Radical leftism is a social contagion. I should know. Take it from someone who grew up in Seattle, WA – it’s about as liberal as any place in the world.

I was raised in the early 2000s and reached my teens by the mid-2010s. I saw my hometown slowly devolve from a pretty normal place into an environment where sexual deviancy, self-worship, and radical liberal ideals became not just popular – but trendy.

All the while, the more I leaned into my Greek heritage, the more people looked at me like I was from outer space. It was a very confusing time to grow up, and I credit my parents with making sure I was brought up right. I cannot say the same for all my childhood friends.

I appreciate Seattle for reasons other than its socio-cultural fabric, which permanently reared its ugly head right around the 2016 presidential election. I witnessed a very clear line being drawn at that moment, dividing the “with us or against us” mob rule radical left from the dwindling ranks of traditionalists and conservatives. Of course, there were other sub-categories, but the basic divide was clear.

I must emphasize that I was basically still a child at this time – 14 going on 15 years old. Yet it truly was a politically charged time, and I looked on, confused, as my traditional home life clashed wildly with my school life, filled with peers who wore their radicalism like a badge of honor.

None of these changes happened all that slowly, either. That’s how social contagions work – they want to invade and infect as quickly as possible. Suddenly, the guy friends I had known for years were applying purple lipstick, wearing fishnet stockings, and glorifying homosexuality. Social life spiraled into a competition for who could be the biggest victim and the most diverse at the same time.

The worst part is that despite my excellent upbringing, I got swept up in it. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the truly frightening thing about radical leftism. Even normal people with good foundations can flicker under its promise of short-term pleasure and a million “truths” – yours can be correct, too!

For instance, I grew up with a genuine passion for musical theater. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching timeless classics like “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” but I was hooked. Unfortunately, if you’ve been anywhere near a theater in the last decade, you know what I’m going to say next. My environment inevitably became extremely petty, gay-pride-glorifying, and full of teenagers hell-bent on out-liberaling everyone in their midst.

Let me tell you, that was – again I’ll use the word – confusing. At best, I was completely misunderstood as a Greek Orthodox Christian trying to navigate secular America. At worst, I was scorned on several occasions for my “backward and archaic” worldview.

Then I learned something interesting, and very important. The same people trying to convince me that my Orthodox way of life was outdated and evil simultaneously had no idea what exactly they were criticizing and didn’t truly believe in anything themselves. The older I got, the clearer my worldview became. Before long, I was thanking my lucky stars I had something real to guide me through life.

In the end, I’ve learned the only things you can truly count on are family and faith. Cliché, but factual. Those people asking you to go to the gay pride parade because it’s the “morally correct (and cool!) thing to do” don’t actually care about you. I’ve seen enough ultra-liberals backstab each other to know that.

Fun fact: your roots aren’t going anywhere. No matter how far you’ve turned away from them, your ancestors have either found or passed down something tangible to believe in – something that transcends what’s trendy in the 21st century.

The way I see it, I’ve inherited being Greek through a long, unbroken chain of Orthodox and Hellenic predecessors. That’s a real identity that covers spirituality, cultural life, language, blood, history, and community.

For those who have no known roots, you can make yourself the first in a long line of future successors tapping the depths of knowledge, worship, and belonging. Truth is not exclusionary, but it does require patience and faith. As long as that road may seem, it certainly doesn’t end in one big gay pride parade.