[rjsw]

I have a theory that climate change denial is an example of a cargo cult, not thought much about the motivations behind your other examples.

I suspect that the followers of a cargo cult don't spontaneously all decide to believe whatever it is at the same time, someone will lead it and the rest will join in afterwards. I'm also guessing that the leader will be someone who has been a leader in the past and that the nature of the misunderstanding that is at the heart of the cult will reflect how that leader came to prominence previously.

I started wondering about this as I was trying to work out why the main group of climate change denyers in the UK had rented office space in the same street [1] as the Royal Society and other scientific bodies.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_House_Terrace