The Gospel According to Silicon Valley
How Big Tech turned poor evangelicals into digital soldiers of fear, rage, and divine conspiracy.
The New Holy War isn’t something with swords or sermons anymore. It’s fought with memes.
Poor white evangelicals, once shaped by local pastors and church gossip, now get their worldview from glowing rectangles. Their pulpits are Facebook feeds. Their preachers are YouTube prophets. Their faith isn’t just about Jesus — it’s about algorithms that decide what version of “truth” they’ll see next.
Social media first connected them to the world only to rewire what they believe about it. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have learned to weaponize faith the same way they weaponized outrage. The more fear, anger, and prophecy they consume, the more the system feeds it back — a digital gospel tailored for maximum engagement and minimum doubt.
As a 2024 Nature study found, users are nearly twice as likely to share negative news than neutral stories — “1.91 times more likely,” to be exact — showing how fear outperforms facts online. And an Oxf…
