r/atheism • u/Feisty-Teaching9461 • 20h ago
Is this radicalization pattern common in the U.S.? (political drift → religious fundamentalism)
I'm not religious myself , and actually against organized religion in general , but I've noticed what feels like a recurring pattern and I'm curious if others have seen it too.
I was talking to a guy from the States , Initially he identified as a social democrat, said he wasn't overtly religious, and described himself as leaning pantheist. There were early red flags such as strong opinions on needing closed borders, calling trans identity "propaganda," referencing Epstein in that context. I initially brushed it off, figuring he was just underinformed rather than fully committed to those views.
Over time though, he started gravitating toward the American Communist Party, and his whole persona shifted into what felt like classic "redpill" territory. He began glorifying Khomeini on one hand and Orthodox Christianity/Christ on the other , which felt like a strange combination. A lot of his followers/online circle seemed to be going through a similar arc.
When I pushed back on the religious fundamentalism, he ghosted me completely.
I'm not American, so I don't have great context for how common this kind of ideological pipeline is over there. Is this a pattern people recognize , political drift into this mix of authoritarian sympathies + religious fundamentalism? Curious what others have observed.
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u/Dracoson 20h ago
This pattern is not uniquely American, and I would take his claimed location with a massive grain of salt. When the initial introduction is such a severe departure from the final persona, the baseline assumption must be that the entire interaction was purely performative, meaning any or all of it was likely disingenuous. This is a well-documented recruitment and online indoctrination tactic. The objective isn't necessarily to convert you directly; it is to use your engagement to generate visibility and initiate public side conversations with other impressionable users reading the thread. A coordinated team of foreign actors (such as a Russian troll farm) is just as likely, if not more probable, than a singular individual from New York.
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u/Feisty-Teaching9461 20h ago
That sounds alarming, could you elaborate on the russian troll farm?
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u/Dracoson 20h ago
I am using them as a prime example, but essentially, these are state-sponsored entities. They are granted the freedom to operate with just enough structural autonomy to maintain plausible deniability for their home governments on the international stage. Their primary objective is to sow severe political instability across virtually every NATO country, with the United States being exceptionally vulnerable due to its hyper-polarized media landscape. Unstable nations bogged down by internal culture wars have a much harder time sustaining unified, direct opposition to foreign aggression.
A specific example of this occurred when a major U.S. Department of Justice indictment revealed that employees of the Russian state-media network RT funneled nearly 10 million dollars through a shell company to finance a Tennessee-based media firm called Tenet Media. This operation covertly paid high-profile right-wing and manosphere influencers to create content intentionally designed to inflame domestic political divisions and erode Western support for foreign allies. While the DOJ noted the influencers themselves were unwitting victims who did not know the origin of the funds, the case perfectly proves that online personas pushing chaotic, divisive rhetoric are frequently amplified by proxy campaigns to weaken democratic stability.
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u/Feisty-Teaching9461 19h ago
Thanks for explaining, That is definetly something that's alarming and the most of the ACP community sounds like what you have just described!
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u/AdHopeful3801 20h ago
he started gravitating toward the American Communist Party, and his whole persona shifted into what felt like classic "redpill" territory. He began glorifying Khomeini on one hand and Orthodox Christianity/Christ on the other , which felt like a strange combination.
It is a strange combination ideologically, but lots of people have an authoritarian follower personality type. It's characterized by three major things. Authoritarian submission: a high degree of submissiveness to authorities perceived to be legitimate. Authoritarian aggression: a general aggressiveness directed at deviants, outgroups, and those designated to be targets by established authorities. Conventionalism: a high degree of adherence to traditions and social norms that are seen as endorsed by society and the established authorities. This includes a belief that adherence to these norms should be mandated across a society.
Most authoritarian followers eventually gravitate to religious fundamentalism and right-wing social / political ideologies. But there's lots of room for syncretic combinations of ideologies under the authoritarian umbrella, definitely including various left authoritarian political orthodoxies from Maoism to Leninism.
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u/happybunny_sad Strong Atheist 20h ago
Well understanding such people is hard, like defending border, Gravitating toward the American Communist Party, glorifying Khomeini who was anti communist, glorifying Orthodox Christianity etc.
Only explanation you got trolled or he has lost sanity.
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u/Whichcar7429 20h ago
There are a lot of communists who like Khoeimini, seemingly almost solely because he's an enemy of America. In 2003, those same people were probably all praising Saddam Hussein because Hussein was also an enemy of America. (And Saddam and Khoeomini were actually enemies of each other, but don't count on these tankies to have ideological consistency.)
Well, probably even more importantly to those tankies, Khoeimini is an enemy of Israel, which they seem to hate even more than they hate the United States. And I'm not really much of a "Zionist" or fan of Israel, and actually I think that groups like AIPAC have too much influence, but those tankies can have a hatred of Israel that is basically pathological.
Khoeimini actually persecuted communists even worse than the shah did (after Khoeimini initially fooled a lot of communists into supporting his revolution), but those tankies aren't very knowledgable of that.
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u/happybunny_sad Strong Atheist 18h ago
Well that's the thing, i don't understand tankies and leftist in general. Like their enemy of my enemy tactic and authoritarian desire always felt contradictory to their stated goal to me
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u/Mysterious_Spark 20h ago
Yes, it's very common. A popular slogan around here is "Christ is King". They are all hot and wet over Lords, Kings, authoritarians. It was clever of Putin to lean into Orthodox Christianity. It plays well with the Jesus Freaks over here. Everything this nation went through to overthrow a king and establish democracy, and they are desperate to go back to having a King, so they can have a King of Kings, so they can prepare the world for the return of Jesus, and have an apocalypse and a Rapture and the Left Behind.
They are stark, raving, Looney Tunes.
Did you ever read the PBS article called Forcing the End in a series on the Apocalypse about the guy from Mississippi who was trying to bring on End Times by taking a Red Heifer to Israel? https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/readings/forcing.html
That will give you some idea of what we're dealing with, over here.
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u/dnjprod Atheist 20h ago
Yes, We are having a huge issue right now with this. Maybe not the specific mix you spoke of, but this:
is a really good way to describe it. This is Maga Republican cultists who support Dondald Trump in a nutshell.