BevoAbyss

Looks like the holy New York Times is busy pimping celebrity fascism and theocracy, again. Under the guise of "objective" and "responsible" journalism (#bothsides) for consumption by the liberal elite. Any of y'all think the so-called "liberal" media is gonna save us from fascism and theocracy, y'all better think again. The Times is exactly what Orwell warned us about. Doublethink for the Party Elite.

That's the million dollar question. How? One thing for certain. It ain't coming from the media, corporations, academia, or the Democrats. Biden? AOC? Too much Catholicism. Too much Christianity. Too much of America is utterly brainwashed into believing religion is a force for good, conveniently cherry-picking from the Bible, while ignoring the horror stories in the Bible and the atrocities committed by religions all over the world. Just read some of the comments above. It's all a bunch of narcissistic delusion in the belief that their personal destiny is ordained by the Creator of a universe with two trillion galaxies stretching across 100 billion light years. Lulz. But how can religion's political takeover be stopped or at least halted? I guess, somehow, the 30-35% of Americans who are non-religious need to organize on local, national, and international scales. And they need to have a platform and manifesto, just for starters. If it is not too late. But maybe the non-religious are too apathetic because consumer society offers endless distractions....

MAGA-GQP is full-on coming for every group they hate: coming for the women, coming for POC, for LGBTQIA+, for doctors and nurses, for K-12 educators, librarians.... And now they're coming for the professors. And they will come for the scientists, artists, and atheists and non-believers. These idiots would love to bring UT to its knees, bowing before the MAGA Bible thumpers. If you think that is not part of the plan, you ain't paying attention. Hell, they've a got an evangelical running the Civitas Institute with a $6 million budget. Last time I looked, almost everyone on he board has some kind of Christian background. Secular Texas and Secular America are in big fucking trouble. MAGA-GQP are bent upon shoving the Ten Commandments right down everyone's throats. And the media and Democrats are hardly doing a thing to stop them.

"God" says it's legal. The Bible trumps the Bill of Rights. That's it. That's the entire argument. All the rest is gaslighting and propaganda. From "United We Stand" to the "Tea Party" to MAGA, the GQP goal has always been a fascist theocracy. ALWAYS! They are building it right before our eyes. The Ten Commandments are being shoved down the throats of secular America.

Nah. More like zero nuance. By any dictionary definition, MAGA-GQP is a fascist theocratic party seeking to rule through violence, intimidation, and Biblical law. They are led by a malevolent, ignorant, orange-faced fascist buffoon, a con man cult leader who tried to overturn an election. MAGA-GQP are openly and brazenly attacking women, Blacks, immigrants, LGTQIA+, BLM protestors, doctors, nurses, educators, librarians, election workers, scientists, vaccines, medicines, and so on. More than 95K are dead from Covid in Texas. There are mass shootings galore. MAGA-GQP is enabling mass death. Given all of the above, Abbott got re-elected easily. There is no f*cking nuance!

This is true ... plus the non-religious voters. Among GenZ, the non-religious are almost 50% (see circles). That is reason for some hope! Most of GenZ non-religious might already vote D, but it is nowhere enough in Texas. Sadly, "non-religious" could also mean they believe Ancient Aliens are our saviors and all kinds of idiot pseudoscience. The non-religious Texans (and Americans) need to organize politically, around the banner of philosophically fighting fascism and theocracy on all fronts. Plus, fighting for universal human rights grounded in science and human existence, affordable secular education via state schools, and sustainable policies/renewables to counter the climate catastrophe, etc. Front and center needs to be directly challenging religious claims to facts, history, moral supremacy, and ruling America. Citizens and voters need to know about the wall between church and state as stated at the very top of the First Amendment—even before religious freedom! Almost no one knows this. — Of course, all of these will trigger massive MAGA-GQP freakouts and all kinds of faslehoods and propaganda. Plus, the fossil fuel industry will jump in on any challenge to oil/gas by renewables ("Texans will lose jobs!"). One thing is certain, the Beto charismatic nice guy (leaving religion/fascism/theocracy off the table) is a proven losing strategy. Proven twice.

Lulz this thread. I appreciate the sentiment. I really do. Texas has a blatant fascist theocracy running the state government, some local governments, and seizing power across the state. They are targeting women, POC, LGTQIA+, doctors, librarians, educators, university tenure system, while also attacking facts, knowledge, history, medicines, vaccines, science, and even reality, itself. When anyone believes the Creator of the universe — with two trillion galaxies stretching across 100 billion light years, etc. — has their back and promises eternal destiny for their "good" deeds on Earth, and no one challenges that fact-free claim, there there is no limit to the power they will seek and what they will do with that power. No limit. And this is gonna solved with a list of policy suggestions? Wow? The only "possible" solution is two part. —The 35% of America that is not religious needs to organize on a massive scale, but I do not see that happening. — Launch a philosophical war in which the real nature of MAGA-GQP is identified, critiqued, and blasted in public arenas. That means attacking/critiquing religion/evangelicalism, while defending science, defending overall evidence-based thinking in government and life, and defending universal human rights (as grounded in the science of evolution). That means saying clearly and loudly that local preacher doesn't know jack shit about women's medical rights and has no claims on anything else related to science or morality. And neither does that pompous Joel Osteen or any other megachurch prophet-entertainer. That means getting God is out of government, in accordance with the separation of church and state mandated by the First Amendment. And that wall of separation means God needs to be kicked out of the state universities, too. And none of this is gonna happen. Why. Because God and religion get a 100% free pass all across America. The media in Texas will not take on religion. Neither will any corporations or universities. When the fascist-theocrats seize total power, the university leaders and corporate CEOs may frown, but they will line up to do business and get tax funding and tax breaks. Proto-fascist Elon Musk has shown that. Now y'all can remain in denial, but religion and Christianity are the essential core foundation of MAGA-GQP fascism/theocracy. If that is left standing untouched, there is no way to win the battle. Sooner or later, they will come for the secularists, scientists, atheists, and various others. Just wait till they come for the telescopes and astronomy at the UT McDonald Observatory. It's coming. The seeds have been planted.... TLDR: Texas is being taken over by a fascist theocracy. It's too late for policy debates. Philosophical war is needed.

I don't know how long Tennessee has been fucked up. But it is at least since the Texas Wishbone fucked up Tennessee 36-13 in the Cotton Bowl (January 1, 1969).

Elon Musk is not a profound futurist, he's a proto fascist. If anything, Musk is a fascist of the near future—an idiot savant echoing the American intellectual collapse into a violent idiot world.

Trump's presidency rates an F, as in Failed, Flunked, Fucked, and Fascist.

Nah. Harlan Crow started out in the owner's box of the stadium he owns for the team he owns in the league he owns, thinking everything he owns is a grand slam.

jimmyjazz: This is a friendly reply. Thanks for your post. I thought I recalled reading (many years ago) in a JFK assassination book that the Dallas Morning News printed the "Wanted for Treason" ad. I no longer have the book, so I decided to check my memory and look it up. It seems the variety of historical sources I checked are not in agreement on the flyers/ads. Some say the Dallas Morning News ran the "Wanted for Treason" (which apparently also was a flyer); see the attached Getty image. Other sources say the Dallas Morning News ran the "Welcome Mr. Kennedy" ad, which was also a flyer. Apparently, even the CIA noted that a newspaper ran an anti-Kennedy ad an they were investigating it in the wake of the assassination. So, like everything else to do with the JFK assassination, there are conflicting sources. Kinda like the internet! Note the reference to Anti-Christians in Point 6.

Don't be fooled. The super-elite in Dallas have been resistant to social progress all along. In the shadow of those glistening skyscrapers, in the shadow of those neoclassical monstrosities that make up Highland/University Park, in the shadow of the Cowboys' famed football stadiums, there has long been the specter of sublimated fascism. For decades. The most notorious example: On November 22, 1963, the Dallas Morning News saw no problem with printing a political ad with the headline "Wanted for Treason," with mugshot-like photos of JFK. Theres's a reason Dallas was known as the "City of Hate." Took seven years to even build a Kennedy Memorial. Of course, after the JFK assassination, the city of Dallas loosened up a bit. But, for the Dallas Fascist/Christian elite, the longstanding enemies were commies, atheists, and anyone or anything too "liberal." Always in some conspiratorial plot to take their Bibles, money, guns, and white supremacy. Gotta trust the billionaires and preachers, they know best. Ain't nothing gonna interfere with God-fearing Texans making money (capitalism) and praising the Lord (religious freedom). Nothing.

I have. Extensively while at UT. You are correct in one sense. The Nazis seized power suddenly and violently. However, the slippery slope in Germany started well before the Nazis came to power. —There were decades of the widespread embrace of Aryan Superiority/Master Race myths proselytized by philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He authored the highly influential book: The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899). This is just one example, there were others whose names escape me thirty years later. Some of Nietzsche's were also appropriated or misappropriated, depending on one's view. Chamberlain and his disciples later influenced Alfred Rosenberg and other Nazi thinkers. The rabid Nazi racism and anti-Semitism had been building for decades, across the culture in Germany, from philosophy to Wagner to sports to cinema (Leni Riefenstahl). — Also prominent in the era before the Nazi takeover was the rise of anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-Darwin, "Blood and Soil," Social Darwinism, and all kinds of BS science (eugenics) and pseudoscience, along with Aryan pseudo-archaeology (later inspiring Raiders of the Lost Ark). Three-to-four decades of the slippery slope of myth, racism, and idiocy (etc.) paved the way for the sudden Nazi takeover. — When it came for the takeover, the Nazis got support from the industrialists, police, and various security forces who supported Hitler. Then the military obeyed. Slippery Slope America. — The idea of a chosen people in Germany (the Aryan myth) destined to rule is not unlike the current attitude of the Christian fascists/theocrats in America who believe they are ordained to rule by the Bible. Building for decades, since Reagan and Falwell merged religion and Republicans. They own the Supreme Court for decades and much of the Federal Courts. — Anti-science and pseudoscience are all over American culture (Left and Right)—creationism, dinos and humans co-existing, paranormalism, climate denial, astrology, faith-healing, anti-vaxxers, celebs selling miracle cures, all kinds of New Age nonsense, the cult of self-help, belief in conspiracy theories, from Q to Apollo fake moon landings to Ancient Aliens. The list is endless. The entire Ancient Aliens ideology is a a bunch of pseudo-archaeology/chosen people believed by tens of millions in America. — The Leftist intelligentsia turned away from science and atheism in the 1980s and 1990s, advocating relativism (all beliefs are equal) and the notion that science is based in capitalism and has no objective claims to empirical or universe truth. Re the Sokal hoax scandal. MAGA-GQP just one-upped them. I recall this debate clearly happening at UT among some students and faculty. — Add on social media disinformation, mass shootings, ultraviolence (as I have explained in several posts), the attacks on legal precedent by theocrat judges, attacks on women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ and the Trump regime's enabling of mass death via Covid—you can see the intellectual collapse of America is in full force. The sudden violent seizure of power in America? What else was January 6? Nothing less than a violent insurrection. Since none of the ringleaders has been prosecuted, expect it to happen again. People like to think the police and military will remain neutral. I would not count on it. They are no less immune the cultural forces and intellectual collapse then anyone else. — Add on the fact that religion/Christianity gets a free pass, no matter the fascism and obvious theocracy, and big trouble lies ahead. Both sides are now claiming the need to reject the rule of law. Corporations and billionaire oligarchs are waiting it out in the wings.... — In my view, the slippery slope is mostly behind us. The question before us is: — Does America survive the seizure of power coming from MAGA-GQP, with stolen elections via voter suppression, belief in biblical prophecies and conspiracy theories, all backed by millions of AR-15s and perhaps support from police or military. TLDR. The parallels between America and Germany are there. Very clear. Right before our eyes. American democracy is ... on the ledge!

Sure. It's called the Bible, the sacred scrolls. The Bible overrules all science, all medical expertise, all legal precedent, all FDA rulings, all women's reproductive rights in America. It is as simple at that. Trying to analyze the 67-page ruling is self-gaslighting. The first footnote in the ruling cites an anti-abortion book, followed by 66 pages of smoke screen pretending to be rigorous legal analysis. The Trump-appointed judge is not a conservative, but rather a fascist theocrat. There, that's the legal mechanics. Seriously, that's it.

In a sane secular legal world, you are 100% correct. But, we left that world a long time ago. We're in medieval madness. In the emerging American theocracy, the Bible has standing above all the sciences and medical expertise. Genesis 1:1 is the evidence-free foundation for all this insanity. Kacsmaryk is another Trump-appointed theocrat. The 67-page ruling is just an attempt to gaslight everyone into believing the ruling was grounded in rigorous science and legal scholarship. The first footnote in the opinion is to Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, the usual Christian anti-abortion nonsense masked as high-minded morality grounded in unscientific bullshit (clump of cells = "unborn human"), authored by two theocrats masking as high-browed legal profs from Princeton and Univ of South Carolina. Same with Alito citing medieval scholars overturning Roe. With the counter ruling in Washington, the abortion pill issue will get to the Supreme Court, where Barrett will author the 6-3 majority opinion. Medical science and women's reproductive rights must obey the sacred scrolls. That's the entire foundational argument. The rest is a smokescreen for theocracy. From the Bible to the Ivy League to Amarillo to the Supreme Court to all across America. Kacsmaryk issuing the ruling on so-called Good Friday is just the cherry on the top.

The assault on women's rights and the worship of gun rights are deeply related. That's because in a theocracy, words and concepts not only lose their meaning, they become the complete opposite. With facts, evidence, and science under assault, the opposite meanings are operative precisely as the original meaning is still believed. Orwell called it doublethink. Example 1: First Amendment — The right to religious "freedom" protected in the First Amendment now means the right to violently impose and inflict religion upon others. Reproductive health rights are forcibly denied to women, thus religious "freedom" is weaponized to unleash medical violence upon women's bodies. Religious freedom imposes medical violence. Freedom is violence. Example 2. Second Amendment — The right to bear arms is protected, but that right is deployed as way to impose murder and mass shootings. Thus, the "right" to bear arms becomes a tool to unleash violence. To defend gun rights in the face of growing gun violence means only one thing. Gun rights supersede the right of others to live, to not die by gun violence. Rights are violence. Conclusion/Deduction The bodily autonomy of women and school children are giving way to religious "freedom" and gun "rights." Both freedoms/rights are weaponized against the bodies of women and children, precisely in the name of religious freedom and gun rights. With the regard to the First and Second Amendments, the Bill of Rights is becoming the Bill of Violence. That's what happens in a fascist theocracy. TLDR. Religious freedom and gun rights equal the right to impose violence. Orwell was right. Freedom is violence. Ultraviolence.

Friends, this thread is utterly horrifying. My longtime girlfriend, sitting next to me, is enraged and disgusted, too. WTF, I am letting it rip. The abortion/pregancy horror stories are the product of anti-science madness spawned by the sacred scrolls (Bible). Sheer idiocy, sheer lunacy, yet an all too real theocracy is taking root in Texas and other states across America. I am freaking sick and tired of the apologists for religion and Christianity in this country. If that includes people on Surly, so be it. You're part of the problem, all you f*ckers who voted for Bush and Trump and cheer the asinine move to the SEC sewer. Bush and Trump have stacked the court with theocrats. Yeah, your infantile unseen Sky Daddy is protected by the First Amendment, but the US Constitution now apparently does not protect the bodies of real flesh and blood women? That is morally depraved. Anyone who is defending religion/Christianity — in any way — is enabling the horror of this thread. Enabling a patriarchal, misogynist theocracy, with the daily goal inflicting pain, humiliation, and degradation upon women. Morally depraved. Religion has always be a tool for violent colonization, conquest, and conversion. Always. Peace comes after conquest. Never before. Thus, medical violence is being unleashed on women across America. The goal is theological conquest and patriarchal domination, backed by some bogus "morality." MAGA-GQP are systematically building a violent, bloody theocracy across America — all based on some evidence-free myths and BS fables from 2000 years ago, uttered and written for a preliterate, premodern, pre-scientific society. It's no wonder doctors and nurses are saying they've had enough. Why work in a state that values religious idiocy over scientific insight and medical expertise. If you think Democrats are gonna put a stop to this, think again. Too much religion, too much Catholicism and Christianity among the Dems, especially the olds. Things are going to get much worse for women in America. And many other groups too. It's coming.

Let's be very clear. The 2nd Amendment is no longer about protecting gun rights. It is about furthering social violence. That is its essential function now. The MAGA-GQP goal is not a "free" America. That's pure propaganda. Rather, the MAGA-GQP goal is a violent America, an angry militarized society, armed to the teeth, living in terror and existential dread. All day, every day. It's called ultraviolence (from A Clockwork Orange). "Ultraviolence" is terrorism as a daily cultural environment. It's the senseless, excessive, malevolent, and utterly unjustified violence that terrorizes a neighborhood, a city, a nation. Could be beatings, knifings, assaults, road rage, car-jackings, and so on. But, it most dramatically involves guns, which make possible mass shootings. One day it is a school, then a movie theater, gas station, place of worship. Or perhaps places for public shopping and eating: a grocery store, fast food joint, or Walmart. All subject to random bloody mass shootings. Ultraviolent societies are far more likely to submit to fascists and religious fanatics. That is exactly what is happening among MAGA-GQP. Ultraviolence. That's what's going down. That's the purpose of the 2nd Amendment.

Obama is correct. And here's another way to phrase it: What happened in Tennessee is the latest example of a broader rise of fascism against democracy. Silencing those who disagree is a sign of fascist strength, not weakness, and it is an attack on progress.

Let's not forget that Thomas was a Bush 1 nominee. The same Bush who said: "I will not apologize for America. I don't care what the facts are." He said this on the 1988 campaign tour and was elected in a landslide. No surprise, the same Bush whose son who authorized an invasion of Iraq based on no facts. Like father, like son. It is no surprise that MAGA-GQP are anti-facts, anti-science, etc. The Bushes (along with Reagan) laid the foundation decades ago.

But at least they ain't all them PAC-10 librul socialist cities on the Left Coast—like LA, San Francisco, Seattle, all scenic cities with Hollywood, Disneyland (for those with kids), world class art museums, Big Sur, epic national parks, mountains, beaches with real waves, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Hell, LA and San Francisco are true global cosmopolitan metropolises, despite their well-known flaws/issues. With Hollywood and Silicon Valley, LA and the San Francisco area literally changed the world on Planet Earth (I know, for better and worse). No reason for UT to align with anything out there — "What starts here changes the world." So, yeah, let's head on down to the Deep South.

And just think. The great University of Texas at Austin is aligning with this fascist BS across the board, joining the SEC confederate conference. Anyone who thinks the UT to SEC move is all about football/sports money is utterly naive. The gaslighting is working, apparently near 100%. It fits perfect with Texas politics run by MAGA-GQP. This was a (anti-woke?) cultural and ideological alignment mandated at the highest levels. BOR, BMDs, Abbott, etc. (above Hartzell and Del Conte). The move does not happen without Abbott, BOR, BMDs being 100% on-board. How can we proud alums of UT not see this as a regressive move for our university? Mind blowing.

Holland was ground zero for science in Europe, giving birth to the telescope and microscope—perhaps the two most radical technologies ever invented. Kicked off the sheer revolution of our understanding of life and the universe, per Galileo, Leeuwenhoek, etc. Bottom line, 99% of them "freedom loving" Christians did not want any competition for the sacred scrolls and their interpretation of them. So they fled to America to impose their religion ... on everyone and anyone that got in their way. Just ask the Native Americans. Genocide. All in the name of "religious freedom." Pure propaganda. The reality is most were fleeing the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution (among other issues). MAGA-GQP still are fleeing science and enlightenment, as are the creationists/fundamentalists in America and around the world. The genius wisdom of a few founders (Deists and those wise to centuries of religious bloodshed) made sure the First Amendment said "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Prior to the "free exercise thereof." Freedom from religion is atop the Bill of Rights, freedom of religion comes second. But the Christian myths and propaganda are still ruling forces in America.

Nice ride. Hope the prom was fun! My dad bought a brand new Delta 88 (20 feet of American steel) with a massive trunk in 1974. Just to drive the family from Texas to Disneyland and to see relatives in LA. And then to SF, Sequoia Nat'l Park, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, and Petrified Forest Nat'l Park and back home. That was our most epic family vacation.* (Our D88 was a hard top version of the car below.) *Parents divorced 5 years later and the nuclear family suburban utopia was over ...