I have a question about the English language here? Is “anything but pleasant” a positive? Doesn’t it mean anything else (like unpleasant, horrible etc), but pleasant?
[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anything...
Edit: acomar points out that the "haven't" negates what follows, so interpret what I wrote above as "the phrase on its own means not X".
I'm appalled at myself for the silly manner in which I phrased that. I guess I intended to say: "I have found it nothing but pleasant", but instead ended up tying myself up in knots.
The original poster was saying that generally cults will be rather unpleasant for most mid<->lower level members, but are pleasant for the people at the top (generally by extracting value from those lower-level members, whether it's labor, money, or sexual favors).
This seems a bit counterintuitive, of course - "if it's unpleasant, why the hell wouldn't they leave?". Usually cults have coercive tools that either make it difficult for someone to leave, or manage to brainwash them into believing they would be more unhappy outside of the cult.