I agree the Christian nationalist right is trying to turn America into a theocracy just like Israel or Iran the only difference being we would be a Christian theocracy instead of Jewish or Muslim!
The overwhelming majority of Iranians (over 90%) voted to become a theocracy following their revolution. Iran is a modern representative Republic that just considers Islam important, with some traits that are conservative from the point of view of western liberalism. They have some of the highest education levels in the world, and believe it or not some of the most extensive maternity support for women in the workforce (as a vivid example). To classify Iran as extremist is to uncritically swallow the propaganda hook line and sinker.
Extreme Muslim societies are the likes of election free police states like Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, and the violent groups that emerged from Saudi Wahabism/Salafism like Al Qaeda or ISIS. Groups who uncoincidentally are so opposed by Iranians that Iran collaborated with the US to take in refugees and fight the extremists in countries like Afghanistan.
Iran is about to flog a woman to near death (if it doesn't actually kill her) for singing a song without covering her head. Fuck you. Fuck your religion. And fuck your imaginary sky friend. Oh, and fuck you again.
I'm a Caucasian atheist living in a OECD liberal democracy. You seem to have a habit of making judgments about people before you know anything about them.
And a further judgement of you is that you are a liar, a pot stirrer, a troll, and quite likely a bot or other tool of propaganda. You defend some of the worst of the worst and use rhetoric, the "I'm just asking questions" tactic to defend indefensible positions. And what does being Caucasian have to do with anything?
I looked up that story of a woman being flogged out of curiosity, and the articles that all reference it differ greatly. Some say it's because she was singing a song, others that it was because she wasn't wearing a Hijab (which isn't a legal requirement, lots of women in Iran don't cover their hair). In addition to that, the different versions of the same story have been published at different times ranging from the last few days all the way back to at least 2024. The media organisations that published it are also all well known to propagandize heavily the narrative of Iran being a tyrranical regime working against the interests of it's own people (which is simply untrue), especially Iran International, which has a very long history of pushing the American agenda, including being pro-war and for changing the Iranian government against the will of Iranian citizens.
You should learn to check your biases, because you're using really obviously manufactured stories to to make your case. Their might well be some elements of truth in their somewhere, but nothing I could find offered anything verified, nor even consistent beyond the same unverified story repeated verbatim.
This kind of domestic terrorist group planning and activity is what the Southern Poverty Law Center excels at monitoring and working with law enforcement to prevent.
Yet, the trump administration is now accusing the SPLC of sponsoring such terrorist activity. The administration is now trying to assist rightwing militia and “christian” nationalist hate groups.
Under previous sane administrations, the FBI and other federal agencies welcomed the assistance of the SPLC, but now they consider the SPLC as “the enemy”.
Great point! I was originally intending to catalogue the whittling away at our defenses against this stuff, but even then hadn't thought of SPLC but you're 100% right.
“Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of our soulless conditions.” -Marx
Thanks for fleshing this out. I said before that the mother is the real hero of this story. Likely she preferred to see her son in jail rather than six feet under.
Wasn't just her, either! Dad and a grandparent all cooperated, I think. They'll probably regret having helped their son beforehand as much as they did and not enough legally afterward. But still, yeah, good call!
I wonder whether if we renamed this kind of perverted version of a religion, Democrats at least would be more open to condemning it or MSM reporting it. Christocrats? I'm actually partial to Xianists, though Xianity a common abbreviation of the word Christianity. But it brings in the idea Xtreme, with echoes of Elon Musk's own little perversion.
There's always a marketing debate to be had, but I tend to think it's important to understand that literally any religion can be weaponized, rather than to create categories of "Good" and "Bad" religions... plus, I don't know that this version is perverted! From what? The crusades? The inquisition? The Salem witch trials? The red scare? I think history might be on their side...
well, mostly looking at the current situation, those who basically eschew anything Jesus actually taught or worse, espouse the opposite of what he taught. I actually call them Christianists, to echo Islamist. I am a non-believer but have many Christian friends who are fully against the Christianists. I don't share their religious beliefs, but am in full accord with their ethical and moral position. (on the latter, I was heartened by the Pope's recent point that "moral" means a whole lot more than sexual morality.)
Umm - They loved it. Easter Sunday he threatened/promised to end Persian civilization AND picked a fight with the Pope for belligerently saying Popey stuff like "Peace is good." Just before he sent his trump=Jesus memes.
It’s weird how our (human) brains are so open to this kind of thinking. Jumping way past any rationality or logic into creating fantastic stories that we cast ourselves the heroes of, vanquishing the baby-eating demon and his minions.
So weird. How does one not say, “hmmm, but what if I’m wrong?”
Is that the magic of cults and extremism? The logic gets turned off?
It would be great if our society could collectively denounce extremism, regardless of the sponsoring deity. The fact that these guys are Christian extremists is very relevant as it shows how any religious tradition can be twisted into violence. I also wonder if some decision makers are concerned about letting it be known that some extremist Christians are targeting Trump and his minions. They like to make it seem that they have all the Christian extremists in their corner. The fact that they don’t could raise questions they don’t want to answer.
"The most prominent and explicit references to Christianity and religious beliefs appear in filings by experienced law enforcement. These references fade until disappearing in the public statements of agency leaders.
The plot was to set off explosives at the White House event so that drones and snipers could pick off wealthy and powerful targets as they fled."
Never put it past pseudochristians -- those who have perverted the teachings of the Christ to match their preferred narrative -- to come up with new and novel ideas on how to immanentize the eschaton. (For those unfamiliar with the "eschaton:"
> "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." 2 Peter 3:10 (NIV)
--and--
> "42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Matthew 24:42-44 (ESV))
-----
"They might well be trying to sanitize the Christian aspects"
This is easily explained: they all believe in a white, Republican-loving Jeebus. (For examples of the teachings of their White Jesus see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcaDoq44Lag.)
-----
"But the Christianity is tougher to find nationally, in more politicized media. It’s absent in the national CBS article."
C'mon now, Mr Larsen. Did you really expect anything that might shed a poor light on pseudochristianity, and the regime's fervent belief in it, from a Bari Weiss Joint?
Speaking of America-hating radical leftwing terrorists, no updates in months about Kirk's killer. Actually, we haven't heard much after the initial trans antifa-bullet frenzy - I think.
When I was in college, there was this ex-music director named Applewhite who left batshit crazy fliers all over campus, trying to lure students to his meetings. My roommate and I loved and collected them because they were insane. Later he ended up being the Heavens Gate cult leader. I’m totally convinced if the internet was around, he’d have recruited a lot more members.
Tell me again how Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism differ? Aside from different, make-believe sky gods.
I agree the Christian nationalist right is trying to turn America into a theocracy just like Israel or Iran the only difference being we would be a Christian theocracy instead of Jewish or Muslim!
The overwhelming majority of Iranians (over 90%) voted to become a theocracy following their revolution. Iran is a modern representative Republic that just considers Islam important, with some traits that are conservative from the point of view of western liberalism. They have some of the highest education levels in the world, and believe it or not some of the most extensive maternity support for women in the workforce (as a vivid example). To classify Iran as extremist is to uncritically swallow the propaganda hook line and sinker.
Extreme Muslim societies are the likes of election free police states like Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, and the violent groups that emerged from Saudi Wahabism/Salafism like Al Qaeda or ISIS. Groups who uncoincidentally are so opposed by Iranians that Iran collaborated with the US to take in refugees and fight the extremists in countries like Afghanistan.
Iran is about to flog a woman to near death (if it doesn't actually kill her) for singing a song without covering her head. Fuck you. Fuck your religion. And fuck your imaginary sky friend. Oh, and fuck you again.
I'm a Caucasian atheist living in a OECD liberal democracy. You seem to have a habit of making judgments about people before you know anything about them.
And a further judgement of you is that you are a liar, a pot stirrer, a troll, and quite likely a bot or other tool of propaganda. You defend some of the worst of the worst and use rhetoric, the "I'm just asking questions" tactic to defend indefensible positions. And what does being Caucasian have to do with anything?
I looked up that story of a woman being flogged out of curiosity, and the articles that all reference it differ greatly. Some say it's because she was singing a song, others that it was because she wasn't wearing a Hijab (which isn't a legal requirement, lots of women in Iran don't cover their hair). In addition to that, the different versions of the same story have been published at different times ranging from the last few days all the way back to at least 2024. The media organisations that published it are also all well known to propagandize heavily the narrative of Iran being a tyrranical regime working against the interests of it's own people (which is simply untrue), especially Iran International, which has a very long history of pushing the American agenda, including being pro-war and for changing the Iranian government against the will of Iranian citizens.
You should learn to check your biases, because you're using really obviously manufactured stories to to make your case. Their might well be some elements of truth in their somewhere, but nothing I could find offered anything verified, nor even consistent beyond the same unverified story repeated verbatim.
This kind of domestic terrorist group planning and activity is what the Southern Poverty Law Center excels at monitoring and working with law enforcement to prevent.
Yet, the trump administration is now accusing the SPLC of sponsoring such terrorist activity. The administration is now trying to assist rightwing militia and “christian” nationalist hate groups.
Under previous sane administrations, the FBI and other federal agencies welcomed the assistance of the SPLC, but now they consider the SPLC as “the enemy”.
Great point! I was originally intending to catalogue the whittling away at our defenses against this stuff, but even then hadn't thought of SPLC but you're 100% right.
Elect a criminal president and you get a criminal presidency!
“Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of our soulless conditions.” -Marx
Thanks, don't think I ever saw the rest of the quote. Interesting!
Hopefully there a still a few competent investigators left in the FBI counter terrorism unit.
Thanks for fleshing this out. I said before that the mother is the real hero of this story. Likely she preferred to see her son in jail rather than six feet under.
Wasn't just her, either! Dad and a grandparent all cooperated, I think. They'll probably regret having helped their son beforehand as much as they did and not enough legally afterward. But still, yeah, good call!
Tyler Robinson too. His parents turned him in.
I wonder whether if we renamed this kind of perverted version of a religion, Democrats at least would be more open to condemning it or MSM reporting it. Christocrats? I'm actually partial to Xianists, though Xianity a common abbreviation of the word Christianity. But it brings in the idea Xtreme, with echoes of Elon Musk's own little perversion.
There's always a marketing debate to be had, but I tend to think it's important to understand that literally any religion can be weaponized, rather than to create categories of "Good" and "Bad" religions... plus, I don't know that this version is perverted! From what? The crusades? The inquisition? The Salem witch trials? The red scare? I think history might be on their side...
well, mostly looking at the current situation, those who basically eschew anything Jesus actually taught or worse, espouse the opposite of what he taught. I actually call them Christianists, to echo Islamist. I am a non-believer but have many Christian friends who are fully against the Christianists. I don't share their religious beliefs, but am in full accord with their ethical and moral position. (on the latter, I was heartened by the Pope's recent point that "moral" means a whole lot more than sexual morality.)
I said before “I wonder how trumps Christian nationalists feel about him having men beat each others faces in… on Sunday
Umm - They loved it. Easter Sunday he threatened/promised to end Persian civilization AND picked a fight with the Pope for belligerently saying Popey stuff like "Peace is good." Just before he sent his trump=Jesus memes.
It's all good, you hater.
It’s weird how our (human) brains are so open to this kind of thinking. Jumping way past any rationality or logic into creating fantastic stories that we cast ourselves the heroes of, vanquishing the baby-eating demon and his minions.
So weird. How does one not say, “hmmm, but what if I’m wrong?”
Is that the magic of cults and extremism? The logic gets turned off?
It would be great if our society could collectively denounce extremism, regardless of the sponsoring deity. The fact that these guys are Christian extremists is very relevant as it shows how any religious tradition can be twisted into violence. I also wonder if some decision makers are concerned about letting it be known that some extremist Christians are targeting Trump and his minions. They like to make it seem that they have all the Christian extremists in their corner. The fact that they don’t could raise questions they don’t want to answer.
Also, excellent reporting Jonathan!
Whaddaya gonna do? Them fat cats aren’t going to martyr themselves.
Thank you- enlightening.
"The most prominent and explicit references to Christianity and religious beliefs appear in filings by experienced law enforcement. These references fade until disappearing in the public statements of agency leaders.
The plot was to set off explosives at the White House event so that drones and snipers could pick off wealthy and powerful targets as they fled."
Never put it past pseudochristians -- those who have perverted the teachings of the Christ to match their preferred narrative -- to come up with new and novel ideas on how to immanentize the eschaton. (For those unfamiliar with the "eschaton:"
> "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." 2 Peter 3:10 (NIV)
--and--
> "42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Matthew 24:42-44 (ESV))
-----
"They might well be trying to sanitize the Christian aspects"
This is easily explained: they all believe in a white, Republican-loving Jeebus. (For examples of the teachings of their White Jesus see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcaDoq44Lag.)
-----
"But the Christianity is tougher to find nationally, in more politicized media. It’s absent in the national CBS article."
C'mon now, Mr Larsen. Did you really expect anything that might shed a poor light on pseudochristianity, and the regime's fervent belief in it, from a Bari Weiss Joint?
fnord
Of course it was - CN, or something adjacent.
Speaking of America-hating radical leftwing terrorists, no updates in months about Kirk's killer. Actually, we haven't heard much after the initial trans antifa-bullet frenzy - I think.
When I was in college, there was this ex-music director named Applewhite who left batshit crazy fliers all over campus, trying to lure students to his meetings. My roommate and I loved and collected them because they were insane. Later he ended up being the Heavens Gate cult leader. I’m totally convinced if the internet was around, he’d have recruited a lot more members.
Nonsense. This was pure TDS.
Those aren't mutually incompatible.
Very rare.