Atheists turning to cult behaviour?

[Mister Agenda]

I'm just drawing a parallel. The way I've seen certain atheists behave isn't arbitrary inhuman behavior.

I don't grasp what you're trying to say, here. The behavior you're talking about is, sadly, very human and not particularly arbitrary.

There is clearly an audience for it amongst other atheists that drives this further.

Like hating on Miley Cyrus?

Maybe that's isn't how religion works, but that's pretty much how a cult forms in my view.

We tend to be careful and precise in our language around here, partly because we know there are fundamentalist members who will seize on any slip of the tongue or mis-statement.

A cult, in the modern sense/connotation as a group with novel, socially deviant beliefs and practices, tends to have a charismatic leader or founder to whom the members are zealously devoted and obedient. Doubt is discourage. How members are to live is ordered in great detail. Mind-altering practices are used. The group is elitist and tribal (us vs. them), and feel the group's ends justify the means.

The behavior you describe isn't at all how cults form. It's just people making asses of themselves and attracting an audience.