Two older conservative family members of mine were trying to make sense of our younger progressive family members and why they hate Trump and Republicans so much and voted for Biden who is clearly so incompetent. One theorized that it is ultimately a single-issue election for the progressives—abortion—and they will always vote pro-choice “for women’s rights” no matter who the candidate is.

This is true in some sense, but misses the forest from the trees. The conservatives are doing a bit of projection because it is ultimately a single-issue election for them every time. Conservative Christians will always vote Republican as long as Republicans are pro-life and Democrats are pro-choice. Hence they project that mindset onto their progressive relatives because those progressives claim to be emphatically pro-choice.

But the truth is most progressives—these progressives from my family in particular—are not really Progressive. They don’t really care about abortion that much. They are simply adopting the dominant ideology of their current social circles. They are PINOs: Progressives In Name Only. I know because I was once one of them. I was brainwashed by education and media to adopt the progressive faith. It took years of deprogramming through reading books, blogs, and listening to podcasts to break free from that mindset. If I can be saved and escape the cult, so can many others—but not all.

What conservatives fail to realize is that progressivism (social justice and equality, for all, forever) is a religion to Democrats as much as Christianity is a religion to Republicans. Progressivism is a break-off sect of Christianity that doesn’t worship Christ, an atheistic religion that doesn’t believe in God. (Though progressives themselves do not realize this.)

The progressives in my family—and other PINOs like them—don’t actually care about abortion. They aren’t ever going to get an abortion themselves; they are just trying to fit in with the popular culture. They were told that being pro-choice for “women’s rights” is the correct way to think, and they are terrified of becoming apostates and being rejected by their friends, schoolmates, and coworkers who are all members of this same progressive cult. None of these PINOs have thought deeply about the abortion issue—they cannot afford to do so. They don’t consider the rights of a female fetus, or the fact that it is not very difficult to not get pregnant if you don’t want to. If progressives are caught speaking (or even thinking) such heresy, they will be banished from their tribe and risk losing friends and perhaps even their careers.

That is why PINOs claim to be pro-choice. For them, it is not about women’s rights or the ability to have sex without repercussions. The pro-choice position on abortion is primarily a form of virtue-signaling to their fellow tribe members—as are most other political issues. They always vote blue because their friends always vote blue. If the dominant ideology changes in the future, they will instantly adopt that new ideology instead. These very same progressives from my family grew up going to Catholic school, and they were genuine Christian believers during those early years—because all their friends at school were too. It wasn’t until their college years when they met more secular people that they converted to the Universalist Progressive faith.

Of course in Progressivism, as with any religion, there are devout true believers—but they represent a small minority of those currently inhabiting the Progressive Cathedral. There is no changing their minds—on abortion, taxation, inequality, or any other issue. The only hope for them (or us) may be separation. Or at least limit their power over public opinion. They are like bishops of the church, dictating the doctrine. The masses who encompass the church will quickly adopt a different doctrine if new bishops are appointed. Progressive one day, conservative the next—it doesn’t matter. They just follow their leaders.

The Cathedral would be easier to combat if it was a matter of just replacing a few bishops, but it is much more decentralized than that. It is not just their public school teachers and college professors indoctrinating them. They are facing a full-on progressive propaganda campaign from the entire entertainment industry as well. How do you compete with the decades of media they’ve consumed teaching them to think and act like a “good progressive”? Conservatives go to church to be be preached to once a week, but progressives are preached to all day everyday—at school, on TV, the radio, podcasts, and social media.

Conservatives will never be able to convert their PINO loved ones toward more conservative values unless they first understand the progressive mind. They must realize that they are not having a political debate, but a theological debate. It is more like deprogramming someone from an all-encompassing cult. “An Open Letter to Open-minded Progressives” by Mencius Moldbug may help in this respect. Conservative Christians must understand that your Progressive loved ones want to convert you to their faith just as much as you want to convert them to yours.

By asking someone to abandon Progressivism, you are essentially asking them to abandon their friends, their favorite TV shows and movies, musicians, podcasters, YouTubers, and social media influencers who all profess the Progressive faith. Even if you do come to understand the progressive mind, you still may not be able to deprogram your progressive loved ones. A true believer in a religion will never willingly leave their religion. Though, as in the case of my family members, they need not be true believers to maintain the faith. They may simply cling to their religion, despite not deeply believing it, for social reasons. If they have friends or a career that they don’t want to risk losing, then they will stay in the church. Ultimately it may come down to the question of what they value more: happiness or truth. I personally find happiness in pursuing truth, but most people are not like me.