A lot of wealthy people seem to be in cults, and I’m not just talking your standard Right Wing Christian Crap. As I write this in October 2026 we’re getting reporting on strange cults of Artificial Intelligence, rationalism, Antichrist obsessives, and more. People are looking at billionaires and going “what the hell did they say” and “what drugs are they on” (Ketamine of course, but also my guess is plenty of psychedelics). There’s surprise at this cultic behavior, and honestly there really shouldn’t be.
Imagine you’re wealthy for whatever reason. You can shape your entire experience to be whatever you want. People will do whatever you want because you have money (and possibly fame and power). You can exist the exact way you want with little to no pushback.
Oh you may think you’re not living an illusion, but unless you’re very careful, you will. If you can change the world with a transaction, people will like to you, suck up to you, or worse assume you’re right as you have money. Even if you’re careful, you’ll have to work hard not to delude yourself because others will help you do just that.
Being rich and powerful leads to an echo chamber and eventually a kind of cognitive impairment. Ever seen a Really Rich person just freak out at a random social media post? Someone living in a self-imposed bubble will loose their shit over something posted by some anonymous person with a handle like BannanaCannon420.
Now such environments will lead to cultic behavior – even if it’s a cult of one. You’re in your own self-created bubble. You’re creating a feedback loop. You’ve got people willing to tell you what you want to hear (often for money). That’s a cult.
But also think of these echo chambers these people live in. If a cultic behavior or set of ideas are introduced there’s a good chance it won’t leave and will be amplified. It just takes one doofus with the right (or wrong) idea, one self-published manifesto, to get into the sphere of some rich person and then the bad idea stays and grows. They may even share it with their friends, who are also wealthy and honestly probably kind of bonkers.
So yes, some of the uber-wealthy act like they’re in cults – they are. They exist in self-created echo chambers. Bad ideas don’t get flushed out. They talk to other people like them. And that’s not counting important questions like “is the economy structured so utter assholes easily take control.”
Honestly, once you add the asshole factor it gets worse. I’m being kind.
So maybe in our current state we need to consider the rich and powerful to be in some kind of cult by default until proven otherwise. And it’s another reminder of why consolidation of power of any kind is a problem – because culty behavior follows almost inevitably, even with the most charitable viewpoint.