I always found "Simulation Theory" to be a lazy Reddit version of Deism to begin with, but especially these days it's dire just how often undesirables are perceptibly stripped of personhood with that same belief system. It doesn't pass as a joke for me when too many rich creeps like 
sermonize about it on the regular and their sycophantic followers feel more like Main Characters by nodding along.
I don't know if that's the primary reason, but it's certainly valid to want to belong. It's why people join gangs, terrorist organizations, etc. Perhaps it also applies to commie groups, we shouldn't think of them as holy mystical orgs free from real life issues. I get that your friends have no idea what they are talking about, but I do think that people join orgs not solely for helping others, but also helping themselves ('it's better to be together with like-minded people than to suffer alone' king of thing).
Very true, though the point my friends were making was that those people don't truly believe in communism and are just lonely and want to belong somewhere