I awakened this Christmas thinking that

[bucolic_frolic]

16. They are fixed on their bias and then distort their reality and reasoning to support that bias

My conversation this week with one of them, whom I know well. Covid is deadly, wear a mask. "I understand that." But can't accept the Governor mandating mask wearing, or restricting businesses from opening. That would be "communism, and this is not Russia." "God has a plan for me, if he wants me to get Covid He will, and that's what i have to deal with. Otherwise I'll be safe and fine. It hasn't gotten me yet."

"People go into the supermarket without masks all the time. They haven't gotten it yet."

It's contagious, airborne transmission. "Well then it's in the air and I shouldn't go outside."

"I'm very careful about food though. I won't touch a can and leave it on the shelf for someone else to contact. I'm worried cans could have covid on the outside even if I have groceries delivered."

"I go to restaurants that don't enforce masks once you're inside. Seems safe to me."

So yes, per the OP, it is a cult with distorted thinking. Facts and logic don't matter to them. Death doesn't matter to them. Too much religion, too much fantasy thoughts. This resembles clerical disagreements that formed the Reformation. Transubstantiation was a big topic, do you believe, or no? Factions with cult-like religious leaders split off and formed new strains of Christianity. These schisms remain to this day. We are in troubled troubled waters.