It’s not unheard of, but if AA is a cult it’s the dumbest cult ever invented. No dues, go/don’t go, do the steps (“which are ‘suggested’”) or don’t, don’t give your right name - shit if all cults worked like that they’d have to invent something else.
That said, some AA people are too Jesusy or big-book-y or frankly just bog standard racist or whatever and shouldn’t be held as representative.
It’s the case that a lot of people self-medicate with alcohol, then give up alcohol and don’t address the reason they were self-medicating appropriately. Basically becoming sober-and-unmedicated. Which ain’t great.
AA is from the 1930’s when the options were death, jail, or an insane asylum. It’s right to adapt it in places for what works best. People first coming in need solid, decent people to just be there and hang out. But that’s all. After about the first year more-or-less it can become what the person wants out of it.
But this place that Carr was a part of? That’s super fucked up.
It’s not unheard of, but if AA is a cult it’s the dumbest cult ever invented. No dues, go/don’t go, do the steps (“which are ‘suggested’”) or don’t, don’t give your right name - shit if all cults worked like that they’d have to invent something else.
That said, some AA people are too Jesusy or big-book-y or frankly just bog standard racist or whatever and shouldn’t be held as representative.
It’s the case that a lot of people self-medicate with alcohol, then give up alcohol and don’t address the reason they were self-medicating appropriately. Basically becoming sober-and-unmedicated. Which ain’t great.
AA is from the 1930’s when the options were death, jail, or an insane asylum. It’s right to adapt it in places for what works best. People first coming in need solid, decent people to just be there and hang out. But that’s all. After about the first year more-or-less it can become what the person wants out of it.
But this place that Carr was a part of? That’s super fucked up.