@thesotiris 29 December 2025 more from that month

How to Gain a Cult Following: A step-by-step guide to fame

I see these celebs, influencers, podcasters, and even Substack writers flaunting their “following”, reducing their audience to a mere number, imagining themselves to be a Dragon Ball Z character where their “power level” is quantifiable. Dick-measuring betrays a lack of depth, confidence, and conviction if one is in desperate need of measuring their own worth with the most irrelevant metric. But there is a method to this madness of gaining a following, especially a cult following. From politics, religion, and conspiracy theories to health, fitness, and technology, we tend to gravitate towards those who say what we already think we know, what we want to hear, either because we need validation through agreement and perceived popularity, or simply because infotainment/conspiritainment is our drug of choice. If you don’t mind being a shepherd (a leader of mindless sheep), this guide will help you gain a large and lucrative following, whether online or in the physical world. It has worked for thousands of years, and it keeps on delivering. Here’s how to gain a cult following: Find a segment of the population that feels underrepresented, especially if their beliefs are considered taboo or fringe by the mainstream. Whether these people have a point or they are deluded in their cherished beliefs, it doesn’t matter to you. You are only there to tap into an untapped niche, an ignored segment of the population desperate to be heard and represented; easy pickings. You don’t have to agree with or believe in their worldview. You should leave your dignity behind and adapt your message (and yourself) to them. Dignity and integrity don’t sell. Say what they already know, but with nicer words. They already agree with you, but your expert wording provides an air of credibility in the eyes of the gullibly naive, further validating their beliefs and identity. **There is no greater drug than the validation of one’s identity**. Use academic babble, cherry-picked charts, and one-sided statistics, which you will interpret the way you want. Nothing screams “misplaced authority” like misreferencing an academic source, especially one with shady methodologies, bad sampling, funding biases, non-sequitur mental-gymnastics conclusions, and self-absolution of accountability in case findings prove to be false. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/how-to-manufacture-a-pandemic Show absolute confidence in your message. The masses tend to gravitate toward the deludedly narcissistic (Donald Trump, Conor McGregor, Andrew Tate, Zelensky… the list is endless). Present yourself with total self-assuredness about the validity, correctness, and superiority of your message, viewpoint, ideology, or “side”. The vast majority of people will believe anything as long as they hear it from someone who speaks with total confidence, even deluded confidence. See Obama and Trump, for example, professional actors and conmen so talented that they put the real Nigerian prince to shame. **The best acting roles are not in Hollywood but in Washington. Hollywood is for amateurs.** Praise your audience for being smart enough to follow you, but not smart enough to realise you, in fact, are engaged in self-flattery. Flatter them for “being more intelligent than the rest of the world” simply because they believe what they believe. They are “God’s chosen people”, or, if they don’t believe in a god, they were somehow chosen by nature to be “superior”. This way, they will want to believe you no matter what; otherwise, they miss out on this ego masturbation. Keep bombarding them with slop, regurgitating the same message over and over by simply rearranging the words, collaborating with like-minded “content” creators who serve to validate your message further. Never withdraw, and always be seeking their attention; otherwise, you risk becoming irrelevant. Never challenge your audience’s cherished beliefs. Never suggest that they should be self-critical or that they should reflect on the things they say, do, think, or believe. It’s OK to be critical of everyone else, just not themselves, and especially not critical of you. Never say “I don’t know” when asked by your audience to share your take or insight on something more specific. As a “thought leader” in your space, you need to appear to have a totally complete worldview, and that you have an all-encompassing overview of all reality. You must have an arrogant, strong, and final opinion about everything, even if you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you don’t know the answer to a question posed by your eager followers, make it up. Inject common-sense truisms, easy moralisms, and armchair philosophy to position your brand in the eyes of the unsuspecting masses as one of intellectual righteousness. https://sotiris.substack.com/p/the-loudest-moralists-tend-to-be https://sotiris.substack.com/p/peak-philosophy When challenged, use shaming to get your way out of it. Shaming works wonders with the masses. Use insults, one-upping one-liners, and opinionated characterisations instead of logical arguments. Attack the person, not the argument. Deliberately misrepresent their argument as if you misunderstood it to get them to retreat into a position where they have to endlessly keep defending and explaining themselves, thus diverting from the challenge they initially posed. Enlist your most loyal followers to jump in to defend you with even more shaming and ridicule instead of logic, thus overwhelming your critics to the point where they choose to disengage. Monetise your following. Make them feel as if donating to you is somehow supporting their belief system, since you presume to lead and exclusively represent it. Imply, or flat-out declare that they should feel guilty and hypocritical for not donating “to their cause”, as if you were its embodiment. Take on sponsors and ask your followers to buy whatever junk you are paid to push. The more they pay you, the more they are emotionally invested in you, and the less likely they are to change their minds about you, since that would mean admitting they wasted good money on you. This has been a sociopathic guide to fame. If you look at the most popular personalities out there, especially those centred around belief systems, you’ll see these patterns unfold. If you want to be true to yourself, however, then do not follow this guide. If you want money and fame at any cost, even your soul, dignity, and true self, then go ahead and use it. I’m sure it’ll be worth it.