Hmmm. One thing any religion needs is “faith.” And when facts run counter to faith, religious people have a history of getting rather upset. So any ideological movement that disdains facts that run counter to the Truth would seem to be rather religious in nature, yes? And thus there are a *lot* of examples of this sort of thing:

All Stats Matter!
Data shows that the police don't target black people.
So I went to a NY protest to share the good news!
SPOILER ALERT….it didn't go well. pic.twitter.com/S8aJh5ac3I

— Ami Horowitz (@AmiHorowitz) June 10, 2020

Another feature of at least the more zealous side of religion is that the zealot demand that everyone else display an adequate level (as determined by the zealot) of adherence to their religion. And thus we get this:

White silence on social media: Why not saying anything is actually saying a lot

Where we get to witness some self-selected inquisitor say this:

“A friend of mine posted something without posting anything about hashtag blacklivesmatter. And some people might say that’s a first-world problem of some sort but it’s not. I want to tell you the definition of social media. So social means relating to society and media is the means of mass communication, right. That means it is the portal at this time, where we are, y’know, told to stay in our homes, to avoid getting contact with other people because of coronavirus. It is one of the most powerful ways to communicate right now and you’re telling me you have no hesitations posting a selfie of yourself or a shirtless pic of yourself or what you’re eating for dinner and yet you’re telling me you’re afraid to say something because you might hurt other people’s feelings, or you don’t know what to say, or you don’t have an audience to reach. Were you thinking those things when you posted the other photos? I don’t think you were.”

Basically he’s upset that people have interests and lives that don’t revolve around the thing he’s currently obsessed with. I have seen this before: several times over the course of my life I have witnessed – both as distant news and right in my face – the outrage of Christian fundamentalists pissed off about public schools not promoting their religion. These people saw Not Mentioning God as being the same as Denying God Exists. Which, of course, it doesn’t, as anyone with an above-idiot intellect should be able to confirm. How many people two days ago said absolutely nothing about the existence of a Mars-sized planet orbiting the sun some 120 AU out? Probably a whole lot of people. Yet a lot of those same people would hardly deny that such a world is at least possible, and very few people would get upset about “Planet X silence” here. But if Planet X was instead a religion… ayup, people are gonna get their knickers in a twist.

So, go ahead. Be a heretic and don’t be pressured to wave banners and spout slogans that you don’t agree with… or just don’t care that much about. You are allowed to like what you want, and to dislike what you want, and to utterly not care about what you want. Anyone who suggests otherwise is pushing a religion. And if people don’t push back against the apotheosis of a political ideology, what started out as the willing participation of a bunch of submissives may become mandatory.

You want to be religious… hey, great. You do you. If, however, you *demand* that I join along?

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