Try to imagine that you know nothing about cults. We tend to view cults in highly negative terms. As with vitually any topic we might discuss, sociology does not stand as a fountain of truth in the face of cultural ignorance. They are different from cults of yesteryear.
Leaders have virtual hypnotic-like control over followers.
Cults are dangerous to those who are members and they are a threat to the larger society. The path of antii-Semitism leads to Auschwitz every time. The path of the cults leads to Jonestown and we watch it at our peril. They are present in all cultures. Cults and sects are different from the past, but they are different in the ways that the culture is different.