The left excels at making itself seem bigger, stronger, and more pervasive than it actually is. For a very long time, it did so through control of the media, but with that gone, the illusion is breaking.
But even at the height of its power over the narrative, it was clear that when you truly asked people to focus in on leftist beliefs, a lot of people weren't willing to say they could fully get on board with the left's extremes despite the media telling you it was widely agreed upon by society.
Two things made this absolutely clear.
Censorship was a huge indicator that the left's argument could only survive in a vacuum. If you allowed even a basic argument to muddy the works, an entire carefully crafted narrative would fall apart. As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed, the government was on the phone with his staff screaming cussing over posts that were circulating around the site that called into question the vaccine's efficacy, or the panic surrounding the virus itself.
The Twitter files also gave us a look into just how important censorship was to the left. Democrats have understood the dangers of a free-speech centric social media for some time, and did its absolute best to buckle down on it and make sure it stayed well in their control.
If the left's messaging was so pervasive and agreed upon, then why was there a need for censorship?
The other indicator was, as I mentioned above, that the entertainment industry felt the need to sneak their messaging in with things you loved. Whether it was a superhero movie or a popular video game franchise, messages were implanted into almost every creation, sometimes subtly, other times far too overtly. Not that the subtlety worked. We all noticed, and we stopped participating as a result.
Again, if leftist ideals are so popular and widely agreed upon, then why did they feel the need to force the message into every piece of popular media they could get their hands on? Why not let it speak for itself in its own movies and television shows?
It's because we weren't buying these obvious propagandistic pieces of "entertainment." We didn't even buy them when you slapped our favorite characters over the top of them.
The left cannot sell the message by itself. It's too over-the-top and obviously destructive. It defies logic and denies reality. When a leftist approaches you and begins spewing their radical nonsense, the usual reaction is revulsion. Even if someone is sympathetic or passive about it, there is often a line where their ability to stomach it ends.
Very few parents, for instance, cannot tolerate a man dressed as a woman doing a provocative dance in front of their children, or cannot allow for a teacher to indoctrinate them into believing radical ideologies that cause them to have identity crises.
Women who display sympathies for the transgender movement will often find themselves at odds with it the moment a man enters their private spaces or begins dominating them in various activities.
Virtue signaling isn't free. At some point, the bill comes due, and you will be forced to pay it by backing up your talk with proof. This is the point of regret for many, and the radical left is often bringing these moments to people... but I digress.
The point is that the left's radicalism isn't as accepted as it had us previously believing, and it knows this, which is why it sneaks it into our lives through various delivery systems where we've let our guard down.
Which brings me to the most egregious of these examples, the "woke pastor."
As Nick Arama recently covered, Bishop Marian Budde, a woman of the cloth, took the opportunity to finger-wag at Donald Trump, telling him to have "mercy" on LGBT children and illegal immigrants whom Budde boiled down to being a mere labor force.
It was a disgusting moment from someone who carries with her a title and position that people entrust with, not just their hearts and minds, but the guidance of their souls.
However, as Budde demonstrated, she's merely another leftist activist wearing the mask of something people trust. She used that mask to put herself into a position where she could inject ideological radicalism into, not just the situation, but anyone watching. She framed it as if Trump was, in fact, a predator looking to harm people.
Let me be very clear about this. She wasn't actually speaking to Trump at that moment, she was speaking to Americans. She was speaking to you. She wanted her words to be seen by onlookers as a rebuke of Trump for an evil he was currently committing, or at least that's what she wanted onlookers to assume.
She was using her authority to carry a false narrative, and hers is one of the more disgusting attempts at doing so strictly thanks to her title and position as a representative of Jesus Christ.
This was just one more mask of radicalism, but it should be a very important lesson.
These people are everywhere, and in every facet of our society. They purposefully weasel their way into places where their messaging will be the most effective. They don't care about sanctity or propriety. All that matters is the message and their ability to convey it.
