Monia Ali: One Direction & Toxic Fandom

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Talk Radio, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2022

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former One Direction stan Monia Ali shares her involvement in various fandoms throughout her life, how old she was when she became a One Direction stan, the conspiracy theory she became wrapped up in, the online bullying she experienced when she left the fandom, and the role of identity and community in these groups. If you have your own story about cults, high-control groups, manipulation, or abuse of power, shoot us an email at [email protected] FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @trustmepodcast @oohlalola @vibehigherbitch OR TWITTER: @trustmecultpod @ohlalola

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group or if you've had an experience with manipulation or abuse of power
0:05.7	You'd like to share. She doesn't email it. Trust me, pod at gmail.com
0:18.9	If you think that one person has all the answers
0:22.8	Welcome to Trust Me podcast about cult and extreme belief and the abuse of power from two
0:28.9	stands who actually experienced it. I am Lola Blanc and I am Megan Elizabeth and today our guest is
0:34.5	Monia Ali. She's a former one-direction stand so Stan means docker plus fan that is those two
0:42.0	words combined. We're gonna talk about how she was involved with various fandoms from a young
0:45.8	age ultimately landing in the one-direction fandom but not as a teenager as you might think and how
0:51.0	she ended up in a corner of the one-direction fandom that was obsessed with one particular conspiracy
0:56.1	theory and just how common that is. She'll tell us about how the group was supposed to believe
1:00.6	whatever the leadership told them how everyone turned against her when she didn't hold the party line.
1:05.7	Why fans became so aggressive on the internet and the role of identity and community and fandom.
1:10.8	Yeah this feels as relevant as ever this episode. So Megan before we talk about that,
1:16.9	can you tell me what your coldiest thing is this week? Oh sure um well this this story brought up a lot
1:22.4	for me a lot that I'm really not you know desperate to relive or anything but a couple of years ago
1:28.4	I um was involved in a podcast that might have gotten a little bit culty and when I stepped
1:34.8	away from said podcast I started getting like death threats. I love that you're laughing about it.
1:43.0	It was so awful just looking back it's so crazy how fast it went from zero to 60 so I can't even
1:53.3	imagine today's episode dealing with like world famous stars how quickly these things can
2:01.0	escalate and yeah I think our guest was just so awesome and smart and so it's it's not as easy to
2:10.2	what's the word just like brush it away is like oh they're stupid it's it's it's easy to get
2:15.7	overly involved in something but I'm sorry what is your coldiest thing? It just reminded you of
	...

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