By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
“Pro-Palestine activism” in the West has turned into an anti-Semitic cult-like witch hunt. Indeed, it is less about social progress and more about brutal punishment, harassment and violence. Ironically, its political activism is dressed up as a moral conviction and social compassion, while holding a “Molotov cocktail” in hand.
Most people believe cult members are mentally unbalanced or are misfits who live in remote places, like the doomed devotees of Jim Jones and David Koresh; or various far-left cult members, including “Climate Change” activists, “Black Lives Matter,” “ANTIFA,” and some “World Peace” organizations that are calling for cease-fire in Gaza.
We take comfort in the fact that the influences of cults are far removed from our everyday lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. In her book, Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives (1995), Margaret Thaler Singer (MTS for short in this article), outlined several key categories of cults and their followers. Here are some excerpts from her book, with my editorial comments:
“Today, nearly 20 million people have joined about 5,000 cults in the United States. Often a cult is disguised as a legitimate organization, and anyone, especially our young, could be susceptible to the covert and seductive nature of a cult. During periods of traumatic life changes, people are especially vulnerable to these masterful manipulations.” (MTS).
It is imperative, therefore, to prevent the spread of cults’ influence the way our society prevents the spread of racism, neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination of minorities. To prevent the spread of cults’ influence, one must clearly understand the characteristics cults have in common.
“There are several major types of cults in the United States: (1) Neo-Christian religious; (2) Hindu and Eastern religious: (3) Witchcraft and Satanist; (4) Spiritualist: (5) Zen philosophical-mystical orientation; (6) Racial orientation; (7) Flying-saucer phenomena orientation; (8) Political.” (MTS).
…and, more recently: (9) Climate Change; (10) Black Lives Matter; and (11) pro-Palestinian activism.
“The label cult refers to 3 factors: (1) The origin of the group and role of the leader; (2) The power structure or relationship between the leader and the followers; (3) The use of a coordinated program of brainwashing.” (MTS).
… and (4) Indoctrination of our youth by far-left social activists, media and progressive educators in our public schools, universities and other academic institutions.
“Cults and cultic groups normally refer to any one of many groups that have sprung up in our society and that are similar in the way they originate, in their power structure, and in their governance. Cults range from relatively benign to those that exercise extraordinary control over member’s lives and use brainwashing to influence and control members. Cult denotes a group that forms around a person who claims that he or she has a special mission or knowledge, which will be shared with those who turn over most of their decision making to that leader. The process of brainwashing or mind control is the route by which the cult leader gains control.” (MTS).
This process of brainwashing is strikingly like the strategy and information’s manipulation of the far-left media, which is controlled by a powerful elite class (e.g., George Soros and his son).
“Eventually, cult leaders and their most close followers’ subject other members to mind-numbing treatments that block critical and evaluative thinking and subjugate independent choice in a context of a strictly enforced hierarchy. A cult leader’s motivation is to harass, to financially destroy, and to silence criticism. Cult leaders keep the focus of love, devotion, and allegiance on themselves. In many cults, for example, spouses are forced to separate, or parents are forced to give up their children as a test of their devotion to their leader.” (MTS).
As a rule, cult leaders claim to be breaking with a tradition, offering something novel, and instituting the only “viable” system for change that will solve life’s problem or the world’s challenges—e.g., advocating for neo-Marxist ideology, White Privilege doctrine, Critical Race Theory, Black Lives Matter standings and, most recently, anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian movement.
“Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in lifestyle. Many cults put great pressure on their members to leave their families, friends, and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. In this closed system of logic, one is not allowed to question or doubt a tenet, or rule, or call attention to information that suggests some internal contradiction within the belief system, or a contradiction with what one has been.” (MTS).
Indeed, cults very much resembling a totalitarian regime, with a brutal dictator and an “inquisition-type “of justice system in charge of the masses; like the Soviet socialist-style of governing.
Certainly, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and beliefs to all citizens. But it also guarantees minors the rights to choose their own ideological and spiritual path. Our educational and legal system should recognize that minors should not be subjected to any forms of intense indoctrination or brainwashing by the far-left progressive educators in our public schools and academic institutions.
“Pro-Palestinian death cult” is attached to the neo-Marxist cause of destroying Western Civilization and the Sate of Israel. The people who spit rage and fury and refuse to think or even see reality are obviously not liberals. They are anti-Western and neo-Marxist radicals.
In terms of Israel, pro-Palestinian activists have fully internalized the destruction of the Jewish state as a mandatory precursor of the larger “revolution” that envision to bring down the Western World. They have no interest in factual truth or diplomatic discussions, or peace resolution; they swim in the sea of “useful idiots,” most of whom are being indoctrinated on college campuses by neo-Marxist academics.
Considering how pro-Palestinian “protests” began even before Israel had a chance to respond to October 7 massacre, these people are not only keffiyeh cultists, but well-organized army funded by far-left neo-Marxist organizations, such as George Soros’ “Freedom Foundation.” Clearly, no far-left propaganda campaign in history rivaled what is sweeping the world today; it is much worse than what George Orwell could have imagined in his novel “1984.”
Certainly, we cannot be expected to contribute to the general good of the humanity at the expense of our committing “collective suicide” and witness a decline of the Judeo-Christian moral values.
Alexander Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and enrolled in the Ph.D. program in anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also lecturer in the Russian Center. In the USSR, he was a social studies teacher for three years and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He then settled first in Sitka in 1985 and then in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education and Yukon-Koyukuk School District from 1988 to 2006; and Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center from 1990 to 2022. From 2006 to 2010, Alexander Dolitsky served as a Delegate of the Russian Federation in the United States for the Russian Compatriots program. He has done 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky was a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, and Clipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. He was a Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. Dolitsky has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka, Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia, Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers in Alaska, Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II, Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East, Living Wisdom of the Russian Far East: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska, and Pipeline to Russia: The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in World War II.