I've become a bit more conscious of is exactly how ideologies work.
Essentially, what I've discovered is that, on a fundamental level, each and every ideology follows the same basic principles. Essentially, the ideology seeks to unify a group in struggle against a manufactured outgroup or spiritual enemy. In socialism, this is the very essence of class struggle, in Randian objectivism, this is the parasites, in feminism, it's the Patriarchy, etc.
The unifying feature of these enemies is that the struggle against them will never end. Inequality can never be completely eliminated. If you run out counterrevolutionaries or agents of international Jewry, you can always find or make more. I think that Orwell realized and articulated this, to a certain extent, in 1984, but most people miss this statement, perhaps his most important. Furthermore, doublethink as practiced by the members of the Inner Party remains criminally misunderstood. The whole point is that the leaders and vanguards of the ideology are able to be cynical and pragmatic while still drinking the kool-aid.
This is exactly what's happening in our world. The ones who are "in control" understand (to a certain extent) exactly what I'm saying right now. They know precisely what snake oil they're selling, but still willingly delude themselves into becoming its biggest junkies. Just like religious figures, they both control, and are controlled by the ideologies. Cult leaders are more consistently lucid.
All of this is undertaken for the sake of man's true religion, conflict. We love conflict and will invent it where it does not already exist. It distracts from the vast, cold, dark, apathy of the cosmic joke and keeps us toiling away at impossible goals.
I really wish that people were even slightly easy to understand on an individual level. Unfortunately, it's much more difficult to obtain pertinent information since most people don't come with manifestos and memoirs attached.