From a sociological perspective, the Bob Is The Oil Guy (BITOG) community is nearly a textbook example of a digital quasi-religious cult, and its form of MP-ism (from Russian МПизм - Oil Paganism, hereafter referred to as MP-ism) is fundamentally different from the Oleina-style approach. Among Oleina enthusiasts, the focus is gnostic: secret knowledge, the "alchemy" of additive packages, FTIR spectroscopy, and a quest for a kind of philosopher’s stone hidden in oil formulations. There, meticulous chemical analysis and data-driven experimentation are treated as a path to "salvation" through understanding. Knowledge itself is sacred, and mastery over the obscure details of lubricant chemistry is the ritual.
BITOG, by contrast, shifts the emphasis dramatically. Ritual, symbolism, and...