Far-right activists in Britain are increasingly adopting the rhetoric of Christian nationalism. Yet while they look to American churches for an example, their evangelical style seems unlikely to map onto Brits’ quite different attitudes toward religion.
As a white boy deep in the south region of the US where evangelical Christian is the only Christianity I suggest to you, as a person who has lived in this shithole, that my brothers and sisters in Great Britain nuke this shit from orbit and pour gasoline on the smoking embers. We thought this would not happen here but we let the fucking nuts congregate and feed off each other. It all started when Eisenhower let Billy Graham in the White House because, " what can a little prayer breakfast hurt?" And no one said a thing because why offend " good Christian" people. Stop it now while the chickens are still in the hen house.
Yeah, the Tolerance paradox, tolerate these toxic shit stains and this is how you end up
You thought it wouldn’t happen there? Pretty sure most of the rest of us knew it always had.
As a white boy from Idaho, I second this. We ran their first wave out in the early 00s, but the next wave trying to create a white nationalist haven was far worse than the old ones who contented themselves with cosplay Conderacy/Nazism and only left their compounds once a year for a parade. There’s no shame anymore, no edgelord “I’m a Nazi” attitude. They’ve normalized the doctrine by being average neighbors rather than radical weirdos in a bunker. They’re invading our local offices, school boards, city councils, and other minor offices. One challenged our governor (a Regan-esque pos but not total MAGA) and while he lost, still got 30% of the vote. They’re buying up our remote farming communities and turning them into ideological enclaves. They’re well educated, and many are former cops or military. Out here it’s creating a strange bedfellow situation. We’ve got urban leftists and libs, east state Mormons who are starting to recognize MAGA evangelicals aren’t their ally, and the 2A an-cap libertarians who hate the Feds. Fun times. But seriously, don’t let these people get a foot in the door at any level.
As someone raised in evangelical Christianity and fought my way out, this guy’s not fucking kidding, and neither is he being overly dramatic. I suggest you act with frightening speed and ruthless efficiency, leaving no blade of grass untouched nor smallest nook or cranny overlooked. As you act, do not waver in your fortitude, and do not for even a moment to allow yourselves to consider that you may be acting “a bit rash.” It is imperative that you cease immediately the spread of this pestilence.
Fighting fascism doesn’t mean destroying your ability to self reflect or question yourself. That’s a ridiculous way to think about anything.
Edit: apparently I’m wrong. The guys who never allow themselves to question their actions or thoughts are typically known as the good guys.
Nobody here’s against self-reflection or questioning or critical thinking. These comments come from people who explicitly did do self-reflection and left. The ones who don’t are still in the evangelical system, I presume.
Believe it or not though, those things have an empirical or social component. Namely, if seemingly rational actors (by all means grill them) are giving such grave warnings, which is an astonishingly rare event… Heed them.
This is more prudence and modesty than mindless or naive deference, an ironically fine line given the subject matter. Lastly, this isn’t simply a black-and-white matter of “good and bad” however comfortable it is to give in to the impulse to reduce everything to such. Reminder: following said impulse doesn’t make you any more moral than the next person.
No, you’re right in general, but context and frame of reference are a thing. Here the discussion is specifically around reacting to the rise of Christian Nationalism.
This is Karl Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance. If these christofascists are allowed to take power, they will aggressively erode tolerance of anyone else. And based on precedent they will lie and manipulate to get that power. The response must be swift and ironclad.
But knowing the UK cultural propensity for excessive politeness and unhealthy avoidance of social discomfort, they’re probably screwed.
This is a solid misunderstanding of, well, everything. Britain takes great zeal in tearing down those who purport to be moral. See: British Tabloids and British Satire. And as for religious leaders trying to make a political issue, that’s a big nope, and they will be savagely ridiculed for it.
The only way these weirdos can survive is by staying under the radar, like the mormons and the scientologists. Once they start to insinuate themselves in public discourse they’re ripped apart.
But the backlash to my comment is based on a strawman argument because people cannot imagine you can partially agree with a caveat. The implication of the downvotes here is that if I would say this, I must be a secret fascist. There’s absolutely nothing objectively incorrect about what I said, in context or not. The only reason context would matter here is if you make assumptions about why I made this comment, and that requires a leap. Which apparently, people are very happy to make.
I only see one other reply to your comment, and I’m not sure it’s making these assumptions. Maybe you could point to the ‘backlash’?
Regardless, I already said I think you’re right in the grand scheme of things and shared my input. But I didn’t write the original comments you were responding to and have no need or desire to defend those.
The many downvotes is what I am referring to
Can not upvote this enough. This man speaks the truth, and reason. He is not crazy. I’ve had a similar experience, and if anything, I think this isn’t raising the warning flag high enough for what could happen in the UK here.
Too bad there’s no “new world” to ship all the fundies off to this time.
Mars?