>>139075This seems to be a common pattern amongst various social groups. One of the unfortunate side-effects of Discord servers being so damn easy to configure, but that's not on Discord obviously. The key to this process is the exploitation/intent to exploit at each phase of the process.
0) Be someone looking to farm other individuals for social prestige, monetary/sexual favors, or other forms of gratification
1) Find a social discipline/group with emotionally-vulnerable individuals or ones with very low self esteem (religious, occult/paranormal, fandom-related, so on)
2) Create a Discord server, putting oneself as the admin and then giving a couple of like-minded individuals (who are also being exploited to some degree) moderator positions
3) Invite people into the server through some sort of larger outlet: for example, /r9k/, /x/, Tumblr, etc.
3a) Contingency: possibly require some sort of entry/filtering standard to be met… in this case, taking pictures of oneself in cross-dressings. In other cases, require a filtering interview to occur to see where someone "stands". This step is for more rigorous groups where they expect every member to be exploited, and to prevent lurkers.
4) Establish cultural standards within the server. This is independent of the "rules" that users agree to. These are unspoken, cultural rules which usually establish the following:
4a) Individuals shall NOT question the exploitation occurring, nor question its normalization.
4b) Individuals shall NOT question the decisions of the higher-ranking caste, nor their worldviews.
4c) Individuals who do not speak enough in support of the exploitation and/or the normalization of it, are considered subversive.
5) Create an echo-chamber where a worldview is enforced by various forms of media. This will usually be a set of specific strictures/views, explicit/implicit, which shall not be violated. The strictures focus on narrowing the worldview related to the topic at hand, in a way that benefits the exploiting party. This creates a sub-cultural "tunnel-vision" which limits the sorts of discussions that occur. Subsequently, questioning the worldview is also a violation of the unspoken rules.
6) Actively exploit the individuals (this is the key part) by having them perform a desired function. This can be as simple as reinforcing a worldview, encouraging them to produce sexual acts for the others in the server, having the members take part in external acts such as political/religious operations, etc.
This seems vague, but you'll see the following items in summary:
1) A caste system established, sometimes by Discord server ranks (admin, moderator, and so on). Unspoken caste ranks can be people who have been there for longer, but who might not necessarily have privileges.
1a) Don't forget that a caste system involves the higher castes always benefiting from the lower castes at a disproportionate rate.
2) An unquestionable set of strictures.
3) Antagonization of people who don't toe the line.
4) Targeting of socially-vulnerable groups. /r9k/, /x/, Tumblr, parts of Reddit, etc.