Chateau Lloyd

When Marxism failed to sway the proletarian masses, Communist leaders had to explain why.   They hit upon the notion of a "false consciousness," that is that the workers had been duped.  Religion was a major part of this, the "opiate of the masses" and had to be destroyed for the revolution to succeed.

Only once they saw the world as it was (that is, according to Marxists) would the Communist dream come to be.

Of course, Marxism itself is a religion, a form of heresy, which is why it persists despite a record of complete failure wherever it has been tried.

The concept of false consciousness has also endured, and in recent years, has actually appeared.  Thanks to corrupt news outlets and social media, a fully realized alternative universe now exists for many people.

Imagine being a fan of a sportsball team, and visiting a "news" site specific to that team that actually published false scores of the games, turning a close loss into a blowout win.  As the season progresses, the faithful fans happily anticipate playing in the championship game and tune in filled with expectations of glory only to learn that they never made the playoffs.

(This will be the mental state of Michigan fans when their victories and titles from 2021-3 are vacated next month.)

It remains to be seen how these people will react to the revelation that the real world is different from the one on their screens.  Many are threatening suicide and some have already carried it out - sometimes murdering others as well in their rage and despair.

There is no easy way back to reality for these people, and the ones who broke them have much to answer for.  It remains to be seen how many will make the transition or what their new delusion will be.  Happily, with God anything is possible, and I wonder how many will in time be drawn back to Him.  We can only hope.