Newsletter: Countering Hate and Fighting Fascism
Love is Stronger than Mind Control
This week’s episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, “On Offense: Taking Action to Prevent Further Assaults to Democracy,” features Kristopher Goldsmith, the founder and CEO of Task Force Butler Institute and Veterans Against Fascism. This nonprofit organization focuses on gathering intelligence on dangerous individuals and hate groups while teaching the skills and context necessary to keep veterans and communities safe. In this episode, we talk about our shared disbelief that Trump gave pardons to the violent Jan 6th insurrectionists serving time in jail for their crimes against America and reaffirm our commitment to fighting fascism. It’s a timely discussion that is vital to our future. You can also listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Next week’s episode, “Invisible Threads: Weaving Mental Health and Democracy in Trump Times,” will feature an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kate Woodsome, who has dedicated herself to exposing the social and political forces — and narratives — that keep people isolated and unwell.
This week, I talked with Pete Dominick on his podcast Stand Up in an episode entitled: “Dr. Steven Hassan: Cult Expert on The Trump of Cult.” We discussed my own story and compared it to the experiences of those currently living under the cultic control of the MAGA movement. You can also listen to the podcast on his YouTube channel.
In the past few weeks, @cultexpert has been growing by leaps and bounds on Instagram. We currently have 114k followers. Are you on Instagram? My Substack has also seen over 1000 new subscribers. We will be offering premium content to Substack contributors to give even more value.
If you, like many of us, have become frustrated with X, formerly known as Twitter, I invite you to check out BlueSky, the new social media platform rapidly gaining traction. Although I have no plans to leave X, you can now find all my posts and links on my BlueSky page. I am @cultexpert.freedomofmind.com and desire to continue to grow on this platform.
In a few weeks, on March 6th and 7th, I will be presenting at a conference for Harvard Medical School, “Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: Navigating Complexity in Community.” I will be talking about my models, including the Influence Continuum and BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, and will warn therapists to always do a detailed Family of Origin history as if people were corporally punished or raised in an authoritarian home, many of their issues might be first addressed before evaluating whether psychedelics are even needed. This approach often involved MDMA and Ketamine and neither are classified as psychedelics. I will be also talking about therapy boundaries and how clients are much more vulnerable to undue influence, which might include boundary violations such as sexual acts. I hope to learn more about this fascinating and innovative field.
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Feb. 12th, from 3 to 4 p.m. EST; I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s live stream was a great success; you can see the replay here if you missed it.
And have you filled out our bitemodel.com survey yet? Please consider doing so for healthy relationships and groups, too! Please give the name of the healthy group. You can make multiple entries if you have been involved in more than one group. Please feel free to share it on Reddit, Facebook, and anywhere ex-members can be found. We wish to collect a database, especially of authoritarian groups.
Kristofer Goldsmith is an Iraq combat veteran, accomplished public policy advocate, nonprofit leader, and expert on the threats posed by domestic extremist organizations that work against Democracy. He is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit group Task Force Butler Institute, which trains veterans in research and operations to counter extremism. The group focuses on gathering intelligence on dangerous individuals and hate groups while also teaching the skills and context necessary to keep veterans and communities safe.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast below:
How can you tell if that group your family member has joined is safe? Is your relationship hitting a “rough patch,” or is there actual cause for concern? With this anonymous, easy-to-use diagnostic tool, you can answer simple questions and determine if any group or relationship is beneficial or destructive, ethical or unethical, healthy or unhealthy. And now, you can share your results on your social media if you wish!
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
Hi Stephen,
I hope you will do more about the cult that has taken over the United States government! The fear and uncertainty they are instilling and everyone to silence all decent is very similar to what I experienced in Scientology. The continual demand for loyalty, above all, is another cultlike feature.
I think it would be really helpful to post a Master list of destructive and dangerous cultic behavior that you see that is now occurring inside the leadership group of the US government's White House. Comparing it to the rise of the Nazi cult in Germany could be helpful as well.
The world needs to understand the simple organizing fact that a dangerous cult has taken control of the White House. You are the world's leading and most recognized cult expert after Margaret Singer has died.
This information should be quickly put on videos on YouTube, be in interviews with you on TV, posted in social media, and maybe even a new book. You will get lots of media coverage.
By helping people to understand a dangerous cult has taken over the White House, you will be doing much to save democracy and America and educate the US citizens with a simple way they can analyze all of the bizarre, fear-inducing, and intimidating various White House behaviors going on. This will help more US citizens to mobilize to resist and legally and politically prevent the current and the future damage of what happens every time a destructive cult takes control of a political power structure. Lawrence Wollersheim
🔸"Fascist politicians.. decry corruption in the state they seek to take over, which is bizarre,
🔸fascist politicians themselves are.. vastly more corrupt than those they seek to supplant.. "
"How Fascism Works the Politics of Us and Them", Stanley, p52