How Extremists Justify Their Actions | New BITE Model Entry

a lot of you guys know I've been working with the bike model for a long time it was written by Steven asan the leading cult expert and it details ways in which cults control people it's an acronym it means behavior information thought and emotion control B ite well I've come up with a new entry for it a new thing to add let's get into it first let's talk about the bite model and what types of things you find on there the purpose behind the bite model in the first place is to identify ways in which cults are controlling people and the behaviors they're trying to force on them the goal is to modify people's behaviors through a system of rewards and punishments so that they'll be more willing to follow instructions and believe what they're taught now when I say that it seems like there's intention behind it but there doesn't have to be don't misunderstand I don't believe that the leaders of the cults who do this stuff really know what they're doing I think most of the time they buy their own BS like Jehovah's Witness leadership I think they believe their own propaganda Scientology leadership on the other hand that's another issue I suspect David Miscavige knows what he's doing and revels in but who can really say for sure anyways think of it this way I imagine most of you know the psychologist Pavlov he famously modified his dog's behavior by feeding it every time he rang a bell eventually that action got linked with the sound of a bell ringing and now two completely unconnected events are connected in the dog's mind eating food and the sound of a bell ringing that's kind of how cults work they modify people's behavior through conditioning in the exact same way so what kinds of things do we expect to see on the bite model some of this stuff is used specifically for conditioning purposes and some of it's just used for control but everything adds to a certain extremist mindset let's look at a few items on the list under behavior control we have modified behavior with rewards and punishments that's a really big one extremely important it's the main method cults use to condition people promote dependence and obedience dictate where and with whom you live restrict or control sexuality control clothing and hairstyle regulate what and how to eat and drink restrict leisure time and activities exploit you financially deprive you of seven to nine hours of sleep and require you to seek permission for major decisions that's all under behavior control like I said most of these are used to add to the mindset the cult wants you to have some of them like modifying behavior with rewards and punishments are used specifically in operant conditioning some examples of that would be shown in people who disbelieve and showering newcomers with praise and attention I've told this story recently but when I got disfellowshipped from Jehovah's Witnesses I went to one of their events with my ex people I knew from childhood wouldn't even look at me it was like I was a ghost but they showered my ex with attention in an upbeat happy way and it was like they all picked up the same tone of voice when talking to her Kate I'm so happy to see you nice to meet you they pretend I'm dead and they're directing all their attention to a person just inches away from me it was like a shroud separated us that's a perfect juxtaposition between their rewards and their punishments now let's look at information control we have deliberately withhold and distort information forbid you from speaking with ex-members and critics discourage access to non cult sources of information divide information into insider versus outsider doctrine generate and use propaganda extensively use information gained in confession sessions against you gas light to make you doubt your own memory require you to report thoughts feelings and activities to superiors and finally encourage you to spy and report on others quote/unquote misconduct a lot of these are used to prevent outside information from actually reaching the members Java's witnesses are forbidden from using certain websites for a while they heavily discouraged people from using the Internet at all I'm genuinely surprised they decided to allow it myspace was a big problem back in the day when I was a Jehovah's Witness information is extremely restrictive I'm skipping thought-control for a minute and coming back to because that's the one under which my new entry belongs let's take a look at emotional control in still irrational fears or phobias of questioning or leaving the group label some emotions is evil worldly sinful or wrong teaching motion stopping techniques to prevent anger or homesickness or other emotions promote feelings of guilt shame and unworthiness shower you with praise and attention also called love bombing your friends and family shun you if you disobey or disbelieve and teach you that there's no happiness or peace outside the group this category is where you get lots of emotional blackmail they try to force you to conform to their way of doing things or you don't get to be a part of their lives I mentioned love bombing and shunning earlier in reference to how I was treated when it went back to a Jehovah's Witness memorial that's kind of the hallmark of this category now let's take a look at the final category thought-control in this one you've gotten still black and white us versus them good versus evil thinking change your identity possibly even your name use loaded language in cliches to stop complex thought induce hypnotic or trance States to indoctrinate teach thought stopping techniques to prevent critical thoughts allow only positive thoughts use excessive meditation singing prayer and chanting to block thoughts and reject rational analysis critical thinking and doubt so here's my new entry it belongs right under and still black and white us versus them good versus evil thinking I'm calling it encouraging exaggerated or overreaching thinking let me give you guys a few examples when I was a Jehovah's Witness they didn't believe in celebrating Christmas or birthdays or any other holiday for that matter why let me read their reasons for not celebrating Christmas straight from their website they celebrate Jesus death not his birth which is what they call the memorial basically Good Friday there's no proof Jesus was born on December 25th it's rooted in pagan rituals gift-giving feasting and partying is from Saturnalia Christmas lights are from the European celebration of winter solstice mistletoe and Holly are druidic and the Christmas tree is from pagan Europeans now all of that is true those traditions are of pagan origins but are their origins important enough to separate yourself from a massive cultural event is it reasonable to completely separate yourself from a massive part of society over this or is it placing exaggerated importance on it let me give you guys another example one of the ways Jehovah's Witnesses are controlled is through peer pressure the people around them watch what they do and judge them and they all know it so they'll be less likely to do something questionable as a result they might be quote-unquote allowed to buy a snow globe with a reindeer in it but they know if their fellow Jehovah's Witnesses catch wind of it which they very well might judge their friends might not be as close to them as they used to be because they aren't living up to their standards it's a positive feedback loop of placing exaggerated importance on things when I was in it I knew a Jehovah's Witness who used to be an artist before he joined Jehovah's Witnesses he sold his last painting for like tens of thousands of dollars I heard it was a hundred thousand but who really knows point is that he had real potential in the art field he could have been somebody big and he loved art after he joined he decided to devote his life to Jehovah so he completely gave up art and started a small business cleaning offices with his wife they made enough to live off of and the flexibility allowed them to knock on doors full-time too he refused to even sketch he wouldn't even pick up a pencil because he didn't want to get dragged back into that lifestyle quote-unquote he didn't want to place more importance on art than he did on Jehovah that is placing exaggerated importance on something you can both love God and also love art work they aren't mutually exclusive but he read Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other it's in reference to money but he overreached and applied it to hobbies too he felt like he couldn't enjoy art because he loved it too much that's a goddamn shame and the world is deprived of his talent as a result it's genuinely heartbreaking to me to see this let me give you a couple other scenarios this is gonna be a little controversial let me preface this by saying that I'm an atheist and I feel that religion is generally harmful to society I would like to live in a world where religion doesn't exist but I know that's unrealistic so my hope is to reform religion get religious people on our side to work with us to get rid of extremism that's my goal that being said I've noticed that when somebody leaves a religious group they carry that mindset with them a lot of the time here's an example I've heard lots of fellow atheists talking about how we shouldn't celebrate Christmas because it's contributing to a Christian institution and sure that's true but it's placing exaggerated importance on it is it really worth separating yourself from a massive cultural event in an effort to avoid contributing to some kind of quote/unquote Christian institution as far as I'm concerned it's extremist behavior its overreaching its placing exaggerated importance on it's cultural warfare let me give you guys one final example of my new bite model entry boycotting this one is extremely tricky should we boycott things or is that also placing exaggerated importance on some event or idea a while back a chick-fil-a representative famously said some really anti-gay stuff and as a result I actually decided to boycott chick-fil-a but Dan Savage had some things to say about it if you guys don't know him should definitely check him out he's a famous gay podcaster talks about LGBT issues a lot really great dude maybe I'll get him on my channel one day anyways after the chick-fil-a representative said all that stuff they came out as a company and apologized said that they don't stand for all that stuff that was said basically doing a complete 180 on it and Dan savage said that we need to show them that we recognize that they did the right thing by reversing course like that so we should end the boycott it's a positive and negative feedback system the boycott is a negative feedback for bad behavior on the part of a company and ending the boycott is positive feedback I still haven't eaten at chick-fil-a after all that went down and that was like years and years ago but you know what happened as a result of that chick-fil-a just doesn't go for people like me and their target demographic anymore they've just lost my business permanently so they aren't trying to appeal to people like me anyways the boycott is effectively rendered useless because I didn't give a positive feedback when they did the right thing so in my opinion boycotting a company over something they said or did should be very targeted should be over something really big not small things and the company should be given a road to redemption it shouldn't be an eternal never eat here again kind of thing it should be a planned organized action with specific goals if you start boycotting every company from here to Texas they're just gonna cut you out of their target demographic and it isn't going to accomplish anything except reinforcing extremist overreaching or exaggerated thinking in your own mind anyway so that's all I've 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it is where I let down my hair so to speak I pretty much say whatever I want without worrying about D monetization or anything so if you want to hear my political opinions or listen to me talk about retro gaming or news or whatever else give it a listen it's on most podcasting services iTunes Spotify SoundCloud Google Play and others or you can check it out on my podcast youtube channel all links are in the description as always okay thanks for watching guys [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Telltale

Views: 27,796

Rating: 4.9638009 out of 5

Keywords: youtube, telltale, extremism, bite, bite model, justify, how extremists justify their actions, exaggerated importance, culture, overreach, steven hassan, hassan, cult, bible, jesus, steve hassan, ex jw, mind control, destructive cult

Id: pfPQkLiXMbA

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2019