A couple things in particular that the video brings up (among others) are quite important to note:

Cults of political persuasion can exist on both the American Left and the American Right, and no one should assume they're not seeing cult-like behavior because one or the other of personalities are involved.

And if you know someone who's in a cult, debating forcibly as an appeal to logic or browbeating them over your having the superior argument is only going to backfire and drive them deeper into their belief system, and that it's better to nurture a rapport with them first and provide an alternative to their beliefs that they can witness.

I've heard it said that the reason rational logic doesn't immediately dispel such thinking is because such belief-based thinking doesn't require logic in the first place. It can...but it's not likely to, and a more critical path is needed.

I think that covers the big things, yeah.

The backfire effect is pretty well documented at this point for more than just cults too, which is why when I was taking a speech class some of the argument techniques we learned about are the "foot in the door" tactic which is used by sales people a lot. They get you to agree to one thing so that you are more likely to agree to the next.

Well yes and no, the hour long video I posted on Self Help touched on how self help groups will also become cult like and sometimes are straight up cults will use fear tactics so it is mostly an appeal to ones uncertainty and fear separated from context of those fears. E.g. the Vaccine causes blood clots without also stating the data of at the time that information was announced it had occured in only 0.00008% of those that had received but it was a major potential side effect more research was needed. I don't think they ever found a causal link, but put a warning on Janssen vaccine anyway. And that was the other thing, it was just the one vaccine manufacturer.

Oof...yes, as a former direct sales associate (Door-to-door selling, first of CutCo kitchen cutlery products, later of Verizon cable internet packages), the tactics are as clever as they are insidious on that end. The various speaking paths to overturn a No into a Yes, and then probe to pile in more Yesses, are essentially what we were taught to do.

But there are more benevolent applications and the proof that humans are able to be convinced out of their cultish beliefs with a subtler, gentler approach holds hope for many who would otherwise be better off if given a chance.

And yeah, the sad reality that a single-sentence anecdote from a trusted personality can convince people faster than a two-page scientific report from a body of experts means the battle against disinformation and lacking information is an uphill one.

Yeah, but knowing if them makes it easier to avoid getting stuck in a corner.

Well I think half the problem right now is some people are totally unwilling to even talk about it, they are locked into their fervent behavior and won't be convinced until some other force makes them get it and then when they do and realize that nothing bad is going to happen, then that might knock them out of it. But we will see where things go I guess.