meme
= M =
memetics
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.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.