> Because they don't get enough votes to control the military.

Well, technically military is run now by maga incel death cult, so yeah I give you that one. I forgot I was discussing on US forum.

As of what cult is, from Merriam-Webster: “ a group (such as an organization or religious sect) with tenets and practices regarded as coercive, insular, or dangerous”

Generally we today discuss as cults manipulative social sects that sureound around one leading authoritative figure who has extensive psychological control over rest of the members. Often these groups use these strange dynamics to abuse members, do financial crimes, or even murder people (I guess the Manson case and Jonestown are most famous, Cali has a history of this).

As for me, I never listen to a man wearing a fedora no matter what his credentials.

No, a cult is any closed-off fanatical group that is deemed harmful to its members and sometimes to outsiders as well. The group who launched a sarin gas attack in Tokyo's metro, Aum Shinrikyo, was a cult. The Jonestown group was a cult. Scientology is often considered a cult, though this is less widely accepted (especially since Scientology is much larger).

No one considers Catholicism, or Protestantism, or Baptism cults. There may be specific communities that are cults that claim to be parts of these churches, but that doesn't mean that "pretty much any religion is a cult".