They all did something abhorrent or yet to be caught doing it. And yet we have people who would seemingly jump into fire for a brand (even in face of damning facts).
Is this a form of ancient tribalism still at play?
Anyone that believed it was only deluding themselves.
Most people start with good intention. Then they get power and power corrupts.
They are composed by a group of people, each with their own set of goals and morals, which isn't the same thing.
The key similarities between the two fan bases are that they all want to be a part of something with other people, whether it's being a female fan that follows an artist with a history of abuse against women, or being a fan of a company that offers cheap perks in favour of treating employees like humans with basic needs outside of a ping pong table.
The other similarity, and it's a very cynical one that you may or may not agree with, is that many people simply don't care if it doesn't affect them - which is funny in the age of the "cancel culture".
if you want to objectively analyse a company all you need to do is check their 10-Q each quarter. but that means studying and analysing their actual performance and their peers' stats.
> how in this day and age do we still have people believing/having faith in a company.
the same can be said for people that still believe in politicians/governments. even thou we have all the evidence in the world that these forms of control are pretty much obsolete especially compared to our current modern way of life, you will still get millions of fanboys/girls that dismiss all the evidence.
"in this day and age"
Where things different at some point? Or where you simply less familiar with other times?