I haven't watched the NXIVM doc, and I have no first hand experience with Raniere, but I'm seeing people comment on it with the usual, "He doesn't seem that charismatic to me. How could anyone fall for this?"

That represents a dangerous misunderstanding about how liars work.

In general, the most successful lies aren't the ones that stand up to questioning. They're the ones that don't get questioned. So the most successful liars and cult leaders aren't good at lying, they're good at finding people who won't question the lie they want to tell.

Really "unconvincing", easily-disproved lies are actually useful for that. They weed out the people who are inclined to question your central premise (that you're a genius, or aliens are coming, or austerity is good economic policy) right away.

The thing is, mostly what they're finding aren't people who are stupid or never question anything. It's people who are already invested in something like that central premise, or something the liar can tie to it so the mark can't separate them.

The trick isn't to question everything anyone else tells you, because a good lie sounds like something you already believe. The trick is to question yourself.

And going one Twitter to tell us all you're too clever to join Alison Mack's sex cult is the opposite of that, suckers.

I will gladly join a cult that promises to teach me to spot ALL the typos in a thread before I post it, though. No questions asked.