>>23393
I think youre close, but not quite there.
governments use it for blackmail and bribery, when it becomes an ''asset'', that asset contains value, if you create artificial scarcity of that "asset" (by making everything even mildly associated illegal, such as anime and manga) the purchasing power of that asset increases. The incentive to have total censorship creates an environment where you control all access to that asset and wield the power of fulfilling peoples desire, and use that for power purposes.
If the public starts enjoying those things freely their precious resource loses value.
So they attempt to gatekeep by creating a wall of total unacceptability of everything that even slightly deviates from the norm.

evil yes, but not really related to cults specifically, although theres occult angles...