The culture war mentality is: “Everything bad causes and is caused by everything else bad. Everything good causes and is caused by everything else good.“
Culture warriors do not only want to get popular people to join their cause, they also push unpopular people to join the other side. You can do both at the same time by accusing unpopular people of being on the other side. When they defend themselves, you can crucify them for disagreeing with the good people. When they don’t defend themselves, they must do a purity ritual (http://raggedjackscarlet.tumblr.com/post/156092750438/funereal-disease-misanthropymademe) to escape scrutiny. Name other witches so you won’t be burned at the stake!
Popularity is not the be-all-end-all, but the currency. You can cash in on your popularity. You can also gain more popularity for yourself and cash in on the unpopularity of others by forcing them to either disagree with you, highlighting your difference from the unpopulars, or to agree with you, which you can spin as their submission.
Many of the stranger outgrowths of twitter mobs, The Discourse, hot takes and thinkpiece culture do not directly pick on the uncool kids to elevate the cool kids, but stake out territory for the cool kids to claim. Uncool kids have 48 hours to vacate he premises until they are no longer allowed to have the cool opinions.
