meme plague

n. The spread of a successful but pernicious meme , esp. one that
parasitizes the victims into giving their all to propagate it. Astrology,
BASIC, and the other guy's religion are often considered to be examples.
This usage is given point by the historical fact that joiner ideologies like
Naziism or various forms of millennarian Christianity have exhibited
plague-like cycles of exponential growth followed by collapses to small
reservoir populations.

