"I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.
And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme — whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence — the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication."
And he was a christian, of course he saw the theocratic Nazis, (who absolutely were christians, no one would have God is with us on their belt buckles otherwise.) kill Jewish people over their difference of beliefs, as too many christian fundamentalists now want to do.
"I mean, obviously, eternal subservience to an undying god-king is the best form of government ever, and people can and must suffer from so much as doubting that, but we puny humans shouldn't aspire to that ourselves."
"Christ is King in TN. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty."
We don't do kings in the USA, Monty. We fought a revolution to get away from an xtian king and his Christian empire. Liberty, you say? Haven't read your bible, have you? Never met your tyrannical god, eh?
What ever happened to my liberty stops where it is affecting yours?
Frankly, it's a funny sort of liberty where you (or the state) wants to dictate what I do with my body or a with a consensual sexual partner or what kind of religion I am allowed to worship.
I will never support anyone who puts their religiosity forward as something that qualifies them for public office. The evangelicals labor under the delusion that if they can just impose their religion on everyone, all the world’s problems will just disappear. They conveniently ignore the countless horrors perpetrated by religious people in the name of their faith.
It is very hard to separate the modern right from their modern fascist religion... They are enculted daily - hourly - by the rightwing media bubble and at their churches at every opportunity. They are continuously taught to hate the other - us. Even if we win the day in November and in 2028, they are still here with us being propagandized and enculted. We need to discuss what we do if they demand the right to secede and form a neo-confederacy. They did it before. I have no great hope they will recover and not do it again.
Vote for me! I'm the christianest christian who ever christianed! Other religions are fake and wrong so should be illegal! We'll execute women for abortions!
This is the same, tired, religious virtue signalling that is the only thing CONservatives have been using for years now. It's totally insane, and anti-Constitution. But they are the REAL patriots dontcha know?
We give religious insanity waaaaayyyyy to much credence in our society. This is the fruit of that fact I don't see a way forward.
There’s a gang in my area that recruits new members by threatening them with all kinds of punishments if they don’t join. But enough about the church...
One remedy for this situation is electoral reform.
No, I have not gone mad, I am absolutely serious: If the USA moved from the current FPTP voting system to a PR-style one, it would negate the current problem of gerrymandering. In strongly gerrymandered seats, the actual contest takes place between candidates of the same (dominant) party. This often results in a kind of political 'purity' test, which rewards political extremism, of the kind described in this article.
A PR-style voting system also dilutes the strong two-party system you currently have, thus offering voters more choices. And you could go a step further and go for open party lists. Or you could go for ranked choice voting in a multimember constituency system. Plenty of options to choose from.
“ Christ is King in TN. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty.”
You will be free, so free, to do exactly what I tell you to. Because slavery is freedom! Stoopid is smart! Your money is mi….ooops! Strike that.
Correction: “When you look at some of the research that we have found on this, that … young folks are trying to marry older folks to get to their financial accounts.” Wait!!! That’s our job! And old folks are trying to marry young folks to get it there young booties— not the ones on their feet. It’s a nightmare out there! They’re eating the cats! they’re eating the d….wait. wrong narrative.
“ If advocating religious persecution, celebrating anti-Muslim harassment, and surrounding yourself with a Hitler admirer still leaves you with a viable statewide campaign, your party is fundamentally broken.”
No, it’s not the party that’s broken.It is approximately 1/3 of our fellow citizens that are fundamentally broken. They’ve just found each other. Power is their religion. hate is their first love. Jesus is their tool—their quiet, so quiet tool.
And Stoopid is their only true principle. I’m pretty sure that is Dane Chisholm shaking hands with that young black man in the photograph. He’s right, because there should be a debate. And if the people of Tennessee watching it still vote for any of these people, you’ve got the proof that you need:
I blame Reagan, those broken-brained people used to be able to get mental help. But he threw them all out on the street to steal the money spent on them.
Americans have mostly lost their ability to appreciate nuance and centrist positions. Not taking the ideologically extreme position is, in effect, declaring you don't have any opinion at all. It's all zero sum to the point of dysfunction.
I'm guessing Mamdani would be considered leftist in most European parties. But yeah, our mainstream democrats are pretty center right as far as most of the world is concerned.
"I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.
And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme — whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence — the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication."
- C.S. Lewis
And he was a christian, of course he saw the theocratic Nazis, (who absolutely were christians, no one would have God is with us on their belt buckles otherwise.) kill Jewish people over their difference of beliefs, as too many christian fundamentalists now want to do.
Even a famous Christian didn't want to be ruled by his own religion. Rather telling, no?
Because history tells us over and over and fucking over again that you cannot trust human beings with unchecked power.
And yet human beings are apparently fucking stupid. BECAUSE WE KEEP LETTING IT FUCKING HAPPEN... sigh...
I think about this quote daily. Excellent.
"I mean, obviously, eternal subservience to an undying god-king is the best form of government ever, and people can and must suffer from so much as doubting that, but we puny humans shouldn't aspire to that ourselves."
- C.S. Lewis, when sarcastically paraphrased.
That was how nuns could beat unmarried women in their care and feel righteous about it.
The nuns believed those women should also be married to Jesus like the nuns.
"Christ is King in TN. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty."
We don't do kings in the USA, Monty. We fought a revolution to get away from an xtian king and his Christian empire. Liberty, you say? Haven't read your bible, have you? Never met your tyrannical god, eh?
But he has a B.S. from Liberty University. In Tennessee that counts alot.
What ever happened to my liberty stops where it is affecting yours?
Frankly, it's a funny sort of liberty where you (or the state) wants to dictate what I do with my body or a with a consensual sexual partner or what kind of religion I am allowed to worship.
I will never support anyone who puts their religiosity forward as something that qualifies them for public office. The evangelicals labor under the delusion that if they can just impose their religion on everyone, all the world’s problems will just disappear. They conveniently ignore the countless horrors perpetrated by religious people in the name of their faith.
It is very hard to separate the modern right from their modern fascist religion... They are enculted daily - hourly - by the rightwing media bubble and at their churches at every opportunity. They are continuously taught to hate the other - us. Even if we win the day in November and in 2028, they are still here with us being propagandized and enculted. We need to discuss what we do if they demand the right to secede and form a neo-confederacy. They did it before. I have no great hope they will recover and not do it again.
Vote for me! I'm the christianest christian who ever christianed! Other religions are fake and wrong so should be illegal! We'll execute women for abortions!
This is the same, tired, religious virtue signalling that is the only thing CONservatives have been using for years now. It's totally insane, and anti-Constitution. But they are the REAL patriots dontcha know?
We give religious insanity waaaaayyyyy to much credence in our society. This is the fruit of that fact I don't see a way forward.
Amen
There’s a gang in my area that recruits new members by threatening them with all kinds of punishments if they don’t join. But enough about the church...
One remedy for this situation is electoral reform.
No, I have not gone mad, I am absolutely serious: If the USA moved from the current FPTP voting system to a PR-style one, it would negate the current problem of gerrymandering. In strongly gerrymandered seats, the actual contest takes place between candidates of the same (dominant) party. This often results in a kind of political 'purity' test, which rewards political extremism, of the kind described in this article.
A PR-style voting system also dilutes the strong two-party system you currently have, thus offering voters more choices. And you could go a step further and go for open party lists. Or you could go for ranked choice voting in a multimember constituency system. Plenty of options to choose from.
So Islam is not a religion because it's a political ideology but Christian Nationalism is not political? His 'logic' makes my brain hurt.
Must be tough on him physically to talk out of both sides of his mouth.
All while simultaneously pulling from his 'facts' from his posterior.
There's your problem- trying to see things from their perspective. A normal person just can't comfortably shove their head that far up their own ass.
Just another republican republicaning.
Bozos like this are the reason the 7 Key Founders did not want religion to have a place at the table of governance.
I have visited Tennessee, nice enough, but I damn sure wouldn't want to live there. I've got plenty to deal with right here in my home state of WTF*.
* Welcome To Florida
Agreed, Flor i duh its bat shit crazy governor and the Florida man.
https://www.thefloridamanreport.com/
MAGA rules the United States 😆🤪
This would be a good time for Jesus to return and declare:
“What the fuck is wrong with you people? Keep my name out of your mouths!”
And maybe slap him across the face a la Will Smith
I think a Mike Tyson right cross would be more appropriate.
🤣🤣🤣
Anyone want to wager that Monty Shitts is destined to be caught in flagrante delicto with one or more children?
Living or dead?
Hopefully living children and dead Monty.
“ Christ is King in TN. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty.”
You will be free, so free, to do exactly what I tell you to. Because slavery is freedom! Stoopid is smart! Your money is mi….ooops! Strike that.
Correction: “When you look at some of the research that we have found on this, that … young folks are trying to marry older folks to get to their financial accounts.” Wait!!! That’s our job! And old folks are trying to marry young folks to get it there young booties— not the ones on their feet. It’s a nightmare out there! They’re eating the cats! they’re eating the d….wait. wrong narrative.
“ If advocating religious persecution, celebrating anti-Muslim harassment, and surrounding yourself with a Hitler admirer still leaves you with a viable statewide campaign, your party is fundamentally broken.”
No, it’s not the party that’s broken.It is approximately 1/3 of our fellow citizens that are fundamentally broken. They’ve just found each other. Power is their religion. hate is their first love. Jesus is their tool—their quiet, so quiet tool.
And Stoopid is their only true principle. I’m pretty sure that is Dane Chisholm shaking hands with that young black man in the photograph. He’s right, because there should be a debate. And if the people of Tennessee watching it still vote for any of these people, you’ve got the proof that you need:
They are fundamentally broken.
I blame Reagan, those broken-brained people used to be able to get mental help. But he threw them all out on the street to steal the money spent on them.
Somebody set off the doomsday bomb from "Beneath the Planet of the Apes". Maybe the bacteria can make a better go of it in a couple of billion years.
Christ is king over Tennessee? I live near Memphis. I'm pretty sure Elvis is king over this part of the state.
Maybe all news and media outlets should just start addressing these candidates as White Nationalists.
All their followers can get pins and hats so it’s clear who your neighbor is. Shouldn’t be a problem. They are very proud.
and Marsha Blackhead is the Tommy Tuberville of MarKwayne Mullins
So tired of hearing the “this isn’t real Christianity” cries and excuses. Yes it is.
They play the bagpipes better than any true Scotsman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnVjkE87FDY
Americans have mostly lost their ability to appreciate nuance and centrist positions. Not taking the ideologically extreme position is, in effect, declaring you don't have any opinion at all. It's all zero sum to the point of dysfunction.
These days "centrist" means "far left".
As far as the rest of the civilized world is concerned, our "far left" is 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.
I'm guessing Mamdani would be considered leftist in most European parties. But yeah, our mainstream democrats are pretty center right as far as most of the world is concerned.
Yep, everything I want politically is now called far-left.
Authoritarians despise nuance. They have a simplistic answer for everything - they are right and you are wrong.
"Americans have mostly" in North and South America.
The MAGA is strong in the United States😟🤔
He seems nice...