Such is why tripling the minimum wage is not feasible..
What makes something a cult though? People wearing hoods and standing in a circle is a big indication but is it concrete?
A lot of cults control the information that their members have access to or downplay any critical outside information as part of a persecution narrative. The control of information can be overt like blocking access to information sources or encouraging people to disconnect from friends and family members not involved in the cult. It can also be accomplished through social means by shunning people who repeat critical stories, collective criticism within the group of people who question group actions, or convincing members that there is a conspiracy out there trying to lure them away with false information.
People in cults will often have a set of formulaic replies to criticism that have been learned and repeated inside the group. You can sometimes spot this in their speech as popular responses tend to be recited in a monotone voice like a child reciting a memorized formula to a teacher. Some kind of story about how 'outsiders misinterpret what is going on' or 'there is a smear campaign to keep the public from seeing the truth' is pretty common.
So it's usually a mix of rehearsed groupthink and 'outsiders wouldn't understand' defense mechanisms that keeps people from realizing that what they are doing has overstepped the bounds of rationality. I'm sure they think they are just a small group of people trying to make a difference in the world.
Steven Hassan's
model for cult behavior is actually pretty useful as a metric in this regard.