The content of CushVlogs often veers into religious commentary (the most recent one especially). Why do you think Matt is so invested in it? I'm wondering if it's due to one or more of the following reasons: Americans are uniquely religious, so trying to divine anything about their politics requires interpreting their faith. Or: Part of being a revolutionary is believing in a prophecy that an ultimate goal will be achieved one day--a goal there's not much concrete evidence for--and in this way the revolution is faith based. Or: Studying religion comes with the territory of being a history buff (things like Luther and the Hundred Years War midwifing capitalism onto the world stage, etc). Or: Matt is obsessed with his mortality and is more and more curious about the big "Why are we here" questions. The reason I ask is because I don't hear much analysis of religion in left spaces now, and I think there's somewhat of a vacuum left by the Bush-era /stem cell-era libs who would call out jesus camps, televangelists, and mega-churches. (Like, that part of the culture war was deemed over by 2008-09)
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I think he grew up Catholic
That explains a lot. Catholicism has a very intricate web of answers to questions and criticisms built up over a very long time, so while there are ex-Catholics who don't never really engaged with it very deeply (fair and reasonable), there are also those who understand and navigate through it. If you take the second path, you end up knowing all this pretty much useless theory regarding a religion you don't believe in, so it's always tempting to find somewhere to put it to use, to look for places where it ties into things that actually matter, and sometimes the connections are there to be found.