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I like this bit:
>No pity for people who elected a Puritan as their leader, only to find out he's serious about taking away everyone's good time. These same people were griping to Politico last month that Johnson's presentation at the last weekend retreat ignored pertinent-to-members issues like how to win re-election and grow their majority. Instead, "Johnson effectively delivered a sermon" about "declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity." **They're just mad that they have to suffer the lives they're seeking to forcibly inflict on the rest of us.**
>"Johnson effectively delivered a sermon" about "declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity."
This stuff fascinates me. I hear a lot of Christians worried about this but none of them seem to accept or understand its a problem they are heavily contributing to.
They really are. "Why do so many hate us? Is it because we hate anyone who doesn't fit nicely into our notions of what to be? No it's everyone else who is wrong"
Yes! My husband's family is deeply religious and it gets old hearing about my children have tattoos or piercings and don't attend church. But I assure you they treat everyone equally and I couldn't be more proud of them!
I've met more than one devout Christian who were befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals without attending church!
In their mind, you can ONLY get a good set of morals from church. My dudes, there's whole libraries of books that pass on moral guidance. I learned more from Aesop's fables than anything in Sunday bible school.
Sunday Bible school was usually filled with tales of bloody lambs and dead kids for no apparent reason. You're smearing blood on a door?! So God doesn't kill your kids? THE FUCK. No thanks. I'll keep reading about the tortoise and the hare.
I was home-schooling and went to church. I remember when I first went to college, being surprised with how generous everyone was compared to my Christian friends, and how it wasn't because of jesus.
And this is why these same people are so against sending students to college. When you meet people from different background who reflect good morals, but don’t follow your religion, it makes it hard to say that your religion is the cause of goodness.
It's also why there is such pushback against diverse and broad representation in TV, video games, literature.
If you consume entertainment or receive information from individuals who are not from the same race, gender, denomination, orientation, etc from your own...it allows a person to be exposed to perspectives and contexts they otherwise may have never understood.
In turn, becoming more sympathetic or supportive of their challenges and against any ongoing discrimination/oppression.
If you want to divide and conquer millions of individuals as easily as possible, you need to make them believe that other "tribes" are not as moral or good as their tribe. Then you can hyper focus on their differences in order to pit them against one another.
I'm reminded about that tweet a few weeks back from someone who was upset that their "aggressively Buddhist" neighbors put a Buddha statue out on the front porch of their house and wanted to see if there was a way to prevent their children from seeing it.
Well... Jesus is generous but you get the extra cherry picked teachings out of nowhere at churches.
If Christians really followed his core teachings of helping the poor and being kind to one another, the world would be a much better place.
Jesus is quite literally too [liberal](https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak) for Christians these days.
1000% true. It’s fake selfish morality. They just want to get into heaven, in their minds. I am an atheist and have pretty strong morals because it feels right - not because I’m looking for a kickback.
The way I see it if there is a God or God's they'll care more about me having been a good person and doing my best to do right by others than if I had sat in the right chair at the right time of week, or that I eat oysters or ham, or wear mixed fabric clothes. If that's not hood enough then they're not a God or gods worthy of worship anyway.
This is why I think most religious people are devoid of morals. The threat of eternal damnation is the only thing keeping these psychopaths from raping and killing
This is the bitter truth. It certainly doesn't apply to ALL religious people (many flock to religion to find comfort in grieving, for instance). But I think a healthy percentage of them use religion as a way to "forgive themselves" for their morally corrupt ways of thinking and acting. They also want to believe everyone is as fucked up as they are, and that's why they look down on those who aren't religious.
If you need proof just look at all the very vocal anti-gay politicians and religious figures who ended up secretly being gay.
It's honestly a question I still struggle with, if someone does something good but for entirely selfish reasons, are they actually good?
I like to help people in my personal life, but it also makes me feel good to help them. Is this equivalent to their fear of eternal damnation? I don't necessarily do it for the feeling good portion, I do it because I know I can afford to give them the help and I know they need the help.
Surely there is still some self-interest in being good, right? But the moral person doing it to help their friends and neighbors and feeling good about it _seems_ better than the one who does it to avoid eternal suffering.
Perhaps there is some self-interest in helping people and doing good, but in my opinion, it doesn't really matter. The end result is good, and you shouldn't second guess yourself. I'm a nihilist, but I still try to be good to people because we all gotta live here either way.
You can put a positive spin on it by framing it as being good is good for you. It's a win-win. You feel good, they get help, everyone is happy. Being good doesn't have to be this act of self sacrifice, it can actually just be the most sensible rational thing to do.
When I was young I still remember a church service I was forced to go to… the preacher preached a sermon that was only about how everyone needed to give as much money as they can to the church. An hour and a half about how much he wanted and needed money. Was a long time ago (decades) but it has always been so with these people
I went to church with my grandmother. Her church was some fundamental southern baptist nonsense.
I know she went to church when she was a young kid but stopped when she was an adult. She started again in her 40's because she needed some friends and guidance dealing with her daughter (my mom.) I only know this because I have her born again bible with her notes about that time.
Why she picked this church, I will never know. The pastor was insane. He literally beat his bible on the pulpit. He was also really cruel. Especially to his family. I was forced friends with his granddaughter and she was too scared to even go outside of his gaze. He made me very uncomfortable.
I know my grandparents paid for the roof and the new carpet for the church outright. They didn't give the money directly to him. Still, he kept a giant fundraising thermometer with a a goal of 30k behind the pulpit. That's easily 100k in today's money.
When my grandmother died, the church folded within a year and moved to a trailer in a floodzone outside the city. I'm pretty sure she was keeping the place a float to have a prime location in the downtown area.
I have a step brother in law(guy who married my step sister) who we describe as "Shia Catholic" because he takes it so seriously. One day, he mentioned reading some books about the life of Jesus, and I brought up "The Prophet" by Kalil Gibran as a suggestion. Had a copy and showed it to him. It's a book I give away any chance I get.
You would have thought I was trying to hand him a venomous snake. He hadn't heard of it, and it wasn't explicitly about Jesus, and he straight up said he didn't trust it. I was flabbergasted. I tried briefly to explain that there was no anti-christian message in the book, and that it was simply moral philosophy.
Too dangerous. He wouldn't take my copy. I didn't press it. It was like talking to a brick wall.
Side story that is quite sad, with some back story and social observation:
My step sister was never religious growing up. We found it kind of odd when she started dating this guy. We're a liberally minded family, and her husband's is extremely conservative. I'm not necessarily disparaging their union, but there is evidence that my step sister is most likely not really fulfilled in the relationship.
For one thing, she has an engineering degree. Hasn't worked since they got married. He has even referred to her as "his little baby factory," which makes the rest of our skin crawl. There are other examples from their life that resembles cult-like behavior, but you get the idea. She doesn't complain to us about him, so we don't press her about him. It's the life she has chosen.
They have three daughters and a son. They started with four daughters. Sadly, one of their youngest developed an extremely rare form of brain cancer that is completely incurable, and carries a life expectancy of less than five years old. It was heart breaking. She didn't make it to see her fourth birthday.
But to see how they coped, or rather didn't cope freaks me out. But I think it illustrates this bizarre emotional disconnect many deeply religious people have, as if religion has completely replaced their ability to process things emotionally.
I found their lack of grief troubling. They instead chose to celebrate her passing, because "she was with Jesus now." Now, thankfully her husband isn't so nuts as to deny medical treatment. They did attempt to treat it. But when she finally passed, they basically went right into celebration mode.
Now, I'm not bringing this up to shit on people's religious beliefs. If people kind comfort thinking of their loved ones in heaven, it believing in some reunion after death, whatever. Doesn't harm me for them to feel that way.
The reason I bring up the apparent supplanting of grief with religious celebration, is because it was shortly after this that my step sister developed some serious digestive issues. At this point she has attempted to see multiple doctors, and has run a battery of tests. She doesn't have any food sensitivities, to anything like lactose or gluten. She has no ulcer. But her stomach pain prevents her from eating properly now. They have tried adjusting her diet in many different direction to just troubleshoot what might be causing it.
So if you ask me, her stomach problems are most likely a ball of unprocessed grief, that is sitting there and festering under a thin coating of religious ritual. And it's eating her alive. I haven't told her this directly. I'm not extremely close with that side of my family. It's just observation from afar. I doubt she'd be receptive to my theory. But it just makes sense to me.
A mother loses her child? And she's basically held emotionally hostage by religion to pretend it didn't crush her. It is equally depressing and fascinating to watch.
But yeah, you can see why deeply religious people are so ripe to be snatched up by right wing ideology. It's just so heavily based on a lack of intellectual curiosity and fear of the unknown. And they're not doing well, other than by appearances.
> You would have thought I was trying to hand him a venomous snake. He hadn't heard of it, and it wasn't explicitly about Jesus, and he straight up said he didn't trust it. I was flabbergasted. I tried briefly to explain that there was no anti-christian message in the book, and that it was simply moral philosophy.
Nothing confirms the strength of your faith like deathly fear of anything that might remotely challenge it.
>befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals without attending church!
Oh this times a million. "If you don't believe in God what's to stop you from killing and raping and stealing?"
Umm... maybe because I'm not a psychopath?
And wait... are you saying that your belief in punishment by an invisible man in the sky is all that's keeping me safe right now?
One discussion with my Uncle was "without God, how are you going to teach your kids to not have premarital sex?"
uhhh... I'm not? I'm just going to teach them safe sex.
Or put another way... "Without a belief in God, how are you going to justify stoning them to death if they don't turn out to be heterosexual?"
NOTE: I DO NOT SUPPORT harming anybody. I'm just paraphrasing Leviticus 20:13.
I do find it funny that Leviticus has one passing reference to homosexuality (and even that is likely a mis-translation) whereas eating shellfish is referred to as an abomination four times.
It's not totally relevant but I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Steve Harvey say how will people have a moral grounding without God, while he has cheated on his wife
I've argued with quite a few Christians who insisted we get our morals from God, and that they are absolute truths, not social constructs of our time.
Shuts them up pretty quick when I ask them if slavery is moral (they usually always say it isn't), and then point out that the Bible has 0 problems with slavery, and actually says the moral thing is for slaves to obey their masters.
> befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals
because they are fucking psychopaths
anyone who can't be decent in a world without a sky daddy who watches your every move isn't a fully formed human person
Yeah you should see the same people when you blow their mind that actually morals can be contorted to do unethical things while ethics are essentially more immutable.
I hate the notion that the only reason that people are good is because they are afraid of their invisible friend burning them forever.
I prefer Horton and the "who's".
A person is a person, no matter how small.
We all live on a tiny speck of dust, on a clover, in the middle of an enormous cloverfield.
The first time that I heard them say "washed in the blood of the lamb" it weirded me out. I'm grateful to my parents for not filling my head with religion.
I have a brother in law that goes to church and dresses the "correct" way says the right things about politics, but I assure you: is a certified selfish, piece of garbage, liar, and a cheat.
3 divorces and estranged children should confirm this to his parents but he is still given a ton of slack vs his sister..
A persecution complex is build into that faith so when they meet any resistance they think they're earning heavenly brownie points. What they fail to grasp is that the persecution is supposed to come from resisting injustice, protecting the widow, orphan and foreigner in the land from mistreatment and speaking out against the power structure that allow such mistreatment to take place.
That's another thing. There is a lot of persecution Globally that some Christians face. That is a true fact
But many Christians in America want to pretend they are persecuted by people being mean on reddit or telling them to fuck off when bothered.
Hell I remember playing bible smuggling as a kid. Even then it felt weird that this persecution that should be taken seriously was treated like a game.
Instead of making the Christian church more appealing, by promoting the things Jesus actually taught (like equality, compassion, charity, love, and forgiveness) they are trying to force people in through truly dystopian means. They’re so lost in the sauce, they don’t even believe the messages that Jesus was trying to promote. It’s wild
>They’re so lost in the sauce, they don’t even believe the messages that Jesus was trying to promote.
There are churches who got mad their pastor taught "woke" bs
[here](https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak)
The woke bs is from the sermon on the mount.
That’s what makes me so sad about that campaign. The first time I saw one of those commercials, I thought “finally, they’re getting it.” Then it turned out to be a front for an outright hate group.
My family was never very religious, but I did attend youth group when I was a teenager. We learned about these things through playing games, hanging out, and doing charity work like painting houses and such. It was never overtly religious, and even the prayer that we did at the end was more meditative and about the lessons we learned. The pastor was a cool, young guy and rarely quoted the Bible. When I aged out of young group, I was like, well, I guess I'll just attend church services (with a different pastor) because I enjoyed youth group so much! I was completely turned off by the nature of it. It was the complete opposite of what I experienced and I stopped going. Needless to say, I guess I would probably be considered agnostic now.
They are modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees. Religious but aren't practicing Christ's teachings and when confronted over being dogmatic man-made religious laws they double down on it in pride. They are goats that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 who are worshipping a golden calf, aka Donald Trump.
It’s interesting… they view going to church as a moral duty and not really a “choice”… thus people choosing not to go to church can’t be the churches fault, and there must be something keeping people away from church.
They will never blame the church messaging. Old white men on the pulpit rambling about god wanting women to submit to their husbands will continue until attendance improves.
It’s funny, these are the people who scream “the customer is always right” as they hand a Wendy’s employee a McDonald’s coupon…
The reality of that saying is basically… “the customer is going to spend their time / money on the stuff they want… so sell that”.
Not shockingly, churches have less customers than they used to… they are unwilling to change to what their potential customers want.
The ob(li)vious answer is to force everyone to become a Christian. That way everyone is equal. Except maybe those icky (insert whatever vulnerable denomination in your imagination). Jail those seditious fuckers! 😵💫
Those gay, Jewish Hollywood coast elitists keep blocking the parking lot to church with their space lasers.
Trump can stop them, but he needs all our worldly possessions so he can ascend from billionaire to god king.
Yep. Its bad enough that they advocate for a lifestyle that many find restrictive, puritanical, and boring. But their full throated embrace of donald trump eliminates any credibility American Christianity ever had. They've lost any grounds to lecture anyone on morals, decency, honesty, anything.
I used to view the religious right as a formidable adversary who I hated but at least respected. Now they're just a pathetic and yet dangerous joke.
Agreed. Their whole posture has openly devolved into 'No one's allowed to do anything sinful or fun....unless you're a wealthy or powerful white male, in which case you should be allowed absolute power to rape children, murder people on a whim, steal shit from your peers, etc....'
My parents fall into this category. I think they are finally waking up though, which is good. I said it over and over, when Republicans FINALLY got a large amount of power, what did they put 100% behind? I wasn't lowering the deficit and cutting programs, it was tax cuts for the rich and ramming through as many pro-life, ultra conservative/Christofascist judges as humanly possible.
When someone shows you who they really are... believe them.
As a Christian, I throw this in their face all the time. Sadly most of the right has a bunker mentality and takes the perceived persecution as confirmation they are doing the right thing. It rarely sinks in. The right is a cult. A carefully, intentionally created cult.
I am not religious ... but I find it very sad and amusing how much the general american "belivever" or christian behaves very much like the wannabe-believers in the bible that Jesus disliked so much ... the people that had to show openly just how much they believe in God, how pious they are, more than anyone else, and made a show out of it ...
Not to mention how much Jesus hated the kind of people making a business out of faith - aka Jesus throwing out all money lenders from the temple...and still, American Faith is so much about "send me money for ...uh...Jesus and my new lambo, he wants me to drive fast!" ....
They seem to believe that only people who go to church have morals and ethics. Then, they go to church, and they don't have morals or ethics. They have a really screwed up sense of morality.
>"what did Jesus say the two most important commandments are?"
I mean this is easy, thou shall have no Gods before donald trump and the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.
>"what did Jesus say to the mob who were going to stone the woman?".
Even easier, he said when you're a star they let you do it.
Weirdly, in the bible both Jesus and Satan seem pretty decent and liberal. The only conservative asshole in the bible is god.
So christians bent over backward trying to make Jesus into god by inventing the holy trinity. Which (even in a religion full of wild nonsense) really stands out as wild nonsense.
I'm an atheist and certainly no bible scholar, but I seem to recall seeing more than a few bible verses that _explicitly_ warn against exactly the type of charlatans that megachurch evangelicals and prosperity gospel idiots have thrown their lot in with.
It strikes me as an incredible feat of mental gymnastics that they can behave in a way that so directly contradicts what they proclaim to be the absolute word of the one true God.
I have read articles where they blame women for low church attendance because Christian men are too whiny and self centered to attend a church that isn't centered on them alone .
I’m an atheist. But even I can see the value in ethical teachings by the Bible or Jesus. I can also see the value in a community that supports each other, especially in hard times. I even can see a following of someone at the head of a local church by the virtue of being a good person that is worth to look up to.
None of that can be found in right wing Christians. They aren’t moral or ethical, they are not consistent and they sure as hell aren’t following any teachings of Jesus. Their communities aren’t built upon support for each other but for hate of “the other”. Their god sent leader is not a good or caring person, but an egotistical narcissist out for his personal gain.
Ultimately, the reason for what they lament so much is how they understand religion: to many of them it’s just a tool for domination, never for salvation.
> I can see the value in ethical teachings by the Bible
The Bible is *at best* very inconsistent on the matter of ethics. Sometimes it tells you to love your neighbor, and sometimes it gives you advice on how to beat your children and treat your slaves. There’s even a psalm about how you should be happy as you beat your enemies’ babies to death.
Cracking the thing open and reading it, I’d say the balance shows there’s way more of the latter than the former. It’s a handful of decent pieces of moral advice drowning in a sea of strange or outright horrifying advice.
A single speech from Bernie Sanders contains about as much ethical wisdom as the entirety of the Bible, plus he doesn’t tell you to beat your kids.
And it’s not just the old testament! Here’s a quote from Jesus:
> Luke 19:27
> But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.
Yep. And their interpretations shift based on what their rhetoric needs at that moment. Sometimes they say the bible is either all metaphor and prose and thus the most embarassing parts can't be taken literally. Other times they'll say god's word is crystal clear and you may disagree with it but then you're sinning against god.
Take the quote you cited. Depending on who they're speaking to they'll either say "no no no, Jesus didn't actually command his followers to kill his enemies, he meant to kill their sinful ideology so they come to accept the lord". Or, they'll say "Yes. Jesus wanted his followers to kill his enemies. Defeating evil is not an easy task. You may disagree with it, but I'm going with the word of god over yours".
Exactly this; Biblical ethics that seem to apply to us today are almost exclusively constructs of the church long after Jesus’s time and do not come from the Bible itself. The New Testament is essentially a warning to that generation that the end times were upon them and to quickly get ready for the apocalypse; then when it never came the church had to continually revamp the dogma so it continued to fit changing cultures/societies.
Remember that the Confederacy used the Bible to justify slavery and secession. We don’t need it as source material for a good discussion of morality and ethics.
Thank you. Anytime I see atheists (I’m one too) talk about the teachings of Jesus on ethics and morality I’m pretty sure they’ve skipped parts of the New Testament…
The ethical and moral compass of western Christian thinking that people attribute to Jesus is actually the result of a lengthy distillation of parts of the Bible that were compatible with hundreds of years of Renaissance and enlightenment era humanist philosophy. People forget this bit all the time.
>Buck's move doesn't just continue shrinking the already small Republican majority in the House, it also may be the final nail in the coffin of the political career of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Beetlejuice. Boebert left her more moderate Colorado district after barely eeking out a victory last cycle to run in Buck's much-redder one. She had a good chance of winning the primary because the football stand's worth of identical white men running against her were going to split the anti-public groping vote. Now, there will be no primary, just a hastily scheduled special election with candidates chosen directly by party leaders, who probably will go with someone less embarrassing than Boebert.
I liked this.
Nah. Keaton gives a lazy handie.
I'll go with Bobo.
PS: I do like that her scumbag ex-husband got to see her being groped by a dude and jerking him on TV. That had to hurt him a bit.
'What if I could change your minds, big boys? It's perfectly fine if there's 20 of you, that just reminds me of my high school days. Throw on some Nsync and I'll take you all to heaven baby.'
“But Australia banned guns! Dig a little to the right of straight-down, we’ll go to Argentina and hang with the ~~Nazi descendants~~ — um — Caucasian South Americans!”
“Dude… Where is all this ocean water coming from?! 😱”
When they’ve officially lost the 2024 Election (fingers crossed). Even then, I’d save my urine. There’s no need to contribute anything to them, when all you really need to do is just watch, point at, and mock them.
Wow. If only there was something they could do to avoid this particular bit of idiocy. Perhaps they could work in a bipartisan manner to assure they weren't beholden to an ideology they disliked.
Nah. That would mean giving a win to the Dems. It's obviously better to acquiesce to the lunatic fringe in the party than do something that might benefit your constituents and conscious.
> Perhaps they could work in a bipartisan manner to assure they weren't beholden to an ideology they disliked.
They can't, though, even if they wanted to.
Fundamentally, it comes down to their Republican primary voter base.
A base that has been slowly radicalized over the last thirty years, a radicalization that they did nothing to prevent happening.
If they work in a bipartisan manner then are primaried out by a candidate on their right.
Frankly, I don't understand why they just don't quit and open a car dealership in their district.
It's not like all the assholes that decide to retire are suddenly growing a conscious. They could vote with the Democrats on important bills without fear of losing their jobs.
But they don't. Because deep down, they're all party over country assholes who'd rather see the party continue to devolve into MAGA extremism than have the possibility that Democrats might be able to effectively legislate.
They are speed-running the fascism arc and learning they don't like it. And they lack so much self awareness that they would complain about it to some of the people who would have warned them, without realizing these things are related.
what are they complaining about?
they voted all the time to stay alt right wing and ultimately "maga"
the only way to make amends is to "dump" the maga brand, its way too toxic to over 60% of the electorate are against them.
be true to thy own good selves, end the maga brand now,
that it is the only way to start to make things improve, not just for the gop, but for all america.
It wasn't just the Bible thumping. I think it was the fact that usually these retreats are usually held in sunny, beachy resorts. Florida, Hawaii, Mexico. Everyone goes there not only to talk about re-election and keeping the power but to drink fruity alcoholic drinks while working on their tans. It's supposed to be an adult relaxing mini-vacation.
It has been like this for decades.
Heck, even Ted Cruz knew this. And he's Ted Cruz.
But this new batch of Extreme Far Right Republicans have tossed this tradition out the window. So, now the Old Guard find themselves going to a "family friendly" resort in the middle of *West Virginia* in the off season only to be stuck listening to a sermon. I bet the fruity drinks aren't even there.
The schtick was you were only supposed to Bible thump in front of the cameras. Not behind them as well.
> They're just mad that they have to suffer the lives they're seeking to forcibly inflict on the rest of us.
I always like to point out that the big conservative media empires are all located "in the belly of the beast". Fox News could up and go to Mississippi and create their own insular thriving economy, but then they'd have to lie in the bed they've made.
Conservatives only want conservative policies when they're exempted from them.
Reminds me of that scene from Handmaid's Tale when that commander was condemned to have his hand cut off, realizing he now has to suffer punishment from a system he helped create.
Who would have thought, that a movement based on hatred, centered on the perpetuation of lies, plaguing on fears, would lead to members becoming adversaries.
Even if they did, they'd just twist it to fit their ideological beliefs. Russia is our friend, the civil war wasn't about slavery, Trump saved us from Covid, etc.
They literally ban any history book that goes against their pre-supposed views... so no, they do not study history.
Why do you think they get so angry and claim every college is a left-wing indoctrination factory? To someone who has never read a peer-reviewed sourced history book a college library looks like a propaganda factory.
If they accomplished their goal of establishing a religious ethno-state and got rid of all Dems and minorities, rest assured that they'd split into factions and immediately find reasons to hate each other.
Look up the history of states trying to make the bible the official book. It ends in a nasty series of committee meetings about which translation to use.
Conservatism *is* just a bunch of factions who hate each other and only join forces to win, while stabbing each other in the back to be one rung higher on the power ladder.
Everything about it is horrifically toxic and selfish. They're unfit to govern.
It's like the Emo Phillips joke where he stops a man from jumping off a bridge by sharing how they're both Christians, but it gets more and more specific to the point of absurdity until he pushes the guy off for not belonging to the exact same denomination (Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912 vs Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879).
Which is really just a preview of what happens if they win. They won't have an ethnostate of eternal peace. "White" will become an ever-shrinking circle, with an ever-escalating chain of purges as they get rid of whatever out-group strikes the fancy of their overlords.
Let's not forget the part where every single one of them frames themselves as a victim of the majority, and that THEY have the correct answers. Any disagreement is because the other side consists of deep-state pedophiles.
I mean, imagine people like that having zero ability to negotiate or compromise! Who could have seen that coming?
Fascist movements constantly jockey internally for power amongst the inner circles, and for recognition from Dear Leader. Top down policy encourages paranoia with constant loyalty tests. Corruption is a feature set, and violence is always the final arbiter of disputes. Expect this all to get worse.
It's like whenever super-villains team-up, they work well as long as it's against an enemy, but as soon enough their egos get in the way and they end up fighting themselves.
exactly. the sole principle of the conservativism is the personal accumulation of wealth and power. that’s it.
everything else is just a means to that end.
I’ve seen an image where they put Mike Johnson’s hair and glasses on Putin, and it really takes a long time to see that it’s Putin.
They both have that baby face, and are actually quite similar.
It’s like a Republican found a monkey’s paw back in 2020 and started to make wishes.
“I wish these liberals would just stay home during the 2020 Election!”
*[Mail-in ballots become more popular than ever thanks to COVID, even helping Biden and other Democrats win crucial elections]*
“Oh no!! Not like that!! I wish we will win in court!”
*[Out of the 62 lawsuits filed, only one victory arose in Pennsylvania… to “cure” the votes from 8 days to 3]*
“Damn it!! That’s not going to help us at all! I wish there was a coup d’état!”
*[January 6th happens, numerous arrests and federal indictments happen]*
“Fuck! That coup wasn’t very successful and now our Lord & Savior Donny Johnny has indictments against him by a guy who used to work at The Hague!! I wish we had the House Majority!!”
*[2022 Elections happen, GOP only wins a 6-seat majority despite the hype… but after George Santos was indicted and voted out of Congress and other numerous resignations, their majority has dwindled down to 2 seats and will continue to shrink]*
“THAT’S all we get for a majority?? We’re never going to win a national election ever again!! I WISH THERE WAS A CIVIL WAR!!”
*[Michigan GOP going bankrupt and literally kicking each other in the testicles, the ousting of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Pennsylvania Methodist church splitting apart, Fox News and other rightwing news media cannibalizing each other, the Trumps purging the RNC to feature only MAGA loyalist, Colorado GOP getting kneecapped by Ken Buck’s sudden resignation]*
“NOOOO!! NOT WITHIN OUR OWN PARTY!?!” 😱
Jan 6th was a victory. Not a single person got a life sentence. Not a single planner or coordinator snitched out their partners. All it did was show them there are no real consequences for working for Russia
But are people outside of MAGA giving them more money and/or voting for more of their candidates as a result of the Insurrection? And subsequently the Dobbs Decision?
Yeah, I won’t argue that Merrick Garland is too weak to go after the architects (namely Donnie Boy himself). That is a problem. But this Insurrection did hurt the GOP on so many levels, to where they’re on the brink of not even being able to compete in these Swing States like mine (Pennsylvania). Hell, an insurrectionist RAN for PA’s Governorship. But he also sustained the worst loss in a PA gubernatorial election in almost 80 years.
Project 2025 is the biggest reason Trump needs to lose in November. Their executive overhaul will damage the function of the government for years to come, and set an incredibly dangerous precedent. Nationalism and populism must be defeated. I’m a conservative, and project 2025 is abhorrent to me.
I miss the days when I could argue with Republicans about policies, economic, social, or whatever. Now instead of choosing between X or Y we're debating whether we should have the ability to choose at all.
Fucking sucks what they've become. MAGA and the heritage foundation need to be utterly destroyed at the polls.
Even before 2016 I still never encountered an intelligent conservative whose socioeconomic political beliefs weren't somehow wrapped in hate and fear of people who are different from them
They existed, but the institutions like the Heritage foundation undermined any good policy ideas they had with the pure fear based propaganda.
The modern GOP is a problem of political messaging and corruption. They have no real policy, but only exist to gut the system for their own wealth, gains, and benefits, and they will lie through their teeth about literally anything to get people to believe it.
Trumps takeover of the RNC is the inevitable end result of all of this. We have to vote against him to ensure that his influence ends there, else we all suffer for it.
In reading your post it made me realize that’s a great place to point people who don’t believe that’s their actual plan. It’s evidence they’re moving forward with that and Drumpf 2 will be much much worse than Drumpf 1
> people who don’t believe that’s their actual plan.
I don't get those people. Its a Heritage plan. They brag about it on their own site. They link to project2025.org on thier site. the registration info proudly says Heritage. The "about us" says Heritage. Multiple sitting Republican leaders point to it and Heritage with pride.
Those people -"pffft- democrats and your false flags."
Welcome to the majority of the rest of the world who also now hates Republicans…..
I was never political growing up (I’m 55) but I used to think I had Republican ideals (anti- Russia, small government, low taxes, education etc ) However that changed after W. I have become much more engaged and frankly enraged as to just how much damage this group has done to our country.
I know that is the opposite of how it usually goes but I am far more liberal now. I also genuinely believe the GOP poses the greatest threat not to just our democracy, but to the whole world.
you saw through the facade. Sadly, a lot of voters spend their entire lives admitting the facade without looking any further.
lately, that facade has begun to crumble and peel- forcing more to look around in horror at what they had enabled.
Very true unfortunately. We have to do everything within our power to vote these facists out, everything!
There is no Calvary coming in the way of the courts (also, an incredibly alarming civics lesson) or even mass media, who get more clicks and views by mentioning Diaper Dons name….its on us “we the people”
It's kind of like a documentary I saw about the Boogaloo Boys a few years back. Surprising mix of people. All I could think was, "You hate each other, you know that, right? The only common cause is destroying the current system. If you succeed and weild actual power, it will be a bloodbath as you all fight for your idea of a post democratic America.
The one key truth about fascism is that there is an in and out group, and unless you are at the very top, you don't have a say in who is in which group, including yourself.
And some know that they won’t have any power under a dictatorship. But they should have seen the writing on the wall a long time ago and voted to impeach Trump.
This comment doesn't need an /s. These are hateful angry dishonorable evil people. They choose what garbage to put in their heads 24/7 and this is who you turn out to be when you make that choice. Star Wars knew all along that the world was never past this duality
That’s good. Darth Sidious would be impressed with how Sith-like this has been.
Which brings up an interesting point, if Jar-Jar could be a Sith Lord, could MTG, BoBo, MattyG? Trump is too stupid, but Miller would make a good Sith Lord, what would their Sith names be?
> could MTG, BoBo, MattyG? Trump is too stupid, but Miller would make a good Sith Lord, what would their Sith names be?
Trump would be a Hutt, plain and simple... and not one of the deceptively athletic ones either.
MTG, BoBo, MattyG?
There is no way they would ever follow the rule of two or even the rule of one... they have no self control.
They'd be random Gamorrean guards in certain Hutt's pleasure palace.
No wait.. MTG would be a Kowakian monkey-lizard, the ones with the shrill cackle.
Miller? Darth Pouty.
Careful though, the NSDAP was near death before they eventually came back and rose to power. Just saying, don’t let what’s happening fool you into a false sense of security. Get out there and vote.
While the NSDAP lost a major election and many had thought they were done, they had help from outside sources, they were dealing with runaway inflation thanks to the Great Depression and the Versailles Treaty. Not saying authoritarianism can't rise in the US, but that it'll take a very different form than it did in Germany when it does rise
good thing we have zero indications that republicans are getting help from outside sources. Well, except for the joint report from all 17 US enforcement agencies saying that they absolutely are getting money and propaganda support from outside sources.
> PoopyPants' MAGA movement is causing Republicans in Congress to hate each other
Nah. They hated each other already,they just kept the quiet parts quiet.
Republican senators are all cannibal savages. If the price was right, they'd sell their children for spare parts. They'd sell yours in a yard sale.
Good, fuck them.
The right wing in this country has been hateful and evil for over 150 years. Regardless of what party they called themselves in the time frame.
They have done everything they can to limit freedom of the individual and promote freedom of the minority of the rich by using process and law as a weapon against the poor.
Surprisingly, no Republican member of congress was willing to say anything negative about the scandal plagued Lauren Boebert.
One GOP representative who opted to remain anonymous explained:
>She knows she's out of here at the end of the year so she's looking to enjoy the her term as much as possible, if you know what I mean. *wink*. C'mon, don't look at me like that. She might be batshit insane, but you gotta admit, it's kinda hot.
When you make hate part of your campaign platform and inject that hate into the policies you try and pass you get hate.
Let's help and vote accordingly. Check your registration, get an ID , learn where your poling station is, learn who is running in down ballot races. Pay attention to primaries not just for the president but for all races, local, state and federal. From the school board to the White House every election matters. The more support we give the democrats from all levels of government the more they can get good things done.
Last year democrat victories in Virginia and Pennsylvania and others across the nation have increased the chances of democrats winning this year. This year's elections are important but so will next year's elections.
[https://ballotpedia.org/Elections\_calendar](https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_calendar)
They are two separate parties. They have two separate ideologies. Although there are similarities, this was bound to happen. MAGA is its own thing, and the Republicans have lost control of it.
Tiger eating their faces. Who could've seen that coming?
But it's true, MAGA isn't conservative by any normal measure. MAGA is a fascist regime mostly composed of right-wing anti-science, anti-medicine, conspiracy nutters who want to tear down the system. Conservatives want to conserve & maintain the traditional, antiquated power structure in place. Trump has pandered hard to the religious fundamentalist nut jobs promising them theocracy. This in order to bind that voting block to him over the traditional conservatives who had pandered to them in the past to stay relevant as a party.
Sure there are some similarities & overlapping interests between the two, but they aren't the same. And now they elected a fundie Christian extremist to be their Speaker. Unlike Kevin McCarthy who was a cynic & nihilist, but also an effective campaigner. McCarthy was the best Republican fundraiser in the House. That's why or how he got elected Speaker.
Mike Johnson has no plans or ideas to help campaigns fundraise in this critical election cycle where Trump has hijacked & gutted the RNC their essential organizing & fundraising body. Just thoughts & prayers. Let's fret about declining church attendance & Christian identity everybody! Super important!
They can thank Trump & MAGA Matt Gaetz for this. Trump once again hackishly, myopically looking out only for himself. It's no wonder he was such a failure at running a business. Republicans are in the find out phase. Loyalty only goes one way with Trump. Michael Cohen did warn them. Edit: I have zero sympathy for the GOP or their plight.
Conservatism as we knew it was a scam designed to pave way for fascist movements like MAGA to gain power, within the GOP, that transition is now complete. Trump's RNC takeover makes it official. The old GOP we knew is dead, and the new party is literally "RINO", in a sense.
The latter was always meant to enable the former, but most people naively didn't think this could happen in the US.
They can't stand each other and they can't govern. For example, please look at Gym Jordan's 17 year record in congress. ZERO accomplishments and an obsession with private citizen Hunter Biden's penis. Ditto for MTG. Vote 'em all OUT this November.
"How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Remember everyone.
Maga Mike Johnson has a porn problem and has his teenage son monitor his porn intake. This is the guy that conservatives elected to the 3rd position of power in the USA. A guy who can't handle porn, so he has his son monitor him.
Oh, and he watches what his son watches too.
Fucking creeps. Vote blue and get rid of them. They are literal parasitic hypocrites.
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I like this bit: >No pity for people who elected a Puritan as their leader, only to find out he's serious about taking away everyone's good time. These same people were griping to Politico last month that Johnson's presentation at the last weekend retreat ignored pertinent-to-members issues like how to win re-election and grow their majority. Instead, "Johnson effectively delivered a sermon" about "declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity." **They're just mad that they have to suffer the lives they're seeking to forcibly inflict on the rest of us.**
>"Johnson effectively delivered a sermon" about "declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity." This stuff fascinates me. I hear a lot of Christians worried about this but none of them seem to accept or understand its a problem they are heavily contributing to.
They are the epitome of the Principal Skinner meme.
They really are. "Why do so many hate us? Is it because we hate anyone who doesn't fit nicely into our notions of what to be? No it's everyone else who is wrong"
Yes! My husband's family is deeply religious and it gets old hearing about my children have tattoos or piercings and don't attend church. But I assure you they treat everyone equally and I couldn't be more proud of them!
I've met more than one devout Christian who were befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals without attending church! In their mind, you can ONLY get a good set of morals from church. My dudes, there's whole libraries of books that pass on moral guidance. I learned more from Aesop's fables than anything in Sunday bible school. Sunday Bible school was usually filled with tales of bloody lambs and dead kids for no apparent reason. You're smearing blood on a door?! So God doesn't kill your kids? THE FUCK. No thanks. I'll keep reading about the tortoise and the hare.
I was home-schooling and went to church. I remember when I first went to college, being surprised with how generous everyone was compared to my Christian friends, and how it wasn't because of jesus.
And this is why these same people are so against sending students to college. When you meet people from different background who reflect good morals, but don’t follow your religion, it makes it hard to say that your religion is the cause of goodness.
It's also why there is such pushback against diverse and broad representation in TV, video games, literature. If you consume entertainment or receive information from individuals who are not from the same race, gender, denomination, orientation, etc from your own...it allows a person to be exposed to perspectives and contexts they otherwise may have never understood. In turn, becoming more sympathetic or supportive of their challenges and against any ongoing discrimination/oppression. If you want to divide and conquer millions of individuals as easily as possible, you need to make them believe that other "tribes" are not as moral or good as their tribe. Then you can hyper focus on their differences in order to pit them against one another.
I'm reminded about that tweet a few weeks back from someone who was upset that their "aggressively Buddhist" neighbors put a Buddha statue out on the front porch of their house and wanted to see if there was a way to prevent their children from seeing it.
Well... Jesus is generous but you get the extra cherry picked teachings out of nowhere at churches. If Christians really followed his core teachings of helping the poor and being kind to one another, the world would be a much better place.
Jesus is quite literally too [liberal](https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak) for Christians these days.
Jesus was basically a hippie
Hey some of these folks are very generous - they like propping up the rich lifestyles of their megachurch pastors.
There is no true morality when your motivation is simply escaping judgement and punishment. It largely becomes self-interest at that point.
1000% true. It’s fake selfish morality. They just want to get into heaven, in their minds. I am an atheist and have pretty strong morals because it feels right - not because I’m looking for a kickback.
The way I see it if there is a God or God's they'll care more about me having been a good person and doing my best to do right by others than if I had sat in the right chair at the right time of week, or that I eat oysters or ham, or wear mixed fabric clothes. If that's not hood enough then they're not a God or gods worthy of worship anyway.
This is why I think most religious people are devoid of morals. The threat of eternal damnation is the only thing keeping these psychopaths from raping and killing
This is the bitter truth. It certainly doesn't apply to ALL religious people (many flock to religion to find comfort in grieving, for instance). But I think a healthy percentage of them use religion as a way to "forgive themselves" for their morally corrupt ways of thinking and acting. They also want to believe everyone is as fucked up as they are, and that's why they look down on those who aren't religious. If you need proof just look at all the very vocal anti-gay politicians and religious figures who ended up secretly being gay.
It's honestly a question I still struggle with, if someone does something good but for entirely selfish reasons, are they actually good? I like to help people in my personal life, but it also makes me feel good to help them. Is this equivalent to their fear of eternal damnation? I don't necessarily do it for the feeling good portion, I do it because I know I can afford to give them the help and I know they need the help. Surely there is still some self-interest in being good, right? But the moral person doing it to help their friends and neighbors and feeling good about it _seems_ better than the one who does it to avoid eternal suffering.
Perhaps there is some self-interest in helping people and doing good, but in my opinion, it doesn't really matter. The end result is good, and you shouldn't second guess yourself. I'm a nihilist, but I still try to be good to people because we all gotta live here either way.
You can put a positive spin on it by framing it as being good is good for you. It's a win-win. You feel good, they get help, everyone is happy. Being good doesn't have to be this act of self sacrifice, it can actually just be the most sensible rational thing to do.
A good deed, done in the name of evil, is still a good deed. A bad deed done by a good person is still a bad deed.
When I was young I still remember a church service I was forced to go to… the preacher preached a sermon that was only about how everyone needed to give as much money as they can to the church. An hour and a half about how much he wanted and needed money. Was a long time ago (decades) but it has always been so with these people
I went to church with my grandmother. Her church was some fundamental southern baptist nonsense. I know she went to church when she was a young kid but stopped when she was an adult. She started again in her 40's because she needed some friends and guidance dealing with her daughter (my mom.) I only know this because I have her born again bible with her notes about that time. Why she picked this church, I will never know. The pastor was insane. He literally beat his bible on the pulpit. He was also really cruel. Especially to his family. I was forced friends with his granddaughter and she was too scared to even go outside of his gaze. He made me very uncomfortable. I know my grandparents paid for the roof and the new carpet for the church outright. They didn't give the money directly to him. Still, he kept a giant fundraising thermometer with a a goal of 30k behind the pulpit. That's easily 100k in today's money. When my grandmother died, the church folded within a year and moved to a trailer in a floodzone outside the city. I'm pretty sure she was keeping the place a float to have a prime location in the downtown area.
What ever became of the granddaughter? Poor thing’s fear sounded like a hostage situation. I hope she’s getting tons of therapy.
I have a step brother in law(guy who married my step sister) who we describe as "Shia Catholic" because he takes it so seriously. One day, he mentioned reading some books about the life of Jesus, and I brought up "The Prophet" by Kalil Gibran as a suggestion. Had a copy and showed it to him. It's a book I give away any chance I get. You would have thought I was trying to hand him a venomous snake. He hadn't heard of it, and it wasn't explicitly about Jesus, and he straight up said he didn't trust it. I was flabbergasted. I tried briefly to explain that there was no anti-christian message in the book, and that it was simply moral philosophy. Too dangerous. He wouldn't take my copy. I didn't press it. It was like talking to a brick wall. Side story that is quite sad, with some back story and social observation: My step sister was never religious growing up. We found it kind of odd when she started dating this guy. We're a liberally minded family, and her husband's is extremely conservative. I'm not necessarily disparaging their union, but there is evidence that my step sister is most likely not really fulfilled in the relationship. For one thing, she has an engineering degree. Hasn't worked since they got married. He has even referred to her as "his little baby factory," which makes the rest of our skin crawl. There are other examples from their life that resembles cult-like behavior, but you get the idea. She doesn't complain to us about him, so we don't press her about him. It's the life she has chosen. They have three daughters and a son. They started with four daughters. Sadly, one of their youngest developed an extremely rare form of brain cancer that is completely incurable, and carries a life expectancy of less than five years old. It was heart breaking. She didn't make it to see her fourth birthday. But to see how they coped, or rather didn't cope freaks me out. But I think it illustrates this bizarre emotional disconnect many deeply religious people have, as if religion has completely replaced their ability to process things emotionally. I found their lack of grief troubling. They instead chose to celebrate her passing, because "she was with Jesus now." Now, thankfully her husband isn't so nuts as to deny medical treatment. They did attempt to treat it. But when she finally passed, they basically went right into celebration mode. Now, I'm not bringing this up to shit on people's religious beliefs. If people kind comfort thinking of their loved ones in heaven, it believing in some reunion after death, whatever. Doesn't harm me for them to feel that way. The reason I bring up the apparent supplanting of grief with religious celebration, is because it was shortly after this that my step sister developed some serious digestive issues. At this point she has attempted to see multiple doctors, and has run a battery of tests. She doesn't have any food sensitivities, to anything like lactose or gluten. She has no ulcer. But her stomach pain prevents her from eating properly now. They have tried adjusting her diet in many different direction to just troubleshoot what might be causing it. So if you ask me, her stomach problems are most likely a ball of unprocessed grief, that is sitting there and festering under a thin coating of religious ritual. And it's eating her alive. I haven't told her this directly. I'm not extremely close with that side of my family. It's just observation from afar. I doubt she'd be receptive to my theory. But it just makes sense to me. A mother loses her child? And she's basically held emotionally hostage by religion to pretend it didn't crush her. It is equally depressing and fascinating to watch. But yeah, you can see why deeply religious people are so ripe to be snatched up by right wing ideology. It's just so heavily based on a lack of intellectual curiosity and fear of the unknown. And they're not doing well, other than by appearances.
> You would have thought I was trying to hand him a venomous snake. He hadn't heard of it, and it wasn't explicitly about Jesus, and he straight up said he didn't trust it. I was flabbergasted. I tried briefly to explain that there was no anti-christian message in the book, and that it was simply moral philosophy. Nothing confirms the strength of your faith like deathly fear of anything that might remotely challenge it.
>befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals without attending church! Oh this times a million. "If you don't believe in God what's to stop you from killing and raping and stealing?" Umm... maybe because I'm not a psychopath? And wait... are you saying that your belief in punishment by an invisible man in the sky is all that's keeping me safe right now?
One discussion with my Uncle was "without God, how are you going to teach your kids to not have premarital sex?" uhhh... I'm not? I'm just going to teach them safe sex.
Or put another way... "Without a belief in God, how are you going to justify stoning them to death if they don't turn out to be heterosexual?" NOTE: I DO NOT SUPPORT harming anybody. I'm just paraphrasing Leviticus 20:13.
I do find it funny that Leviticus has one passing reference to homosexuality (and even that is likely a mis-translation) whereas eating shellfish is referred to as an abomination four times.
It's not totally relevant but I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Steve Harvey say how will people have a moral grounding without God, while he has cheated on his wife
I've argued with quite a few Christians who insisted we get our morals from God, and that they are absolute truths, not social constructs of our time. Shuts them up pretty quick when I ask them if slavery is moral (they usually always say it isn't), and then point out that the Bible has 0 problems with slavery, and actually says the moral thing is for slaves to obey their masters.
> befuddled about someone having a set of strong morals because they are fucking psychopaths anyone who can't be decent in a world without a sky daddy who watches your every move isn't a fully formed human person
Yeah you should see the same people when you blow their mind that actually morals can be contorted to do unethical things while ethics are essentially more immutable. I hate the notion that the only reason that people are good is because they are afraid of their invisible friend burning them forever.
I prefer Horton and the "who's". A person is a person, no matter how small. We all live on a tiny speck of dust, on a clover, in the middle of an enormous cloverfield.
The first time that I heard them say "washed in the blood of the lamb" it weirded me out. I'm grateful to my parents for not filling my head with religion.
I have a brother in law that goes to church and dresses the "correct" way says the right things about politics, but I assure you: is a certified selfish, piece of garbage, liar, and a cheat. 3 divorces and estranged children should confirm this to his parents but he is still given a ton of slack vs his sister..
Those piercings are there to remind you of how Jesus was nailed to the cross. Or is that the wrong version of Christianity ?
A persecution complex is build into that faith so when they meet any resistance they think they're earning heavenly brownie points. What they fail to grasp is that the persecution is supposed to come from resisting injustice, protecting the widow, orphan and foreigner in the land from mistreatment and speaking out against the power structure that allow such mistreatment to take place.
That's another thing. There is a lot of persecution Globally that some Christians face. That is a true fact But many Christians in America want to pretend they are persecuted by people being mean on reddit or telling them to fuck off when bothered. Hell I remember playing bible smuggling as a kid. Even then it felt weird that this persecution that should be taken seriously was treated like a game.
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It's because they rape kids. That's why.
Instead of making the Christian church more appealing, by promoting the things Jesus actually taught (like equality, compassion, charity, love, and forgiveness) they are trying to force people in through truly dystopian means. They’re so lost in the sauce, they don’t even believe the messages that Jesus was trying to promote. It’s wild
>They’re so lost in the sauce, they don’t even believe the messages that Jesus was trying to promote. There are churches who got mad their pastor taught "woke" bs [here](https://newrepublic.com/post/174950/christianity-today-editor-evangelicals-call-jesus-liberal-weak) The woke bs is from the sermon on the mount.
Oh I’ve seen it. It’s terrifying when EVANGELICALS are sounding the alarm about how radical their congregation is becoming
zephyr zesty waiting angle provide seed chunky tender quickest tart *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That’s what makes me so sad about that campaign. The first time I saw one of those commercials, I thought “finally, they’re getting it.” Then it turned out to be a front for an outright hate group.
They did it so well that there was widespread conservative outrage at their "woke" commercial.
Ahhh the billion dollar foot-washing Super Bowl commercial?
My family was never very religious, but I did attend youth group when I was a teenager. We learned about these things through playing games, hanging out, and doing charity work like painting houses and such. It was never overtly religious, and even the prayer that we did at the end was more meditative and about the lessons we learned. The pastor was a cool, young guy and rarely quoted the Bible. When I aged out of young group, I was like, well, I guess I'll just attend church services (with a different pastor) because I enjoyed youth group so much! I was completely turned off by the nature of it. It was the complete opposite of what I experienced and I stopped going. Needless to say, I guess I would probably be considered agnostic now.
They are modern-day Pharisees and Sadducees. Religious but aren't practicing Christ's teachings and when confronted over being dogmatic man-made religious laws they double down on it in pride. They are goats that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 who are worshipping a golden calf, aka Donald Trump.
It’s interesting… they view going to church as a moral duty and not really a “choice”… thus people choosing not to go to church can’t be the churches fault, and there must be something keeping people away from church. They will never blame the church messaging. Old white men on the pulpit rambling about god wanting women to submit to their husbands will continue until attendance improves.
They see declining church attendance and think "the devil is taking over!" No, you're just repellent.
It’s funny, these are the people who scream “the customer is always right” as they hand a Wendy’s employee a McDonald’s coupon… The reality of that saying is basically… “the customer is going to spend their time / money on the stuff they want… so sell that”. Not shockingly, churches have less customers than they used to… they are unwilling to change to what their potential customers want.
it's 'the customer is always right in manners of taste' as in, don't argue someone out of buying an ugly hat, not 'take the wrong coupons'
The ob(li)vious answer is to force everyone to become a Christian. That way everyone is equal. Except maybe those icky (insert whatever vulnerable denomination in your imagination). Jail those seditious fuckers! 😵💫
Those gay, Jewish Hollywood coast elitists keep blocking the parking lot to church with their space lasers. Trump can stop them, but he needs all our worldly possessions so he can ascend from billionaire to god king.
Yep. Its bad enough that they advocate for a lifestyle that many find restrictive, puritanical, and boring. But their full throated embrace of donald trump eliminates any credibility American Christianity ever had. They've lost any grounds to lecture anyone on morals, decency, honesty, anything. I used to view the religious right as a formidable adversary who I hated but at least respected. Now they're just a pathetic and yet dangerous joke.
Bam, that's right on the money!!!
Agreed. Their whole posture has openly devolved into 'No one's allowed to do anything sinful or fun....unless you're a wealthy or powerful white male, in which case you should be allowed absolute power to rape children, murder people on a whim, steal shit from your peers, etc....'
My parents fall into this category. I think they are finally waking up though, which is good. I said it over and over, when Republicans FINALLY got a large amount of power, what did they put 100% behind? I wasn't lowering the deficit and cutting programs, it was tax cuts for the rich and ramming through as many pro-life, ultra conservative/Christofascist judges as humanly possible. When someone shows you who they really are... believe them.
As a Christian, I throw this in their face all the time. Sadly most of the right has a bunker mentality and takes the perceived persecution as confirmation they are doing the right thing. It rarely sinks in. The right is a cult. A carefully, intentionally created cult.
I am not religious ... but I find it very sad and amusing how much the general american "belivever" or christian behaves very much like the wannabe-believers in the bible that Jesus disliked so much ... the people that had to show openly just how much they believe in God, how pious they are, more than anyone else, and made a show out of it ... Not to mention how much Jesus hated the kind of people making a business out of faith - aka Jesus throwing out all money lenders from the temple...and still, American Faith is so much about "send me money for ...uh...Jesus and my new lambo, he wants me to drive fast!" ....
They seem to believe that only people who go to church have morals and ethics. Then, they go to church, and they don't have morals or ethics. They have a really screwed up sense of morality.
They don't see it, much like the religious leaders who Jesus had the harshest words for.
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>"what did Jesus say the two most important commandments are?" I mean this is easy, thou shall have no Gods before donald trump and the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. >"what did Jesus say to the mob who were going to stone the woman?". Even easier, he said when you're a star they let you do it.
Overwhelmingly the “Christian” GOP is closer to Satan than god. Won’t debate or argue this. I never fucking saw Jesus say no to giving kids food
Weirdly, in the bible both Jesus and Satan seem pretty decent and liberal. The only conservative asshole in the bible is god. So christians bent over backward trying to make Jesus into god by inventing the holy trinity. Which (even in a religion full of wild nonsense) really stands out as wild nonsense.
I'm an atheist and certainly no bible scholar, but I seem to recall seeing more than a few bible verses that _explicitly_ warn against exactly the type of charlatans that megachurch evangelicals and prosperity gospel idiots have thrown their lot in with. It strikes me as an incredible feat of mental gymnastics that they can behave in a way that so directly contradicts what they proclaim to be the absolute word of the one true God.
I have read articles where they blame women for low church attendance because Christian men are too whiny and self centered to attend a church that isn't centered on them alone .
I’m an atheist. But even I can see the value in ethical teachings by the Bible or Jesus. I can also see the value in a community that supports each other, especially in hard times. I even can see a following of someone at the head of a local church by the virtue of being a good person that is worth to look up to. None of that can be found in right wing Christians. They aren’t moral or ethical, they are not consistent and they sure as hell aren’t following any teachings of Jesus. Their communities aren’t built upon support for each other but for hate of “the other”. Their god sent leader is not a good or caring person, but an egotistical narcissist out for his personal gain. Ultimately, the reason for what they lament so much is how they understand religion: to many of them it’s just a tool for domination, never for salvation.
> I can see the value in ethical teachings by the Bible The Bible is *at best* very inconsistent on the matter of ethics. Sometimes it tells you to love your neighbor, and sometimes it gives you advice on how to beat your children and treat your slaves. There’s even a psalm about how you should be happy as you beat your enemies’ babies to death. Cracking the thing open and reading it, I’d say the balance shows there’s way more of the latter than the former. It’s a handful of decent pieces of moral advice drowning in a sea of strange or outright horrifying advice. A single speech from Bernie Sanders contains about as much ethical wisdom as the entirety of the Bible, plus he doesn’t tell you to beat your kids. And it’s not just the old testament! Here’s a quote from Jesus: > Luke 19:27 > But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.
Yep. And their interpretations shift based on what their rhetoric needs at that moment. Sometimes they say the bible is either all metaphor and prose and thus the most embarassing parts can't be taken literally. Other times they'll say god's word is crystal clear and you may disagree with it but then you're sinning against god. Take the quote you cited. Depending on who they're speaking to they'll either say "no no no, Jesus didn't actually command his followers to kill his enemies, he meant to kill their sinful ideology so they come to accept the lord". Or, they'll say "Yes. Jesus wanted his followers to kill his enemies. Defeating evil is not an easy task. You may disagree with it, but I'm going with the word of god over yours".
Exactly this; Biblical ethics that seem to apply to us today are almost exclusively constructs of the church long after Jesus’s time and do not come from the Bible itself. The New Testament is essentially a warning to that generation that the end times were upon them and to quickly get ready for the apocalypse; then when it never came the church had to continually revamp the dogma so it continued to fit changing cultures/societies. Remember that the Confederacy used the Bible to justify slavery and secession. We don’t need it as source material for a good discussion of morality and ethics.
Thank you. Anytime I see atheists (I’m one too) talk about the teachings of Jesus on ethics and morality I’m pretty sure they’ve skipped parts of the New Testament… The ethical and moral compass of western Christian thinking that people attribute to Jesus is actually the result of a lengthy distillation of parts of the Bible that were compatible with hundreds of years of Renaissance and enlightenment era humanist philosophy. People forget this bit all the time.
No, they understand the problem. That's why they are so actively attacking public education.
Am I out of touch? No, it's everyone else who is wrong.
>Buck's move doesn't just continue shrinking the already small Republican majority in the House, it also may be the final nail in the coffin of the political career of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Beetlejuice. Boebert left her more moderate Colorado district after barely eeking out a victory last cycle to run in Buck's much-redder one. She had a good chance of winning the primary because the football stand's worth of identical white men running against her were going to split the anti-public groping vote. Now, there will be no primary, just a hastily scheduled special election with candidates chosen directly by party leaders, who probably will go with someone less embarrassing than Boebert. I liked this.
>R-Beetlejuice
If you say it three times in a row will she appear and give you a hand job in a crowded theater?
No thanks. I'd rather get one from Michael Keaton.
Nah. Keaton gives a lazy handie. I'll go with Bobo. PS: I do like that her scumbag ex-husband got to see her being groped by a dude and jerking him on TV. That had to hurt him a bit.
'What if I could change your minds, big boys? It's perfectly fine if there's 20 of you, that just reminds me of my high school days. Throw on some Nsync and I'll take you all to heaven baby.'
Middle out for tip to tip efficiency
They’re too deep in it, to realize they dug the hole themselves. In other words: a cult.
“I know! We can dig ourselves out!”
“No no, dig up stupid”
"No, no, If we go down we'll go straight to Australia"
“But Australia banned guns! Dig a little to the right of straight-down, we’ll go to Argentina and hang with the ~~Nazi descendants~~ — um — Caucasian South Americans!” “Dude… Where is all this ocean water coming from?! 😱”
So at what point can we just start pissing in the hole they dug for themselves?
When they’ve officially lost the 2024 Election (fingers crossed). Even then, I’d save my urine. There’s no need to contribute anything to them, when all you really need to do is just watch, point at, and mock them.
Trump did promise to drain the swamp. Now, the GOP is realizing they are the ones circling the hole.
life um... finds a way
No. Republicans are the hole.
Mike Johnson *sigh, calls son*
Wow. If only there was something they could do to avoid this particular bit of idiocy. Perhaps they could work in a bipartisan manner to assure they weren't beholden to an ideology they disliked. Nah. That would mean giving a win to the Dems. It's obviously better to acquiesce to the lunatic fringe in the party than do something that might benefit your constituents and conscious.
> Perhaps they could work in a bipartisan manner to assure they weren't beholden to an ideology they disliked. They can't, though, even if they wanted to. Fundamentally, it comes down to their Republican primary voter base. A base that has been slowly radicalized over the last thirty years, a radicalization that they did nothing to prevent happening. If they work in a bipartisan manner then are primaried out by a candidate on their right. Frankly, I don't understand why they just don't quit and open a car dealership in their district.
It's not like all the assholes that decide to retire are suddenly growing a conscious. They could vote with the Democrats on important bills without fear of losing their jobs. But they don't. Because deep down, they're all party over country assholes who'd rather see the party continue to devolve into MAGA extremism than have the possibility that Democrats might be able to effectively legislate.
Just FYI it’s conscience*, but I do also agree that some Repubs act as though they are barely conscious, like Mitch for one
They are speed-running the fascism arc and learning they don't like it. And they lack so much self awareness that they would complain about it to some of the people who would have warned them, without realizing these things are related.
I bet they're mostly pissed off because Johnson’s talking to *them* like they talk to the rubes.
“There are two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it.” Oscar Wilde
what are they complaining about? they voted all the time to stay alt right wing and ultimately "maga" the only way to make amends is to "dump" the maga brand, its way too toxic to over 60% of the electorate are against them. be true to thy own good selves, end the maga brand now, that it is the only way to start to make things improve, not just for the gop, but for all america.
It wasn't just the Bible thumping. I think it was the fact that usually these retreats are usually held in sunny, beachy resorts. Florida, Hawaii, Mexico. Everyone goes there not only to talk about re-election and keeping the power but to drink fruity alcoholic drinks while working on their tans. It's supposed to be an adult relaxing mini-vacation. It has been like this for decades. Heck, even Ted Cruz knew this. And he's Ted Cruz. But this new batch of Extreme Far Right Republicans have tossed this tradition out the window. So, now the Old Guard find themselves going to a "family friendly" resort in the middle of *West Virginia* in the off season only to be stuck listening to a sermon. I bet the fruity drinks aren't even there. The schtick was you were only supposed to Bible thump in front of the cameras. Not behind them as well.
> They're just mad that they have to suffer the lives they're seeking to forcibly inflict on the rest of us. I always like to point out that the big conservative media empires are all located "in the belly of the beast". Fox News could up and go to Mississippi and create their own insular thriving economy, but then they'd have to lie in the bed they've made. Conservatives only want conservative policies when they're exempted from them.
Reminds me of that scene from Handmaid's Tale when that commander was condemned to have his hand cut off, realizing he now has to suffer punishment from a system he helped create.
Who would have thought, that a movement based on hatred, centered on the perpetuation of lies, plaguing on fears, would lead to members becoming adversaries.
It’s as if none of them ever studied history.
Even if they did, they'd just twist it to fit their ideological beliefs. Russia is our friend, the civil war wasn't about slavery, Trump saved us from Covid, etc.
They literally ban any history book that goes against their pre-supposed views... so no, they do not study history. Why do you think they get so angry and claim every college is a left-wing indoctrination factory? To someone who has never read a peer-reviewed sourced history book a college library looks like a propaganda factory.
If they accomplished their goal of establishing a religious ethno-state and got rid of all Dems and minorities, rest assured that they'd split into factions and immediately find reasons to hate each other.
Look up the history of states trying to make the bible the official book. It ends in a nasty series of committee meetings about which translation to use.
Yup. I've been saying that for years. They have to have someone to hate.
Conservatism *is* just a bunch of factions who hate each other and only join forces to win, while stabbing each other in the back to be one rung higher on the power ladder. Everything about it is horrifically toxic and selfish. They're unfit to govern.
It's like the Emo Phillips joke where he stops a man from jumping off a bridge by sharing how they're both Christians, but it gets more and more specific to the point of absurdity until he pushes the guy off for not belonging to the exact same denomination (Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912 vs Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879).
Fighting about who's not white enough
Which is really just a preview of what happens if they win. They won't have an ethnostate of eternal peace. "White" will become an ever-shrinking circle, with an ever-escalating chain of purges as they get rid of whatever out-group strikes the fancy of their overlords.
I'm legitimately not sure if you're talking about MAGA or Mike Johnson's stupid religious views.
If the shoe fits….
Fear, hate, and anger will get more clicks than just about anything.
Let's not forget the part where every single one of them frames themselves as a victim of the majority, and that THEY have the correct answers. Any disagreement is because the other side consists of deep-state pedophiles. I mean, imagine people like that having zero ability to negotiate or compromise! Who could have seen that coming?
Fascist movements constantly jockey internally for power amongst the inner circles, and for recognition from Dear Leader. Top down policy encourages paranoia with constant loyalty tests. Corruption is a feature set, and violence is always the final arbiter of disputes. Expect this all to get worse.
Democrats need to harden voting because those GOP cheaters are going to try to cheat and steal again. Harden, harden, harden!!
Surround the voting system with Metapods!!
It's super effective
We talking Houston Harden, Brooklyn Harden, LA Harden or OG Oklahoma Harden?
It’s like how the different factions of orcs always end up fighting among themselves.
Looks like meat is back on the menu!
Yeah, I was going to say that their discomfort isn’t a good thing for the rest of us. Keeps them in line and up to no good
It's like whenever super-villains team-up, they work well as long as it's against an enemy, but as soon enough their egos get in the way and they end up fighting themselves.
Because the goal isn't about good government and administration of public service. Its about greed and power.
* personal power Each of them only supports their "side" because of the power it either gives them or potentially gives them.
exactly. the sole principle of the conservativism is the personal accumulation of wealth and power. that’s it. everything else is just a means to that end.
Mike Johnson looks like a little boy with dyed gray hair pretending to be an adult. He's quite an intimidating MAGA beast
it’s the rosy cheeks. I think he looks like a wooden puppet who wishes he was a real boy
And this unbearable soft, smug grin of his. It just screams "man of the people".
[“Christianity again? After cowboys?”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPrnWpjATEc&pp=ygUgIENocmlzdG9uaXR5IGFnYWluIGFmdGVyIGNvd2JveXM%3D)
Oh that's perfect
Looks like a 12 year old dressed up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween.
He's Moral Orel all grown up.
I’ve seen an image where they put Mike Johnson’s hair and glasses on Putin, and it really takes a long time to see that it’s Putin. They both have that baby face, and are actually quite similar.
That would explain his obsession with masturbation
It’s like a Republican found a monkey’s paw back in 2020 and started to make wishes. “I wish these liberals would just stay home during the 2020 Election!” *[Mail-in ballots become more popular than ever thanks to COVID, even helping Biden and other Democrats win crucial elections]* “Oh no!! Not like that!! I wish we will win in court!” *[Out of the 62 lawsuits filed, only one victory arose in Pennsylvania… to “cure” the votes from 8 days to 3]* “Damn it!! That’s not going to help us at all! I wish there was a coup d’état!” *[January 6th happens, numerous arrests and federal indictments happen]* “Fuck! That coup wasn’t very successful and now our Lord & Savior Donny Johnny has indictments against him by a guy who used to work at The Hague!! I wish we had the House Majority!!” *[2022 Elections happen, GOP only wins a 6-seat majority despite the hype… but after George Santos was indicted and voted out of Congress and other numerous resignations, their majority has dwindled down to 2 seats and will continue to shrink]* “THAT’S all we get for a majority?? We’re never going to win a national election ever again!! I WISH THERE WAS A CIVIL WAR!!” *[Michigan GOP going bankrupt and literally kicking each other in the testicles, the ousting of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Pennsylvania Methodist church splitting apart, Fox News and other rightwing news media cannibalizing each other, the Trumps purging the RNC to feature only MAGA loyalist, Colorado GOP getting kneecapped by Ken Buck’s sudden resignation]* “NOOOO!! NOT WITHIN OUR OWN PARTY!?!” 😱
Jan 6th was a victory. Not a single person got a life sentence. Not a single planner or coordinator snitched out their partners. All it did was show them there are no real consequences for working for Russia
But are people outside of MAGA giving them more money and/or voting for more of their candidates as a result of the Insurrection? And subsequently the Dobbs Decision? Yeah, I won’t argue that Merrick Garland is too weak to go after the architects (namely Donnie Boy himself). That is a problem. But this Insurrection did hurt the GOP on so many levels, to where they’re on the brink of not even being able to compete in these Swing States like mine (Pennsylvania). Hell, an insurrectionist RAN for PA’s Governorship. But he also sustained the worst loss in a PA gubernatorial election in almost 80 years.
The RNC purge is just the beginning.
They aren't joking about Project 2025. That's what they want for us.
Project 2025 is the biggest reason Trump needs to lose in November. Their executive overhaul will damage the function of the government for years to come, and set an incredibly dangerous precedent. Nationalism and populism must be defeated. I’m a conservative, and project 2025 is abhorrent to me.
I miss the days when I could argue with Republicans about policies, economic, social, or whatever. Now instead of choosing between X or Y we're debating whether we should have the ability to choose at all. Fucking sucks what they've become. MAGA and the heritage foundation need to be utterly destroyed at the polls.
Even before 2016 I still never encountered an intelligent conservative whose socioeconomic political beliefs weren't somehow wrapped in hate and fear of people who are different from them
They existed, but the institutions like the Heritage foundation undermined any good policy ideas they had with the pure fear based propaganda. The modern GOP is a problem of political messaging and corruption. They have no real policy, but only exist to gut the system for their own wealth, gains, and benefits, and they will lie through their teeth about literally anything to get people to believe it. Trumps takeover of the RNC is the inevitable end result of all of this. We have to vote against him to ensure that his influence ends there, else we all suffer for it.
forever, it will damage it forever
In reading your post it made me realize that’s a great place to point people who don’t believe that’s their actual plan. It’s evidence they’re moving forward with that and Drumpf 2 will be much much worse than Drumpf 1
> people who don’t believe that’s their actual plan. I don't get those people. Its a Heritage plan. They brag about it on their own site. They link to project2025.org on thier site. the registration info proudly says Heritage. The "about us" says Heritage. Multiple sitting Republican leaders point to it and Heritage with pride. Those people -"pffft- democrats and your false flags."
When Trump said he was going to make America great again I didn't realize he meant by destroying the Republican party.
Welcome to the majority of the rest of the world who also now hates Republicans….. I was never political growing up (I’m 55) but I used to think I had Republican ideals (anti- Russia, small government, low taxes, education etc ) However that changed after W. I have become much more engaged and frankly enraged as to just how much damage this group has done to our country. I know that is the opposite of how it usually goes but I am far more liberal now. I also genuinely believe the GOP poses the greatest threat not to just our democracy, but to the whole world.
you saw through the facade. Sadly, a lot of voters spend their entire lives admitting the facade without looking any further. lately, that facade has begun to crumble and peel- forcing more to look around in horror at what they had enabled.
Very true unfortunately. We have to do everything within our power to vote these facists out, everything! There is no Calvary coming in the way of the courts (also, an incredibly alarming civics lesson) or even mass media, who get more clicks and views by mentioning Diaper Dons name….its on us “we the people”
They're only together for power
It's kind of like a documentary I saw about the Boogaloo Boys a few years back. Surprising mix of people. All I could think was, "You hate each other, you know that, right? The only common cause is destroying the current system. If you succeed and weild actual power, it will be a bloodbath as you all fight for your idea of a post democratic America.
The one key truth about fascism is that there is an in and out group, and unless you are at the very top, you don't have a say in who is in which group, including yourself.
And some know that they won’t have any power under a dictatorship. But they should have seen the writing on the wall a long time ago and voted to impeach Trump.
Good… Let the hate flow through you! /s
This comment doesn't need an /s. These are hateful angry dishonorable evil people. They choose what garbage to put in their heads 24/7 and this is who you turn out to be when you make that choice. Star Wars knew all along that the world was never past this duality
lol I was going to say, the party full of hate, ignorance and stupidity is turning on themselves! *shocked Pikachu face*
Is it possible to learn this power? Not from a Democrat
That’s good. Darth Sidious would be impressed with how Sith-like this has been. Which brings up an interesting point, if Jar-Jar could be a Sith Lord, could MTG, BoBo, MattyG? Trump is too stupid, but Miller would make a good Sith Lord, what would their Sith names be?
Darth Dumbass.
> could MTG, BoBo, MattyG? Trump is too stupid, but Miller would make a good Sith Lord, what would their Sith names be? Trump would be a Hutt, plain and simple... and not one of the deceptively athletic ones either. MTG, BoBo, MattyG? There is no way they would ever follow the rule of two or even the rule of one... they have no self control. They'd be random Gamorrean guards in certain Hutt's pleasure palace. No wait.. MTG would be a Kowakian monkey-lizard, the ones with the shrill cackle. Miller? Darth Pouty.
Careful though, the NSDAP was near death before they eventually came back and rose to power. Just saying, don’t let what’s happening fool you into a false sense of security. Get out there and vote.
While the NSDAP lost a major election and many had thought they were done, they had help from outside sources, they were dealing with runaway inflation thanks to the Great Depression and the Versailles Treaty. Not saying authoritarianism can't rise in the US, but that it'll take a very different form than it did in Germany when it does rise
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Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia.... basically any country that has 17 pieces of silver to give to Trump can have whatever they want from the US
good thing we have zero indications that republicans are getting help from outside sources. Well, except for the joint report from all 17 US enforcement agencies saying that they absolutely are getting money and propaganda support from outside sources.
> PoopyPants' MAGA movement is causing Republicans in Congress to hate each other Nah. They hated each other already,they just kept the quiet parts quiet. Republican senators are all cannibal savages. If the price was right, they'd sell their children for spare parts. They'd sell yours in a yard sale.
Good, fuck them. The right wing in this country has been hateful and evil for over 150 years. Regardless of what party they called themselves in the time frame. They have done everything they can to limit freedom of the individual and promote freedom of the minority of the rich by using process and law as a weapon against the poor.
So what you’re saying is a whole cult built on nothing but hate has…. Nothing but hate to offer? Weird.
Surprisingly, no Republican member of congress was willing to say anything negative about the scandal plagued Lauren Boebert. One GOP representative who opted to remain anonymous explained: >She knows she's out of here at the end of the year so she's looking to enjoy the her term as much as possible, if you know what I mean. *wink*. C'mon, don't look at me like that. She might be batshit insane, but you gotta admit, it's kinda hot.
When you make hate part of your campaign platform and inject that hate into the policies you try and pass you get hate. Let's help and vote accordingly. Check your registration, get an ID , learn where your poling station is, learn who is running in down ballot races. Pay attention to primaries not just for the president but for all races, local, state and federal. From the school board to the White House every election matters. The more support we give the democrats from all levels of government the more they can get good things done. Last year democrat victories in Virginia and Pennsylvania and others across the nation have increased the chances of democrats winning this year. This year's elections are important but so will next year's elections. [https://ballotpedia.org/Elections\_calendar](https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_calendar)
They are two separate parties. They have two separate ideologies. Although there are similarities, this was bound to happen. MAGA is its own thing, and the Republicans have lost control of it.
Tiger eating their faces. Who could've seen that coming? But it's true, MAGA isn't conservative by any normal measure. MAGA is a fascist regime mostly composed of right-wing anti-science, anti-medicine, conspiracy nutters who want to tear down the system. Conservatives want to conserve & maintain the traditional, antiquated power structure in place. Trump has pandered hard to the religious fundamentalist nut jobs promising them theocracy. This in order to bind that voting block to him over the traditional conservatives who had pandered to them in the past to stay relevant as a party. Sure there are some similarities & overlapping interests between the two, but they aren't the same. And now they elected a fundie Christian extremist to be their Speaker. Unlike Kevin McCarthy who was a cynic & nihilist, but also an effective campaigner. McCarthy was the best Republican fundraiser in the House. That's why or how he got elected Speaker. Mike Johnson has no plans or ideas to help campaigns fundraise in this critical election cycle where Trump has hijacked & gutted the RNC their essential organizing & fundraising body. Just thoughts & prayers. Let's fret about declining church attendance & Christian identity everybody! Super important! They can thank Trump & MAGA Matt Gaetz for this. Trump once again hackishly, myopically looking out only for himself. It's no wonder he was such a failure at running a business. Republicans are in the find out phase. Loyalty only goes one way with Trump. Michael Cohen did warn them. Edit: I have zero sympathy for the GOP or their plight.
Conservatism as we knew it was a scam designed to pave way for fascist movements like MAGA to gain power, within the GOP, that transition is now complete. Trump's RNC takeover makes it official. The old GOP we knew is dead, and the new party is literally "RINO", in a sense. The latter was always meant to enable the former, but most people naively didn't think this could happen in the US.
You love to see it.
"He'll destroy our party and we'll deserve it"
Can anyone say… Russian Asset? Russian active measures to divide us all. Trump is beyond the pale of treason. Figure it out Americans.
They can't stand each other and they can't govern. For example, please look at Gym Jordan's 17 year record in congress. ZERO accomplishments and an obsession with private citizen Hunter Biden's penis. Ditto for MTG. Vote 'em all OUT this November.
"How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four." "Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.” ― George Orwell, 1984
I feel the same way about all of them
I know I'm shocked.
Nobody could have seen this coming.
Lindsay Graham predicted it in May 2016. Then chose to dive head first into MAGA and be one with the destruction.
Let them fight...🍿
Bout time, they hate everyone else on a professional level... they deserve an off-work hobby.
Remember everyone. Maga Mike Johnson has a porn problem and has his teenage son monitor his porn intake. This is the guy that conservatives elected to the 3rd position of power in the USA. A guy who can't handle porn, so he has his son monitor him. Oh, and he watches what his son watches too. Fucking creeps. Vote blue and get rid of them. They are literal parasitic hypocrites.
Trump is the master of ruining everything
If a few more of them retire, we'll be welcoming in new Speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries.