ONE OF THE WAYS YOU CAN TELL THAT LEFTISM IS A RELIGION IS ITS RELIANCE ON SHUNNING APOSTATES:

I’ve gone to the same gym for almost 4 years now.

Good friends with nearly everyone there.

One day a guy who used to make small talk with me, just stopped.

Didn’t think much of it, but it went on for weeks.

Found out later he’s a liberal and someone showed him my X account…

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) May 11, 2026

As Glenn noted in the very early days of Instapundit, “As the old saying has it, the left looks for heretics and the right looks for converts, and both find what they’re looking for. The effect is no doubt subliminal, but people who treat you like crap are, over time, less persuasive than people who don’t. If people on the Left are so unhappy about how many former allies are changing their views, perhaps they should examine how those allies are treated.”