Key up a goodly part of the welcoming community here ready to shriek I'm gonna burn in hell because I won't believe...

This post was like a brief history of every religion ever, because all cults are the same. Burnt at the stake by any other name...

Whatever the community is--religious or purportedly secular--it has its rulebook. Two people together, you can have a lively conversation. Three, and you got the birthings of the gang of two gonna press the third into submission. I kept thinking of CS Lewis all the way through this piece. Too smart to be fooled, right?

The best medicine has always been genuine friendships. Now, for the least distress, one is advised to find a therapist who is a person paid to listen to your deepest painful thoughts, and people need therapists because what they call "friends" these days are mostly longtime acquaintances.

It's true, as you note, that communities of the faithful held up best during the Plague Era, but they demand their price too.