When I first picked up the Screwtape Letters in my early 20s, I was already a Christian. Regardless, I didn't pick up the book to have my Christian biases confirmed, but to explore them further. I wanted to expand myself and deepen my understanding of my own beliefs. To be sure, I was taken for a ride that I never quite recovered from, and I often go back to the book to have that understanding deepened further.
In 2025, I picked up a book by Michael Heiser titled The Unseen Realm that addressed uncomfortable truths that we often avoid in the Bible. Unlike The Screwtape Letters, Heiser's book was more academic than morally exploratory, but I was struck by how the concepts and truths revealed by Heiser's in-depth research recontextualized many of my beliefs and actually deepened my faith.
Both books challenged me. Both books enriched my understanding of one of the most important parts of my core identity. Both books, through two different approaches, led me to see the world through the lens of my faith more clearly.
Neither of these books told me that being a Christian is all that matters in the constitution of my identity.
That's not to say I didn't indulge in books that confirmed my biases from time to time. Most politically based books do this. Most political sites, including this one, do that to no small degree as well. Confirmation bias can be a useful tool if used correctly, as it can help you deepen your understanding of your own beliefs, but it can become destructive if you fail to let your beliefs be challenged in the process, and this happens daily with new information that's fed to you whether you want it or not.
C.S. Lewis once said that an atheist "cannot be too careful in his reading," and while true, it applies to anyone with a firm belief in anything. But not every evolution of a belief is a move away from it. If the belief remains grounded in the truth, every evolution will naturally drive a person deeper into it.
Which brings me to what has been deemed the "modern audience." It was meant as a blanket term for anyone who consumes any kind of media in the post-modern era, but the dirty truth is that the "modern audience" is a very small group of people that usually consists of the people actually making the "modern audience" content in the first place.
This is the group that defines Lewis' words, but with a twist. They will consume many things, but in their own minds, they will pull out lessons and character traits that fit with their worldview as the most important part of the story, oftentimes whether it actually exists in the story or not. This is how you get characters that exhibit no real socio-political tendencies becoming "queer icons" or "feminist icons." They're not careful about what they consume; they're particular about what they draw from it.
This is confirmation bias on an extreme level. It uses delusion to enforce belief.
But because these socio-politically obsessed people believe they have a moral duty to make their beliefs your beliefs, they will — and have — infiltrate their way into places to manifest their beliefs in the media we consume to normalize it. As I wrote in my previous article on Tuesday, this has plagued the modern entertainment industry, as stories of great significance that tackle anything from interdimensional wars to the nature of morality are suddenly watered down and made minimal thanks to an injection of leftist social-political beliefs.
Read: LGBT+ Activism Is Shooting Itself In the Foot
And notice the focus. These people would have you believe that what they're doing is noble, as they normalize their beliefs for everyone else, especially our children. They think they're creating a world of acceptance, of peace, and of love.
But they aren't, because the focus isn't on the nature of acceptance, peace, and love, but on the identity of the people they think should be receiving it more than anyone else right now.
This is the most shallow way to tell a story, and that shallowness shines through in the "modern audience" that imbibes this identity-based confirmation bias. The most important part of any story is the part where they see themselves represented, be it in form or belief. No exploration of the concept is needed or even wanted. In fact, that could be seen as problematic. All that matters is that the identity they approve of is seen on screen, is considered the good guy, no matter how selfish or ridiculous, and that is shown love and support by every character.
This is shallowness. Pure and simple. They have no interest in the bigger questions. They have no desire to truly explore their own beliefs. All that matters is that their biases are displayed, confirmed, and celebrated.
And what can anyone do with that? There's no meat there to chew on. Even the people who are here for this kind of "entertainment" are getting an insubstantial sort of food for the heart, mind, and soul.
But this sheds some light on what it is we're having to endure from these people. They're as shallow as a gym floor shower, but trying to convince us they're as deep as the Mariana Trench.
It's exhausting. These people are endured, not engaged with, because you're not engaging with a person so much as a singular, hyper-focused identity whose narrative entirely consists of something along the lines of "I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it."
