Republican Jesus is old news. He's been replaced by the more hateful, more violent MAGA Jesus.

[Celerity]

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/maga-jesus



A decade ago, I wrote one of my first articles, “Republican Jesus”, for the now-defunct website Addicting Info. It was, by far, my most popular piece, not because it was well-written (I cringe when I read my saved copy now) but because it articulated exactly how broken the Republican Party was. Republican Jesus was the twisted version of Christ the right worshipped. He loved greed, White people, guns, and the Confederacy. He also hated the poor, minorities, liberals, and science. He was a snapshot of where the GOP’s base was back then. For a lot of people who had only recently discovered social media and been exposed to information sources outside traditional media outlets, the existence of Republican Jesus was something of a (pun intended) revelation. Until then, they had only known “bothsiderism.” Congress was to blame. Washington was gridlocked. Both sides, both sides, both sides. They could tell something wasn’t right with that analysis because while Democrats are not saints (and no one ever claimed they were), they were clearly not the equivalent of the raving lunatics on the right. I was far from the first to point out that Republicans were vile but that article was read over three million times and I got more than one death threat. Clearly, it hit a nerve. Here we are, a decade later, and while my “Republican Jesus” has more or less vanished from the internet, very little of it is disputed by mainstream journalists. It’s now widely accepted that the GOP is the party of racism and greed and anti-science. But Republican Jesus is old news. He’s been replaced by MAGA Jesus.

MAGA Jesus Take The Wheel...

After taking five weeks off from social media and the news, I was pleasantly surprised (OK, I was kind of shocked) to discover that we, as a country, are still talking about the January 6th terrorist attack on the Capitol. By way of comparison, we moved on from the Sandy Hook massacre in about a month. Look it up on Google Trends. It’s depressing. But not 1/6. Not only are Democrats still, justifiably, making a huge stink about it, but people are still being arrested and Republicans are almost certainly under investigation for aiding the terrorists. Amazingly, the press hasn’t started screaming that this is boring and why can’t Democrats talk about something else?! Even more stunning is that the press is still onboard with talking about the attack as terrorism instead of pretending it was just exuberant White people getting carried away. But despite what I can only assume to be an excruciating concession on the part of the media, they’re still not really talking about MAGA Jesus. MAGA Jesus is not Trump although you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Trump certainly thinks that and so do many of his most ardent followers. But Trump is simply the Moses of MAGA Jesus and when he keels over some time in the near future from his diet of grease and salt and rage, the cult will quickly realize that Trump is easy to replace. Hate always is. No, MAGA Jesus has been waiting for a long time to consume the Republican Party. He used to infect the Democratic Party and was disappointed the Civil War didn’t go his way. He tried again with the rise of the KKK but couldn’t maintain the momentum. But then the GOP gave him an opening that was too good to resist. A wedding of corporate greed to white nationalism with an added dose of religious fanaticism? That’s how that nice fellow in Germany got things done. MAGA Jesus had found his new home and he was welcomed with open arms.

Thou Shalt Kill In My Name

Fascists have been trying to overthrow America almost since fascism was first invented in the 1920s. A group of industrialists and bankers got together in the 1930s to plot a military coup against FDR. It failed before it started because they picked the wrong retired general to lead it. The 1/6 attack is just their latest attempt and it will certainly not be the last. MAGA Jesus and his disciples have plans for America.The nonsense about Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss is just smoke and mirrors. The base needs to be kept in a state of constant blind rage but the rest of the country needs to be kept distracted from paying attention to MAGA Jesus. 1/6 was a dress rehearsal. A dry run. It was proof of concept that a (relatively) small group of untrained imbeciles could be used as a weapon to almost topple the government of the most powerful nation on the planet. Now imagine those same imbeciles but organized and trained. MAGA Jesus is imagining it right now and has been for years. We call it the “militia movement” which is a nice euphemism for “domestic terrorist network.” We know this because militias like the Three Percenters and the Oathkeepers swore on the graves of their mothers and their honour as American soldiers that they were only arming themselves and training to prevent tyranny in the United States. Yet, the second an actual tyrant abused the power of the government, they cheered the prospect of a fascist regime.

Over a dozen of these self-proclaimed super patriots were among the wealthy rioters attacking the Capitol. And unlike the idiots around them, they were trained and organized. Not organized enough to keep their communications secure so we know for a fact they were planning this assault, but enough that they presented a very real and very lethal threat to the future of the country. There are hundreds of violent terrorist groups just like the Oathkeepers and Three Percenters with hundreds to thousands of members and even more devoted fans. So, yes, MAGA Jesus has an army of violent terrorists ready to do his bidding. They are not interested in compromise or meeting us halfway. We are either tools of the Great Jewish Conspiracy, baby-killing monsters, or race traitors. Or, more likely, all three. The actual made-up reason for them to go to war with the rest of society doesn’t really matter. They could insist we’re extra-dimensional slug people from the distant future and they would need just as much proof as they were loading us onto the cattle cars. Fascism is all based on lies and the truth is murdered in broad daylight. It’s important we understand this because it underscores that we are not dealing with rational people. Millions of MAGAs believe, really believe, that Trump won the election, meaning anything their terrorist wing does to correct this injustice will be completely justifiable. The Big Lie is the foundation of the Church of MAGA Jesus.

Blinded By The White (Nationalism).........

snip

great article, one of the best ever in The Banter IMHO, much more at the top link

[demtenjeep]

1. that visual

ugh I'm gonna throw up

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. The way I know that's a fake??

He doesn't weigh enough.

[Biophilic]

3. That is really, really scary that someone would actually create that picture.

It's just plain wrong. If I were a Christian I would be appalled. I grew up in a Christian environment and I am appalled that people who grew up in a similar environment would think that picture was appropriate. To be honest it scares me that others might think it's not just appropriate but actually good. We live in very scary times.

[keithbvadu2]

4. Republican Jesus