I recall just those sentences from M Desmet (we likely watched the same interview) - and I immediately thought it quite a weak brew of an approach (as he rehearsed a dialog he said "... it's just my opinion ..." to the imagined cult member - and I said to myself - oh no, that's going nowhere!) - at a minimum, the deprogrammer must be assertive and confident; ... I have tried sarcasm, humor, oh can't-you-see-how-absurd approaches ... they mostly elicit animosity.

How about visual content? - Could just flashing a photo of Justin Beiber's hideously deformed face have some impact? I am serious.

Otherwise, by the way, I think the Desmet assessment is extremely cogent.