Fearless Independent Journalism
“Our enemies are waging a war, and to many of them, it’s a holy war,” says “Movement Memos” host Kelly Hayes. In this podcast episode, Hayes and guest Talia Lavin discuss the emotional impacts of the presidential election, the expansive agenda of the Christian right, and how everyday people can resist what Lavin calls “our nation’s precipitous slide into autocracy.”Note: This a rush transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity. Copy may not be in its final form.
And so, yeah, I think it’s just something worth taking a moment to recognize, because like you said, if you push down your emotions, they don’t disappear, they just come out in other ways.Well, I want to thank you for naming that, and for writing that piece, which I know was not easy. This election has been devastating on a number of levels.
Not to mention a very disconcerting and apocalyptic view of politics as an agent of engendering the end times. That’s very upsetting and is currently influencing cabinet appointments and ambassadorial appointments. I mean, it’s just very… They have stood by Donald Trump in three different elections and have seen it bear fruit. They gotoverturned. That was their holy grail for a long time.
And disavowing them is more convenient than it is helpful, because how externally are you expecting people to identify who’s a fake Christian and who’s not? I think you can say, “I find your faith heretical. I find your faith cruel. I find your faith disgusting.” And more to the point, just because you’re very loud about it doesn’t mean you’re the only people who are religious in this country.
And that’s just absolutely everywhere. Lots of cash for gold. Buy gold, buy commemorative coins, that kind of stuff. I mean, and it’s phenomenally profitable. There is a certain sense in which the conservative movement in the US is rooted in direct mail scams. It’s all about building that mailing list of suckers.
This couple wound up going to jail and serving hard time in Texas for decades — decades — until they were finally exonerated and released, thanks to, not the state doing it on its own, but Innocence Project-type activities and the main medical testimony being recanted by an ER doctor who was actually like,Yeah, so these people did decades in jail. I mean, they came out in their 70s, on the basis of these fantastical and horrific allegations. And that story repeated itself across the U.S.
And then, as you and I both know, the main metric for propaganda is just how often it’s repeated, and that’s how propaganda works. And so this anti-trans message, much like the Satanic panic before it, has become a kind of conventional wisdom, that trans rights have gone too far, and the kids are too trans, and yada, yada, women’s sports, and it’s just absolutely everywhere. You really can’t avoid it. And that’s how propaganda works.
And when you are playing for the stakes of Messiah’s return, versus the kind of ascent of Satan, you are not encouraged to play fair. When you view your opponents as literally in thrall to demons, you don’t have to abide by stuff like norms and respect. They’re sort of beside the point, or even detrimental.
What was really striking to me, so I combined talking to over 150 former evangelicals for the piece with reading exemplars of 50 years worth of parenting manuals by evangelicals for evangelicals. So these are intra-community texts. They’re not propaganda for outsiders. They are written by evangelical figures for evangelical parents handed, out at church, given to new parents.
And what is so grim about it is that that kind of authoritarian family structure doesn’t stay within the home, as horrible as it is there. What you’re creating when you create these people who have been inculcated into unquestioning obedience and accustomed to violence, accustomed to brutality, you are creating a phalanx of people who are openly accepting of authoritarianism, who find authoritarianism to be the most natural way of relating to the world, because it’s how they’ve grown up.
I think we should also ask ourselves, what kind of stories are we consuming and uplifting? I recently watched a mystery satire about the Satanic Panic called, which is streaming on Peacock, and in addition to really enjoying it, I thought it had a really good message.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Rafaela IturraldeRafaela Iturralde is an Ecuadorian advocate of Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Nature.
Read more »
Want to Protect Coral Reefs? Recognize the Rights of NatureRafaela Iturralde is an Ecuadorian advocate of Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Nature.
Read more »
Some GOP-led states won't allow federal poll monitors at voting locations, officials sayDOJ's Civil Rights Division monitors elections to enforce voting rights laws.
Read more »
Vegas Views: Broncos Expected to Be Hot Pick in the Week 8 Circa Survivor Pool ContestThe $14.2 million Circa survivor pool contest is down to just over 200 entries, and this week appears to be primed for the Broncos to get picked.
Read more »
Kalen DeBoer caption contest jam session: What song is he playing?Alabama's new coach has been rocked by two losses and barely avoided a third. Let's give DeBoer a guitar and let him kick out the jams.
Read more »
Contest for new 2nd Congressional District is the race to watchAlthough this gerrymandered district was created by the federal courts to implement a new Democratic Black district, as soon as the new lines were drawn, Republicans said, “not so fast”
Read more »