An excellent set of observations - and one that will resonate with a lot of readers and cause anxiety in a lot more. What religion and progressive have in common is what you've identified. A doctrine. An ideology that must be followed, a codified set of beliefs or concepts that cannot be questioned, because to question is to render oneself an outsider and fair game for total evisceration in the most aggressive way possible.

I firmly believe that the key to being a worthwhile member of society comes with being an empowered individual, working on yourself and pepetually questioning what you think and why. You will find a truth there eventually. It might take therapy and it might evoke a long-dark night of the soul, but it's all there. Human beings are warlike hairless monkeys, if you don't watch yourself carefully then you will become a hairless warlike monkey too - and like every other hairless warlike monkey since the dawn of time, you will be convinced you are on the right side of history.

On a long enough timeline, the social progressive always wins - I'd argue that the current vogue for mandated social progression is reversing the natural order of things and is very dangerous. That's what makes it so beautifully ironic. When people stop trying to mandate inclusivity and police attitudes with freelance Catholic-esque zealotry, people get there on their own. Just by rubbing along together and doing what people do.

When God died... we replaced it with ideologies, fascism and communism. When those didn't work, we took the ideas of Marxism and blended them with together with post-structural thought and created a new ideology. It's a sort of identity based Marxist fascism... I'm not keen - I've seen where ideologues lead people and it's never anywhere nice.

Great article. It's nice to see thoughts unfolding and being articulated so clearly and with excellent precision. :o)