History Series / AmericanHorrorStoryCult

* StrawHypocrite: It's strongly hinted that neither [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Kai]] nor [[StrawFeminist Winter]] actually places a lot of personal importance in their political beliefs, rather that they are simply using them as a convenient and ready-made framework for navigating the world and finding meaning [[spoiler:after having experienced extreme trauma]]. It's particularly telling that they tend to actively [[{{Doublethink}} ignore the cognitive dissonance]] that would realistically arise from the two of them holding to incompatible political positions.

** [[UpToEleven Ramps up even more]] in "Charles (Manson) in Charge," where Kai tells Winter that he's been watching her since their parents brought her home. Apparently this includes ''listening to her masturbate before bed every night when she was fifteen.''

* SiblingYinYang: Surprisingly averted. Despite Kai and Winter occupying polar opposite ends of the political spectrum, they are very close and shown to be quite similar, with both of them showing a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] lack of concern for others' pain, a willingness to lie and manipulate, and a prioritization of their relationship over their deeply conflicting politics. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:they both used to be 4chan-style centrists who would troll "social justice warriors" together for fun, and that their divergent worldviews only manifested after they killed Pastor Charles]].

* CrocodileTears: Despite her largely [[EmotionlessGirl flat affect]], Winter cries a ''lot'', usually silently and often for no discernible reason. This is vaguely implied to be some sort of coping mechanism/manipulation tactic for dealing with Kai, as she usually does it in front of him.

** Ultimately played straight, however, in that [[spoiler:Winter ultimately realizes that Kai has gone off the deep end, [[HeelFaceTurn shows regret for her actions, and starts trying to help the women in the cult get out]], while Kai remains basically evil.]]

* StrawHypocrite: It's strongly hinted that neither Kai nor Winter actually places a lot of personal importance in their political beliefs, and instead are simply using them as a convenient and ready-made framework for navigating the world and finding meaning [[spoiler:after having experienced extreme trauma]]. It's particularly telling that they tend to actively [[{{Doublethink}} ignore the cognitive dissonance]] that would realistically arise from the two of them holding to incompatible political positions.

* IncestSubtext: Something is not quite right about the relationship between Kai and Winter, who are brother and sister... As of "Winter of Our Discontent," [[spoiler:it's officially not just subtext.]]
** Gets even creepier in "Charles (Manson) in Charge," where Kai tells Winter that he's been watching her since their parents brought her home. Apparently this includes ''listening to her masturbate before bed every night when she was fifteen.''

** [[UpToEleven This gets even worse]] when you remember that Kai is at least seven years older than Winter, and would have been about twenty-three when she was fifteen.

* SanitySlippage: While he's insane to start with, Kai steadily loses what sanity he had left after he actually gets on the city council. This is later suggested to be a side-effect of him taking more pharmaceutical drugs to cope with the constant stress he's under.

''American Horror Story: Cult'' is the seventh season of Creator/RyanMurphy's {{horror}} anthology series ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', aired by Creator/{{FX}} in 2017.

* FairytaleMotifs: The names "Kai" and "Winter" Anderson refer to [[Literature/TheSnowQueen The Snow Queen]] by [[Creator/HansChristianAndersen Hans Christian Andersen]]. The story is partially about a mirror whose glass refracts the good and beautiful aspects of the word and magnifies the bad and ugly aspects. When the mirror shatters, the glass gets into people's eyes and makes it so all they can see are those bad and ugly aspects in everything. Given the end goal of Kai's cult and how he seems to infect others with his nihilistic views, it's a fitting reference.

* FiveBadBand: The Cult.

* CastFullofGay: Winter is probably bisexual, but we only see her willingly sleep with women. Ally and Ivy are a lesbian couple. Harrison is closeted; Samuels is gay; Kai is probably bisexual, having sex with both Samuels and Meadow, but it's unknown if he is attracted to either at all or just using them for his own agenda.