This is honestly the first POTUS voter I've seen who has not only repudiated him, but has taken responsibility for having unleashed him on America.

We should be embracing this.

When people are escaping a cult, it is counterproductive to berate them for having joined it in the first place.

The amount of introspection and soul-searching it takes to step away and acknowledge that you believed wrong things is HUGE.

This is not to say that you cannot hold them accoutable for harm they may have caused while in the cult. You can.

But if you position yourself as an adversary, you make it harder for them to pull away, and to help others escape.

People inside a cult are taught that everyone outside it is hostile to them.

For all the problems with a cult, it is still a community and there is still safety there.

So if you are trying to help someone escape a cult, it is most helpful to be as welcoming as possible.

Usually it takes a really big thing to shake someone loose from a cult.

In this case, it's literally a plague caused by the cult leader.

The revulsion and fear caused by the acts of the leader are now something that we share with the member.

Focus on that shared response.

Right now, we need a mass defection from this cult.

We need to thin its ranks as much as possible.

And that means opening our arms to those wandering out.

Not those still trying to kill us, of course.

I mean those who have seen the error of their ways.

You don't have to like them.
You don't have to be besties.
You don't even have to sympathize with their journey.

But make it easier for them to be out than in.

Because depleting the cult is the main goal.

The stakes are high.
They know that because that is why they left.

We will have time later to do reconciliation and repentance.

Right now, we need to survive.

And we can't let our righteous indignation to impede that goal.

You may be thinking "Well they did a harmful thing and are only changing because THEY are getting hurt"

This may be true.

This is also frequently what it takes to get someone to see the harm they level on others.

If a group of people through their own negligence or malfeasance started a fire in an apartment building, you can argue about that once you've gotten everyone out.

You're not going to tell them to not help people escape because it was their fault.

The building is on fire.

We can criticize those who fanned the flames.

We have every right to.

Prioritize. Getting. Everyone. Out.

We need all hands on deck.

Or we won't be around to yell at each other anyway.

When people in a cult see hostility in the world against those who leave, it reinforces the cult's teachings. That it's not safe for them to leave.

That they will be rejected by the world outside and that the cult is the only place they can escape abuse.