Two characteristics of cults is they have leaders, and they demand perfect conformity to the dictates of those leaders.
What is interesting is that the Anthrogenic Global Warming crowd keep making dire predictions–the world is COMING TO AN END. We have to end freedom. Liberal democracy is the tool of the rich elites (who of course will just build mansions on the moon when the planet melts) and needs to be ended.
Do you remember Al Gore, when he was Vice President (We Americans sure know how to pick ’em, don’t we?), telling us in 1998 how many awful things were going to happen within ten years if we didn’t act then? James Hanson was doing the same dog and pony show a decade before that.
Five years or so ago, we were told with absolute confidence that global warming was going to cause a bunch of really bad hurricances, and weren’t we going to feel sorry we didn’t listen to our mental superiors. We are at a 40 year low.
So what do they do when they are wrong? What do all Millenarians do when they pick a date for the end of the world and it doesn’t happen? They find some slight miscalculation in their basically correct forecast, and pick a new date.
Alternatively, they tell us they are absolutely right, but they can’t say when our doom and destruction will come, but we sure better listen to them now, and repent for our freedom and impoverty. Sell your house: the world is on fire. We can’t say when, but when those giant mosquitoes come for you, you’re going to wish you hadn’t mowed your lawn, eaten beef (cow farts), and driven to work each day.
This is what those capable of irony call farce. “Unscientific” would do as well.