"What explains the meteoric rise in visibility of fringe elements in mainstream societal discourse during the first decades of the 21st century? Events like the Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021 and developments like the surge of medical skepticism during the global pandemic have produced great scrutiny on the challenge of extreme rhetoric in global society, with great attention paid to enabling role of the Internet. But what is it exactly that the Internet has enabled? This book describes the emergence of a condition of "leaderlessness" as the default format of subversive activity in digital age. "Leaderlessness" is a phenomenon brought about by the rise of Web 2.0 and is characterized by an evolving and uneven feedback loop that links fringe spaces to mainstream elite rhetoric and popular discourse. Cult-like conditions in conspiratorial, restrictive virtual spaces simplify, standardize and amplify extreme narratives. These narratives are then rapidly filtered into mainstream settings thanks to a series of socio-technological conditions present in the Web 2.0 era. Fringe narratives and symbols thus often become the lens through which social and political elites interpret information and find meaning, which they then spread through public speech. This public speech is then projected back to subversive spaces and communities. Unfortunately, elites are limited in their ability to impact subversive narratives and control fringe advocacy in turn. The result is stark: a global information ecosystem in which actors and issues in society are given meaning by fringe discourse and then used to activate dispersed and disaggregated populations"--