We can thank Jonestown, the Hare Krishnas, and the Heaven’s Gate loonies for the public’s common perception of what cults look like. Compared to them, polite, well-dressed door-knockers get an easy pass.
One of the reasons I prefer the term “authoritarian high-control group”.
Wordier and kinda pedantic, but break it down to its individual components, and I think even the most hardcore loyalist would have trouble disputing the label.
I could be wrong.