Creator Commentary: The Weird World of Cults
Added 2025-07-31 11:03:16 +0000 UTCAnother Creator Commentary to tie you over! A little Wexler bonus at the end (1:14:52) for you cat enthusiasts :)
UPDATE [Full Black Screen Update at 1:05:55 ]:
So I mentioned last month that I was picking up the Karen Read case. Boy it’s been a slog to write, as anticipated. I still THINK getting it up here by the end of August is achievable, but that won’t be a cake walk, and will be dependent on the last stretch of writing I have left going smoothly. You can’t really cram writing, it’s done when it’s done!
But if we’re approaching end of August, and I can see it won’t quite be ready by month's end, I’ll post up here and let you all know what’s the haps. It won’t be way far past that point, I’m confident in that much 🙂
Thanks as always for your patience and support!
Recommendations:
Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults
How To with John Wilson - How to Appreciate Wine
Comments
This vid is one of my personal faves even if its not in your top ten. Cults are weirdly fascinating!
Merglo Mclaughlin
2025-10-10 02:08:13 +0000 UTCJust a reminder: even the vids you wouldnt consider your top 10 have an impact. The specific cult characteristics you highlighted (especially the "first fix" got me thinking. Then I had my husband watch. We got to talking and realized we had personal or second hand close encounters with 3 quazi MLM type cults in our area. Always got the heebie jeebies from them but couldn't say why, but this video spelled out exactly why. Glad we trusted our guts. This is a stellar vid & a personal standout for both me and my husband!
Allie
2025-09-11 03:20:33 +0000 UTCPosting this here because I'm just a $2 patron, but I agree, I'd like to hear more of your thoughts about the Karen Read case. I was unfamiliar with the case before your video, but friends of mine who kept up with the trial disagree with your take, so I'd like to find out more. Thanks, love your videos.
Rusty Shackleford
2025-09-10 16:56:06 +0000 UTCHey there's a lot of pretty negative comments I'm seeing on your Karen Read video. Just posting this to let you know during your creator commentary it might be a good idea to address why you didn't include certain defense arguments, why you think she's guilty, etc.
Jenifer Joseph
2025-09-09 16:45:01 +0000 UTCWex is adorable! Do I feel sorry for Allison Mack? I do for the beginning of her involvement. Like many actresses, she’s empty and needs to fill her dead spaces with something. I guess acting wasn’t enough. When she turned it into control of others my sympathy vanished. I’ve been the only person in the US who didn’t care about Karen Reed. I saw the 20/20 but otherwise am uninformed. But that makes me excited for what you are going to put out. Going in knowing little is often better on these kinds of cases. Take your time. Cheers.
Ann Silberman
2025-08-20 01:40:17 +0000 UTCKaren Read. I mention it in the description and in the black screen update :)
Matt Orchard
2025-08-09 05:34:09 +0000 UTCHey Matt what’s your next vid gonna cover??
Cronker Waltite
2025-08-08 00:14:45 +0000 UTCYeah I know. I really liked her character Chloe in Smallville too and she's so evil in realife6
Julz XD
2025-08-07 20:22:47 +0000 UTCI like thrse commentaries of yours. Now I know it's morbid but it would be funny to see your commentary on Susan Monicas statements in the video you made. I mean Susan is a case study alone. Im only stufying child and adolescent psychology but damn, Susan is a very fascinating hilarious yet im somewhat perplexed by the sheer lunacy of her actions not to mention the murder of two poor men.
Julz XD
2025-08-06 01:39:19 +0000 UTCI actually really like how the first 5 minutes highlights your point. Because yes, if you pay attention you can understand what he says, but it doesn't matter because it's so insubstantial and the real meat of the video is just how he's completely captured the attention of this woman with nonsense. I agree there is no one singular understanding for how smart educated people fall for cults, but I've always thought that in broad strokes it comes from the desire to belong. Even smart people feel lonely and want to be a part of something better. Cults take that promise and twist it and you into a quasimodo of what your ideals once stood for. It's essentially an abusive partner dynamic but instead of one person it's an entire community.
Jenifer Joseph
2025-08-05 03:03:59 +0000 UTCI think it’s moreso that Matt directly challenges the viewer beforehand. I feel like if the ‘there’s gonna be a quiz after this’ comment wasn’t given, more people would be more likely to concede that yeah, this guy’s just spouting a series of non-sequiturs.
Stephen Hoyle
2025-08-04 22:00:52 +0000 UTCWatching Allison Mack's interactions with Raniere was soo cringe it was difficult to watch. Also to those 20% who think they understand what he's trying to articulate.... cmon. The guy starts and doesn't finish 6 thoughts and never makes a point. This reminds me so much of that Scientology video with Tom Cruise that got leaked. Just saying words!
Allie
2025-08-04 21:29:21 +0000 UTChonestly i’d still love to see your take on a deep dive into the heaven’s gate stuff, for what it’s worth
marrow
2025-08-04 00:26:33 +0000 UTCThis is one of my fav vids, thanks for the interesting commentary. This is also one of the first videos I recommend to friends who aren’t really into ‘true crime’ in the fullest sense. This, alongside you’re more political/cultural videos, make for a good ‘first fix’ as it were.
Samuel Hayden
2025-08-03 15:03:03 +0000 UTCI watched Smallville all through high school so it was personally devastating to see what became of Allison Mack when I saw she was involved in this absolutely batshit cult 😬
Devon
2025-08-03 03:31:00 +0000 UTCHey nice Mighty haha
Claire
2025-08-01 14:11:10 +0000 UTCYup, don't know much about it, but I know there's definitely an interesting story in it, and there's plenty of raw footage and so forth associated, so it is on the "one day or another" list. Tbf, I've made quite a lot of not open ended vids at this point, so it's no kind of prerequisite that there needs to be mystery in the conclusion :)
Matt Orchard
2025-08-01 03:15:26 +0000 UTCTake your time on Karen Read! Quality over quantity, and I'm loving the commentary just as much as the regular vids. Quick question, have you ever considered a video on Lori Daybell? Very interesting case though not as open ended conclusion as most of your videos.
Timothy Lane
2025-08-01 02:37:10 +0000 UTCMy cat is also kinda peculiar. He won't lay on the floor itself, he prefers to lay on a rug or a flat piece of cardboard or anything except the floor. He also won't touch anything that's pillow like either. He doesn't like fish flavored foods or soft treats, only crunchy treats and chicken flavored things are his favorite. He only sometimes likes to play with feather ended wands where the feathers are attached to a string in the end of the wand, also he likes one single toy mouse. It's the only one I've ever found that he likes, it's small, made of white canvas, it has 2 rounded leather ears all d a thin leather tail. Every other mouse he hates and I think it's a material thing.
Gizmo
2025-07-31 20:55:04 +0000 UTCHad to jump straight to the Wex play sesh, although The Weird World of Cults is among my favourite MOCAS vids ! The feline update we’ve all been waiting for. Thanks !
Elisa Villou
2025-07-31 20:45:12 +0000 UTCYay, one of my faves! I also highly recommend the Heaven's Gate - Cult of Cults series. It's seriously heartbreaking hearing the interviews from some of the cult members' children.
Mel T.
2025-07-31 19:49:29 +0000 UTCI had a Tim Minchin lyric in mind throughout this conversation. And I interpreted your meaning as, "How many words does he spew to pretend to say something, whilst saying nothing of value, and how smug does that nonsense make them." Here's the quote from "Storm" " ... keeps firing off clichés with startling precision Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition."
PityTheHateful
2025-07-31 18:22:51 +0000 UTCtrue crime yadda yadda I'm here for Wex
cool_ranch
2025-07-31 16:44:10 +0000 UTCLet’s goooo Matt posted, time to lock in at work!!!
nate
2025-07-31 15:26:32 +0000 UTCThe replacement words for kill yourself/suicide/killed/etc. come more from tiktok where I think those words are heavily filtered or will limit your range. They also spread to instagram, where I think maybe? But also people copy/paste from tiktok to instagram a lot. Then YouTube culture kind of adopted it just in case, I guess 🤷♂️
Shane King
2025-07-31 14:47:21 +0000 UTCCould do with some tightening, yeah, but I think you’re getting there! A very hard to articulate point as you have now experienced for yourself!
Matt Orchard
2025-07-31 12:41:29 +0000 UTCThe point you were trying to make at the beginning has bothered me endlessly, because you are definitely almost there and I kind of got what you were saying. Maybe something like "This observation is completely shielded from any form of proof or disproof, as well as from any possible utility either in our personal lives nor even in an abstract sense of gaining understanding of any phenomenon external to this discourse. It is like the worst caricature of philosophy, but rather than being masturbatorily dense, it is quite facile while being delivered and received in a way where the speaker is taking credit for displaying incredible intellectual virtuosity and worldly wisdom. " Is I guess how I would try to say it. But that's pretty comma-ridden and incomprehensible so I dunno.
sammer
2025-07-31 12:38:45 +0000 UTCYay! Thanks Matt.
Claire
2025-07-31 11:24:25 +0000 UTC
