There's a fear that runs deeper than concerns about immigration, unemployment, or foreign threats (a fear so ancient and visceral that it bypasses rational thought entirely): the fear of the Devil. As someone who spent the first 24 years of my life genuinely terrified of the devil, demons, and eternal hellfire, I know exactly how this fear operates from the inside out. So, in my latest video, I pull back the curtain on how this primal terror is being exploited to convince millions of working-class Americans to vote for the interests of billionaires and corporations who are robbing them blind. They used to pull this crap on me, so this one's personal!
Growing up as an evangelical missionary kid with Youth With a Mission, I was raised to believe that Satan was everywhere. If the electricity went out during worship in post-Soviet Azerbaijan (which happened constantly), we'd literally rebuke the devil rather than consider the obvious explanations: energy shortages or an inefficient power grid. I spent a summer at a church camp in Texas where counselors were convinced a cabin was haunted by demons, and my fellow counselors and I played worship music all night to exorcise them. Looking back, it sounds absurd, but when you're swimming in that worldview, spiritual warfare feels absolutely real.
And political grifters know exactly how to exploit that!
Megachurch pastors like Tennessee's Greg Locke are telling their millions of followers that voting Democrat is literally casting a vote for Satan (at the cost of their mortal souls). Churches have become perfect vehicles for con artists, operating tax-free while fleecing congregations out of millions through prosperity gospel schemes, fake miracle healings, and "seed" donations that leave vulnerable people dead when, on faith, they stop taking their medications. These televangelists fly private jets and launder fortunes into offshore bank accounts, and in return for GOP protection, they deliver their flocks as reliable voters.
Even billionaire tech moguls like Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and architect of surveillance companies like Palantir and Clearview AI, frames any attempt to regulate his data-harvesting empire as ushering in the Antichrist's one-world government. He's literally telling audiences they should fear global governance (or any regulations on his companies) more than they fear Armageddon/the end of the world itself. Meanwhile, his technology powers ICE raids on legal residents and drone strikes in Gaza that continue to kill civilians and aid workers.
From Monster Energy drinks to Pokémon to Teletubbies to those creepy little Labubu dolls, conservative Christians have developed an uncanny talent for spotting Satan in anything popular with young people. But this demon-hunting extends far beyond pop culture into deadly serious territory: abortion reframed as child sacrifice to the ancient god Molech, and transgender people demonized as literal agents of Satan by sitting members of Congress. When your political opponents become demons, any cruelty against them becomes righteous self-defense.
There's a Turkish proverb that's never been more apt: "The trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood."
While Christians are distracted worrying about whether their daughter's toy is a portal to hell, their bosses are lobbying Congress to eliminate overtime pay. While they're boycotting Bud Light over a trans spokesperson, pharmaceutical companies ensure they'll never afford insulin. While they're burning Harry Potter books, private equity firms are buying up all the housing in their towns. The culture war is a distraction. It always has been. And it's being deployed so that the 1% can entrench their control and pick our pockets.
So is there a way out of this fear?
In the video, I share my own journey and how I escaped the fear of hell and Satan. I talk about how learning the science behind my fears (understanding neurology, psychology, and the actual history of how beliefs in hell and Satan evolved over time) caused the “devil of the gaps” to shrink and eventually disappear entirely. Replaced with a newfound excitement and wonder at the actual complexity of our beautifully weird brains.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support of my work.
Videos like this take an enormous amount of research and time to produce, and I'm only able to do this because of viewers like you. If you want to see how the fear of Satan is being weaponized to keep millions trapped in a cycle of voting against their own interests (and how we can break free from that fear) check out the full video here. And hopefully you find it both eye-opening and oddly liberating.
Dare to be curious, but don't drink the Koolaid!
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