Atheists turning to cult behaviour?

[SoFarEast]

Where do you live? Knowing this would go a long in giving context to the observations you shared.

Are you studying in your home country? I'm trying to make sense of the reported difficulty of being open about your disbelief, but yet have the opportunity to attend atheist conferences as well as encountering atheists at university.

I'm from India.

Identifying with atheism is hard here, or maybe that's just how I felt in my teen years considering how radical the religious elements here are. Even the mildest criticism of religion or religious or political figures is hard here. As I grew up, I grew more confident and sought out people like me.