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)
Without exception, for the entirety of my life, every person I have ever met that made some version of a "love is just chemicals" with the implication that that makes love, somehow, meaningless, was lacking love in some glaring way, be it for others, themselves, or for life itself.
How that state appeared varied: often it was just bitterness from bad experiences, some sort of emotional pain compensated for in a maladaptive way.
In some unfortunate cases, the person was just sociopathic instead.
What they all had in common with the crude reductionist take was an inability, a disinterest, or outright contempt for the idea of helping those "chemicals" spread and do their thing.
I think it would be a mistake for leftists, be they self declared "hard" materialists or otherwise, to reject or even to diminish the importance of love.