The people in his age range are filled with bizarre hangups. These people also think that having long hair is the sign you are homosexual and that no one jerked off before the 1960s. I have had more than one of them tell me with a straight face that jerking off is gay "because you are giving a dude a handjob". I only wish I were making this up... And this is one of the many reasons I don't idealize the past. The ridiculous brainwashing that Americans were subjected to in the past -- and their inability for the most part to overcome it even when the absurdity is made clear -- is too much.

Alex, like many atheists in that age range, rejected Christianity but retained its moralizing, which is something you could write off as a rookie mistake IF you were able to correct it. He wasn't.