[Serious] Safemoon is a cult.

I know this term gets thrown around lightly, an off the cuff insult. But I genuinely think Safemoon's followers are in a cult. And to be honest, I think Safemoon themselves have played a part in fostering this mentality amongst their holders.

But how the fuck did we end up here?!

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First of all, how do you define what a cult is? I found this article which goes over warning signs you may be in a cult. I thought I'd cover them off and see where we get to.

1. The leader is the ultimate authority

This goes without saying, but the so-called "Safemoon Army" absolutely worships the CEO John Karony. I've included some really cringe examples of this below:

1 The Book of John
2 "Best people of the year"
3 Can't even put this cringe into words.

Despite showing no actual ability, talent or expertise, and a long history of blunders, the Safemoon cult happily worships John and believes he is working to altruistically make them all rich.

2. The group suppresses skepticism

This has been going on for time immemorial with Safemoon. If you vocalise just one negative sentiment, you're out. I have respectfully attempted to debate Safemooners on Reddit, Discord & Twitter and been banned and blocked on all three platforms. I have been doxxed by Safemooners with the explicit instruction to "Delete all your posts and stop talking about Safemoon and we won't reveal your identity"

Searching for the term "banned" in the SafemoonInvesting subreddit - a place to discuss Safemoon without repercussion from the maniacal Army, shows you how bad it is.

3. The group delegitimizes former members

Another perfect fit for this cult. The group worshipped Thomas Smith, who's handle "papacthulu" gave him the nickname "papa" amongst the Army whom I can only guess have deep-seated Daddy issues.

Right up until he left. Then he was no-good scum. Same with Ryan Arriaga the former Chief of Technology who replaced Thomas.

Recently, someone called Danny who has done freelance programming work for Safemoon spotted some vulnerabilities in their flagshit (intentional) security offering. These vulnerabilities went unpatched, and Safemoon didn't seem concerned with talking to Danny about them. Danny posted about them publicly to get the attention of Safemoon, which is when the army turned on him. He went from being beloved to hated faster than you can say "Quidditch"

4. The group is paranoid about the outside world

This one doesn't have a clean fit, although if you look at the definition:

In an effort to draw in more paying members, cults are often very aggressive in their recruitment efforts which are usually justified as “saving” people from the evil world. Those who reject the cult’s message are unelect, prideful, evil, or stupid.

I definitely remember those of us who disbelieved Safemoon's claims in the beginning being met with snide messages like "I'll say hi to you when I'm on the Moon"

They definitely projected a message that Safemoon was the one true Cryptocurrency.

5. The group relies on shame cycles

An interesting definition:

Leaders who can make followers feel bad about anything can use shame to manipulate followers into doing anything, even if it’s against their own self-interest or better judgment.

I have witnessed people trying to ask legitimate questions about progress and the CEO and other senior staff at Safemoon chiding them on how they shouldn't ask for updates. The messaging is "leave us to it" but that goes against the open development nature of Cryptocurrency.

There also seems to be a weird group mentality where everyone has to present themselves on social media garbed in Safemoon insignia. It's not uncommon to see profiles like this where the user is covered in as much Safemoon insignia possible.

And then, I guess.. whatever the fuck this is...

Yes, this is a fully grown Adult man who dresses up in complete Batman attire with a custom Safemoon logo, to "fight the FUD" (even though he completely ignores the FUD every day of his life) and he even puts on a "Batman voice"

6. The leader is above the law

Super easy to define this one. John Karony has performed theft, fraud and market manipulation. He has provably taken tens of millions of dollars out of Safemoon liquidity pools, and bought himself a mansion, other large properties, two sports cars, rolexes, large investments into his families companies, all before Safemoon was making legitimate revenue.

7. The group uses “thought reform” methods

If your serious questions are answered with cliches, you’re probably in a cult.

Let alone Safemoon, how many times have you heard the following:

You only lose when you sell

It's just following the J-curve

You'll be the first millionaire in your family

Safemoon does all these, but there's also many cliches that Safemoon uses in a poor attempt to wash away criticism:

Thanks for the reflections! (When Whales sell)

Why would you FUD your own bags?

These guys are paid by Binance to FUD us

When Safemoon has X volume with a bag of Y you will have a daily payment of Z (all unrealistic numbers)

8. The group is elitist

John Karony has countlessly referred to Safemoon as "The evolution" - they've never specified what, how or why they are evolving. It's just "The evolution".

Consequently, the cultish Safemoon Army have conditioned themselves to believe this is true. If you ever get the opportunity to talk to one of these elusive beasts, ask them why they think Safemoon is the evolution when the Token Contract was copy-pasted, the Wallet is copy-pasted, the Dex is copy-pasted, the upcoming (if ever released) card, exchange & blockchain are white-label, and their latest security product is a re-hash of 20 year old software.

9. There is no financial transparency

Despite the "FUDDERS" being able to point to a fairly damaging string of transactions on the BSC blockchain which show what we allege to be Fraud & Theft by Safemoon executives, there is no transparency whatsoever. While Safemoon does have legitimate business expenses - Salaries, office space, advertising, nobody knows how much they take from the LP goes towards their personal extravagant expenditure, and how much goes to the company.

Asking these questions gives you a one-way ticket to Ban Avenue.

10. The group performs secret rites

Safemooners drink baby blood.

No, I'm kidding.

All I can provide to support this point are a series of some of the more bizarre things people have done to profess their loyalty to the cult:

"Happy New Year"

"Join us"

"Reasons to live"

"Thank you Mr Karony"

"Duck Daddy - STILL HOLDING!"

"My love for you grows every day"