When my mom was in Catholic girls school they had little boxes in church: donate your coins to save the pagan babies. Actual boxes. Printed label. Handed to eight-year-olds as a virtue exercise.

That’s not a metaphor. That’s the ideology made physical.

Nobody defends that framing anymore. Missionary colonialism, white man’s burden, noblesse oblige—we recognize those as paternalism dressed as generosity. The hierarchy was explicit: we have the truth, you don’t, your job is to receive salvation gratefully and not have inconvenient opinions about it.

The secular progressive version runs the same transaction with better branding. The Catholics became atheists but kept the bone structure. We care more about people than you do. We want things on your behalf because you don’t fully understand your own situation. It’s self-sealing—if you agree, you’re enlightened; if you disagree, that just proves you need saving.

Pagan babies got older. The box got bigger. The coins are now policy.