Conversely, we could skip the listing of traits and the construction of ready-made responses that we could release uniformly and the misleading self-descriptions, and move directly to "What would be wrong with that, if we were?"
Anyone who can answer that question has successfully tabooed "cult" and we can now move on to discussing their actual concerns, which might even be legitimate ones.
Engaging on the topic further with anyone who can't answer that question seems unlikely to be productive.
"What would be wrong with that, if we were?"
The problem with cults is that they tend to assign the probability of 1 to their priors.
Of course it's a general problem with religions, but quoting Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary from memory...
Religion, n. -- a large successful cult.
Cult, n. -- a small unsuccessful religion.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.