Groups like
Answers in Genesis and a lot of climate groups and social justice groups
conform to the principle of what I call the distributed stupidity model. One
con artist starts it off, influences a second person, then a third, and so on,
until the racket has gained enough traction to distribute its stupidity more
widely - a bit like vectors acting to spread the cult's influence. The
distributed stupidity model is one of the most effective for influencers at the
top to get what they want and grow their own platform (financial and status) by
pulling the strings of those at the bottom. Ken Ham is raking it in while folk like you do most of his bidding for him, and blindly dance to his tune.
But at some point, once a group like that starts to grow, and its blood has trickled for enough time, it inevitably bleeds into haemorrhage, and at this point it becomes externally pervasive and internally overwhelming. The only distributed stupidity groups that can survive this are the ones where the emotional appeal of their indoctrination strategies are such that the members feel the emotional duress of leaving or questioning it, for fear of heretic-hunting.
A good rule of thumb with the majority of the members of these groups is, always assume blithe cowardice, weak-mindedness, lazy indifference or wilful individual ignorance before you assume a thought out collective philosophy, because they are a lot rarer than you think.
