Modern Cults of Ideology - Leaderless, Decentralized & Social Media Driven.

When most people think of the sort of harmful cults that have led people to give up their own identity and priorities in favor of the group - they usually think of masses following some charismatic leader at some isolated location. The Branch Davidians under David Koresh in Waco or the Peoples Temple under Jim Jones at Jonestown are familiar examples.

That's not the only way that harmful groups that use cult-like methods to control people operate, however.

Some groups are not led by a strong single personality but rather operate through the mechanisms of human social psychology. Vulnerabilities like insecurity, yearning for acceptance and uncertainty interacting with the powerful social forces of guilt, shame, conformity and fear of rejection through the lens of an ideology with a moral dimension can lead individuals to distort their perceptions of themselves and the world even without a strong leader pulling the strings.

In such groups, each member both pulls and is pulled by the strings of others and the morality set by the ideology gives direction and force to the action. The direction is towards radicalization.

Social Media has given rise to new manifestations of this phenomenon which allows people to be indoctrinated and transformed without having to gather to a separate physical location. It can happen in a home, in a bedroom, or just in the space between a person and their smartphone.

Understanding how the old culty dynamics have evolved to the new technology driven social landscape is one of the most important ways to detect and steer clear from harmful influences and groups.

Whether it's a fixation on hidden knowledge, political conspiracies or ideological forms of social justice - this clip from a Netflix documentary on cults gives a decent description of the reality of leaderless, decentralized social media driven groups.

Source: https://youtu.be/6NWIfiV1_XQ