Credit to u/rooftoptendie for this beautiful post that got me thinking. https://greatawakening.win/p/15JAvEcv7H/the-main-reason-why-your-normie-/c/

And to u/Oskar64 for posting this video: https://mobile.twitter.com/UltraLandlord/status/1562104516153147392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1562104516153147392%7Ctwgr%5E11d15fd032e503e0989b89fee1b1dd1b2164d51e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgreatawakening.win%2Fp%2F15JTb4yrBs%2Fwhy-it-is-hard-to-wake-up-friend%2Fc%2F

Here were my thoughts that I just posted to instagram. For context, I was raised Mormon, but left Mormonism about 12 years ago. Most of my friends and followers are Ex-Mormon too. Many are Trump supporters, but many have gone to the dark side politically. This was mostly directed to the latter group.

So I'm not into astrology myself but this really applies to all kinds of things and she really hits the nail on the head here. I'm often amazed at how many people leave the Mormon Church only to find themselves almost instantly ardent Democrats/Liberals and vehemently anti-Christianity/anti-Jesus (that's not unique to Ex-Mormons--it's the same for Evangelical Christians from what I've seen, but I was Mormon so it's the bulk of my experience).

At first I thought it was a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" kind of thing--their Mormon or Christian parents are usually conservative politically and when they leave their religions (usually because they find it hypocritical and ultimately harmful in many ways) they feel the urge to reject everything even remotely related to it. They see the "shadows on the wall" for what they really are in one of "Plato's caves" and they run screaming in the other direction the moment they step outside.

But I've just now realized there's actually something else at play here, and she touches on it beautifully in that video. Arguably the most painful part of the waking up process for religious "apostates" (such as myself) is the horrible feeling of rejection from the only tribe they ever knew once they started to question things.

This is exceptionally lonely and painful. They know they're not crazy and they yearn for someone to acknowledge that. They need to feel safe and normal again. They need a new tribe.

Well it just so happens that Leftist popular culture offers them this. All they have to do to find a new sense of belonging is turn on the TV. There they'll hear every criticism of their former religion they could ever ask for from nearly every actor, talking head, and Democrat politician they come across. They quickly find there's a large, diverse, robust community of people who feel like rejects too, with rich, beautiful and powerful people telling them they're not alone...and they take the bait hook, line, and sinker.

They don't realize it but they miss not having to think for themselves. They miss their Bishops and their Pastors and their Priests and Prophets being the experts on life and spoon feeding them their opinions and talking points.

They want to feel at ease again after their ordeal and leftist pop culture provides them that in spades.

Like Neo in "The Matrix" they took a red pill. There's no going back from that. What's seen can't be unseen. What's known can't be unknown. And what they just went through was traumatic and exhausting and they just want to rest.

They're in a new world now, like Neo was. Sure, it's literally a cave but everyone is being so nice to them. Except, of course, those stupid Christians and Republicans who they choose to do battle with constantly.

Why should they question their reality now? Why would they want to? Look how nice and pretty and cultured their new Priests are!

But watch them closely. Have they truly entered a higher state of consciousness? Sure, the world they came from was stifling and judgmental and full of hypocrites, and they could never go back even if they wanted to because they know too much to now, but how are they doing now?

Are they really happier? They can finally do everything they always wanted to without the usual social shame and guilt and yet...when they open their mouths...do they sound like they've found inner peace? Have they found the thing they thought was missing in their church? They have a new tribe now, so why the anger? Why the vitriol? Why have their lives fallen apart?

Could it be that there's something in their souls that tells them this was not the destination? Could this really just be another cave? Do they even want to know?

What if these "apostates" weren't wrong...but they weren't right either? What if there really was something to that whole Christianity thing but it had become polluted somehow, and it was that pollution that they were really running from?

What if, in this way, Liberalism is nothing but a trap for exhausted freethinkers?

Remember, Odysseus thought he'd found happiness in the arms of the Sirens. They offered him comfort and ease and pleasure unspeakable, and being weary from his travels, Odysseus welcomed it.

But they were a trap. The longer he stayed, the weaker he became. In the throes of those beautiful Sirens he started to forget what he was truly seeking. What really made him happy: the love of his wife and the sound of his baby boy.

This was a delicious cave indeed, but it was a lie. A mirage. A spiders web, and if he stayed there, it would ultimately destroy his happiness, ruin his dreams, and leave nothing but an empty husk.

Keep climbing, friends.