Okay, but not exactly sure of what distinction you make...
Mightn't there be something very rich behind someone saying that "I learned and moved on," and "the premies were so beautiful."?
Can I realize I fell for a scam that injured many, one of the myriad sorts of scam pervading in human cultures, really face my awfully poor decisions, fully aware of what were then as my best good and enthusiastic intentions for myself and my world exactly in deciding and believing how I did, and go on with growing recognition and full acknowledgement of my past, actually learning from it, and move on to any degree - and maybe even now try in my own way to nudge along the quality of human life and thought -- and even with refusal to forget how the premies I lived with in the DC community were so beautiful...well, for sure really only some were beautiful, and all of us flawed in some way of course.
...So could I go on without reproach to go on saying in response to the question of the evils of the cult, casually, "well, I lived and learned, and the premies were beautiful." No. Someone will reproach me and think I'm still quite stuck in the mire of cultism.
It's a rhetorical question I suppose. Maybe I fall somewhere on the autism spectrum, but really I couldn't see clearly the distinction you make. ...that people ignore or hide their past? ...that people construct a rational understanding for themselves of their life story and say it to others. ...that some are soft-headed about things, and some hard-headed, and it's good to be alert to what's going on in others' heads along with the noting where in the infinite ranges of softness or hardness reside the heads of those with whom I interact.
Sorry I'm rattling on here...but I've been reading and posting on the site here for I forget how many years now, and it's of course engaging and informative, and often I'm teased out to respond wagging my own tongue...or wagging my keystrokes I mean.
