And that challenger is Aisling Duval.
Without a deeper look into her, someone would argue "no, how could she be? she's just a cute princess, teehee", but upon closer examination, I would argue that Antal is falsely accused of such abuse. Aisling is much more fitting to the bill.
If we go by the common standards of what a cult is often made off, the image is much more clear.
1.A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.
Right off the bat Aisling meets the first criteria. Not only is she the most defining element of the group (blue hair, got to pledge!), but she requests support because she has lost the power that she deserves. This is often coupled with a troubled past or a tragedy occurring in the leader's life and used as an argument supporting the validity of the leader. Aisling is no different, since she uses the death of her own mother to drugs in order to give herself morality points upon banning them. This list only gets extended with her claim for the throne, that she "rightfully" deserved, but lost.
2.A process [of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as] coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called "brainwashing"].
She is the propaganda princess for a reason. This is achieved through promises of slave abolition towards her subjects, then happily joining the Imperial High Command and being a happy family with Zemina Torval and Denton Patreus, who her loyal subjects will be called to help if needed. Additionally, by keeping the Imperialistic societal structure in place, she really isn't abolishing everything. They might not be called slaves anymore, but due to the patronizing methods used, this is really a case of "do as I say, don't do as I do".
And now here's the last part of the package, where the real catch lies.
3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
Sadly for her subjects, the exploitation is only economic in her case, but it's quite severe.
It's no secret that Aisling possesses the worst economy observed in the current state of PP and probably will be an all-time record. But instead of resigning from her position, her subjects are tasked with making up for it. Without their contribution, she is doomed to fall, but due to points #1 and #2, she has managed to get a firm grasp on getting them to willingly toss their credits at her in order for her to continue living her extravagant lifestyle. Even though all evidence suggests that she doesn't deserve it, her brainwashing cult tactics have resulted in providing a steady source of income from commanders willing to protect her status quo.
And thus, I proclaim and provided the evidence required that Aisling is the true cult in PP and not Antal. Antal is a dictator, for better or worse of the population serving under him, but he is not a cult leader for sure, since even though he does fulfill the criteria #2, he doesn't fulfill #1 and #3.
Without a deeper look into her, someone would argue "no, how could she be? she's just a cute princess, teehee", but upon closer examination, I would argue that Antal is falsely accused of such abuse. Aisling is much more fitting to the bill.
If we go by the common standards of what a cult is often made off, the image is much more clear.
1.A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.
Right off the bat Aisling meets the first criteria. Not only is she the most defining element of the group (blue hair, got to pledge!), but she requests support because she has lost the power that she deserves. This is often coupled with a troubled past or a tragedy occurring in the leader's life and used as an argument supporting the validity of the leader. Aisling is no different, since she uses the death of her own mother to drugs in order to give herself morality points upon banning them. This list only gets extended with her claim for the throne, that she "rightfully" deserved, but lost.
2.A process [of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as] coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called "brainwashing"].
She is the propaganda princess for a reason. This is achieved through promises of slave abolition towards her subjects, then happily joining the Imperial High Command and being a happy family with Zemina Torval and Denton Patreus, who her loyal subjects will be called to help if needed. Additionally, by keeping the Imperialistic societal structure in place, she really isn't abolishing everything. They might not be called slaves anymore, but due to the patronizing methods used, this is really a case of "do as I say, don't do as I do".
And now here's the last part of the package, where the real catch lies.
3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
Sadly for her subjects, the exploitation is only economic in her case, but it's quite severe.
It's no secret that Aisling possesses the worst economy observed in the current state of PP and probably will be an all-time record. But instead of resigning from her position, her subjects are tasked with making up for it. Without their contribution, she is doomed to fall, but due to points #1 and #2, she has managed to get a firm grasp on getting them to willingly toss their credits at her in order for her to continue living her extravagant lifestyle. Even though all evidence suggests that she doesn't deserve it, her brainwashing cult tactics have resulted in providing a steady source of income from commanders willing to protect her status quo.
And thus, I proclaim and provided the evidence required that Aisling is the true cult in PP and not Antal. Antal is a dictator, for better or worse of the population serving under him, but he is not a cult leader for sure, since even though he does fulfill the criteria #2, he doesn't fulfill #1 and #3.
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