religion, it’s best to start preaching your message to people whose lives suck
the most: the poor, the outcasts, the abused and forgotten. You know, people
who sit on Facebook all day.^13
Jim Jones built his following by recruiting the homeless and marginalized
minorities with a socialist message minced with his own (demented) take on
Christianity. Hell, what am I saying? Jesus Christ did the same damn thing.^14
Buddha, too. Moses—you get the idea. Religious leaders preach to the poor
and downtrodden and enslaved, telling them that they deserve the kingdom of
heaven—basically, an open “fuck you” to the corrupt elites of the day. It’s a
message that’s easy to get behind.
Today, appealing to the hopeless is easier than ever before. All you need is
a social media account: start posting extreme and crazy shit, and let the
algorithm do the rest. The crazier and more extreme your posts, the more
attention you’ll garner, and the more the hopeless will flock to you like flies
to cow shit. It’s not hard at all.
But you can’t just go online and say anything. No, you must have a (semi-
)coherent message. You must have a vision. Because it’s easy to get people
riled up and angry about nothing—the news media have created a whole
business model out of it. But to have hope, people need to feel that they are a
part of some greater movement, that they are about to join the winning side of
history.
And, for that, you must give them faith.