Introduction
There is a strange ideology sweeping and transforming the United States of America. The high leaders of this ideology preach of original sins, of a fallen and wicked nature, of repentance and penance, of the importance of subjugating the individual, of the greater good, of sacrifice and selflessness, of an impending Armageddon, and of saviors and salvation. No, this is not a resurgence of Christianity. This is Leftism.
Leftism is a peculiar and evil combination of Marxism, Environmentalism, and Christianity. All three of these ideologies are ultimately Collectivist in nature, in that they prioritize the group above the individual. Although Conservatives, some Classical Liberals (myself included), and many Objectivists oppose Leftism, few understand this fundamental truth about Leftism: it is a religion. With seventy percent of millennials willing to vote for socialists, Leftism has never been more popular, and thus the need to understand and thus defeat Leftism has never been more crucial.
This essay is divided, after this introduction, into three parts. The first part of this essay discusses the rise of Leftism over the last few decades. The second part analyzes the three ideologies that make up the Leftist religion: Marxism, Environmentalism, and Christianity. Finally, the third and concluding part describes what makes Leftism so appealing to young people.
I
The year is 1991. After decades of promoting Communism and Socialism, and supporting Communist countries such as Cuba, the Soviet Union had collapsed. Lovers of freedom everywhere rejoiced. At the time, it was thought of as the great victory of Individualism over Collectivism—much as how World War I had been called “the war to end all wars” before World War II. Surely, a collapse of this magnitude definitively proved that Communism and Socialism not only did not work, but were also immoral and evil.
More than thirty years later, 70% of millennials and 60% of Gen Zers are willing to vote for socialists, and about half of both generations have a negative view of Capitalism. How is this possible? What happened? Why are so many young people either ignorant or willing to look past all the harm and suffering Communist and Socialist governments put their citizens through over the course of the twentieth century?
Leftism happened. Preachers of its orthodoxy flocked to public schools and into our education system. Howard Zinn’s anti-American American history book, A People’s History of the United States, began to circulate in classrooms. The Leftist religion was supported by academia. The Leftist religion was supported by Hollywood and later by the great and terrible streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and HBOMax. The Leftist religion was supported by the mainstream media: CNN, MSNBC, NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. The Leftist religion was supported by Big Tech: Google and its sidekick YouTube, Facebook and its sidekick Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, and the CCP propaganda-machine TikTok. In a sentence, America became religious in a way it had not been since the last Great Awakening.
Over the last few decades the Leftist religion has not only championed the ideology of Collectivism, but it has also done so with the full backing of our major cultural and educational systems. So, Leftism is broadcast to young Americans in a way previous Collectivist ideologies never were. But why do so many young people accept it? Before we can understand what makes Leftism so appealing to young people, we must first understand the Leftist religion.
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