Why I'm loving the coming theocracy

[Cain]

Its no secret America is teetering on the edge of becoming a Christian theocracy.  As the years go by, liberals will continue to wring their hands and debate about "inclusiveness" and "appeal" to people calling them agents of Satan, while conservatives will happily take the cash and legions of brainwashed voters who will support them in their next election.  Their numbers will swell and slowly, but surely, they will take over the running of the country.

And its working.

45 members of the Senate and 185 House representatives have approval from the three largest fundamentalist Christian groups.  These same groups have a plurality in Republican Party state committees.  22% of all voters identify as evangelical Christian and most base their vote around so-called "moral values".

In short, a constitutional coup is probably not far off.  With ever increasing pressure from a vocal subset of society and an increasingly powerful executive branch, changes have already been made to slowly turn America into Jehovah's most favoured nation on Earth.  And I, for one, welcome it.

Why?

Because evangelists, for all their dubious charisma, their money and organizational skills, their political connections reaching right up to the highest echelons of power, are complete and utter morons.  And what's more, they make the people around them stupider too.

Look at it this way.  They are selling a highly limited and flawed world-view.  Not only does it have extremeness and absurdity in plentiful amounts, but there is a blind insistence on everything being the work of an ancient Hebrew war deity.  It instantly limits all forms of thought, introspection and debate.  And that is a very big weakness.  Because, while everything is good, then God must be on side.  But if its bad, well then...God isn't happy.  Or he's testing his faithful.  And millions of morons will give themselves headaches trying to figure out how best to please their deity, relying on the most superficial and current of events to try and put everything into context.  There is being simple and then there is this method of analysis....at best a symptom of foolish pride and inability to think clearly at all.

So you are already dealing with a mass of people who are easy to manipulate and not too bright.  So what's the next step?  Well, first one would be to avoid getting chucked into a camp for deviants and heretics, but if you've taken any sort of advice about being outlandish into account, and perhaps used any prevailing confusion to secure a new identity, you may be alright.  After that, its a matter of acting subservient around authority figures and blindly parroting a few Biblical phrases now and again.  But you will have to kiss your Sunday morning lie-in goodbye.

Speaking of authority figures, and getting back on point, once you have a leadership who claim a truly divine mandate, things become quite easy, if you are confident enough to bullshit your way through things.  Secure some official looking papers and act like you know exactly what you are doing and you can get away with a lot.  Even if (especially if) you start issuing orders that make little sense.

Finally, we all know how sexist Fundamentalists are.  Its no secret they wouldn't mind seeing a woman stoned to death for being raped, or keep their wives chained up in the kitchen all day – well, when they're not churning out more cannon fodder for the latest Crusade, anyway.  But sexism is also a weakness.  Keeping half the population in chains, breeding resentment, refusing their help or advice?  Oh yes, there's a recipe for trouble, no mistake.  More importantly, especially for the women who hang around here, you will be constantly underestimated, in pretty much anything you do.  So any sudden or long term planned actions could shock our Fundie overlords into paralysis, not to mention making them even more easy to manipulate.

Finally, we know Fundies hate science.  Well, that's fine.  Again, they are only hurting themselves.  If they want to rely on the power of prayer instead of the power of penicillin, then I see no reason to try and re-educate them.  Just make sure you know a thoroughly secular doctor however, in case you do ever need some treatment.

In short, the creation of a Theocracy is a recipe for unrest, resentment, disruption and an easily fooled population and leaders.  While on one level, the loss of traditional freedoms will be no doubt sad, the opportunities presented by the future cannot be simply cast aside.  For the clever, the unscrupulous and the quick of tongue, the world will be your oyster.  The cognitive dissonance that comes from denying an entire nation's natural emotions and modes of behaviour will be incredible to behold, not to mention very useful.  Corruption of all sorts will take a foothold, and it wont be good Christian folk running it, that's for sure.  And with a population reduced to sheep-like subservience, those who are willing to occasionally work with the leaders while still able to think outside the box may find the world a much, much better place indeed.

So, as a thieving, amoral rogue, I raise my scotch glass to the theocratic revolution.  Such an imposition of order, inevitable as it is, will result in corresponding levels of disorder.  And there is no fun in tearing down a society which still retains the slightest vestiges of decency somewhere in its rotting shell, anyway.

[Payne]

I've been seeing a few references to The Machine (tm) gaining speed recently, and how this actually is an opportunity for folks in these here parts.

I was going through some of my own notes and stuff the other day and read the bare bones of something I had written which was like this.

(I can hardly disagree, as it would seem I was going to post something similar at some point in the past )

[Cainad (dec.)]

Easy for you to say, ya UK bastards. Oh well, I guess the safest route for me would be to attend Hebrew school (the Fundies, interestingly enough, are often not Jew haters) and learn everything I need to look like I'm in on the religion thing. That should keep me more or less safe.

[Cain]

If I don't go to the US, its only going to come to me anyway.

And besides, within 18 months I'll be within your borders anyway, doing something heinous.

[Lies]

Yeah, I get sick of people agreeing with me all the time, I say let the theocracy come, I need more people to fuck with.

[Kimmy Gibbler]

Easy for you to say, ya UK bastards. Oh well, I guess the safest route for me would be to attend Hebrew school (the Fundies, interestingly enough, are often not Jew haters) and learn everything I need to look like I'm in on the religion thing. That should keep me more or less safe.

That's what you think.  They only like Jews because they're needed for their end of the world scenario.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Easy for you to say, ya UK bastards. Oh well, I guess the safest route for me would be to attend Hebrew school (the Fundies, interestingly enough, are often not Jew haters) and learn everything I need to look like I'm in on the religion thing. That should keep me more or less safe.

That's what you think.  They only like Jews because they're needed for their end of the world scenario.

Good enough. That means they won't hurt me until the end of the world, and by then I plan to be very, very dead.

[LMNO]

Its no secret America is teetering on the edge of becoming a Christian theocracy.  As the years go by, liberals will continue to wring their hands and debate about "inclusiveness" and "appeal" to people calling them agents of Satan, while conservatives will happily take the cash and legions of brainwashed voters who will support them in their next election.  Their numbers will swell and slowly, but surely, they will take over the running of the country.

And its working.

45 members of the Senate and 185 House representatives have approval from the three largest fundamentalist Christian groups.  These same groups have a plurality in Republican Party state committees.  22% of all voters identify as evangelical Christian and most base their vote around so-called "moral values".

In short, a constitutional coup is probably not far off.  With ever increasing pressure from a vocal subset of society and an increasingly powerful executive branch, changes have already been made to slowly turn America into Jehovah's most favoured nation on Earth.  And I, for one, welcome it.

Why?

Because evangelists, for all their dubious charisma, their money and organizational skills, their political connections reaching right up to the highest echelons of power, are complete and utter morons.  And what's more, they make the people around them stupider too.

Look at it this way.  They are selling a highly limited and flawed world-view.  Not only does it have extremeness and absurdity in plentiful amounts, but there is a blind insistence on everything being the work of an ancient Hebrew war deity.  It instantly limits all forms of thought, introspection and debate.  And that is a very big weakness.  Because, while everything is good, then God must be on side.  But if its bad, well then...God isn't happy.  Or he's testing his faithful.  And millions of morons will give themselves headaches trying to figure out how best to please their deity, relying on the most superficial and current of events to try and put everything into context.  There is being simple and then there is this method of analysis....at best a symptom of foolish pride and inability to think clearly at all.

So you are already dealing with a mass of people who are easy to manipulate and not too bright.  So what's the next step?  Well, first one would be to avoid getting chucked into a camp for deviants and heretics, but if you've taken any sort of advice about being outlandish into account, and perhaps used any prevailing confusion to secure a new identity, you may be alright.  After that, its a matter of acting subservient around authority figures and blindly parroting a few Biblical phrases now and again.  But you will have to kiss your Sunday morning lie-in goodbye.

Speaking of authority figures, and getting back on point, once you have a leadership who claim a truly divine mandate, things become quite easy, if you are confident enough to bullshit your way through things.  Secure some official looking papers and act like you know exactly what you are doing and you can get away with a lot.  Even if (especially if) you start issuing orders that make little sense.

Finally, we all know how sexist Fundamentalists are.  Its no secret they wouldn't mind seeing a woman stoned to death for being raped, or keep their wives chained up in the kitchen all day – well, when they're not churning out more cannon fodder for the latest Crusade, anyway.  But sexism is also a weakness.  Keeping half the population in chains, breeding resentment, refusing their help or advice?  Oh yes, there's a recipe for trouble, no mistake.  More importantly, especially for the women who hang around here, you will be constantly underestimated, in pretty much anything you do.  So any sudden or long term planned actions could shock our Fundie overlords into paralysis, not to mention making them even more easy to manipulate.

Finally, we know Fundies hate science.  Well, that's fine.  Again, they are only hurting themselves.  If they want to rely on the power of prayer instead of the power of penicillin, then I see no reason to try and re-educate them.  Just make sure you know a thoroughly secular doctor however, in case you do ever need some treatment.

In short, the creation of a Theocracy is a recipe for unrest, resentment, disruption and an easily fooled population and leaders.  While on one level, the loss of traditional freedoms will be no doubt sad, the opportunities presented by the future cannot be simply cast aside.  For the clever, the unscrupulous and the quick of tongue, the world will be your oyster.  The cognitive dissonance that comes from denying an entire nation's natural emotions and modes of behaviour will be incredible to behold, not to mention very useful.  Corruption of all sorts will take a foothold, and it wont be good Christian folk running it, that's for sure.  And with a population reduced to sheep-like subservience, those who are willing to occasionally work with the leaders while still able to think outside the box may find the world a much, much better place indeed.

So, as a thieving, amoral rogue, I raise my scotch glass to the theocratic revolution.  Such an imposition of order, inevitable as it is, will result in corresponding levels of disorder.  And there is no fun in tearing down a society which still retains the slightest vestiges of decency somewhere in its rotting shell, anyway.

PRAISE JESUS AND PASS THE GAS MASK!

[Lies]

Its no secret America is teetering on the edge of becoming a Christian theocracy.  As the years go by, liberals will continue to wring their hands and debate about "inclusiveness" and "appeal" to people calling them agents of Satan, while conservatives will happily take the cash and legions of brainwashed voters who will support them in their next election.  Their numbers will swell and slowly, but surely, they will take over the running of the country.

And its working.

45 members of the Senate and 185 House representatives have approval from the three largest fundamentalist Christian groups.  These same groups have a plurality in Republican Party state committees.  22% of all voters identify as evangelical Christian and most base their vote around so-called "moral values".

In short, a constitutional coup is probably not far off.  With ever increasing pressure from a vocal subset of society and an increasingly powerful executive branch, changes have already been made to slowly turn America into Jehovah's most favoured nation on Earth.  And I, for one, welcome it.

Why?

Because evangelists, for all their dubious charisma, their money and organizational skills, their political connections reaching right up to the highest echelons of power, are complete and utter morons.  And what's more, they make the people around them stupider too.

Look at it this way.  They are selling a highly limited and flawed world-view.  Not only does it have extremeness and absurdity in plentiful amounts, but there is a blind insistence on everything being the work of an ancient Hebrew war deity.  It instantly limits all forms of thought, introspection and debate.  And that is a very big weakness.  Because, while everything is good, then God must be on side.  But if its bad, well then...God isn't happy.  Or he's testing his faithful.  And millions of morons will give themselves headaches trying to figure out how best to please their deity, relying on the most superficial and current of events to try and put everything into context.  There is being simple and then there is this method of analysis....at best a symptom of foolish pride and inability to think clearly at all.

So you are already dealing with a mass of people who are easy to manipulate and not too bright.  So what's the next step?  Well, first one would be to avoid getting chucked into a camp for deviants and heretics, but if you've taken any sort of advice about being outlandish into account, and perhaps used any prevailing confusion to secure a new identity, you may be alright.  After that, its a matter of acting subservient around authority figures and blindly parroting a few Biblical phrases now and again.  But you will have to kiss your Sunday morning lie-in goodbye.

Speaking of authority figures, and getting back on point, once you have a leadership who claim a truly divine mandate, things become quite easy, if you are confident enough to bullshit your way through things.  Secure some official looking papers and act like you know exactly what you are doing and you can get away with a lot.  Even if (especially if) you start issuing orders that make little sense.

Finally, we all know how sexist Fundamentalists are.  Its no secret they wouldn't mind seeing a woman stoned to death for being raped, or keep their wives chained up in the kitchen all day – well, when they're not churning out more cannon fodder for the latest Crusade, anyway.  But sexism is also a weakness.  Keeping half the population in chains, breeding resentment, refusing their help or advice?  Oh yes, there's a recipe for trouble, no mistake.  More importantly, especially for the women who hang around here, you will be constantly underestimated, in pretty much anything you do.  So any sudden or long term planned actions could shock our Fundie overlords into paralysis, not to mention making them even more easy to manipulate.

Finally, we know Fundies hate science.  Well, that's fine.  Again, they are only hurting themselves.  If they want to rely on the power of prayer instead of the power of penicillin, then I see no reason to try and re-educate them.  Just make sure you know a thoroughly secular doctor however, in case you do ever need some treatment.

In short, the creation of a Theocracy is a recipe for unrest, resentment, disruption and an easily fooled population and leaders.  While on one level, the loss of traditional freedoms will be no doubt sad, the opportunities presented by the future cannot be simply cast aside.  For the clever, the unscrupulous and the quick of tongue, the world will be your oyster.  The cognitive dissonance that comes from denying an entire nation's natural emotions and modes of behaviour will be incredible to behold, not to mention very useful.  Corruption of all sorts will take a foothold, and it wont be good Christian folk running it, that's for sure.  And with a population reduced to sheep-like subservience, those who are willing to occasionally work with the leaders while still able to think outside the box may find the world a much, much better place indeed.

So, as a thieving, amoral rogue, I raise my scotch glass to the theocratic revolution.  Such an imposition of order, inevitable as it is, will result in corresponding levels of disorder.  And there is no fun in tearing down a society which still retains the slightest vestiges of decency somewhere in its rotting shell, anyway.

PRAISE JESUS AND PASS THE GAS MASK!

Sounds like something Kai would say. Just sayin.

[LMNO]

I was more thikning, if you have 20 or so tear gas grenades planted in a church, it might be best to have some protection when you attend Sunday service.


That's all.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

if they see you have a gas mask, you may be able to convince them Jesus beamed it down to you just in time, and they might make you their leader.