on hate, social violence, harassment, and abuse. So a JW door-to-door ministry group is likely to be considered harassment and shut down. While Antifa and BLM were often RL violent they have support in SL and I am not aware of any action by the Lab to exude them from SL. My point is the Lab seems to have a PC slant when enforcing TOS. So what you can create group-wise in respect to TOS has a PC consideration. Within those constraints you can go as Hale-Bopp as you want and there will likely be a range of people join in for their reasons.

@LottaSinclair What kind of religion would you start in SL?

This. Although not mentioning cults such as Heaven's Gate and Branch Davidians and whether similar groups have a presence in SL, this answer has been the most insightful, comprehensive and accurate to what I had in mind so far and answers my questions in the best way. 

So LL actually turns a blind eye to some groups and their activities if they are in "alignment" with their own values? That also reminds me of how loose LL seemed to have been in terms of Neo-Nazi groups and their symbols, white supremacist groups, confederate flags and being able to use slurs as search terms on the marketplace, until some people naturally raised an issue and complained over it, and only then do they actually take action, and they crack down hard, as you might know. On the other hand, they allowed not only "black supremacist" groups in the past, but all manner of sexual fetishes and expression including Gor, snuff play and torture, perhaps that's the political correctness in action. I'm not sure where conspiracy theories sit with this; are there flat earth groups in SL that regularly come together?

How far does the political correctness go with LL and the cultures within SL? Can we get an idea of the extent of it? Have there been examples of "political correctness" gone too far on part of LL that the wider community has reacted with backlash? 

That reminds me of the supermarket that asked a "follower of Jediism" to leave as he was wearing a hood, only to issue a statement apologizing for discriminating against him on religious grounds, despite the fact that he stated that he only identified as such just to wear a hood indoors where they aren't allowed. And I think all of those companies which issued guidelines on proper gender neutral pronouns such as "hir", "zir" "ze" etc. only to face backlash. Has there been anything like that in SL before?

So, as long as you don't abuse or harass anyone, you don't discriminate against people or spew prejudice and hate, you can create your own new religious (or otherwise) group in SL, have a vetting process, well-kept initiation rituals and rites of passage, wear white robes and hoods, propagate and inculcate your own "extreme" dogma in your members, and adopt all the characteristics and hallmarks that you would heavily associate with the most stereotypical idea of a cult, and have it all be a serious thing. Although most of the replies here would suggest that this is quite rare, if it exists at all. 

When I say "secret society" the most stereotypical examples again come to mind. Freemasons, illuminati etc. 

Is there dedicated "cult/secret society roleplay" in SL, as with other themes, such as vampire, crime gang, town, family, fire department etc.?

Do people do this purely for fun?

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by LottaSinclair

[Lysistrata Szapira]

16 minutes ago, LottaSinclair said:

Is there dedicated "cult/secret society roleplay" in SL, as with other themes, such as vampire, crime gang, town, family, fire department etc.?

Do people do this purely for fun?

 

 

I haven't read the entirety of this topic, but I do know there are a few sororities in SL (not affiliated with any real life sororities).  I haven't heard much that is positive about them, as they just seem to be like most motorcycle clubs, full of the dramaz.

Is Tiny Empires still around? That seriously was as close to a cult as I've ever seen.  Some people took it SRSLY and built kingdoms with other players/RP.   That was as closed to a MLM as it could be in SL. 

Then there's the nuisance that is Bloodlines, that got most players banned from some regions for running around biting people willy-nilly. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

46 minutes ago, LottaSinclair said:

How far does the political correctness go with LL and the cultures within SL?

Well, given what is still permitted -- Gor, sex groups built around white mastery or racist stereotypes, groups that thinly disguise inc*st and sex with m*nors, not to mention a whole host of venues and groups devoted to just about every kind of humiliation and violence that you can imagine inflicting on women . . . I'd say not very?

I am happy to note that the "Proud Boys" group in SL has, after having been ARed months and months ago by a friend, finally disappeared, whether by LL's action or embarrassment on the part of its creator, I don't know.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

So LL actually turns a blind eye to some groups and their activities if they are in "alignment" with their own values?

Not really, if the group doesn't get reported for anything, LL doesn't really know about it. It's not like their are LL observers, censors, etc. checking all groups, or monitoring group activities, or reading group messages. Private is private in Second Life, unless someone reports activity as against TOS, etc.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Not really, if the group doesn't get reported for anything, LL doesn't really know about it. It's not like their are LL observers, censors, etc. checking all groups, or monitoring group activities, or reading group messages. Private is private in Second Life, unless someone reports activity as against TOS, etc.

And sometimes -- pretty frequently, I suspect -- things get ARed, and not a thing is done about it.

I don't AR things I find offensive in-world, for a number of reasons, some of which you might find laudable, and some of which you might not. But one is that I have next to no faith that it's at all effective.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra
Typo

[Love Zhaoying]

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

finally disappeared, whether by LL's action or embarrassment on the part of its creator

That wouldn't be very proud.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

That wouldn't be very proud.

No, and I suspect that its creator (whom I know somewhat from here) is probably incapable of being embarrassed by it.

On the other hand, the Proud Boys aren't exactly a prestigious property at the moment.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra
GRAMMAR!!

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

So, as long as you don't abuse or harass anyone, you don't discriminate against people or spew prejudice and hate, you can create your own new religious (or otherwise) group in SL, have a vetting process, well-kept initiation rituals and rites of passage, wear white robes and hoods, propagate and inculcate your own "extreme" dogma in your members, and adopt all the characteristics and hallmarks that you would heavily associate with the most stereotypical idea of a cult

Yes. Unless it is AR-able AND someone AR's it AND the AR is actually reviewed AND LL actually does something to respond to the AR.

4 hours ago, LottaSinclair said:

and have it all be a serious thing.

It is highly unlikely there are many that are truly "serious" as, for instance there is no way for group mods to verify that group members are serious.

This is because of the separation of SL and RL. Sure, group owners can take tactics like forcing group members (if they want to stay in group) to post various RL "proof", or "black-mailable" RL details (embarrassing pictures, information that could be used to "dox", etc.) but a group's control over members is mostly limited to kicking people out of the group.

Sure, individuals can threaten to expose other members in RL and claim to have their information through hacking etc., but that's usually lies.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

No, and I suspect that its creator (whom I know somewhat from here) is probably incapable of being embarrassed by it.

On the other hand, the Proud Boys aren't exactly a prestigious property at the moment.

I could see something as visible as PB being a target for "real" hacking, such as by Anonymous. If anyone ever deserved it..

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

I could see something as visible as PB being a target for "real" hacking, such as by Anonymous. If anyone ever deserved it..

Most of their social media was pulled down some time ago. The SL group had links to RL Proud Boys material online -- all gone now.