Comment by a_bonobo

This is a great article.

There's so much in these group dynamics that repeats group dynamics of communist extremists of the 70s. A group that has found a 'better' way of life, all you have to do is believe in the group's beliefs.

Compare this part from OP:

>Here is a sampling of answers from people in and close to dysfunctional groups: “We spent all our time talking about philosophy and psychology and human social dynamics, often within the group.” “Really tense ten-hour conversations about whether, when you ate the last chip, that was a signal that you were intending to let down your comrades in selfish ways in the future.”

This reeks of Marxist-Leninist self-criticism, where everybody tried to up each other in how ideologically pure they were. The most extreme outgrowing of self-criticism is when the Japanese United Red Army beat its own members to death as part of self-criticisms.

>'These violent beatings ultimately saw the death of 12 members of the URA who had been deemed not sufficiently revolutionary.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Red_Army

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.