Glåüm: satirizing cults - what is your take on this group?
This is a Burner/Burner adjacent group which calls themselves a cult and says that they are using satire, "approaching the sacred through absurdity" and "exaggerating the the language of dogma" to make belief accessible again and create an intentional community. They have a section in their website talking about destigmatizing cult as a word.
They have hosted weddings to glaum and other rituals. They host theme parties. They have a whole section on their webpage about how glaum is a joke "But the punchline is that it's real". They have an aggressive pamphlet, and use a lot of spiritual and cult language, and joke/talk about recruitment. And have language in their website about how cult trauma exists, not everyone will find it funny, and that the satire is secondary to a safe community. At the same time some of the members seem to... delight in people freaking out about the cult, like "oh I can't believe they thought it was real". They'll probably be happy that they've made it to this page.
I get it in theory, but the commitment to the bit totally creeps me out.
I've talked to the founders and been privy to some of the rituals... and there is an element of seriousness to all this that makes me very uneasy. Lots of paradoxical language being used. I was told that I don't get the joke, that it is wild that they could convince me it's real, and in the same conversation also been told about plans to make this a full on registered religion. Maybe that was also a joke but the tone was serious and it's disorienting. Cult cosplay is definitely not my thing.
What's your take?