As an experienced journalist, I am old enough to have covered these three cults and it’s my opinion that this one is dangerous.
There are three types of cults: A mystically-oriented illumination type; an instrumental type, in which inner experience is sought for its effects; and a service-oriented type, which is focused on aiding others.
Cults have made headlines around the world for many years and continue to fascinate in documentaries and popular podcasts. The stories behind these cults' origins, leaders, and demises are riveting — and often disturbing. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/cults-dangerous-deadly-history/
James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader and mass murderer who led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. In what he termed "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Jones and the events that occurred at Jonestown have had a defining influence on society's perception of cults.
David Koresh born Vernon Wayne Howell; August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was an American cult leader who played a central role in the Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect and offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventists, Koresh claimed to be its final prophet. His apocalyptic Biblical teachings, including interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals, attracted various followers
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, mediocre media personality, and bankrupt businessman and fraud. As president, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, diverted military funding toward building a wall on the U.S.–Mexico border, and implemented a policy of family separations for migrants detained at the U.S. border. He weakened environmental protections, rolling back more than 100 environmental policies and regulations. He signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which cut taxes for individuals and businesses and set the financial penalty to nil for the individual health insurance mandate penalty of the Affordable Care Act. He appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. He reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic, ignored or contradicted many recommendations from health officials, used political pressure to interfere with testing efforts, and spread misinformation about unproven treatments. Trump initiated a trade war with China and withdrew the U.S. from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Iran nuclear deal. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times but made no progress on denuclearization.
Trump refused to concede after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, falsely claiming widespread electoral fraud, and attempted to overturn the results by pressuring government officials, mounting scores of unsuccessful legal challenges, and obstructing the presidential transition. On January 6, 2021, he urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, which many of them then attacked, resulting in multiple deaths and interrupting the electoral vote count.
Meanwhile, the Minsk Center for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies published a report dedicated to Russia’s new geopolitical strategy. Its core finding was that the Kremlin deliberately stirs up instability in neighboring countries to reduce the influence and presence of other powers.
As the Kremlin was preparing its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its objectives expanded significantly. Russian authorities were banking on the idea that the “bloody reshaping of the world” would commence before its aggression, with war becoming a new norm even for Western countries. In this scenario, they believed that a distracted West, entangled in conflicts on other fronts, would be unable to unite in the face of the Russian threat, let alone impose sanctions.
These hopes did not materialize and instead, Russia emerged as the primary disruptor of the existing world order, leading to an unprecedented consolidation of Western countries against its aggression and in support of sanctions.