[Peace-discuss] influencer, cult, cult of personality

[Szoke, Ron]

Keywords  033020

INFLUENCER
In marketing, an individual or group that has a significant amount of influence on the opinions or habits of their fans or followers, perhaps especially their purchasing habits.
+  A lot of companies try to market directly to so-called influencers— bloggers and vloggers, mostly — in the hopes that the influencer will boost sales by promoting the product among their followers.
+  You have to wonder how many of these influencers are really just paid shills.
  >  PATIENT INFLUENCER
In marketing, an individual or group that has a significant amount of influence on the opinions or habits of their fans or followers, specifically as it relates to health and medicine.
+  The writer, a patient influencer on social media, mainly posts about her struggles with a chronic illness.
+  He's a patient influencer who beat cancer and now attends medical conferences and advocates on behalf of patient care.
See also: influencer, patient  
— The Free Dictionary by Farlex // Idioms

CULT  | Definition of Cult by Merriam-Webster  —  www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult
>  Cult, which shares an origin with culture and cultivate, comes from the Latin cultus, a noun with meanings ranging from "tilling, cultivation" to "training or education" to "adoration." In English, cult has evolved a number of meanings following a fairly logical path.
> Cult — Wikipedia
In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object or goal.  — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult
>  Cult - definition of cult by The Free Dictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com/cult
A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
>  Cult | Definition of Cult at Dictionary.com  www.dictionary.com/browse/cult 
noun a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. the object of such devotion. 
//  www.christianitytoday.com/ct/topics/c/cults
>  Christian news and views about Cults. The best articles from Christianity Today on Cults.
14 Weird and Creepy Cults Still Active Today
www.ranker.com/list/active-cults/mike-rothschild
There are dozens of cults still active today, despite the very public demise of many well-known ones. Current cults range from New Age mystic groups to fundamentalist Christians preparing for the end of days. Many have been around for decades, with some as old as a century. But a few others have sprung up only in the last few years.
>  The Seven Signs You're in a Cult - The Atlantic
www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/the...
Jun 18, 2014 · Several years ago, the founder of IHOP, Mike Bickle, created a list of seven ways to recognize the difference between a religious community and a cult.
>  The Cult - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cult
The Cult are a British rock band formed in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult.

CULT OF PERSONALITY 
A cult of personality, or cult of the leader,[1] arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established by modern social engineering techniques, usually by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. It is often seen in totalitarian or authoritarian countries.
  > The term came to prominence in 1956, in Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, given on the final day of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the speech, Khrushchev, who was the First Secretary of the Communist Party – in effect, the leader of the country – criticized the lionization and idealization of Joseph Stalin, and by implication, his Communist contemporary Mao Zedong, as being contrary to Marxist doctrine. The speech was later made public and was part of the "de-Stalinization" process the Soviet Union went through.  —  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
—
cf.  Max Weber on charismatic authority
— RSz.
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