Which hobby is considered a cult or has cult-like tendencies?

Improv

Y'all have some weird ideas about what a hobby is. Parenting as a hobby cracked me up, that's just having a family, you presumably grew up in one of those. Religion isn't a cult-like hobby, it's a hobby-ish cult.

On the parenting front though, I think those pageants are, those kids do it for a hobby and I would consider it abusive, and hard to exit once they are in.

Nah, i must disagree here. The posters are right about being a hobby for some people. In two very bad ways
There are (usually the dads) who only pick it up once in a while the same way they go mountainbiking,etc. Then they usually try to "make up" what they didn't do the rest of the days and make it "extra fun". (As usual the Simpsons did a good take on it in their fun dad episode) But they don't give a rats ass the rest of the time. They don't go to the doctor with the kid,they don't know their school schedules,etc. They pick their hobby up maybe twice a month. I hate these people - because they are so numerous. When I am out with my kiddos I get comments "oh,do you babysit for your wife?" "Oh, it's nice you take that burden off your wife once in a while." Like what? Are you fucking crazy? My wife is the actual main income earner and this is not the 50ies.
The other kind is as bad,imho. The overinvolved ones. The ones that basically want to do everything so right that it becomes their hobby (or obsession). The "oh no, my kid can't eat sugar that is not made from XY" "I will not raise my child, i will love-raise them", etc. Note that while these have a crosssection with helicopter parents they are a distinct group themselves,as some prefer an intentional other style of parenting (all nature and free roaming,etc.). But they will focus on it - countless blogs, books from unqualified authors and instagram posts will be read, countless discussions, for them it becomes their hobby...or more.
So..there are some people who have parenting as a hobby. And that doesn't mean the ones who have no time for hobbies anymore - as parenting is fucking hard sometimes.
those kids do it for a hobby
The pageants are the parents' hobby. The kids are whisked into it at a vulnerable stage of development in which they don't have the agency to decide any of it for themselves.
- I can agree with this. Like entering your dog in a dog show. I did want my kids in sport or dance as part of their education but told them if I ever gave criticism, to tell me to do the sport my own damn self. So they did their stuff as their hobbies, and I did my own art/sport stuff and kept out of theirs.

Definitely warhammer. Can't stand those punks. Have you noticed a lot of warhammer lore reaction videos

Related but a lot of smaller LARP clubs (European style at least, can't speak for America) end up extremely culty because of a perfect storm of factors:
takes up loads of time and resources just to be average; making costumes, learning stats, downtime activities etc before you've even left the house
predominantly twenty-somethings who recently moved out of their parents' house and end up house-sharing with other LARPers from the same club
spending whole weekends in the middle of the woods with no outside influence, where you have to follow instructions given by refs. It's also not unusual to be up until sunrise or even do all-nighters playing through the next day as well
success or failure at the game is often at the whims of said refs, MUCH more than in Warhammer
...as a result of which, the club management hierarchy ends up translating into social hierarchy outside of official events. The people at the top are the ones that effectively determine whether a party, day trip or even a wedding is going to be a big event or not, and the regular membership treats them accordingly. So, culty as heck.

Warhammer. The tabletop one with the figures, not the video games.

Vacations/travel for some people. Its clearly something where they have zero clue about their privilege and zero self awareness as they talk about it.

Parenting. Seriously, it becomes some people's only fucking identity and the way they talk about it feels like religious proselytizing mixed with a bit of used car salesperson energy.

Comic conventions. Some people make it uncomfortable how seriously they take it.

Wasting some time on Lemmy trying to leave shitty comments just looking to rile people up or something.

100% what I first thought of. I was well into WH Fantasy as a kid with my older brother and moved into 40k as a teen. Lost interest as an adult and thought I might like to get back into it recently cos I've got a mate who's obsessed.
Too expensive, the business model is more exploitative than ever and the game system has become terribly bloated and the recent new edition hasn't improved it.
Also, beyond the top tier of competition, most matches are decided before a single figure is put on the board.
There are other far more interesting game systems on the market that aren't dedicated into forcing you into buying new miniatures and books every 18 months.

Politics, obviously.

There are two kinds of people who own a pressure canner - people who enjoy making preserves and fucking crazy people.

Me, looking into pressure canning to preserve soup
I'm in danger!!
Did you know certain pressure canners can be used as makeshift autoclaves, allowing you to make your own home brewed sterile injectable medications?
- Handy information to have for when all the hospitals close in a few years.
  Because who wants a back alley surgery performed by people of questionable education using non sterile medication/implements?
- Good to know if I ever need to perform makeshift surgery after the inevitable collapse of society!

I think you need to specify what you mean by cult. The way I personally understand it, a cult includes a leader who exploits their members for free labor, oftentimes for sexual gratification, and removes them from their friends and families while subjecting them to psychological manipulation. I'm having a hard time thinking of a hobby that meets the criteria I'm more familiar with.

Community theater can get pretty weird. (It can just as easily be not weird and awesome, though)

True, any gathering of current or former “theatre kids” is going to be weird. But that’s what makes them so fun. (Unless you hate show tunes. Then you’re in for a bad time.)

Any sort of hypebeast scam. Labubu, pop up clothing companies with no real design or quality, beanie babies, most crypto, specific vinyl collections. It's only worth something if you know some deep dark lore about it which requires effort to research and understand, then you're hooked. It's post capitalism cult energy.

Only most crypto?

Linux

Warhammer

Crossfit

And Linux users are evangelical, too.
- Do you have a moment to talk about our lords and saviours, Linus and RMS?
- Ok, but have you used Linux?

Competitive Super Smash Bros Melee, we won't ever die. And Nintendo has been trying to rub us out since 2008.

. And Nintendo has been trying to rub us out since 2008.
dedication like that... phew. impressive.
Nintendo has been trying to rub us out
"Stop, Nintendo. You're just mashing it."

At this point, trading card collecting and grading. Oh, a new series of trading cards for pokemon or yu-gi-oh or whatever dropped? Time for all the adults to buy out every single card in the store and then run home in hopes that their scam leaders like PSA will encourage their behavior by gracing them with a card they claim is worth money despite only being out for less than a week.

Card grading ain't nothing but a scam, cult, and great way to encourage the worst in people, while simultaneously gatekeeping trading cards from everyone with more than 2 braincells. Ain't nothing gonna change my mind about it.

Adults going to DisneyWorld as if it was a sacred shrine

Adults going to Disney without kids.
never understood the appeal either lol
- Going to Disneyland, buying that doll, having that retro console, collecting all the items in the set, buying that vintage car, getting a fat hog to crank it up with...
  Its melancholic nostalgia, having the things we could never have when we were young.

Anyone using Linux, based on 60% of the content on lemmy. Uh… maybe also lemmy.

I am not in a cult.
This is not a cult.
By the way since you never asked, can I interest you in a new way to use your computer?
- How about Linux on a Thinkpad? DOUBLE CULT!

Religion. 🤌🏼

CrossFit.

Religion. All of them are cults. Every single fucking one.

Nothing. No other hobby even comes close to the death, genocide, rape, murder, and hate generated by that type of religious cult. It's every single year, too. Every single year religion tops its hate, greed, and pain inflicted on everyone.

I don't think anyone would call their religion a hobby, though.
- Many people engage with the cults as a hobby though. Many of my relatives would probably agree that's about their level of involvement, but then they pay in to the beast that does all of the culty shit...
They said hobbies not belief systems.
- For a lot of people, when you look at how they spend their time, it is clear that their religion is both their belief system AND their hobby.
  Think of the "Bible study" types. They've turned it into a hobby-like activity. Some I knew growing up clearly had nothing else. It was their hobby.
Your particular brand of invisible sky wizard is different from my particular brand of invisible sky wizard. Die heretic!
- I'm pretty sure that religion was mostly used as a kind of motivational tool for the masses, but without religion there probably would have been another excuse why the enemy needs to die
  It's always about resources and shit anyway
Edgelord atheist mad at christianity and islam: "every religion is genocide and hate, and I hate them."
Buddhists , jains, pagans, etc: "hey excuse you buddy."
- I usually limit my ire to Abrahamic religions (though Buddhism's track record isn't completely clean).
  I don't know enough about the history of Jainism to say one way or another, though given what I know about it (ALL life is sacred), i imagine they're probably the closest an organized religion can get to being unharmful.
- I mean, Buddhists just did a genocide in Myanmar. They have a cleaner track record than Abrahamic faiths for sure, but if you spend serious time in actual Buddhist places it fills the exact same societal roles.
  Neopaganism is a bit of an odd one out in that list, because it's a newly invented thing.
- Baha'is would as well, but nobody ever remembers them. The one time I saw a question about TBF on Jeopardy, it was the Final Jeopardy question, and no one got it right.
What a fun answer!
- Yeah seriously. It's pretty severely missed the point of this thread.
  Ironic that it looks like someone came through and downvotes every answer in this thread other than this one, considering. It'd be pretty great if the mods banned whoever that was.

Pickleball.

Seriously what is the deal with it? I remembered playing it in gym decades ago and everyone hated it. Now I see people lobbying for new freaking complexes for it. Let's see if the fad lasts more than a year before dedicating public land space to it
- It’s been lasted more than a year. Its super easy for beginners and the gap between never played and mediocre player is pretty small in my experience. Groups of different ages/skill/athleticism can play the game relatively easy together. You can get drunk while playing and still be good. You don’t have to break a sweat if you don’t want to. Games are short.
  I think it gets way too much flak and it is a little too overhyped rn. But it’s a top contender for the ideal casual game.
- It kinda looks like tennis for the unathletic, which means I should fit right in, but I have zero interest.

Arch Linux

It's absolutely crazy to me that there are unironically people recommending Arch to newbies.
I wouldn't know, I've never met a person in real life professing to using arch BTW. I see it everywhere online though, but that might just be eight guys with a ton of sock puppet accounts for all I know.
Is arch linux even a thing, like Hanna Montana and Justin Bieber Linux is a thing?
I would say NixOS might be even more cultish. I am a part of that cult.
Pff hater, Arch users are definitely not cultists who are obligatory to share their divine wisdom and forcibly announce that they are part of this cul... Hobby.
I use arch btw
- i use arch btw
- If you don't tell people you use Arch, then they come and install Ubuntu on your PC.
Unironically a neat clean system
If I knew how to get it
Only to people who haven't been inducted to the cult of gentoo
- I can't read "gentoo" without hearing the Weezer song "Getchoo" in my head.
  Gentoo, uh huh. Gentoo, uh huh. Gentoo, uh huh. Gentoo, Gentoo, Gentoo..... ooh hoo
Can’t spell anarchy without arch 🏴

Cycling. They go from 'this is fun', to full blown road dictators, in about 2 weeks.

Edit: just watch. The downvotes will likely display their cult rage.

I hate cyclists, and I'm dutch. Cycle to work or the store? Fine by me, I do it all the time myself. Being a cyclist however? I'll hate your guts.
Tho I'm pretty sure it's not that uncommon of an opinion here, most of the time people either hate cyclists, or are one themselves.
Heh I remember several years ago, I bought a cool vintage 10-speed bike which was lovingly restored by a local bike co-op, it wasn’t ever a top of the line pro racing bike or anything, just a nice old street bike for casual riding. The co-op did a great job making it like new, but with subtle finishing accents.
I posted some pics of it on r/bicycling on Reddit to get their feedback, advice. SUCH SNOBBERY! My god, you’d think I took a shit in the middle of the lobby floor of The Ritz-Carlton. They made me feel wholly unwelcome and unwanted.
Please explain exactly what you mean by "full blown road dictators", and clearly detail how it is different from "use the road in a completely legal manner in ways trying to keep yourself and others from getting run over by the many car drivers with a sense of entitlement to the road".
- Found the cyclist.
- Well you see, cars go faster and are stronger, so by being in the road you are a road dictator.
- As a cyclist, I'd have to guess "riding two abreast when there's a car behind you."

I feel like it would be easier to list the hobbies that aren't, based on the answers so far.

Feel free to post this question.

People who play Call of Chuthulu every single day

Where!? Point me in the direction of these people so I can uh... show them the error of their ways! But first I will have to gain their trust by joining, of course.

Cult leadership

I wanted to start my own cult, but didn't know where to start. Luckily, I found a great group of people who had the same interest! Now we meet every Tuesday!

Nix and NixOS

Internet personalities/"influencers"

Are they fundamentally different from celebs and TV personalities of the past, or is it the scale and presentation that has changed?
There will always be grifters and those who are led in to loyalty follow them. It's bizarre.
One way money transfers, controlling people's time and career aspirations, dividing families, rape, and murder.
Not all "Influencers", but some notable cases.

Gunpla, pop/labubu, liquid-cooing/overclocking, 3D printing, drones/RC

There is a bit of a threshold between an innocent hobby and a cult, but once crossed, it's.... yeah...

If you're into liquid cooling cause it gives "better performance" then that's cope and a cult, but if you just do it to make your PC look cool asf then there's nothing wrong with that
- Nahhhh, better performance WAS a totally true and valid thing. Though since moore's law died, power management systems advanced, and heat pipes/chambers were commercialized, the difference is now neglegible for all but the extreme cases.
- Can you still overclock tf out of a liquid cooled cpu or has that changed?
I don't see what makes the last two cult-like?

Kpop-Stans, Warhammer, Disney - Adults, Harry Potter.

Hanging out with angry white dudes in white sheets who carry flaming crosses.

Warhammer.

I second DnD and Warhammer, and i'll add Magic the Gathering to this list

Yeah, anything that has you speaking in game jargon in public should qualify.
One of my friends at a pizza place a few years ago: "I can't believe I didn't get to poison anyone last night."
Me: "Dude, context! We are in public!"
First intro to MtG was in college I walked past a room with the lights out and only candles lit, the four people were wearing robes and playing... MtG. Decided right then that nah, that's too far for me.

Society for Creative Anachronism

Oh damn. I came here to answer this too, but was definitely not expecting someone else already to have said it.
I do HEMA, which has a healthy overlap with the SCA, but from what I've heard, the SCA has a pretty rigid structure and hierarchy with ranks and titles. I've heard about people winning bouts in SCA fencing against someone who is supposedly ranked higher than them, and getting shunned because of it. That's not healthy.
- Dagorhir also overlapped with SCA a bit, and surely had a weird social scene, but I wouldn't consider it cult-like. People seemed well integrated with the rest of society when they weren't battling.
They seem so positive and bubbly from the outside!
Definitely a cult.

Knitting. It's part witchcraft, part voodoo.

The single thing I miss about Reddit is r/knitting. It was the only consistently kind and supportive niche sub I ever frequented. I learned a lot from them and even when someone posted something kind of ugly or not right, everyone was like, “keep it up! You’ll be doing sweaters in no time!” Sometimes people were snobs about yarn but usually for just themselves… not knocking on another user not opting to buy expensive hand spun/hand dyed yarns especially when it’s clear they were beginners. Ah I miss it honestly.
That's because it's math, which is voodoo witchcraft.
Don't even get me started on fucking crochet...

Honestly, I don't think very many of them could really be described as such, as at the very least most hobbies either don't have a person or group that could be called it's leader, or if they do, it's generally some business that owns some relevant IP that very much isn't considered unquestionable and above criticism. You could get cults that emerge within some hobby group instead of taking up the whole subculture, but given even things as mundane as exercise groups have had this happen before, I'd guess that can technically happen in just about any of them.

Auditing pre-clears.

Is this the scientology stuff?
- Yes, scientology is a full blown religious cult.
- We seem to have a suppressive person in the chat.
  (JK, yes, it is. I mis-read the question and gave an example of culty stuff that is a hobby.)

Kirby.

TIL Kirby is a hobby.
- Kirby vaccuums maybe? More like a MLM back in the day.

Dungeons and Dragons

But the cultists are the bad guys!
- Shar?

Triathletes

Huh? How? There's no leadership structure to it to provide that cultish vibe, it's mostly just individuals are small groups of friends doing their thing together.
- Nah just kidding, the joke is participants of either individual sport (swimming, running, cycling) dislike the other disciplines ergo triathletes are nuts. But getting Ironman tattoos is kind of groupthink-y.

DnD

"Do not Disturb"-mode is criminally underrated, I advocate for it to anybody willing to listen.

Adults who play board games

My parents used to get together with another couple almost every weekend and sit down and either play sequence, rummy, hand & foot or something along those lines. Easy way to sit down once a week, have a drink or two and just talk with your friends, no TVs, phones or etc were ever on.
Wish I lived near a friend group that was able to do that. They started hanging out doing similar around 1980 and kept it up till 2017 or so. (Was the same 2 friends, they both moved 1200 miles across the country) and made sure they lived a few blocks away during that time.
The cult of scheduling conflicts and never having time to meet up :(
Wrong. They actually have to invite me to be considered a cult. 😩
Board games are chill idk what you're talking about
- I think the cult has found me

Most of them...

The cult of..origami?
- Oh, man, the serious origami people are SERIOUS!
  https://youtu.be/u2BxYTPQCAc
  https://youtu.be/kl_xedor218
- Also candle making, don't sniff the Kool Aid scented wax.