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The sociological observation that modern society, thanks to the internet shattering mass media monoculture, has fragmented into countless competing tribes, fanbases, and ideological subcultures that all operate with cult-like dynamics. It's not that actual high-control groups with abusive leaders have multiplied, but that the psychological architecture of cults—fervent belief, "us vs. them" identity, devotion to a leader or ideology, and the conviction that the mainstream is fundamentally broken—has become the default mode for online fandoms, political movements, brand loyalists, and wellness communities. The theory argues we've gone back to a pre-20th century norm where culture is just "a bunch of cults stacked on top of each other".
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