#Tag
"Trump accepts two primary types of currency for his pardons: loyalty and money."
~ Don Moynihan
#Trump #pardons #crime #criminals #corruption #PaytoPlay #grift #authoritarianism #fascism
"Trump accepts two primary types of currency for his pardons: loyalty and money."
~ Don Moynihan
#Trump #pardons #crime #criminals #corruption #PaytoPlay #grift #authoritarianism #fascism
"But the Trump administration is unusual in its apparent commitment to destroying the pillars of America’s long-term prosperity – education, health, research, and climate policy – and decimating trust in, and goodwill toward, the US abroad."
#Trump #NationalSecurity #Europe #Russia #NATO #WhiteSupremacy #racism #GreatReplacement #fascism #authoritarianism
/15
"As the Trump administration, its political supporters, and their ideological apparatus work overtime to destroy US stability and well-being, they are not merely accelerating their country’s transition from a free society to an autocracy. Theirs is a holistic effort to take down a superpower."
#Trump #NationalSecurity #Europe #Russia #NATO #WhiteSupremacy #racism #GreatReplacement #fascism #authoritarianism
/16
"But the Trump administration is unusual in its apparent commitment to destroying the pillars of America’s long-term prosperity – education, health, research, and climate policy – and decimating trust in, and goodwill toward, the US abroad."
#Trump #NationalSecurity #Europe #Russia #NATO #WhiteSupremacy #racism #GreatReplacement #fascism #authoritarianism
/15
"There was no doubt at all. And it just didn't make any difference. And so I think that's like the big picture."
White Christians own the Trump presidency, its corruption, its manifold cruelties, its attacks on immigrants and racial minorities and LGBTQ people, its lethal lies about vaccines and medical research, its war crimes, its destruction of USAID and the resulting deaths of millions of children.
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/11
Ruth Ben-Ghiat offers an essay adapted from a keynote address on “Religion and Authoritarianism” that she just gave in New York at a conference on Religious Resistance to Authoritarianism. It was sponsored by the Interfaith Center of New York, Union Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, The Beacon, and the Interfaith Alliance.
#authoritarianism #religion
/1
https://lucid.substack.com/p/religion-and-authoritarianism-collaboration
"There was no doubt at all. And it just didn't make any difference. And so I think that's like the big picture."
White Christians own the Trump presidency, its corruption, its manifold cruelties, its attacks on immigrants and racial minorities and LGBTQ people, its lethal lies about vaccines and medical research, its war crimes, its destruction of USAID and the resulting deaths of millions of children.
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/11
"And 6 in 10 white Catholics have supported Trump every time he has been on the ticket. And it's been very, very steady. So you might think, okay, in 2016, maybe people were giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe they had voted Republican all their lives, and so it was a kind of knee-jerk thing. But by this last election in 2024, everybody knew what they were voting for."
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/10
Jones answers,
"Well, I know. So everybody keeps saying, OK, well, white evangelicals, right, 8 in 10 support him is true. And in the last election it was 85 percent of white evangelical Christians. But I think the thing that you look at the numbers, what everybody's forgetting is, is that 6 in 10 white non-evangelical Protestants supported Trump every time he's been on the ticket."
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/9
"Now, what do I mean by that? And that is that, you know, what we see is that every time Donald Trump has been on the ticket, it has been white Christians that have overwhelmingly supported him. And everybody knows, I think by now, the kind of one stat people can quote is like 8 in 10 white evangelicals."
Jonathan Hartgrove replies: "But you keep saying white Christians."
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/8
"Faith institutions are called to act, and help people in their congregations to arrive at their own reckoning with the costs of this inhumane administration.
With autocracy expanding around the world, and repression intensifying in America, it is more important than ever to know how religious resistance has unfolded around the world and how faith institutions may best respond to attacks on our freedoms."
Robert P. Jones and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove talk about Trump and where his support comes from: Jones says,
"So how do we end up with this authoritarian president that we have and the MAGA takeover of one of our two political parties? And there's really only one answer to that question, right? And that is white Christians have allowed this to happen."
#authoritarianism #religion #Trump #MAGA #WhiteChristians #WhiteChristianNationalism
/7
https://www.whitetoolong.net/p/advent-hope-in-a-time-of-authoritarianism
"We are seeing this potent moral charge every day now in the United States as ordinary people and clerics protest the brutal ICE raids and disappearances. The Rev. Michael Woolf, who was thrown to the ground and arrested for protesting in Chicago, along with other clerics, has diagnosed a 'spiritual emergency' in America."
"Faith institutions are called to act, and help people in their congregations to arrive at their own reckoning with the costs of this inhumane administration.
With autocracy expanding around the world, and repression intensifying in America, it is more important than ever to know how religious resistance has unfolded around the world and how faith institutions may best respond to attacks on our freedoms."
"In fact, the more corrupt and violent they become, the more they must surround themselves with an aura of holiness." But:
"Faith communities in authoritarian contexts can work to defeat authoritarian tendencies within their ranks; dialogue with other faith communities in the nation to encourage elite defections; and collaborate with other sectors of society on resistance actions."
"We are seeing this potent moral charge every day now in the United States as ordinary people and clerics protest the brutal ICE raids and disappearances. The Rev. Michael Woolf, who was thrown to the ground and arrested for protesting in Chicago, along with other clerics, has diagnosed a 'spiritual emergency' in America."
"This is the context for the bargains autocrats strike with media, religious, business and other elites. Those elites get profits and power in return for loyalty to the leader, no matter what he says or does. These deals tend to be durable, but every autocrat fears 'elite defection' which creates cracks in the edifice of his power.
Autocrats need religious leaders on their side to give them legitimacy."
"In fact, the more corrupt and violent they become, the more they must surround themselves with an aura of holiness." But:
"Faith communities in authoritarian contexts can work to defeat authoritarian tendencies within their ranks; dialogue with other faith communities in the nation to encourage elite defections; and collaborate with other sectors of society on resistance actions."
She notes both the persistent tendency of some strands of religious groups to support authoritarianism and the equally persistent tendency of other strands in the same religious groups to push back against authoritarianism and assist those oppressed by authoritarian regimes.
"As lying, violence, and corruption are institutionalized, criminals are lionized as patriots, and truthtellers treated as criminals. Over time, a state of moral collapse is reached."
"This is the context for the bargains autocrats strike with media, religious, business and other elites. Those elites get profits and power in return for loyalty to the leader, no matter what he says or does. These deals tend to be durable, but every autocrat fears 'elite defection' which creates cracks in the edifice of his power.
Autocrats need religious leaders on their side to give them legitimacy."
She notes both the persistent tendency of some strands of religious groups to support authoritarianism and the equally persistent tendency of other strands in the same religious groups to push back against authoritarianism and assist those oppressed by authoritarian regimes.
"As lying, violence, and corruption are institutionalized, criminals are lionized as patriots, and truthtellers treated as criminals. Over time, a state of moral collapse is reached."
Ruth Ben-Ghiat offers an essay adapted from a keynote address on “Religion and Authoritarianism” that she just gave in New York at a conference on Religious Resistance to Authoritarianism. It was sponsored by the Interfaith Center of New York, Union Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, The Beacon, and the Interfaith Alliance.
#authoritarianism #religion
/1
https://lucid.substack.com/p/religion-and-authoritarianism-collaboration
Ruth Ben-Ghiat offers an essay adapted from a keynote address on “Religion and Authoritarianism” that she just gave in New York at a conference on Religious Resistance to Authoritarianism. It was sponsored by the Interfaith Center of New York, Union Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, The Beacon, and the Interfaith Alliance.
#authoritarianism #religion
/1
https://lucid.substack.com/p/religion-and-authoritarianism-collaboration
"On Tuesday, it followed this up with, 'Actually, today’s food prices are a bargain.' ...
These aren’t stories about food. They are stories about surrender to a president who has declared that affordability 'doesn’t mean anything to anybody' and a 'con job.'”
#Trump #MAGA #Republicans #economy #affordability #media #WashingtonPost #JeffBezos #EconomicElites
/14
"Something fundamental has shifted. The media, once the antagonist of those who rule, increasingly sounds like the parenthetical aside in a White House briefing. The institutions that spent years insisting they were the last line of defense against creeping authoritarianism now appear suspiciously eager to adjust to it."
#Trump #MAGA #Republicans #economy #affordability #media #WashingtonPost #JeffBezos #EconomicElites #authoritarianism #oligarchy
/15
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