I've thought often recently about what it must be like to be a delusional MAGA zealot. Someone who has no clue that they live in an utterly false reality. They only know the extremes of blind love for Trump and burning hate for Biden and all Democrats. Information to the contrary never penetrates their programmed, single-minded thinking.
I've thought often recently about what it must be like to be a delusional MAGA zealot. Someone who has no clue that they live in an utterly false reality. They only know the extremes of blind love for Trump and burning hate for Biden and all Democrats. Information to the contrary never penetrates their programmed, single-minded thinking.
In other words, they have no idea that President Biden and Democrats in Congress, whom they despise and disparage with the heat of a thousand suns, have accomplished so many things that are improving their lives now and long into the future.
Could there be a sadder, more tragic irony in America?
Think of Wiley Coyote, pursuing the roadrunner off cliffs, running into walls with painted tunnels, then being run over by a train or truck or bus coming out of the painted tunnel. Cognitive dissonance is ringing like a bell for the MAGAts, and it makes them angry and uncertain and very, very dangerous.
AG, I think your metaphor of "Wiley" comes very close, manic to the point of confusion over reality, unable to reason deductively, easily manipulated to the point of destroying family bonds. Very dangerous to others as you said.
If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
James Madison
"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." - James Baldwin
We have a lot to overcome in todays politics and self deception is probably the hardest to overcome. Whether it is credulity or cultivated contempt for law and order, we have problems.
MAGAs are not tragic figures, and they aren’t honestly delusional. They are willfully delusional. They have a specific goal: ensuring that white Christians control government at all levels in the United States. It’s definitely ironic but much worse than sad.
It's a shame that the vast number of real Christians are invisible in the face of the Zealots who claim the mantle but fail to comprehend and practice the very basic tenants of the faith they claim to protect. If they have their way, it won't be white Christians, or any Christian for that matter, who end up in the halls of power.
I belong to a Presbyterian church that leans liberal in both its membership and pastoral leadership. Never has our pastor preached anything remotely political from the pulpit. But using the words of Bible and employing both metaphors and lived experiences, she has made the case that as believers in God - or a higher power, or a spirit greater than ourselves - we have a shared responsibility in doing good in this world; that we must hold our elected officials, or anyone who claims a role in any leadership, to be honest and respect the rule of law.
I am able to separate my faith from my politics, though it is my faith that in some way has shaped my politics. I believe that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That we care for our fellow beings and for our earth. I believe that we are all entitled to practice the faith that calls to our spirit and beliefs.
That so many have usurped “religion” for their own political benefit is anathema to me.
I'm an atheist, and I believe exactly the same things about doing good, loving my neighbors, caring for them and our earth. Why do people think that only religion can foster these ideas & goals?
It may be harsh to say but I believe religion, that is particularly formal dogmatic religion, has made people too often look in the wrong direction and fail to simply direct focus on supporting a kind, loving, inclusive society.
If you were to choose a hundred atheists at random and also a hundred random people who count themselves as Christians, I’m confident that you would find several times as many people with admirable values among the atheists than among the Christians.
I don't agree, because "some" and it may not be many do believe in helping their fellow man. For most they are simply following the leadership or "church going" is part of the regional culture.
The real evil is the leadership who are in it just for the power and money.
I grew up in that world but left it behind more than a half century ago.
Our church has also avoided the politics, however enough members support trump as their choice of leader causes me to think twice about their understanding of the Gospel
There are many clerics from different denominations that have been drawn into political debate. Archbishop Cordileone openly condemned Speaker Pelosi. Appalling! Franklin Graham runs ads on TV that basically reinforce MAGA thinking. There is much twisting of what Chritianity means. As even religious leaders are drawn into the fray, they reinforce the perversion of scripture. And most importantly, they most definitely do not separate their faith from their politics. They do not accept the separation of church and state.
If you haven't read.... Jesus and John Wayne.... please get a copy and read it! I was in shock! All in the name of Christianity! Actually, filling their pockets at the expense of their flock!
Yes and they are loudly praying in the Temple. I know people whose faith does inform their social conscious and they work to make the world a better place. But they don't usually capture headlines.
Marg, you have beautifully described how faith in a God leads us "to love our neighbors as we love ourselves." Hell will freeze over before the "politicians" who claim their faith leads them actually live and lead by that faith.
We’re on the same wavelength on this matter, but the people you and I put in the zealot category would classify themselves as real Christans and put us in the zealot category. There’s no general agreement on definitions. Pretty much everyone agrees on who the white evangelicals are, though, and 80% of them voted for Trump. Twice. If the white evangelical electorate were no worse (as human beings), on the average, than the white electorate generally (“only” 60% of whom voted for Trump), the orange clown wouldn’t have become president. To me (and maybe you, too) this is ironic, tragic, and bad in many other ways, but to them it’s the best possble outcome (or “God’s will” as they like to put it).
that may be...what's important is that YOU can tell the difference. I can tell you there are MANY evangelicals who don't view TFG as the second coming of Christ.
Here's what's REALLY hard about it all...they are our neighbors, and our mandate is clear; we're supposed to love them like we do ourselves. Like loving your teenager who's spitting in your eye. The big tent is supposed to have room for them too. That's enough to keep me completely occupied, just trying to live by the two greatest commandments. I can't love them while I'm throttling them until they stop breathing...
A misunderstanding, I fear, of love, which runs deeper than our sentimental conception of it and its demands.
Think of the Inuit hunter who asks forgiveness of the beast he kills and wishes it a happier rebirth.
That's not a perfect analogy, but you are doing something awful that must be done, not only to protect many but to prevent the enemy from doing worse and, in so doing, harming himself even more deeply.
It is easier to think of self-sacrifice than of this awful duty imposed by the need to protect ourselves and others, but there is an element of self-sacrifice, for whoever takes a life will pay for the deed.
These are awful things to write or think about but we have to face the demands of a deeper commitment.
That’s a tough assignment you’ve taken on. I admire you for that but think your efforts would be more efficiently invested in working with well-organized projects to get Dem-leaning voters to the polls than in struggling to love your MAGA neighbors. Maybe you could redirect, just for the next couple months, then get back to the hard stuff.
point well delivered...good thing you can try to love someone while spanking them at the polls!
no sense in trying to change their minds, convince them of a different version of reality. It's the disillusioned, disaffected, "checked out" folks on the sidelines that will make the difference in this cycle. Those who see the foundations of democracy on trial will be there. It's those who have tuned out who we need to reach.
But the father didn't chase after his son and force fatted calf upon him as he walked away; no, he let the boy go and threw him a party after he returned.
Their's is a distinction between the sinners among them and the sins of the other, outside of the faith? The former shall be given (deserving of?) our forgiveness, while the later we must wage against for were they to pursue the sins ( policies, goals, duplicity) they promote, our believe system (christianity) would be destroyed. The sins (named communism, socialis, secularism, abortion, welfare, democrat, questioning establish mythology, preferring lentils to whole wheat) are studied and enumerated and appraised not as ideas or options but as weapons of evil. IMHO
True. I know that there are "real Christians" who are tolerant, loving and generous. But their leaders are very quiet. Is it a fear of alienating already shrinking congregations? I would think if there is a future for "Christianity" it would be if it stood for the right values - LOUDLY. Pavlovitz is perhaps a positive example. https://johnpavlovitz.com/
How to sort a "good Christian" from a "bad Christian"? The good one respects and honors the faiths of others. The bad one says their faith is the "only righteous one". He is really not practicing a faith but is part of a cult of exclusion. Therefore by definition, a "bad Christian" is no Christian at all.
When the preacher or leader of one's religion says that his religion is the "only true faith", please find one's self a new church or join the millions (young people in particular) who simply don't need the nonsense of hate, exclusion and hypocrisy within an antique hierarchy. That "only true faith" is built for control, not love.
Those “Leaders” are focusing on not losing the money each seat represents in that congregation. Organized religion is the opposite of what that guy from Nazareth modeled. Quiet equals complicity.
I don’t think they’re Christians either, but they think they’re Christians, and they believe that as fervently as you believe they’re wrong. I don’t give a damn about the Christian label. What I believe is that there are 74 million US voters that the country, and the planet for that matter, would be better off without. Unfortunately, we can’t rid ours of them (what would we do with the corpses?), but if we’re lucky, we might be able to outvote them, just barely, and begin the decades-long process of forming some reasonable kind of US body politic.
Please take note-they are NOT Christians. The term Christian means “Christ follower” and there is nothing of Jesus the Christ found in them. Jesus’ call was that we are to love one another. They have hijacked the name and distorted the message for their own purposes. It’s sick and sad and an abomination to Christianity, not to mention an affront to true patriots and adherents to our Constitution who value freedom of religion and the right to vote among all the other gifts that document ensures.
Okay, that’s your definition, but there is no generally agreed upon definition of what it means to be a Christian. Anybody can claim the mantel. Slave owners did, for example, and they not only justified their ownership of other human beings as a basic tenet of their faith but also believed that anyone who disagreed with them on that point could not rightly call themselves Christians. It’s not much different today. So much for progress, eh?
It is true that anyone can make fraudulent claims and get away with it, especially if people don't take the trouble to check the matter out thoroughly.
My job as a translator recently brought me into contact with the four gospels plus a key document, the Gospel of Thomas, found in Egypt in 1945. I think I can claim to be a dispassionate reader.
All I can say is that, while the last-named text is demanding, when it comes to interpretation, the teaching is a radical work of liberation. Yet, for most of the history of the religion, ever since it became the official religion of the Roman empire, political considerations have weighed heavily on ecclesiastical interpretation of the Gospels and this has been skewed in such a way as to give priority to hierarchies and social control at the expense of spiritual content.
What is most curious is how Protestant Evangelicals have allied themselves with the most retrograde Roman Catholic circles and gone to extreme lengths to transform the work of liberation into one of oppression and imprisonment, as well as engaging in the most horrendous missionary activity, all in the name of Jesus. Part of this is a consequence of failed far-right politicians finding themselves a profitable tax-free niche as all-powerful "ministers of religion", loading their congregations with chains of guilt, the better to control them...
Centuries of crude literalist misinterpretation of the teaching have put a heavy lid on the essential message, which shows us, not what we should be but what we essentially are. "The kingdom of God is within you".
Mike Flynn, working in the highest echelons of US intelligence, had a front row seat to how “faith” can be used to create jihadists. “Then one of JSOC’s Special Forces strike teams raided an AQI safe house and captured 12 men who were unlike the typical brutish Al Qaeda thugs. These older men were the senior managers and vice presidents of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The network they had established was sophisticated far beyond the early reckoning of U.S. commanders, with interlinked logistics, transportation, information, money management and strike operations, all of it worthy of a multinational conglomerate.
As JSOC’s director of intelligence, Flynn interrogated the senior Al Qaeda commanders at length. Sitting across from them at the detainee screening facility at Balad Air Base, Iraq, Flynn wondered why such obviously educated and intelligent people were devoting themselves to tearing their country apart, regardless of the horrendous toll in innocent lives. Some of the men had electrical engineering and other advanced degrees, but instead of building a bridge or helping establish a functioning government, they applied their talents to attacking vulnerable governing institutions in order to terrorize and intimidate civilians. He could understand their hatred of American interlopers, but the vast majority of their tens of thousands of victims were fellow Iraqis.”
If you'd made this all up as fiction 25 years ago wouldn't you, the writer, have been in danger of being locked up in a psychiatric hospital? No work of the imagination could ever dream up anything to match real-life American lunacy...
Not sure I agree, Rex, about willfully delusional. Your run-of-the-mill MAGA type is typically under educated, indoctrinated by right-wing propaganda, and raised to be racist.
That said, the big monied interests that manipulate them are indeed intent on establishing "Christian" control of government.
As a renegade pastor, I simply cannot get around the silly irony of the word Christian. Jesus (Jaschuah ben Josef) was a brown-skinned Jewish rabbi who spoke Aramaic and who basically refused to be so arrogant as to call himself "Christ."
Sure, but test that against Luke 4:18-21 and Luke 9:20. And it sounds potentially misleading to speak of "a Jewish rabbi" at a time when Temple Judaism was still in existence.
I don't want to engage in arguments about the identity or characteristics of Yeshua, the teacher, let's stick to what he taught. And throw out the mass of accretions concerning what he did not teach. Or inveighed against.
Why do I say this? I personally have no axe to grind but there is still Life buried under the dead misunderstandings and misinterpretations of many centuries. This is not a dead religion, despite all the efforts of generations of whited sepulchers to contain it, generations of fat dogs-in-the-manger to sit on it... Neither is it a stupid religion, despite constant efforts to make it look worse than stupid, oppressive and manipulative into the bargain.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
I couldn't make head or tail of what I was taught from 7 to 17. Indoctrination, more indoctrination, getting nowhere. I guess I kept on knocking, in the sense that I questioned everything I heard and kept the main questions open. Doing that, answers come when the time's ripe.... even to skeptics like me (yes, I'm serious) who keep on questioning and take nothing for granted.
I am in complete agreement with you, Peter. I am just sick and tired of hearing Jesus turned into a white Christ. Yesterday (Saturday) evening, I had the privilege of listening to a 96-year-old woman - then a young concert pianist who was rounded up and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the very last days, when the Nazis knew the jig was up, she was online to the gas chambers. One of the most poignant things she said was that the Roma and Senti (the Gypsies) made her ashamed: they went into the gas chambers with anger, spitting and throwing rocks instead of using their last bit of energy walking nicely to their death.
During the Q&A, a man asked her if she didn't see the justice in the killing the Jews, seeing as they killed Jesus, which is a grotesque perversion of the might of Rome. Starting with Constantine's coopting of the little christian cohorts, to which he made a bureaucracy, the christians proceeded to persecute the Jews, and are doing so today in their untrue and dangerous recitation of "the Jews killed Jesus."
By the way, Eva Fahidi, whose book is titled "Love and be loved: My life after Auschwitz-Birkenau," refused to respond to the ignorant question of the man who, like so many others in this white christian world.
My theological education included the history of religions along with the dark side of what grew to be the Christian religions of many, if not most, which espoused the evil myth that Jesus was killed by the Jews, who were relatively powerless within the roman empire. It was Christians who fired the pogroms and Christians (Martin Luther included) who cleared the way for the Nazis to nationalize the church. I happened to land in the only "resistance" church in the state capitol of Hessen when I was sent by the UCC-NY in 2013 as a partner theologian and pastor.
Also, as you know, all of the Gospels were oral tradition and were written some time between around 65 and 110ad or so and then were tinkered with for a few hundred years. That means we are talking about oral tradition - no eye-witnesses.
I totally agree with "Ask...you." Simple and profound. Very glad to pursue this current discussion. Although evidently I clicked on the profile and was then told to sign in -- So often I have to ask to be given comprehension of tech processes.
Okay, you give them more credit for decency than I do, and I give them more credit for competence than you do. Probably no way to resolve that point on objective evidence, but the outcome is the same. I agree with you about the primary beneficiaries, but I think white people generally, including run-of-the-mill MAGAs, accrue enormous, unearned benefits from systemic white advantages, and I think think they know that, at a deep level, even if they refuse to admit it. Maybe we could agree that.
I don't give them credit for decency — they are not decent. But I try — maybe too much — to understand why they view the world as they do. It's murky.
Then there's the subset of educated Trump supporters, who aren't rabidly racist, but for some reason gravitate to him. Maybe I'm being defensive on their behalf because people I love fall into this group. But I believe they're essentially clueless about what's really happening in the U.S. And clueless about the country's history. Most of us here are seriously zealous in following the news, and from legitimate sources.
I've met plenty of people who cringe at his personal behavior but felt his policies were sound. Personally, I can't separate the man from the message, and never saw cohesive policy under any of it. I'm thrilled to have a mature individual in the White House, one whose focus is giving a leg up to those without leverage in the current system. My underlying feeling of dread won't pass until we get past the midterms, if even then, however.
Instead of obsessing about the Second Amendment, I truly wish Trump-supporting, so-called “Christians” would actually honor the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Tyranny was ever thus. It seems to be our tragic flaw as a species to empower our own oppressors. I believe we need to take a much closer look at the personal and mass psychology of this. We are running out of time to fight these battles again and again.
we'll continue fighting them as the seas rise, the atmosphere becomes one big hot-house canopy, the permafrost all melts, as do the ice caps and glaciers, the deserts encroach on what remains of arable land and corn, wheat and farm animals are all that's left of the biodiversity we once enjoyed. I'm not optimistic for humanity. I'm deeply sad for my son, my nieces, nephews and their children and all the others who will live to see the year 2100. There's nothing in history to lend optimism about the possibility that we might rise above our chronic grievances and do something collectively to save ourselves from the apocalypse that's already emerging all around us.
I can't "heart" your comment because of Substack's maddening limitations.
But you capture so much. We're collectively Nero as Rome burns. Every young person should loathe the generations that have doomed the planet. Is "doomed" too strong? Let's just say life as we've known it is vanishing, and unimaginable hardship awaits.
I absolutely hope that there are studies and research at this moment to learn about the brain and psychological profiles of those who willingly become fodder for the oppressor.
Haven’t Nazi methods been studied enough. As Milton Mayer wrote in “They Thought They We’re Free, The Germans, 1933-45” “You have accepted Things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father never could have imagined.” What has become of our politics is hard for me to imagine although I have watched it materialize for half of my long life. The Republican Party as the enemy is a fact and hard for me to wrap my head around, and for my republican sisters.
Americans have not had the same experiences as Europeans regarding political turmoil. We have lived in a cocoon never believing that it could happen here. It is happening here. Few are prepared.
Michael, there is a great story before us and it is for all of the American people.
There is nothing better to do this weekend than to read ‘The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint'. Nothing Better! Go to the link HCR provided at the end of the Letter’s Notes or begin right here:
Then look at the Blueprint’s Table of Contents. From ‘Empowering Workers’, ‘Building it in America’, ‘security of middle-class families', ‘reducing costs of housing’ to ‘Lower Prices, Raise Wages, and Boost Innovation and Resilience’ -- we have 58 pages before us from which to learn and absorb THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT.
‘The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint details how the Administration’s economic policies will, over time, allow the United States to tackle the longstanding economic challenges that President Biden ran for office to address. It lays out a policy vision that is being implemented in a fiscally responsible manner, with over $1 trillion in deficit reduction this year—the most in any year on record—and substantial deficit reduction associated with the Administration’s long-term investments. While it will take time and there is more work to do—including immediate work to support the U.S. economy’s transition from historic recovery to stable, steady, growth with lower inflation—the Biden-Harris Administration has laid the foundation to begin tackling these decades-long economic challenges and finally deliver an economy that works for working families. With this Blueprint in place, not only will more people have a chance to contribute to our nation’s prosperity, but they will finally and fairly reap the benefits of their work.’(THE BIDEN-HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT)
Students/subscribers of Letter from an American there can be no better reading this weekend than THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT. And WHAT A LETTER we received! Thank you, BIDEN – HARRIS and Heather Cox Richardson.
Just read most of it. Thanks, Fern. I probably wouldn't have if you hadn't made it so easy.
It's a good read, as they say: clearly written and more interesting than I expected. Highly recommend, even if you don't get through the whole 58 pages. I got to p. 35 and intend to get back to the rest later.
Yes, MaryB, THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT is a crucial offering, and I hope it helps with a significant turning of the ship of state -- as well as uplifting OUR LIVES. I will withhold my opinion of taking time to 'psychoanalyze' people belonging to MAGA, except to ask whether it is a understandable and natural psychological defense reflecting our fear and frustration? There is documentary evidence concerning their general economic, racial, religious, age, gender, interests and charitable characteristics. I'll return to the subject in the the near future. Knowing who we are as a people -- and there are a good number of factors -- will determine, in great measure, our course. Salud, MaryB.
Thanks for giving the link again, Fern. Yes, a fresh vision of the USA is here---but as I said elsewhere on this list, it all depends on the undependable media to get this before all the people (even those unwilling to hear the news).
Am reading "American Massacre" by Sally Denton first published in 2003. It's about the Mormon Church. It starts out with recent events concerning the Mountain Meadows massacre that had been covered up. It reviews the Founding of the Mormon Church with Joseph Smith and several other key players inside and outside the Church, who defined it's beliefs and character, and protected it, as it moved across the country from NYS to Utah. The Mormon story relates directly to many of the comments here about MAGA.
History is incredibly reflective. This book written in 2000+ could have been written anytime after 2015 and we would understand the author meant her book to draw parallels about Trump and MAGA. Those drawn to Smith and his supernatural Book of Mormon, along with his pronouncements and edicts were no different than those drawn to Trump. The chosen few close to Smith acted on their opportunities very much like those cl ok se to Trump.
The leaders and followers with Smith created the same hysterical feedback loop of threatening those who they claimed threatened them until this vicious cycle led to abuse and violence that both communities suffered from. However, Smith created literal militia and armies of ruthless men who believed that killing outsiders would "save them" according to Mormon declarations, or so they said. It's never quite clear h oh w much is believed and how much is just a tool for domination.
The Mormon story is also instructive about how a movement, as adversarial or contrary as it might be to majority common interests, can develop political power that draws support or reliation from the wealthiest, most powerful and political people. American leadership, politics and mobs were no less abusive, corrupt, or violent then.
Yes, that through their threats of violence, many dedicated long term election workers have and will quit before midterms and presidential and be reolaced by extremists who will intimidate voters. And so, no matter how many, many things Joe has and will accomplish, republican legislatures will call any election that doesn't turn out in their favor into question and, with their new legislation, overturn any vote. I find it terrifying that America will be governed by extremists and not by the will of the people.
In the early 1930's, Carl Jung wrote that western civilization was experiencing a shift in its collective unconscious, one that would lead to peril. We are at that same point once again.
We have exceeded the carrying capacity of the biosphere and we are still breeding. Our economy has shifted wealth to the elite, creating economic struggle and intense resentment among the majority. We are experiencing the very beginnings of the negative consequences of climate change which will include massive droughts and floods, catastrophic storms, the spread of diseases, famine, water wars, and the elimination of 50% of the species. Experts tell us we may have but 10 years max to turn the Titanic around with regard to the most devastating aspects of climate change, and we are not taking the appropriate action.
And to put it a lot more simply I believe these are the dark times that were predicted—it’s hard to see how we’re getting out of this in 10 years unfortunately.
I am not sure there could be a more ironic situation. To have been bamboozled by a con man into destroying democracy in the name of "murica and MAGA(t) just flummoxes me.
“But those who hate you don’t win, especially if your new Vice President remembers his promise to give you a full pardon. Then laugh all the way to the grave. The Libs were Owned!”
The irony is that so far as I can tell, for the most part their bottom line struggles, below all the decoys that the "GOP" puts forward to hate, is the degree to which ongoing "Reaganomics" reduces them to serfs.
We have to look to the dynamics of addiction to understand Magats. Once you are addicted the only thing that matters is the next fix. Trump is the heroin supplier (while being addicted himself). Those beneath him do all they can to support their habits. Their world becomes narrow and totally focused on the next fix. You can’t love your neighbor while in the grip of needing the next fix.
Meanwhile what is Bill Barr up to??? If he is advising the DOJ to appeal and doing it on Fox, what does that mean? Can anyone interpret what this slime ball is up to and why Fox has him on?
There are many similarities to drug addiction. One of the factors in addiction is a longing for solidarity; looking to find those who share your walk in life... who are, like you, suffering.
He’s exonerating and distancing Bill Barr from the disaster that is Trump and earlier hit jobs. I don’t think he realizes how far back our memories go (though admittedly, mine needs a frequent push.)
That's a very good description of how I feel about Donald, whom I",despise and disparage with the heat of...well...more like cool distain of a cat over a dish of spoiled fish.
Or any other carefully-chosen perfectly good food it doesn't fancy...a cat sniffs at it delicately, turns right round and "buries" it with long purposeful scratches on the floor, then sits down and looks up at you reproachfully.
I live in Brooklyn, New York, now the MAGA world's number one target as a hive of evil liberals. Our cleanng lady, an intelligent immigrant from Hungary, is convinced that the economy and life in general was much better when Trump was president and that Biden has destroyed it all. A repairman was here the other day with a truck with "Let's Go Brandon" painted on it. He is a very smart and charming Israeli immigrant. They both seem to be enthralled by Fox or worse. And they will not listen to anything else.
I don'r get it. Well, OK, I sort of get it: Many, many people pay little attention to day-to-day political events, and if they ever had any civics education, they've long since forgotten it. They get their information about the outside world from a single source and don't have the tools to evaluate it. All that I get. What I don't get is what to do about it.
Barney, help! I can't find your comment on Leo's plan to destroy the court system. There is so much good distractions, plus 4 cats, that I lost my place and can't find it. Please hel? me find it?
Incredible how people are duped. All kinds of factors & influences. But a book written in the 1970s described our technological & social trend toward media & information as "entertainment" rather than facts and intelligence. Wish I could remember the book. Still available on Thrift Books. Com. So many predictors of this behavior. George Orwell's 1984. And Animal Farm.
I've thought often recently about what it must be like to be a delusional MAGA zealot. Someone who has no clue that they live in an utterly false reality. They only know the extremes of blind love for Trump and burning hate for Biden and all Democrats. Information to the contrary never penetrates their programmed, single-minded thinking.
In other words, they have no idea that President Biden and Democrats in Congress, whom they despise and disparage with the heat of a thousand suns, have accomplished so many things that are improving their lives now and long into the future.
Could there be a sadder, more tragic irony in America?
Think of Wiley Coyote, pursuing the roadrunner off cliffs, running into walls with painted tunnels, then being run over by a train or truck or bus coming out of the painted tunnel. Cognitive dissonance is ringing like a bell for the MAGAts, and it makes them angry and uncertain and very, very dangerous.
AG, I think your metaphor of "Wiley" comes very close, manic to the point of confusion over reality, unable to reason deductively, easily manipulated to the point of destroying family bonds. Very dangerous to others as you said.
If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
James Madison
"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." - James Baldwin
We have a lot to overcome in todays politics and self deception is probably the hardest to overcome. Whether it is credulity or cultivated contempt for law and order, we have problems.
100%
MAGAs are not tragic figures, and they aren’t honestly delusional. They are willfully delusional. They have a specific goal: ensuring that white Christians control government at all levels in the United States. It’s definitely ironic but much worse than sad.
It's a shame that the vast number of real Christians are invisible in the face of the Zealots who claim the mantle but fail to comprehend and practice the very basic tenants of the faith they claim to protect. If they have their way, it won't be white Christians, or any Christian for that matter, who end up in the halls of power.
I belong to a Presbyterian church that leans liberal in both its membership and pastoral leadership. Never has our pastor preached anything remotely political from the pulpit. But using the words of Bible and employing both metaphors and lived experiences, she has made the case that as believers in God - or a higher power, or a spirit greater than ourselves - we have a shared responsibility in doing good in this world; that we must hold our elected officials, or anyone who claims a role in any leadership, to be honest and respect the rule of law.
I am able to separate my faith from my politics, though it is my faith that in some way has shaped my politics. I believe that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That we care for our fellow beings and for our earth. I believe that we are all entitled to practice the faith that calls to our spirit and beliefs.
That so many have usurped “religion” for their own political benefit is anathema to me.
I'm an atheist, and I believe exactly the same things about doing good, loving my neighbors, caring for them and our earth. Why do people think that only religion can foster these ideas & goals?
It may be harsh to say but I believe religion, that is particularly formal dogmatic religion, has made people too often look in the wrong direction and fail to simply direct focus on supporting a kind, loving, inclusive society.
If you were to choose a hundred atheists at random and also a hundred random people who count themselves as Christians, I’m confident that you would find several times as many people with admirable values among the atheists than among the Christians.
You are correct, I know many not believers of a number of cultures who strongly believe as you do.
They are no doubt brainwashed!
No white evangelical Trump voter has beliefs anywhere near as admirable as yours. That’s the crux of the problem.
I don't agree, because "some" and it may not be many do believe in helping their fellow man. For most they are simply following the leadership or "church going" is part of the regional culture.
The real evil is the leadership who are in it just for the power and money.
I grew up in that world but left it behind more than a half century ago.
Couldn’t be more true, Pharisees rule the fools
It’s sad, I know. Thank you
Our church has also avoided the politics, however enough members support trump as their choice of leader causes me to think twice about their understanding of the Gospel
Its a reality of “what can you be thinking?”
They probably swear to FOX for their fake news! I know one!
Update, today’s message extolled the virtues of the Samaritan that helped the robbery victim; to the Chagrin of the Pharisees
There are many clerics from different denominations that have been drawn into political debate. Archbishop Cordileone openly condemned Speaker Pelosi. Appalling! Franklin Graham runs ads on TV that basically reinforce MAGA thinking. There is much twisting of what Chritianity means. As even religious leaders are drawn into the fray, they reinforce the perversion of scripture. And most importantly, they most definitely do not separate their faith from their politics. They do not accept the separation of church and state.
If you haven't read.... Jesus and John Wayne.... please get a copy and read it! I was in shock! All in the name of Christianity! Actually, filling their pockets at the expense of their flock!
And Franklin's father must be spinning in his grave. I've only seen Franklin on the news once or twice, and it made me ill each time.
Yes and they are loudly praying in the Temple. I know people whose faith does inform their social conscious and they work to make the world a better place. But they don't usually capture headlines.
Praying, preying, money changing...
A pity that good news is no news.
And the Good News, even when heard, is often not understood.
Marg, you have beautifully described how faith in a God leads us "to love our neighbors as we love ourselves." Hell will freeze over before the "politicians" who claim their faith leads them actually live and lead by that faith.
...faith in a God leads us "to love our neighbors as we love ourselves." As I said before, we atheists also love our neighbors and our planet.
I too am a Presbyterian. Your words are so true. However, we in our church have a few that bought the "Big Lie".
We’re on the same wavelength on this matter, but the people you and I put in the zealot category would classify themselves as real Christans and put us in the zealot category. There’s no general agreement on definitions. Pretty much everyone agrees on who the white evangelicals are, though, and 80% of them voted for Trump. Twice. If the white evangelical electorate were no worse (as human beings), on the average, than the white electorate generally (“only” 60% of whom voted for Trump), the orange clown wouldn’t have become president. To me (and maybe you, too) this is ironic, tragic, and bad in many other ways, but to them it’s the best possble outcome (or “God’s will” as they like to put it).
that may be...what's important is that YOU can tell the difference. I can tell you there are MANY evangelicals who don't view TFG as the second coming of Christ.
Here's what's REALLY hard about it all...they are our neighbors, and our mandate is clear; we're supposed to love them like we do ourselves. Like loving your teenager who's spitting in your eye. The big tent is supposed to have room for them too. That's enough to keep me completely occupied, just trying to live by the two greatest commandments. I can't love them while I'm throttling them until they stop breathing...
A misunderstanding, I fear, of love, which runs deeper than our sentimental conception of it and its demands.
Think of the Inuit hunter who asks forgiveness of the beast he kills and wishes it a happier rebirth.
That's not a perfect analogy, but you are doing something awful that must be done, not only to protect many but to prevent the enemy from doing worse and, in so doing, harming himself even more deeply.
It is easier to think of self-sacrifice than of this awful duty imposed by the need to protect ourselves and others, but there is an element of self-sacrifice, for whoever takes a life will pay for the deed.
These are awful things to write or think about but we have to face the demands of a deeper commitment.
Yes to every syllable
In a nutshell. Yes.
That is my corundum, I love my MAGAt nephews, but stopped respecting them long ago. Deliberate ignorance is way worse than stupidity.
That’s a tough assignment you’ve taken on. I admire you for that but think your efforts would be more efficiently invested in working with well-organized projects to get Dem-leaning voters to the polls than in struggling to love your MAGA neighbors. Maybe you could redirect, just for the next couple months, then get back to the hard stuff.
point well delivered...good thing you can try to love someone while spanking them at the polls!
no sense in trying to change their minds, convince them of a different version of reality. It's the disillusioned, disaffected, "checked out" folks on the sidelines that will make the difference in this cycle. Those who see the foundations of democracy on trial will be there. It's those who have tuned out who we need to reach.
But the father didn't chase after his son and force fatted calf upon him as he walked away; no, he let the boy go and threw him a party after he returned.
Their's is a distinction between the sinners among them and the sins of the other, outside of the faith? The former shall be given (deserving of?) our forgiveness, while the later we must wage against for were they to pursue the sins ( policies, goals, duplicity) they promote, our believe system (christianity) would be destroyed. The sins (named communism, socialis, secularism, abortion, welfare, democrat, questioning establish mythology, preferring lentils to whole wheat) are studied and enumerated and appraised not as ideas or options but as weapons of evil. IMHO
True. I know that there are "real Christians" who are tolerant, loving and generous. But their leaders are very quiet. Is it a fear of alienating already shrinking congregations? I would think if there is a future for "Christianity" it would be if it stood for the right values - LOUDLY. Pavlovitz is perhaps a positive example. https://johnpavlovitz.com/
How to sort a "good Christian" from a "bad Christian"? The good one respects and honors the faiths of others. The bad one says their faith is the "only righteous one". He is really not practicing a faith but is part of a cult of exclusion. Therefore by definition, a "bad Christian" is no Christian at all.
When the preacher or leader of one's religion says that his religion is the "only true faith", please find one's self a new church or join the millions (young people in particular) who simply don't need the nonsense of hate, exclusion and hypocrisy within an antique hierarchy. That "only true faith" is built for control, not love.
Those “Leaders” are focusing on not losing the money each seat represents in that congregation. Organized religion is the opposite of what that guy from Nazareth modeled. Quiet equals complicity.
DJT for one, who I don't think has any religion except power and money.
And ego
And a total lack of any moral compass.
Amen!
Rex, the Christianity to which you refer is no Christianity at all.
It stands for everything Christ denounced and died for denouncing.
I don’t think they’re Christians either, but they think they’re Christians, and they believe that as fervently as you believe they’re wrong. I don’t give a damn about the Christian label. What I believe is that there are 74 million US voters that the country, and the planet for that matter, would be better off without. Unfortunately, we can’t rid ours of them (what would we do with the corpses?), but if we’re lucky, we might be able to outvote them, just barely, and begin the decades-long process of forming some reasonable kind of US body politic.
Please take note-they are NOT Christians. The term Christian means “Christ follower” and there is nothing of Jesus the Christ found in them. Jesus’ call was that we are to love one another. They have hijacked the name and distorted the message for their own purposes. It’s sick and sad and an abomination to Christianity, not to mention an affront to true patriots and adherents to our Constitution who value freedom of religion and the right to vote among all the other gifts that document ensures.
Okay, that’s your definition, but there is no generally agreed upon definition of what it means to be a Christian. Anybody can claim the mantel. Slave owners did, for example, and they not only justified their ownership of other human beings as a basic tenet of their faith but also believed that anyone who disagreed with them on that point could not rightly call themselves Christians. It’s not much different today. So much for progress, eh?
It is true that anyone can make fraudulent claims and get away with it, especially if people don't take the trouble to check the matter out thoroughly.
My job as a translator recently brought me into contact with the four gospels plus a key document, the Gospel of Thomas, found in Egypt in 1945. I think I can claim to be a dispassionate reader.
All I can say is that, while the last-named text is demanding, when it comes to interpretation, the teaching is a radical work of liberation. Yet, for most of the history of the religion, ever since it became the official religion of the Roman empire, political considerations have weighed heavily on ecclesiastical interpretation of the Gospels and this has been skewed in such a way as to give priority to hierarchies and social control at the expense of spiritual content.
What is most curious is how Protestant Evangelicals have allied themselves with the most retrograde Roman Catholic circles and gone to extreme lengths to transform the work of liberation into one of oppression and imprisonment, as well as engaging in the most horrendous missionary activity, all in the name of Jesus. Part of this is a consequence of failed far-right politicians finding themselves a profitable tax-free niche as all-powerful "ministers of religion", loading their congregations with chains of guilt, the better to control them...
Centuries of crude literalist misinterpretation of the teaching have put a heavy lid on the essential message, which shows us, not what we should be but what we essentially are. "The kingdom of God is within you".
Mike Flynn, working in the highest echelons of US intelligence, had a front row seat to how “faith” can be used to create jihadists. “Then one of JSOC’s Special Forces strike teams raided an AQI safe house and captured 12 men who were unlike the typical brutish Al Qaeda thugs. These older men were the senior managers and vice presidents of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The network they had established was sophisticated far beyond the early reckoning of U.S. commanders, with interlinked logistics, transportation, information, money management and strike operations, all of it worthy of a multinational conglomerate.
As JSOC’s director of intelligence, Flynn interrogated the senior Al Qaeda commanders at length. Sitting across from them at the detainee screening facility at Balad Air Base, Iraq, Flynn wondered why such obviously educated and intelligent people were devoting themselves to tearing their country apart, regardless of the horrendous toll in innocent lives. Some of the men had electrical engineering and other advanced degrees, but instead of building a bridge or helping establish a functioning government, they applied their talents to attacking vulnerable governing institutions in order to terrorize and intimidate civilians. He could understand their hatred of American interlopers, but the vast majority of their tens of thousands of victims were fellow Iraqis.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/how-mike-flynn-became-americas-angriest-general-214362/
M
That which we don’t know can hurt us. I am suspicious of corporate owned media failing to give us “real news”.
https://buckscountybeacon.com/2022/08/underreported-and-massive-theocratic-movement-joins-forces-with-michael-flynn-and-roger-stone/
Shades of General Jack D. Ripper...
If you'd made this all up as fiction 25 years ago wouldn't you, the writer, have been in danger of being locked up in a psychiatric hospital? No work of the imagination could ever dream up anything to match real-life American lunacy...
Heaven help us!
Thanks for one of the most interesting comments I've ever read ! Another rabbit hole!
How right you are, Christianity has been useful to zealots as much as any religion. I used to think such was in the past. Silly me.
Not sure I agree, Rex, about willfully delusional. Your run-of-the-mill MAGA type is typically under educated, indoctrinated by right-wing propaganda, and raised to be racist.
That said, the big monied interests that manipulate them are indeed intent on establishing "Christian" control of government.
As a renegade pastor, I simply cannot get around the silly irony of the word Christian. Jesus (Jaschuah ben Josef) was a brown-skinned Jewish rabbi who spoke Aramaic and who basically refused to be so arrogant as to call himself "Christ."
Sure, but test that against Luke 4:18-21 and Luke 9:20. And it sounds potentially misleading to speak of "a Jewish rabbi" at a time when Temple Judaism was still in existence.
I don't want to engage in arguments about the identity or characteristics of Yeshua, the teacher, let's stick to what he taught. And throw out the mass of accretions concerning what he did not teach. Or inveighed against.
Why do I say this? I personally have no axe to grind but there is still Life buried under the dead misunderstandings and misinterpretations of many centuries. This is not a dead religion, despite all the efforts of generations of whited sepulchers to contain it, generations of fat dogs-in-the-manger to sit on it... Neither is it a stupid religion, despite constant efforts to make it look worse than stupid, oppressive and manipulative into the bargain.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
I couldn't make head or tail of what I was taught from 7 to 17. Indoctrination, more indoctrination, getting nowhere. I guess I kept on knocking, in the sense that I questioned everything I heard and kept the main questions open. Doing that, answers come when the time's ripe.... even to skeptics like me (yes, I'm serious) who keep on questioning and take nothing for granted.
I am in complete agreement with you, Peter. I am just sick and tired of hearing Jesus turned into a white Christ. Yesterday (Saturday) evening, I had the privilege of listening to a 96-year-old woman - then a young concert pianist who was rounded up and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the very last days, when the Nazis knew the jig was up, she was online to the gas chambers. One of the most poignant things she said was that the Roma and Senti (the Gypsies) made her ashamed: they went into the gas chambers with anger, spitting and throwing rocks instead of using their last bit of energy walking nicely to their death.
During the Q&A, a man asked her if she didn't see the justice in the killing the Jews, seeing as they killed Jesus, which is a grotesque perversion of the might of Rome. Starting with Constantine's coopting of the little christian cohorts, to which he made a bureaucracy, the christians proceeded to persecute the Jews, and are doing so today in their untrue and dangerous recitation of "the Jews killed Jesus."
By the way, Eva Fahidi, whose book is titled "Love and be loved: My life after Auschwitz-Birkenau," refused to respond to the ignorant question of the man who, like so many others in this white christian world.
My theological education included the history of religions along with the dark side of what grew to be the Christian religions of many, if not most, which espoused the evil myth that Jesus was killed by the Jews, who were relatively powerless within the roman empire. It was Christians who fired the pogroms and Christians (Martin Luther included) who cleared the way for the Nazis to nationalize the church. I happened to land in the only "resistance" church in the state capitol of Hessen when I was sent by the UCC-NY in 2013 as a partner theologian and pastor.
Also, as you know, all of the Gospels were oral tradition and were written some time between around 65 and 110ad or so and then were tinkered with for a few hundred years. That means we are talking about oral tradition - no eye-witnesses.
And by the way, Jesus was called Rabbi - teacher - more than once in the gospel texts.
I totally agree with "Ask...you." Simple and profound. Very glad to pursue this current discussion. Although evidently I clicked on the profile and was then told to sign in -- So often I have to ask to be given comprehension of tech processes.
Agree, Rosalind!
Okay, you give them more credit for decency than I do, and I give them more credit for competence than you do. Probably no way to resolve that point on objective evidence, but the outcome is the same. I agree with you about the primary beneficiaries, but I think white people generally, including run-of-the-mill MAGAs, accrue enormous, unearned benefits from systemic white advantages, and I think think they know that, at a deep level, even if they refuse to admit it. Maybe we could agree that.
We agree on your latter point. No doubt.
I don't give them credit for decency — they are not decent. But I try — maybe too much — to understand why they view the world as they do. It's murky.
Then there's the subset of educated Trump supporters, who aren't rabidly racist, but for some reason gravitate to him. Maybe I'm being defensive on their behalf because people I love fall into this group. But I believe they're essentially clueless about what's really happening in the U.S. And clueless about the country's history. Most of us here are seriously zealous in following the news, and from legitimate sources.
Propaganda has ruined us.
“Propaganda has ruined us,” yet Rupert is rarely called out for the brain-washing
I've met plenty of people who cringe at his personal behavior but felt his policies were sound. Personally, I can't separate the man from the message, and never saw cohesive policy under any of it. I'm thrilled to have a mature individual in the White House, one whose focus is giving a leg up to those without leverage in the current system. My underlying feeling of dread won't pass until we get past the midterms, if even then, however.
I am amazed by the well educated and well heeled folks there are that are devoted Trumpers.
They must be in it for the money...
Willfully delusional still applies, or stupid. Take your pick. My nephews are not stupid. But brain-washed nonetheless
Excellent description.
Instead of obsessing about the Second Amendment, I truly wish Trump-supporting, so-called “Christians” would actually honor the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Very good point. 😞
And let's define christian.
Tyranny was ever thus. It seems to be our tragic flaw as a species to empower our own oppressors. I believe we need to take a much closer look at the personal and mass psychology of this. We are running out of time to fight these battles again and again.
we'll continue fighting them as the seas rise, the atmosphere becomes one big hot-house canopy, the permafrost all melts, as do the ice caps and glaciers, the deserts encroach on what remains of arable land and corn, wheat and farm animals are all that's left of the biodiversity we once enjoyed. I'm not optimistic for humanity. I'm deeply sad for my son, my nieces, nephews and their children and all the others who will live to see the year 2100. There's nothing in history to lend optimism about the possibility that we might rise above our chronic grievances and do something collectively to save ourselves from the apocalypse that's already emerging all around us.
I can't "heart" your comment because of Substack's maddening limitations.
But you capture so much. We're collectively Nero as Rome burns. Every young person should loathe the generations that have doomed the planet. Is "doomed" too strong? Let's just say life as we've known it is vanishing, and unimaginable hardship awaits.
I'm hearting away regardless. Sooner or later it has a spasm and vivifies all those parched hearts that had seemed untouched. Moral in that somewhere.
“Every young person should loathe the generations that have doomed the planet.”
Believe me, they do.
Here "like" means "concur", nothing else.
Gailee Walker Wells has expressed perfectly understanding of what you yourself could not have spelled out better or more succinctly.
God created us for relationship but also for stewardship of God's good creation. How are we doing with that, and why?
we seem to be destined to make a hash of both...
💔💔💔💔broken
I have hope, still.
Don’t like but have to agree
I absolutely hope that there are studies and research at this moment to learn about the brain and psychological profiles of those who willingly become fodder for the oppressor.
Haven’t Nazi methods been studied enough. As Milton Mayer wrote in “They Thought They We’re Free, The Germans, 1933-45” “You have accepted Things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father never could have imagined.” What has become of our politics is hard for me to imagine although I have watched it materialize for half of my long life. The Republican Party as the enemy is a fact and hard for me to wrap my head around, and for my republican sisters.
Americans have not had the same experiences as Europeans regarding political turmoil. We have lived in a cocoon never believing that it could happen here. It is happening here. Few are prepared.
Few are prepared and it seems as though more are engaging in it freely and voluntarily.
Apocalypse Now seems a fitting generational name for the kids born today.
we've had Generation X, Y, Z; perhaps it's time for AA, as in "ante-apocalypse"
Michael, there is a great story before us and it is for all of the American people.
There is nothing better to do this weekend than to read ‘The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint'. Nothing Better! Go to the link HCR provided at the end of the Letter’s Notes or begin right here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Biden-Economic-Blueprint-Report-720PM-MASTER-DOC.pdf
Then look at the Blueprint’s Table of Contents. From ‘Empowering Workers’, ‘Building it in America’, ‘security of middle-class families', ‘reducing costs of housing’ to ‘Lower Prices, Raise Wages, and Boost Innovation and Resilience’ -- we have 58 pages before us from which to learn and absorb THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT.
‘The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint details how the Administration’s economic policies will, over time, allow the United States to tackle the longstanding economic challenges that President Biden ran for office to address. It lays out a policy vision that is being implemented in a fiscally responsible manner, with over $1 trillion in deficit reduction this year—the most in any year on record—and substantial deficit reduction associated with the Administration’s long-term investments. While it will take time and there is more work to do—including immediate work to support the U.S. economy’s transition from historic recovery to stable, steady, growth with lower inflation—the Biden-Harris Administration has laid the foundation to begin tackling these decades-long economic challenges and finally deliver an economy that works for working families. With this Blueprint in place, not only will more people have a chance to contribute to our nation’s prosperity, but they will finally and fairly reap the benefits of their work.’(THE BIDEN-HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT)
Students/subscribers of Letter from an American there can be no better reading this weekend than THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT. And WHAT A LETTER we received! Thank you, BIDEN – HARRIS and Heather Cox Richardson.
A fresh vision of the USA is before us.
Thanks for this incentive, Fern.
Just read most of it. Thanks, Fern. I probably wouldn't have if you hadn't made it so easy.
It's a good read, as they say: clearly written and more interesting than I expected. Highly recommend, even if you don't get through the whole 58 pages. I got to p. 35 and intend to get back to the rest later.
Yes, MaryB, THE BIDEN - HARRIS ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT is a crucial offering, and I hope it helps with a significant turning of the ship of state -- as well as uplifting OUR LIVES. I will withhold my opinion of taking time to 'psychoanalyze' people belonging to MAGA, except to ask whether it is a understandable and natural psychological defense reflecting our fear and frustration? There is documentary evidence concerning their general economic, racial, religious, age, gender, interests and charitable characteristics. I'll return to the subject in the the near future. Knowing who we are as a people -- and there are a good number of factors -- will determine, in great measure, our course. Salud, MaryB.
Thank you!!!
Thanks for giving the link again, Fern. Yes, a fresh vision of the USA is here---but as I said elsewhere on this list, it all depends on the undependable media to get this before all the people (even those unwilling to hear the news).
Am reading "American Massacre" by Sally Denton first published in 2003. It's about the Mormon Church. It starts out with recent events concerning the Mountain Meadows massacre that had been covered up. It reviews the Founding of the Mormon Church with Joseph Smith and several other key players inside and outside the Church, who defined it's beliefs and character, and protected it, as it moved across the country from NYS to Utah. The Mormon story relates directly to many of the comments here about MAGA.
History is incredibly reflective. This book written in 2000+ could have been written anytime after 2015 and we would understand the author meant her book to draw parallels about Trump and MAGA. Those drawn to Smith and his supernatural Book of Mormon, along with his pronouncements and edicts were no different than those drawn to Trump. The chosen few close to Smith acted on their opportunities very much like those cl ok se to Trump.
The leaders and followers with Smith created the same hysterical feedback loop of threatening those who they claimed threatened them until this vicious cycle led to abuse and violence that both communities suffered from. However, Smith created literal militia and armies of ruthless men who believed that killing outsiders would "save them" according to Mormon declarations, or so they said. It's never quite clear h oh w much is believed and how much is just a tool for domination.
The Mormon story is also instructive about how a movement, as adversarial or contrary as it might be to majority common interests, can develop political power that draws support or reliation from the wealthiest, most powerful and political people. American leadership, politics and mobs were no less abusive, corrupt, or violent then.
Organized religion is a form of organized crime.
harsh...
They are as corrupt as any group. Proof that we are all pathetically flawed
Thanks for this insight.
Yes, that through their threats of violence, many dedicated long term election workers have and will quit before midterms and presidential and be reolaced by extremists who will intimidate voters. And so, no matter how many, many things Joe has and will accomplish, republican legislatures will call any election that doesn't turn out in their favor into question and, with their new legislation, overturn any vote. I find it terrifying that America will be governed by extremists and not by the will of the people.
LOCK HIM UP!!!!!!!!!
Yes! LOCK HIM UP--- NOW!!!!
To envision their world, I 'tip my hat' to you for trying as 'we are all in this together' as Obama said, I would need psychedelics.
Or that they hail a man who would take away their freedom and their treasure all because the “he gets me” racist and xenophobic dog whistles.
They have no clue that if the Republicans ever get complete power again, Social Security and Medicare will be on the block. Fools!
In the early 1930's, Carl Jung wrote that western civilization was experiencing a shift in its collective unconscious, one that would lead to peril. We are at that same point once again.
We have exceeded the carrying capacity of the biosphere and we are still breeding. Our economy has shifted wealth to the elite, creating economic struggle and intense resentment among the majority. We are experiencing the very beginnings of the negative consequences of climate change which will include massive droughts and floods, catastrophic storms, the spread of diseases, famine, water wars, and the elimination of 50% of the species. Experts tell us we may have but 10 years max to turn the Titanic around with regard to the most devastating aspects of climate change, and we are not taking the appropriate action.
https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/~cpa/explorations/papers/75-a-jungian-perspective-on-the-most-important-issue-of-our-time-climate-change
And to put it a lot more simply I believe these are the dark times that were predicted—it’s hard to see how we’re getting out of this in 10 years unfortunately.
I am not sure there could be a more ironic situation. To have been bamboozled by a con man into destroying democracy in the name of "murica and MAGA(t) just flummoxes me.
Amen, Ally. Amen!
“Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”
― Richard Nixon
“But those who hate you don’t win, especially if your new Vice President remembers his promise to give you a full pardon. Then laugh all the way to the grave. The Libs were Owned!”
too true.
Do we really win with Nixon???
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
Michael, anything that contradicts their delusional mindset just makes them angrier. I have no idea what can be done about it.
Nothing can be done. A work around is the only option.
The irony is that so far as I can tell, for the most part their bottom line struggles, below all the decoys that the "GOP" puts forward to hate, is the degree to which ongoing "Reaganomics" reduces them to serfs.
I do my best not to converse with them, but one that I most recently talked with used the "welfare Cadillac" trope. Reagan, for sure.
We have to look to the dynamics of addiction to understand Magats. Once you are addicted the only thing that matters is the next fix. Trump is the heroin supplier (while being addicted himself). Those beneath him do all they can to support their habits. Their world becomes narrow and totally focused on the next fix. You can’t love your neighbor while in the grip of needing the next fix.
Meanwhile what is Bill Barr up to??? If he is advising the DOJ to appeal and doing it on Fox, what does that mean? Can anyone interpret what this slime ball is up to and why Fox has him on?
There are many similarities to drug addiction. One of the factors in addiction is a longing for solidarity; looking to find those who share your walk in life... who are, like you, suffering.
He’s exonerating and distancing Bill Barr from the disaster that is Trump and earlier hit jobs. I don’t think he realizes how far back our memories go (though admittedly, mine needs a frequent push.)
That's a very good description of how I feel about Donald, whom I",despise and disparage with the heat of...well...more like cool distain of a cat over a dish of spoiled fish.
Or any other carefully-chosen perfectly good food it doesn't fancy...a cat sniffs at it delicately, turns right round and "buries" it with long purposeful scratches on the floor, then sits down and looks up at you reproachfully.
I live in Brooklyn, New York, now the MAGA world's number one target as a hive of evil liberals. Our cleanng lady, an intelligent immigrant from Hungary, is convinced that the economy and life in general was much better when Trump was president and that Biden has destroyed it all. A repairman was here the other day with a truck with "Let's Go Brandon" painted on it. He is a very smart and charming Israeli immigrant. They both seem to be enthralled by Fox or worse. And they will not listen to anything else.
I don'r get it. Well, OK, I sort of get it: Many, many people pay little attention to day-to-day political events, and if they ever had any civics education, they've long since forgotten it. They get their information about the outside world from a single source and don't have the tools to evaluate it. All that I get. What I don't get is what to do about it.
Sounds perfectly awful!
Barney, help! I can't find your comment on Leo's plan to destroy the court system. There is so much good distractions, plus 4 cats, that I lost my place and can't find it. Please hel? me find it?
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-9-2022/comment/8986199
That is a sad state of affairs.
Very sad.
Incredible how people are duped. All kinds of factors & influences. But a book written in the 1970s described our technological & social trend toward media & information as "entertainment" rather than facts and intelligence. Wish I could remember the book. Still available on Thrift Books. Com. So many predictors of this behavior. George Orwell's 1984. And Animal Farm.