There is no reasoning with them...

[Soph0571]

They have severed themselves from rational thought... EXACTLY THIS!
Can't reason with those who have actively chosen irrational thought as a life plan...

[The Wizard]

1. Low self esteem

fostered by the Pox News strategy of convincing their viewers they are victims of all things not GQP has brought us to the precipice of civil war. Any culture vilifying education feeds its own self destruction through attrition. Witness the slave states leading in Covid deaths and hospitalizations.

[lindysalsagal]

9. your use of "The slave states." Wow. I first thought, 18th century slavery, but then

realized they're enslaved to the christian fascists now.

That term is powerful.

[Hortensis]

27. Now I'm enslaved to chistian fascists?

Does that go double for black Christians here in GA who are apparently by this definition both "christian fascists" and slaves to them? Oh, AND living in a slave state? Let's not forget that one.

WTF? Is there some leftist version of Hannity and Carlson where people go to soak this stuff up?

[soldierant]

37. Unfortunately, the style is easy to slip into.

It reminds me of Chuck Todd being (absolutely correctly) for using the terms "parent" and "parents of color" instead of saying "white parents" and "parents of color. Or something else that isn't automatically othering.

I doubt if anyone here thinks that black Christians are Christian fascists (although isolated individuals, even isolated congregations, might be." But if white Christian fascists are writing, passing, and enforcing fascist laws in a sate ot an area, then everyone living in that area is virtually enslaved to them in terms of [personal conduct. And that is probably just as clumsy as the original statement, but I' am trying to learn.

[Hortensis]

38. And conservative and LW extremist "style" is often indistinguishable.

Broad-brush hostility and rampant dishonesty, to the point of irrationality, in attacks, in this case demonstrated by characterizing U.S. states as slave states and citizens as slaves and/or slavers, are commonalities.

[soldierant]

41. So true.

[alphafemale]

48. Liberation theology from mostly Black churches

That is a great American thing.

Also from GA and know the role those churches played.

And I am an Atheist.

[The Wizard]

29. I use the term "slave states"

to conjure up lionized Confederate heroes who committed treason against the United States. They no longer need to own slaves as it's cheaper to rent them by the hour.

[Hortensis]

40. Of course. It's so easy to be misunderstood. "Let's-go-Brandon-man"

was just joking, poor fellow.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. They'd be millionaires but Deep State, Big Pharma, black robes, and regulations hold them back. nt

[ItsjustMe]

2. His Tormenting Of The "Others" Sustains Them

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216185871

[Walleye]

8. That is what they call his "policies"

[hlthe2b]

3. Yup.. I think back to my grandmother long gone, but who had the most sincere beliefs that

guided her life. She lived the tenets, yet true to them as well, never judged or preached at others. It was the message that guided her and she'd likely been able to find a similarly positive message to guide her life in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or most of the world's religions. She's been gone long enough that she never saw the worst of the politicization of Christianity in this country, I cringe to think how that would have impacted her so perhaps there is a blessing in that.

There are plenty of progressive Christians and progressive Jews and progressive members of all the major religions. Is it that MSM is afraid to give them a voice? With few notable exceptions, where are their voices?

[erronis]

26. Politicization of Christianity...

As soon as I read your excellent story about your grandmother, I remembered some history lessons I learned about the Christian (I prefer xian) church and how it has been used and abused for millennia for factions/individuals to gain control, murder/steal/pillage/etc. in the name of some lord.

Maybe that's true for other religions. I think I understand that Islam is rife with factions who hate each other. Probably worse than they hate the heathen.

[Wednesdays]

4. Link?

[Soph0571]

5. My graphic

Quote from this article
https://www.salon.com/2020/01/03/onward-christian-fascists_partner/

[abqtommy]

6. Try this...

... https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=chris+hedges+comment+on+the+greatest+moral+failing&ia=web

[abqtommy]

7. Some say "Christian Right" but I say "Friggin' Fascists" and Churchill, Roosevelt and

Stalin showed us how to deal with Fascists!

[keithbvadu2]

10. Barry Goldwater on 'rational conversation'.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215500922

MUST READ!!! John Pavlovitz: "I'm a Christian Pastor. Evangelicals Have to Be Defeated in 2022"

Barry Goldwater on 'rational conversation'.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/777519-mark-my-word-if-and-when-these-preachers-get-control

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”

― Barry Goldwater

http://bluenc.com/content/barry-goldwater-religious-right-and-gay-rights
--------------------------

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=%22It+is+dominion+we+are+after%22

"It is dominion we are after"

[ShazzieB]

34. Wow, he sure got that right!

[sarchasm]

11. "Faith is believing something you know ain't true." - Mark Twain

... It all started way before that.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. You say that as if they had any rationality o begin with.

Those who are brainwashed can be helped, according to the medical people I have spoken to about the matter. but, when the person was already unbalanced to begin with... then we as a society have to make some hard choices. Choices I do not see happening. Because they are 'hard'. But, we will see, won't we?

[FreepFryer]

13. Is Chris Hedges' program still running on Russia Today? Asking for a nation (Nt)

[keithbvadu2]

14. What will they say/do when it is not their version of Christianity in charge?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist= ;

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.
--------------------

We have plenty of folks who want to be the Christian Ayatollah of America

What will they say/do when it is not their version of Christianity in charge?

[Paladin]

16. Words to live by.

Treat Christian fascists as the lowlife scum they are---don't pay them the pointless compliment of assuming they have one iota of common decency in their makeup.

[Mr. Steve]

17. agreed

Fanaticism, despite the flavor, abhors reason. There is no possible way to engage a fanatic in any sort of peaceful, meaningful dialogue. They will only see their own chosen way and that is that. Would that there were some peaceful alternative to dealing with fanatics. Any suggestions?

[jaxexpat]

18. Jesus was pretty adamant that his "kingdom" was not of this world.

That gets lost on most people and Christians need to hear it often as a reminder of what they're dealing with. It's never spoken of in offering-plate-passing, blue chip, megamachinechurches.

[patphil]

19. It doesn't seem to me that a person can be both a Christian and a Fascist.

The concepts of Fascism don't line up with the teachings of Jesus at all.
They are simply Fascists, who pretend to be Christians as a cover for their actions.
They look very much like the supporters of Hitler...a person who courted the Catholic Church as a means of legitimizing his hate filled, racist rhetoric.

[gratuitous]

21. That's it right there

And plenty of Christians have pushed back against the fascists using the cross as a front. The problem is a mass media that can't be bothered with figuring anything out. They simply report what each side is saying, assume the truth is somewhere between the polar opposites they're looking at, and go cash their paychecks. The idea of subjecting the fascist/white supremacist cant to critical analysis never occurs to them. Or, if it does, they quickly abandon the notion for fear of squawks of "liberal" bias.

[plimsoll]

22. Fascism, the original from Italy was most definitely Christian

Even in Germany several different denomination tried to be the “Nazi Christianity.” Traditional values is a strong theme in fascist movements. Calling yourself a Christian movement is almost textbook for “traditional.”

[plimsoll]

20. Christopher Hedges rubs me the wrong way usually.

Nearly every piece slams liberals for not being “pure” enough. On the other hand, there is an inherent flaw in the argument he uses. The notion that contemporary Christians believe that a “liberal Christian church” could even exist is laughable. They are the real Christians now, if you don’t believe me ask them. They won’t find themselves to be heretics, it will be guys like Chris Hedges the accuse of heresy.

I’ve had this discussion many times, and I know it offends many, but the right owns that trademark. Even the media has ceded the mantle of Christian to them. Liberal Christians could try to fight back, but it’s probably to late, and plenty of them are afraid of consequences of losing.

[lindysalsagal]

25. Exactly: " plenty of them are afraid of consequences of losing."

The muslims do the same thing. Instead of challenging, they leave.

[Hortensis]

30. Many have found there's no reasoning with Chris Hedges, a serial

plagiarist whose increasing extremism and its attendant dishonesty, irrationality, and destruction of intellectual verity over the past couple decades means that all of his impressive credentials are in the past. Way in the past.

I once soaked up his title "Christian Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," a phenomenon I was observing myself, but couldn't read more than a few chapters. It's not that there's no point to be searched out in it, but I did not recognize real people I knew in his ugly one-dimensional portrayals. They were so extremely warped, intolerant and mean, that I actually ended up feeling indignant for someone I suspected in another life would call the Gestapo on my husband. That's pretty bad.

Every time I see his name these days I despise him for his dreadful soul-killing influence on those who've kept him alive and prosperous, those drawn to his "politics of cultural despair" that he himself decries as "killing us" while feeding the already sickened market for more despair.

For what he's done to degrade the understanding of the electorate. Speaking of which, let's remember that, like other admired gurus of that dystopian crowd, after he personally destroyed his career as a real journalist he is still welcome on RT, where he hosts a weekly program and is frequently quoted by professional propagandists. Russian state TV is one of the planet's biggest disseminators of toxic disinformation and other forms of weaponized mindfucking for the Kremlin. The purpose: to destroy other nations.

[FreepFryer]

35. +1 (Nt)

[lastlib]

23. If religious fanatics (or tRumpers) could be reasoned with,,,,

then they wouldn't be religious fanatics (or tRumpers).

[lindysalsagal]

24. Religion becomes an addiction when it hurts people, including it's adherents.

Most people only drop addictions when they hit bottom. But with covid, they're taking us all down with them.

[BComplex]

28. Chris Hedges nails it.

He nails it so much of the time. He looks like a regular dude, but he's so much more. Very remarkable, IMHO. We watch him every week night. He never backs away from shedding light on what & where the real problems are.

[Grasswire2]

39. Where do you watch him every week night? nt

[BComplex]

49. Hahahaha! Sorry, Grasswire 2, I'm getting old!

I was thinking of Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Just giving voice to my white hairs!

[OMGWTF]

32. "An early objection I had with Christianity at school was being told I was part of a flock.

Shepherds don't look after sheep because they like them. They either want to fleece them, fuck them, or eat them."

-- Christopher Hitchens

[Lunabell]

33. I'm not a Christian

But I was a serious born again one from 10 to16 years old. Republican Jesus is NOT the Jesus I used to adore. Which is one reason I am no longer a Christian.

[paulkienitz]

36. irrationality is their core belief now

my article "The Right Wing's Rejection of Reality is Now Its Defining Attribute":

https://supersonicman.wordpress.com/2021/11/09/the-right-wings-rejection-of-reality-is-now-its-defining-attribute/

[Skittles]

42. it is all nuttiness

it is just a matter of degree

[calimary]

43. Totally!

[jimlup]

44. We must right now stop fighting the LAST WAR

tRump is goinig to die soon but his legacy remains -

that is our enemy. FOCUS DU!

[Free4Speech]

45. I don't think..

That encouraging the political divide into religion is healthy for anyone. The comfort of being a Christian (For me) is knowing that I at least have Christianity as a bridge with others whom don't see eye to eye with me..

"It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step"

[ck4829]

47. K&R