The whole time I watched both NXIVM cult docs, my brain held two simultaneous truths.

1. Wow, I would never fall for a scam like that!

2. Then I'd remember grad school debt + 12 years as an adjunct for $20K + "You're helping people!" + "Just work harder & be better!"

oh

1. Ha, they put themselves through all that debt and backbreaking work and humiliation in a sexist environment for weird sashes?

2. Oh

1. Why don't they just leave?

2. A mentor, when I brought up that working 4 jobs to barely make rent was unsustainable: "You know that if you leave teaching, you'll never get back in and it will all have been for nothing, right? You need to stay committed."

1. Oh, the part where they have to recruit others, that's what would have broken me.

2. Me, going into crushing debt to teach students who went into crushing debt to learn from me, creating an ouroboros of debt...

I was fortunate to not encounter rapey stuff in grad school and teaching, but if you think academia *isn't* riddled with evil pint-sized David Foster Wallaces who groom and abuse everyone around them while being lauded for their "brilliance"...

...I have a cool sash to sell you.