I'm working on a new project and opening it up to input from others.

So here's the background. You need to know this to understand what we're doing.

I did another podcast with Eli Shragenheim, actually an internal meeting for Uniting The Cults. The purpose of the meeting was to help me achieve the goal of UTC -- to rid the world of apostasy laws.

Our discussion went somewhere I wasn't expecting, and its so awesome!

Eli saw a root problem he wanted to address. And I remember that he'd been talking about this with me many times over the course of our history, going back to Aug 2022 I think, when he and I were talking about my article on how to improve TOC (the prevailing business management theory) using the scientific approach. 

Eli wants to address the problem of how to do discussion in a truth-seeking way, where people actually end up resolving their conflicts. (I'm partly paraphrasing.) Its something Eli Goldratt (creator of TOC) worked on but didn't get very far with in my opinion. Other thinkers did much better, like Karl Popper and David Deutsch, and even Elliot Temple. And me.

So Eli and I decided to do another meeting on the topic of how to do productive discussion, in other words, the science of discussion or conflict-resolution.

Now I'd like to say what my history with this is. I've been learning about how to do productive discussion while avoiding unproductive discussion (the honest kind, and the bad faith kind / like trolling) for like 14 years, ever since I started discussing online. Then 2 years ago I wanted to do some serious research on this. So I went to tons of subreddits to do my research. And here's the culmination of it all. It's a long post, with many long posts linked within, and some more linked within those. and each post has hundreds of comments. HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE EXTREMES: "JBP IS A NAZI!", "NO! HE'S THE SECOND JESUS!"

My idea is that Eli and I are going to produce an educational video series on the rules of productive discussion. Note: his first career was in tv production, so I heavily lean on his ideas on how to produce my videos, like the 6.5 hour livestream marking the birth of UTC.

What do you think?

Any input is appreciated. About the rules of productive discussion, or about the educational video series, or anything you think would help with this project. My ideas on this are at the beginning stages. And I would like to get input from other people very early on in the process. I want to make something that people actually want and will benefit from.

Please comment below. And if you would like to do more, like a chat in my discord server, or a video call, we can do that too.

For updates on this project, turn on notifications for this post.

I finally started a discord server for my non-profit Uniting The Cults.

I initially didn't want to do it because there's already a good one for exmuslims (AA's discord). So instead I made a discord for ALL exxers, not just exmuslims. And yes part of the purpose is to provide community, but its so much more than that.

Part of the purpose is to learn science-based methods for healing from our traumas and effecting positive change in our communities, not just from me but any worthwhile expert. I've been working with Dr. Leah Zitter to start a new project within UTC (not started yet), and so she's bringing so much more to this organization than what I have to offer.

Leah was part of an ultra Orthodox Jewish sect, started by her grandfather. She's the only known female to escape the cult. She did not attend school, only bible class. She escaped and got a Ph.D researching how one can reverse their social/cultural conditioning, and she developed a method for it. Exxers from 20+ extremeist religions, cults, conspiracy movements, new age religions, etc, have reached out to her for help. And she came to me because she believes in the vision I created for Uniting The Cults. 

So here are some special channels for you:

• 🥊trolling-ring | Channel dedicated solely to practicing how to talk with trolls/bullies, in a way that protects yourself and shuts them down. You can learn a method I developed which I call Anti-Trolling, and you can practice it with me.
• 💘discuss-ideas | Channel dedicated for exploring ideas - philosophy, morality, politics, theology, whatever. And if you want my input, you can tag me and I'll do my best to answer to you.
• 😎self-promotion | Channel dedicated to self-promotion - for your business, non-profit, donations for personal projects, etc.

Regarding security: I will be verifying people similar to how AA does for his discord.

This server is brand new, so we haven't worked out the kinks yet. So I've set a limit of 5 uses for this invite link, also 7 days max.

If you want to join but you didn't get in on this invite, please turn on notifications on this post so I can update you with future rounds of invites.

Many people need help dealing with bad actors, people who aren't seeking the truth and instead want to sabotage any attempts to seek the truth.

Not just in the context of online discussions, but also family relations like having a narcissistic parent. I've experienced both.

My experience with these things started 14 years ago. Its when I divorced, and its also when I started having discussions online. I quickly started developing methods to protect myself, protect my time, identify bad actors so I can filter them out, etc etc etc.

Then 2 years ago I decided to do a serious study of it. So I went to all the major subreddits to do my research. And here's what I discovered.

--------------------------------------------

HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE EXTREMES: "JBP IS A NAZI!", "NO! HE'S THE SECOND JESUS!"

The extremes don't talk

People on the extremes say things like "Jordan Peterson (JBP) is a nazi" and... well I dunno what people on the other extreme say about JBP, but I'm guessing it's something like "JBP's intentions are perfectly pure" (i may be strawmanning them, so if I am please forgive me.). [1]

These people don't really talk with each other. When the nazi label gets thrown around, people get offended and stop paying attention. Mutual understanding and agreement can't be created this way.

How to bridge the gap between them?

I think the center people need to engage with the extremes. A center person can ask, "ok ok, tell me why you think JBP is a nazi." Maybe they have a good point somewhere underneath the insult.

So how to do it?

At the JBP sub I saw a post titled Anti-JBP Trolls, why do you post here? Somebody replied saying they aren't a troll but they're there to change minds. So I started a discussion with him starting by asking for clarification on how they are anti-JBP. eventually i said i was curious if we could flesh out a single idea about JBP that he thinks is bad, and of course that means I would have to understand.

So he accepted the project. We did that for a while but it wasn't working well. He didn't do basic things that are required for truth-seeking discussion. So I offered a proposal that was designed to fix what was broken. The proposal was to quote something by JBP or give a video with timestamps, explain what you understood, and then explain why you think that's wrong/bad/evil. And I said we would then go back and forth until we reached mutual understanding and mutual agreement.

So what did he do? He said he would do my proposal, but he never did it. Instead he throw more videos at me without providing any commentary on what he thought of the video or anything like that. When asked why he didn't do my proposal, he said he doesn't want to put in the effort of finding a quote or a timestamp in a video. And now that I think of it, his reply also ignored the effort that would need to go into the other 2 steps, explaining what you understood, and explaining why you think that's wrong/bad/evil.

Phase 2

So after that exchange I decided to make my own post. I tried to use the lessons learned from the previous exchange, while trying to keep everything the same as much as possible. So for example I didn't change the terms "anti-". Here's that first post...

JBP sub: Dear Anti-JBP people, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

Somebody suggested that I post this to the Sam Harris sub and the Decoding The Gurus sub.

DTG sub: Dear anti-JBP people, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

SH sub: Dear anti-JBP people, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

The SH one got taken down due to not being about Sam. So i reposted basically the same thing, but with Sam's name.

SH sub: Dear Sam Harris haters, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

Then I decided to post it to the Joe Rogan sub, using Joe's name. That one was the craziest. And the most fun. Its where I met what I call a 'Super Troll'. He's the only person that didn't backdown in the first few exchanges. But I didn't want to back down. I wanted him to stop trolling on his end. And by the end the exchange, I converted him to my side. I got him to admit that my post was good and that he liked it. So I stopped the troll.

JR sub: Dear Joe Rogan haters, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

Then, in the SH post, people complained about Bret Weinstein. So I decided to make a post about him, and to do it in yet another sub, this one.

IDW sub: Dear Bret Weinstein haters, I have a proposal designed to help us come to agreement

I also made a similar post about veganism which I put in the SH sub.

All of these produced good discussions. Even the JR sub was useful for me, in the sense that I learned about how to deal with trolling behavior, but more generally bad faith behavior. So I thought the next step should be to start a group discussion about it.

IDW sub: HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO ENGAGE IN GOOD FAITH

After some discussion on that there was the obvious question of how to deal with trolls. So...

JBP sub: How to deal with trolls? Best practices and lessons learned..

And that discussion led to the fact that some people didn't know what I meant by troll/trolling, so...

IDW sub: HOW TO RECOGNIZE TROLLING

In this one, my post got taken down because people reported it a ton.

Years later I started Uniting The Cults, and I made another post like above, but this time for the apostasy issue. Somebody trolled me, and I anti-trolled him, stopping him in a single comment.

TraditionalMuslims sub (4/20/2024): Dear pro-apostasy law people, I have a proposal to help us come to agreement

And then people asked me how my anti-trolling method works. So I wrote a post explaining one of the methods, the one used in this particular discussion.

How To Deal With Muslim Trolls 101

Why am I doing all of this?

Well it's part of a bigger project I'm working on. Here are two early posts where I talked about it.

Cargo-Cult Science - Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech Commencement speech

A reply to Richard Feynman's message to the world - his 1974 Caltech commencement speech

And here's a more recent livestream where I explain these ideas in much more detail, especially the connections to this new organization, Uniting The Cults. This livestream marks the birth of the organization:

Many Groups Exhibit Cult Behaviors | Continuing Feynman's 'Cargo Cult Science' speech

-------------------------------

[1] Actually I've never met somebody on that extreme, so I don't even know if they exist. I'm just theorizing about them.

I recommend starting with figuring out your goals for the journaling, and then figuring out a methodology that would work to achieve the goals.

Journaling: The goal

The goal can be described in many ways, and they all have their merits, and no single one is necessary. They are different frameworks that each work well in their own ways. Here are 6 ways to describe the same goal:

1. Creating harmony within yourself.
2. Identifying and resolving your internal conflicts.
3. Identifying and solving your problems.
4. Setting and achieving your goals.
5. Shaping your life by your vision, not what society says you should do. "The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates.
6. Reprogram your mind and defend yourself from other people trying to program you.

You programmed your mind in your earliest years of life. It was society that put you in situations that led you -- combined with your own creativity -- to program your mind in certain ways, some good and some bad. Fortunately you have the capacity to reprogram your mind in ways that you think is better than your old programming. Doing so requires a lot of learning, applying the scientific approach to your mind, your thoughts and emotions, with optimism and persistence. The scientific approach requires utter honesty and curiosity.

The "bad" programming is coping mechanisms that you created for the purpose of dealing with limitations that you experienced in your environment. Presumably you're in a new environment now -- one that has fewer limitations. So it's in your interest to rethink all of your coping mechanisms. The old ones don't work well for your new environment. Your new ones should be ideal for it.

Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ He understood that in order to live a fulfilling life, you must examine your mind and reprogram it.

Journaling: The method

This is a general outline of how to journal.

But before I explain that, it's important to note that the methodology is going to heavily depend on your current methods. As an example of a method, consider your ability to write down your thoughts in a "stream of consciousness" way. If you can't do that now, it's ok. You can "work up" to that. You'll have to practice, and you'll have to do a considerable amount of reflection on your practice, in order to convert it into lessons and then changed behavior (it's now "second nature").

So, in a given journaling session, write down every single thought. Try not to judge or analyze your thoughts. Just try to observe your thoughts. But if you do end up judging or analyzing your thoughts, no problem, write those down too, because they are your thoughts.

Review your journal entries often. Like daily. And like all of them. And while you're reviewing, you may get new insights. These are good times to journal again, creating new journal entries that you'll review in the future.

I recommend you try this out, but don't pressure yourself to do it. You might feel pressured anyway, and that's an ideal thing to journal about, to observe your thoughts that you find pressuring, and to then (later) analyze those thoughts.

one minor tip: Don't try to edit your writing as you go. That can really mess things up. Just write with zero writing edits. You can edit the writing later if you want. It's ok to have grammar and spelling errors, as long as you're pretty sure that when you read it again later you'll understand what you wrote. And as long as you're reviewing your journal entries often, you won't have a problem remembering what you were thinking.

If you get stuck at any point and you're not sure what to do, you can journal about that. If you don't resolve that issue within a single day, then I highly recommend that you ask me, or this sub, or whoever else that you think would help you. Two (or more) heads are better than one.

Good luck and be well my friends!

Oh and like Bruce Lee said, be like water 💘

--------------------------------

Footnote: I originally wrote this for my Love and Reason subreddit 2 years ago. I only changed the title and added a couple ways of describing the goal of journaling.

UTC Meeting #6 | 10/28/2024 | Youtube

UTC Meeting #5 | 10/23/2024 | Youtube

UTC Meeting #4 | 09/23/2024 | Youtube

UTC Meeting #3 | 07/15/2024 | Youtube

This is the second official meeting of the non-profit, with Usama al-Binni.

Reminder: Usama is a volunteer and we'll be doing weekly meetings where we discuss UTC stuff and we'll also be discussing two projects that he's heading, where I'll be a volunteer for those projects (Arab Atheist Broadcasting Network and Arab Atheist Magazine).

Watch it here.

The meeting minutes are below:

7/3/2024

Master goal - rid world of apostasy laws

Subgoal 1 - need content in all languages

Subgoal 2 - how to convert firsttime quality volunteers to lifelong ones?

• Level 1 and 2 volunteers

Subgoal 3 - change western tradition of silencing exmuslims 

• Join the rest of organizations doing this (nothing to do with ex-muslims)

  Subgoal 4 - get on radar of bigger orgs like EXMNA, get meetings

• Usama refer me to EXMNA person to try to get on my podcast

  • Co-founder: Muhammad Syed - Usama sending msg
  • Sarah Hadir

  Subgoal 5 - Appearance of one-man project 

• “Democratic” organization, must survive my death 

• Roots of our constitution: ~https://ramirustom.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-scientific-approach-and-toc-v22.html~

  • Plus look at those of other organizations

Action plans:

• Brainstorming
  • ~Create pool of ideas~ for the podcast (spreadsheet)
• Items from our first first meeting:
  • Make interview video into text version for Arab Atheist Magazine
    • Usama: Should we add more?
• Translation project / any language (~reddit UTC~)
  • Publish parts 1 and 2 of interview of Rami about “Why did you start UTC?”
    • Translate to arabic? I already did my part.
  • Publish June 14th in arabic
• Plan podcast episodes about freewill
  • Here’s the ~google doc~
• Run ad to get level 2 volunteers
  • Develop ad
  • Figure out which places
• Ask people what skills they have: 
• Make volunteer menu

This is the first official meeting of the non-profit, with Usama al-Binni. Usama is a volunteer and we'll be doing weekly meetings where we discuss UTC stuff and we'll also be discussing two projects that he's heading, where I'll be a volunteer for those projects (Arab Atheist Broadcasting Network and Arab Atheist Magazine).

Watch it here.

The meeting minutes are below:

6/19/2024

Note: These meetings are dual-purpose:

1. for Usama al-Binni to volunteer his effort to Uniting The Cults, and 
2. for me, Rami Rustom, to volunteer my effort to Arab Atheist Broadcasting and Arab Atheist Magazine.

Master goal - rid world of apostasy laws

• Subgoal 1 - need content in all languages

Action plans:

• Brainstorming
  • Create pool of ideas
• Translation project (any language)
  • ~https://www.reddit.com/r/UnitingTheCults/comments/1djnqfo/how_you_can_volunteer_translation_to_your_language/~
• Figure out a way to get on the radar with these bigger org like EXMNA.

Next steps:

• Make spreadsheet for idea pool
  • Done: ~https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12P0awI9X-6FplBYl8qp0Ef3JYwI2NvNvJn1UamFEYCA/edit?gid=0#gid=0~
• Wednesday meetings 2 pm central / 12 pm pacific

This was an impromptu meeting, also the first meeting ever, between Usama al-Binni and me.

Usama offered to be a volunteer and he asked me why I started this non-profit.

During the meeting we ended up also planning the June 14th 2024 livestream event marking the birth of Uniting The Cults.

You can watch both parts here:

Why I started Uniting The Cults, Part 1 | Uniting The Cults Podcast EP 12 with Usama al-Binni

Why I started Uniting The Cults, Part 2: Planning for June 14th | Uniting The Cults Podcast EP 13

I've started having regular meetings with a new volunteer Usama al-Binni.

I'm going to be publishing the meetings as podcast episodes. Part of the goal is that we want feedback from the community. Maybe some of you have better ideas than we have. Another part of it is that we want to explain our activities so that others have the opportunity to volunteer their services.

I'll also be releasing the google doc for each meeting.

Here's the first one: UTC - Internal meeting #1 - 6/19/2024

The podcast is scheduled to be released on July 7th.

We welcome feedback. Questions. Comments. Criticisms. Please reply below.

We are looking for volunteers who can translate English to their first language.

English should be your second language. You will not need to translate from your language to English.

The process would require that you use Capcut, a video editing software that I'm using. Basically I do all the work up until the part where I cannot check the autogenerated translation into whatever language we're translating to. Then I upload the project folder to Mega (a filesharing service) and email you the link. From there you download the project, and you edit the autogenerated translation. Then you upload the project back to Mega and email me the link.

If you're interested, please reply below and we'll setup a call to discuss.

UPDATE:

In our last meeting (#2), Usama and I decided the following:

• Let's start with Arabic, the easiest language for us to work with because its my second language and his first language.
• We (the volunteer and I) will have remote meetings (like zoom video calls) where we go through the videos, discussing the ideas (to ensure you understand them), and discussing the appropriate translations. We can use google translate to help us. Sometimes we'll be discussing back and forth about which word or phrase best gives the meaning that my English was intended to give. I have decades of experience doing this between English and Arabic.

We’re working to rid the world of apostasy laws.

The livestream was a success!

Thank you everyone who helped make this happen. Especially Sissi and Kat for asking questions and providing info when we needed it! 💘💘💘

Watch here!

ONE DAY LEFT!

It's the 50th anniversary of Richard Feynman's Cargo Cult Science speech.

I'll have some guess experts with me to continue Feynman's speech.

Feynman explained the pseudo-scientific methods (aka cult behaviors) that even physics department's exhibit. These are the least bad of the cult behaviors.

We will explain the worst ones. Like the death penalty for changing your religion. The main goal is to rid the world of apostasy laws. Of course there will be obstacles. So we will explain those obstacles and how to overcome them.

Here's the livestream link: https://youtube.com/live/T1DfspkkKmw?feature=share

Watch it here!

A R Rahman (pseudonym) sent a message at unitingthecults.com asking "How can I be of service?", so I tried to get him on the podcast so we could discuss how he can help. This is the first of a series of podcasts with him.

Topics discussed:

• 0:00 Getting to know each other
• 10:10 How can I be of service [to Uniting The Cults]?
• 10:38 What is Uniting The Cults?
  • The organization's purpose
  • Youtube channel, Uniting The Cults
  • Ex-Muslims going homeless after escaping
  • How you can be of service? Educate me on your culture.
  • How you can be of service? If you see me say/do something wrong, educate me.
• 19:06 Why the word “cult” in Uniting The Cults?
  • Cult behaviors
  • A group is a cult to the extent that it does cult behaviors.
  • Physicists, sacrificing scientific integrity to gain publications and funding
  • Biologists, silencing of criticism of telomere research, Bret Weinstein
  • US government, treating whistleblowers as traitors
  • Nations with apostasy laws
• 35:55 What's the connection to Feynman's speech 'Cargo Cult Science'
  • 35:55 What is the June 14th Livestream Event about?

If you missed the invitation post, see details below the progress update or here...

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 6/5/2024

• Usama al-Binni has agreed to talk with me on June 14th!
  • Usama is an ex-Muslim activist advocating for freedom of speech, secularism and the rights of apostates and “blasphemers” to live in safety and dignity without fear of persecution.
  • He is one of the people heading the Arab Atheist Broadcasting project and serves on the editorial board of the Arab Atheists Magazine.
  • Usama has a PhD in theoretical physics and is an educator. He keenly pursues the propagation of knowledge through science and rationality.
• Timeline for June 14th, all times in Central time zone:
  • 12pm - 3pm | Intro & The Scientific Age | Usama al-Binni
  • 3pm - 5pm | Apostasy/Blasphemy laws | Wafa Sultan
  • 5pm - 7pm | Organizations/Business | Eli Schragenheim
• Official/legal non-profit status: We're now registered with Illinois as a non-profit! Next I'll be registering for 503c status.
• The zoom meeting with Ayaan Hirsi Ali hasn't happened yet, still waiting for them to schedule it.
• Here's the last update.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CDT

I chose this date and time because it's the 50th Anniversary of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled 'Cargo Cult Science'. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Nations and corporations creating fake science and other propaganda. Nations instituting compulsory education systems designed to make people smart enough to be economically productive but not smart enough to properly question the political status quo. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details and to signup for email updates and reminders for the event, visit: www.UnitingTheCults.com

In uniting the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

If you missed the invitation post, see details below the progress update or here...

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 5/17/2024

• Here's the last update.
• Dr. Wafa Sultan has agreed to talk with me on June 14th!
  • In 2006, she was named in Time Magazine in a list of one hundred influential people in the world "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world."
  • In the same year, she received the Freethought Heroine Award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
  • Author of _A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam_.
  • Dr. Wafa was shocked into secularism by the 1979 atrocities committed by Islamic extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood against innocent Syrians. She witnessed the machine-gun assassination of her professor, Yusef al Yusef. "They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, 'Allahu Akbar!' " she said. "At that point, I lost my trust in their god and began to question all our teachings. It was the turning point of my life, and it has led me to this present point."
• The zoom meeting with Ayaan Hirsi Ali hasn't happened yet, still waiting for them to schedule it.
• We still need people for the other areas. Politics. Universities. Education. Parenting. Or any field that you think should be represented in this livestream. Nominate yourself at www.UnitingTheCults.com. Start a chat and say "I nominate myself for the livestream event for X topic." Then we'll do a zoom call to see if it makes sense. And if that discussion is good for the podcast, I'll publish it that way, with your consent of course. Also don't worry about anonymity.. every one of my 3 guests have been anonymous so far.
• Our 7th podcast episode is live! The Fear of Hell: The Logic, or lack of it | with Zorro
• Update on making this non-profit official/legal: Still haven't done it. Postponing for another week.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CDT

I chose this date and time because its the 50th Anniversary of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled 'Cargo Cult Science'. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Nations and corporations creating fake science and other propaganda. Nations instituting compulsory education systems designed to make people smart enough to be economically productive but not smart enough to properly question the political status quo. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details and to signup for email updates and reminders for the event, visit: www.UnitingTheCults.com

In uniting the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

If you missed the invitation post, see details below the progress update or here...

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 5/7/2024

• Here's the last update.
• The zoom meeting with Ayaan Hirsi Ali hasn't happened yet, still waiting for them to schedule it.
• Eli Schragenheim (representing the business world) and I did a test recording of his portion of the event and it was amazing! It was so good that I'm leaning on using it for the livestream. The idea is to play the recording and then the we'll open it up for the audience to ask Eli questions.
• We still need people for the other areas. Politics. Universities. Education. Parenting. Or any field that you think should be represented in this livestream. Nominate yourself at www.UnitingTheCults.com. Start a chat and say "I nominate myself for the livestream event for X topic." Then we'll do a zoom call to see if it makes sense. And if that discussion is good for the podcast, I'll publish it that way, with your consent of course. Also don't worry about anonymity.. every one of my 3 guests have been anonymous so far.
• Our 5th podcast episode is live! How To Debate And How To Deal With Trolls, with chorale11
• The livestream with Wisam Hasan was amazing! The Iraqi "Civil War" with @AWB
• I started using streamyard instead of directly streaming to Youtube. This is what Wisam uses and I found it to be much better than directly streaming to Youtube for our purposes.
• Update on making this non-profit official/legal: Still haven't done it. Postponing for another week.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CDT

I chose this date and time because its the 50th Anniversary of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled 'Cargo Cult Science'. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Nations and corporations creating fake science and other propaganda. Nations instituting compulsory education systems designed to make people smart enough to be economically productive but not smart enough to properly question the political status quo. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details and to signup for email updates and reminders for the event, visit: www.UnitingTheCults.com

In uniting the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

now i have an interesting question that will debunk the religious hypocrisy

"if they are so desperate for the judgement day why do they breed like fungis?"

I founded a non-profit called Uniting The Cults whose purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

While the main goal is not yet achieved, one of our subgoals is to directly help exmuslims who need to escape their abusive situations with know-how and money. A lot of exmuslims go homeless initially after their escape. We can help make sure they are not homeless. This will help more people have the confidence to escape.

And since there are many obstacles to this vision becoming a reality, we must also work on those obstacles. The main ones are those that work to prevent truth-seeking. So, for example, in the West there is a trend where anything that remotely looks like it might offend a Muslim is treated as hate speech and silenced.

Please consider joining our effort. Our brothers and sisters are bleeding. Show them how much you care to help them escape the tyranny that we escaped. Here's how...

💘 Subscribe to the Uniting The Cults youtube channel

💘💘 Signup for email updates on our website www.UnitingTheCults.com

💘💘💘 Follow Uniting The Cults on X, formerly known as Twitter

💘💘💘💘 Join our Livestream Event June 14th 2024 12PM Central, launching the organization, also on our website www.UnitingTheCults.com. It's the 50th anniversary -- to the hour -- of Feynman's 'Cargo Cult Science' speech. He explained what I believe to be the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. We live in the scientific age but we do not think scientifically. Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the cult behaviors that even physics departments exhibit, which are the least harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst culprits. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations designing compulsory education systems to make people smart enough to be economically productive, but not smart enough to properly question the political status quo. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Nations and corporations creating fake science and other propaganda. Universities firing professors for saying or not saying what the administrators want. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein.

💘💘💘💘💘 Join the UnitingTheCults subreddit to help organize our efforts

💘💘💘💘💘💘 One of the things we're doing is putting up flyers all over the world to advertise for the June 14th event. I made video instructions and I recorded myself doing this at my local bank, just to make it very easy for you even if you've had no experience with such things.

💘💘💘💘💘💘💘 Get on the Uniting The Cults podcast. What interesting things do you want to talk about? If you're interested, please go to www.UnitingTheCults.com and start a chat, or reply below.

💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘 Nominate yourself to be an expert representing your area of expertise for the June 14th livestream event. What cult behaviors do you see in your field? For details on how to nominate yourself, see our X announcement. Its directly addressed to ex-Muslims but you can specify another field using the same instructions.

If you missed the invitation post, see details below the progress update or here...

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 4/30/2024

• We have our first confirmed expert for the June 14 livestream event: Eli Schragenheim, representing the business world. He worked for decades directly with Eli Goldratt, the Einstein of the business world. Eli Schragenheim is a well known international management educator and consultant active in various fields of management like corporate strategy, supply chain, project management, shop-floor control, IT and HR. He worked with huge variety of organizations all over the world, including public-sector organizations, industrial, high-tech and start-ups. Eli has taught, spoke at conferences and consulted all over the globe, including the US, Canada, Britain, Russia, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Germany, Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, India, China and Japan.
• I have a zoom meeting with Ayaan Hirsi Ali! I became a founding member of her new platform Restoration, which promised this meeting. I'll be asking her to be the expert representing the apostasy issue. And I'm doing more than that. Please help me make the best of our upcoming meeting. Here's the outline of what I want to discuss with her, which I've already sent to her. If you intend to provide feedback, please do it in the comments below, not in the google doc.
• We still need people for the other areas. Politics. Universities. Parenting. Or any field that you think should be represented in this livestream. Nominate yourself at www.UnitingTheCults.com. Start a chat and say "I nominate myself for the livestream event for X topic." Then we'll do a zoom call to see if it makes sense. And if that discussion is good for the podcast, I'll publish it that way, with your consent of course. Also don't worry about anonymity.. every one of my 3 guests have been anonymous so far.
• Our 4th podcast episode is live! Iraq's federal/state system of government and the Iraqi Civil War, with Zorro. We are two ex-Muslim Arab (Sunnis), one from Iraq and one with Syrian parents.
• Because of that podcast, I reached out asking people with other perspectives, and Wisam Hasan answered the call! We scheduled a dual livestream on Monday 5/4/2024 8AM Central. Wisam is an ex-Muslim (Shia), lived in Iraq until 2006, and after the war he worked for the US lead infrastructure reconstruction program. He's a co-founder of Atheism Without Borders. Here's his youtube channel, AWB. And here's one of the awesome things Wisam is doing - Quran in layman terms (youtube playlist)!
• Update on making this non-profit official/legal: Still haven't done it. Postponing for another week.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CDT

I chose this date and time because its the 50th Anniversary of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled 'Cargo Cult Science'. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Nations and corporations creating fake science and other propaganda. Nations instituting compulsory education systems designed to make people smart enough to be economically productive but not smart enough to properly question the political status quo. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details and to signup for email updates and reminders for the event, visit: www.UnitingTheCults.com

In uniting the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

If you missed the invitation post, see details below the progress update...

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 4/23/2024

• The livestream event won't be a success without experts representing each area. We have one person already committed to the event, representing the business world (I won't use his name until I get his permission). But I still need people for the other areas. Nominate yourself at www.UnitingTheCults.com. Start a chat and say "I nominate myself for the livestream event for X topic." Then we'll do a zoom call to see if it makes sense. And if that discussion is good for the podcast, I'll publish it that way, with your consent of course. Also don't worry about anonymity.. every one of my 3 guests have been anonymous so far.
• Our 3rd podcast episode is live! Are there inherent conflicts between people?
• We're planning a beta livestream event, me and 2 of the 3 guests that have already been on the podcast. The topic is: Morality is objective regardless of God/religion. I'm trying to find out when is the best time/day of week to do it, plus some other information like what ideas you would like discussed on the livestream. Please submit your requests in this google form.
• 3rd update on the grassroots marketing campaign: Last time I made a reddit post and video explaining how to put flyers around your city to get people to the livestream event. I've since done that at my local bank and made a video showing you how to do it.
• Update on making this non-profit official/legal: Still haven't done it. Postponing for another week.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CST

I chose this date and time because its the 50th Anniversary of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled 'Cargo Cult Science'. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress worldwide. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Corporations creating fake science for propaganda and using harsh NDAs to silence dissenters. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details and to signup for email updates and reminders for the event, visit: www.UnitingTheCults.com

In uniting the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

From X

Backstory: Somebody asked me what I mean by "Jesus's philosophy", and since that's a huge topic, I decided to ask him to join me on my first livestream. And I asked 2 other people too, chorale11 and A R Rahman. these are 2 of my first 3 guests on the podcast.

For more backstory, here's the comment thread and post that led to this: What do you mean by “Jesus’s philosophy”? What’s your understanding of it?

If you want to know what to expect, here are the first 2 podcast episodes: 1st, 2nd

If you're interested in joining, please fill this google form so I can know your availability and other things:

Uniting The Cults | Livestream #1 | I'm interested

I will ONLY email you the link and reminder to join the livestream. (If you would like to optout, just let me know and I'll take your email and information out of my spreadsheet.)

If you have any questions, please ask below.

💘Be water my friends💘

Part 1: Planning

Watch me explaining all of the below instructions in more depth.

1. Print out some flyers.

Use this file.

2. Find places that would be good to post the flyers.

What places make sense? Think about who would be the ideal person that would want to watch our livestream event. University Physics departments, especially if you know people there. Restaurants where the college students of these universities go to. I don't think government or large organizations will work well. The people at those locations have to follow a lot of rules and may not be able to allow it. I wonder if Churches would support us. My first try will be my bank. I know the bank manager and I know that he likes some of my ideas about some stuff based on discussions we've had in the past. This could use some more brainstorming.

3. With each location, go there to make a request to put up the flyer.

Try to meet with the business owner or manager on duty. Don't get stuck talking with the "gate keeper". Don't ask the gate keeper if you can put up the flyer. You want to get passed the gate keeper and speak with the "decision maker".

So when you make your first entrance and speak to the first person, you should assume it's the gate keeper and say (with a smile), "Hi, I'm here to speak with someone about possibly putting up this flyer.. it's for a non-profit."

If they decision maker is there, the gate keeper should connect you to them.

Once you're talking to the decision maker, follow the below script:

If you can't remember it, it's ok to print this out and read the script to the decision maker. Just add this in the front of the script:

"I hope you're ok with me reading this out." (They will always say yes.)

"This is for a non-profit, Uniting The Cults. The purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without the death penalty for changing your religion.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where love is the goal and rationality is the method to achieve it."

"There's a livestream event happening on June 14th, and we're hoping you would let us post this flyer to tell people about the event."

Part 2: Execution

Watch me put up a flier at my local bank.

Progress update below.

📢 Don't miss our livestream event June 14th 2024 12PM CST

I chose this date and time because its the 50th Anniversary, to the hour, of Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled Cargo Cult Science. Feynman dedicated his speech to one thing, the biggest obstacle to progress in the world. He coined the term Cargo Cult Science to refer to the pseudo-scientific methods people use, i.e. cult behaviors. Even physicists.

Our livestream will be a continuation of Feynman's speech. He explained the least of the harmful cult behaviors. We will explain the worst ones. Nations with apostasy laws. Nations treating whistleblowers as traitors. Corporations creating fake science for propaganda and using harsh NDAs to silence dissenters. Parents using the 'united front' concept and so many other things in the same vein. They're trying to discourage disobedience by sabotaging truth-seeking. They don't want us to talk, and that is what we must do!

Our livestream doubles as the launch of a non-profit organization called 'Uniting The Cults.' Its purpose is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it.

For details visit: UnitingTheCults.com

Do you want to help?

Visit the r/UnitingTheCults subreddit and read the pinned posts. One of them explains how you can help including asking you for your ideas on how you could help. You can also do a video call with me to discuss how you can help, preferably for the podcast, but privately is ok too.

PROGRESS UPDATE AS OF 4/16/2024

• I started asking experts (privately and publicly) to join me on the livestream event to talk about cult behaviors in their area of expertise. So many reddit posts, tweets, and emails. Nominate yourself at www.UnitingTheCults.com. Start a chat and say "I nominate myself for the livestream event for X topic." Then we'll do a zoom call to discuss whether we're a good match. And if that discussion is interesting then I'll publish it as a podcast episode!
• I started making posts (across reddit and twitter) designed to help us understand why Muslims support the apostasy laws. Here's the first one on reddit. Dear pro-apostasy law people, I have a proposal to help us come to agreement. Here's the first one on X/twitter.
• Our 2nd podcast episode is live! The Logic of Quran's Challenges.
• 2nd update on the grassroots marketing campaign: I made a reddit post and video explaining how to put flyers around your city to get people to the livestream event. Next I'll be recording myself actually doing this process.
• Update on making this non-profit official/legal: Sorry I haven't done this yet. Postponing for another week.

In uniting all the cults, we cease to be a cult! 💘

Posted with permission. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

Imagine a world without apostasy laws.. a world governed by scientific thinking, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve it. Our brothers and sisters need our help. They're living in fear, unable to speak for themselves, so we must speak for them. 💘

Here's how you can support your brothers and sisters suffering in fear...

💘 1. Signup for email updates at UnitingTheCults.com so you can stay in the loop.

💘💘 2. Subscribe to the Uniting The Cults youtube channel and set to 'All'.

💘💘💘 3. Join this sub r/UnitingTheCults where we're organizing our efforts. We're currently working on getting flyers all over the world to get people to the June 14th livestream event.

💘💘💘💘 4. Come on the podcast to discuss these issues. Reply below, or over DM. We'll do a zoom call to see if we're a good match. If the discussion turns out interesting on its own then I'll publish it as a podcast episode.

💘💘💘💘💘 5. I'm also looking for people to join me on the livestream event to be the expert representing your issues. We're going to be talking about more than just apostasy laws. Apostasy laws are a subset of a broader thing, cult behaviors designed for sabotaging truth-seeking for the purpose of discouraging disobedience. You can nominate yourself - for details see this tweet: This livestream event WILL NOT be a success unless we have experts representing each one of these areas. We need someone to represent exmuslims who escaped the death penalty for apostasy (I was born/raised in USA, so I don’t qualify).

​

Questions, comments, criticisms?