The last good article on this topic on LW was written by Gwern. In it he writes:
Researching this was very difficult because the relevant religious studies area, while apparently completely repudiating most public beliefs about the subject [...]
I’m not sure how Gwern’s article is supposed to be taken as a criticism of this post. Its main thrust seems to be that the bulk of “New Religious Movements” do not actually share the “red flags” and “brainwashing” that OP is discussing here—that these are mostly “outdated clichés” as someone else said. And this may well be right, but when we do see groups that clearly use these mechanisms in the real world, it seems quite justified to regard these as exploitative, even when most “new religions” are not.
I’m not sure how Gwern’s article is supposed to be taken as a criticism of this post. Its main thrust seems to be that the bulk of “New Religious Movements” do not actually share the “red flags” and “brainwashing” that OP is discussing here—that these are mostly “outdated clichés” as someone else said. And this may well be right, but when we do see groups that clearly use these mechanisms in the real world, it seems quite justified to regard these as exploitative, even when most “new religions” are not.