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Esme Fae's avatar

I think you are spot on. And just like religions have a fair number of lukewarm believers who show up for services but don’t actually do all the things, you’ve got your climate changers who still run the a/c and drive SUVs; the wokesters who move to the lily-white burbs “for the good schools”.

I have an acquaintance who is very religious about climate and wokeness. And for years my husband and I have chuckled that 300 years ago she would have been front and center with the torch and pitchfork demanding that the witches be burnt. There’s a certain personally type that just always wants to take things a little too far.

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Matt's avatar

The way I would put it is that there are patterns in behaving / believing / belonging that human beings repeatedly and persistently fall into.

One thing about your 3 examples is that they broadly come from “the left”. On the right, there is actual religion but also MAGA and white supremacism.

The two obvious writers to link this to are: John Gray - esp. Black Mass. For Gray, every modern political movement is really Christian millennialism in disguise. For Tom Holland (not that one) he would describe the current political moment in America as a civil war between 2 inheritors of Christianity. Which is a description I like if only because it offends almost everyone.

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