Louise Perry is a British journalist, author, and host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch Podcast. She’s a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and has been described as a leading reactionary feminist. She interviewed me for us to discuss why progressivism became such a powerful cultural force, how the postwar story shaped modern politics and storytelling, and why fairy tales still preserve patterns that our culture has tried to flatten or subvert. Her website: https://www.louisemperry.co.uk/ Her X account: https://x.com/Louise_m_perry Podcast version of this episode: - Spotify: https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/DeGMbv2N65b - Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/477-louise-perry-how-progressivism-took-over-our-stories/id1386867488?i=1000787438796 Register now for the Universal History Masterclass hosted by Dcn. Seraphim Rohlin: ⁠https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/universal-history-masterclass⁠ Pre-order GodsDog 3 and get volumes 1 and 2 on sale! https://store.thesymbolicworld.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 – Coming up 01:13 – Introduction 01:27 – Progressivism and the Subversion of Fairy Tales 05:56 – How World War II Shaped the Revolutionary Story 08:23 – Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the Return of the King 12:02 – The “Secret” of the World War II Narrative 14:15 – Hitler as the Symbol of Absolute Evil 18:42 – Why We’re Attracted to Evil Characters 21:00 – Wicked and Making the Villain the Hero 22:56 – Diversity Without Unity 24:10 – How Fairy Tales Balance Opposites 27:42 – What Are Fairy Tales For? 30:50 – Modern Life, Screens, and Alienation From Reality 35:05 – Fairy Tales as the Product of Natural Selection 38:12 – Archetypes and the Trickster 41:33 – Christianity’s Influence on Fairy Tales 43:26 – Christ, Parables, and the Ultimate Story 47:54 – The Other Lesson We Could Have Learned From World War II 52:01 – Hollywood, Mass Media, and Manufactured Stories 55:24 – Returning to the Christian Story 56:00 – Why Did Christianity Lose Its Cultural Power? 59:10 – How Progressivism Borrowed From Christianity 01:01:30 – The Antichrist as a Pattern 01:04:52 – What Conservatives Get Wrong 01:08:44 – The Center, the Margin, and Carnival 01:12:44 – Is Progressivism Self-Destructive? 01:14:08 – Communism, the Family, and Subsidiarity 01:16:30 – Why Memes Became a Right-Wing Weapon 01:20:31 – Why Progressivism Struggles With Archetypes 01:23:18 – What Conservative Storytelling Could Look Like 01:24:39 – Conclusion 🔓 Become a patron to support us and unlock exclusive monthly symbolism content: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe 💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com 🎧 Listen to and review The Symbolic World podcast: -Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0gI8bUwPtT3gkduHqNh6M5 -Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-symbolic-world/id1386867488 Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/ My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson: https://matthewwilkinson.net/