Parler, and other forums like it are the 21st Century "Jonestowns"

[Hugin]

7. I recently came to the realization these modern cults are built around a hashtag or...

the equivalent.

These groups don't exist in any physical sense. All of the interaction is transmitted via a membership in some virtual group. It is through membership in this group that information is passed.

What is dangerous IMHO is that the membership in these groups is largely anonymous. The people in them are who they portray themselves as being. (Yes, I know... That's even true here at teh DU.) So, members in the group tend to fill in the blanks about those around them in the group with what they assume about themselves. AKA Projection. People are able to be members of a group of people they feel share all of the beliefs and biases of every member of the group. What's not to like about such a situation? Well, a lot as it turns out. Because it's all false and shocking when any individual member finds out their long held perceptions of the group are almost completely wrong.

Case in point, the turbulence in the white supremacist Proud Boys recently when the larger group discovered their 'leader' was hispanic.

Back to the hashtags, these are the 'call to arms' or rallying point for the group. Often incomplete or misleading information is passed via these mechanisms. The information is also only partially and in an asynchronous manner presented to the group as a whole. Again, leaving the individual members to fill in the blank with what they believe is the larger picture. AKA Projection.

It's a giant and very dangerous version of the game telephone. Where the sender is not even sure exactly who is receiving what is being sent or how it's being interpreted. No feedback for allowing the transmitter of information to shape their messages into a form which is unambiguous to the group. The group members all think what they wanted said is what was said. Reinforced by an 'aha! I thought so.'

There's a big element of 'reading between the lines' involved, too. Which, I believe is to blame for many of the raging conspiracy theories which snow ball and are seemingly immortal no matter how much evidence to the contrary is provided.