Neo-obscurantism is not a simple social-cultural phenomenon, but a carefully constructed and controllated ideology; though it finds its fertile soil in the inherent flaws of human nature, it does not simply spontaneously arises from it, but it is intentionally sowed and cultivated with full agency by malicious actors for power and/or profit purposes. As such, it features a very specific internal organization no different to that of most organized mass religions.
Television, radio, newspapers
Internet
The top of the pyramid. These are the people who finance the whole propaganda machinery and who ultimately benefit it.
The modern "clergy" (also known with more attractive names such as "public relations"). They are the producers and distributors of neo-obscurantist propaganda.
They are the first line of the neo-obscurantist propaganda, since they inhabit the most visible and easily accessible mediatic outlets, and provide the first "imprinting" of the official narrative to the public; their job is to flood the public with a constant deluge of "news" carefully selected (or even entirely fabricated) in order to:
1) replace public's real-life experience with a constructed narrative;
2) progressively erode any capability for rational thought in favor of cheap emotivity;
3) subvert language by hijacking the meaning of words;
4) defame dissenters through smear campaigns;
Typical examples: BBC, Fox News, The Atlantic, The Guardian, etc., and the vast majority of journalists writing on them.
People in this cathegory consists of almost literal actors, playing assigned roles in order to divide the public among manufactured factions, keep them occupied in meaningless battles and controversies, and participate in fake debates that appear to promote a plurality of views but are carefully scripted in order to reinforce the dominant narrative.
The fraudolent nature of their public characters and political engagement can be unequivocally be inferred by 3 facts:
1) the intellectual dishonesty of their speeches and the rethoric used;
2) the massive discrepance between the values they support in theory and their concrete practical deeds;
3) their past history, ties and allegiances;
Typical examples: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, etc..
Scientists who deliberately chose to betray science for money, status and/or recognition. Their purpose is to gatekeep science by acting as frontmen of the whole scientific community, and deliberately misrepresent both the scientific method and its conclusions in order to pass off mainstream ideologies as "Science" (see "State Pseudoscience").
It is extremely important to stress that, contrary to popular belief, they usually represent only a small (but very vocal) minority of scientists, but still manage to sell themselves as the voice of the entire scientific community thanks to their high mediatic promotion and visibility, and use this fake perception to monopolize Science and discredit any critical voice (including those coming from their more honest peers).
Typical examples: WHO, CDC, professional orders, Anthony Fauci, etc..
Celebrities with very little actual scientific titles or achievements, but whose opinions are still treated as being on same level as those of actual scientists, for no other reason than their ability to sell themselves as "skeptics" or "rationalists". Their purpose is to shield mainstream doctrines by replacing doubt and critical thinking with dogmatic rejection and personal incredulity, and redirecting them exclusively towards alternative claims.
Typical examples: Michael Shermer, etc..
Commonly known with misleading self-appointed titles such as "debunkers" or "fact-checkers", and regarded for this reason alone as "experts" despite usually having no real credentials, their role is simply to deny the evidence at any cost. Their method typically involve gaining themselves a credibility by properly disproving non-threatening theories, and then using it to discredit any actually threatening theory by resorting to faulty arguments that sound plausible to an untrained audience.
Typical examples: CSICOP; MythBusters, SNOPES, etc.
People (usually anonymous) paid to promote neo-obscurantist views and/or attack dissenters on the internet; very active on internet forums, social media, image boards, comments sections of videos, etc.. They can be furtherly divided in 2 types:
1) Open shills, whose job is to explicitly defend the official narrative and/or to attack alternative ones;
2) False flaggers, whose job is to impersonate dissenters and intentionally act in a blatantly silly/dishonest way in order to put them in a bad light;
In both cases, it should be noticed that the usual aim of the shill is not to convince the people he's directly arguing with, but rather casual lurkers and bystanders.
Typical examples: a large part of apparently "normal" people arguing on internet forums and social media.
The final targets of the brainwashing; the mass of unaware believers who make up the vast majority of people.
Sometimes known with the (very appropriate) term "useful idiots", this cathegory consists mostly of politically engaged people with good intentions and very high levels of emotivity, but also very low intelligence, which makes them extremely easy to manipulate, even by the same people they theoretically oppose.
Commonly known with terms such as "sheeples", "normies" or "NPCs", they sit at the bottom of the neo-obscurantist hierarchy and form the bulk of followers. Just like the activists they blindly follow the mainstream narratives/ideologies, but different from the above, their allegiance does not derive from any real conviction, but rather from the mere desire for social acceptance, and a high degree of intellectual laziness.