Stolen from slacktivist

[ennierda]

An article on the scary far right Christian people:

http://www.alternet.org/story/46908/

I do often wonder if all of this exporting of well-paying jobs will inevitable cause our economy to collapse.

Comments

just my .02

[labrynthos.livejournal.com]

The engine that drives the radical Christian Right in the United States, the most dangerous mass movement in American history, is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.

I'd like to believe that, except that there are some very intelligent, well-educated individuals in the Far Right movement. Just like most of the hi-jackers and other assorted Al-Qaeda baddies are educated and do not come from impoversed backgrounds.

Still, equally crazy all around...

Re: just my .02

[ennierda.livejournal.com]

Every group needs leaders.

Oddly, the Catholic version of fundamentalism is designed to appeal to very intelligent people and turn them into very dogma-spouting robots. Perhaps its laziness.

Re: just my .02

[labrynthos.livejournal.com]

I hear that.

I'm not convinced that they will ever be more than a minor cultural threat however. They can't do what they really want (kill ALL who disagree) b/c of the law. And if they were to ever attempt to rise up (or use politics to oppress the "non-believers) there would be mass uprising. America isn't all white anymore and it isn't all Fundie either. There's too many Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, gays, lesbians, freaks, and People Who Aren't Crazy™ to stand against a war with the Fundies.

Re: just my .02

[ennierda.livejournal.com]

True, right now they are a minor threat, and possibly they could in-breed themselves into oblivion in a few generations or all die of AIDS because of denial over STDs happening because Real Christians don't have sex. But I think the author has a point towards the end there - radical groups come into power in times of catastrophe. When people are scared, the Patriot Act gets passed quickly and with little opposition. I can see this being a possibility given the right circumstances, even if its unlikely that those circumstances will come about.

Far more likely than a catastophe and radical revolution, though, is a subtle (or not so subtle) pressure on legislature to blur the line between church and state, and if another so-called born again gets elected president, he'll be able to appoint even more justices that are willing to go along with such things.

God forbid, of course. I'd rather we lost Congress in favor of the White House to prevent such a thing. (I'm wary of any party controlling that much of the government.)

[wafflebunny.livejournal.com]

Despite what he says, I don't really see any sort of mass despair and nigh-on ghost towns due to manufacturing jobs leaving. Nor any specific connection between the two.

That could be my inherent distrust of alternet though.

[manlym1k3.livejournal.com]

When was the last time you drove through Ohio?

I did a couple of years ago and it was very much like he described.

[wafflebunny.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever have, actually.

[manlym1k3.livejournal.com]

It's funny. Ghost town was pretty much the word that came to my mind at the time too. it was spooky.

[wafflebunny.livejournal.com]

The closest thing I can think of would be Detroit, but it seems unfair to me to blame Detroit's situation on any sort of recent jobby exodus. And even that was fairly busy.

Or maybe rural Alabama, but that was also moderately lively.

[labrynthos.livejournal.com]

It depends upon where you go.

Areas that supplied unskilled manufactoring job are hit hard. However in the skilled labor sector (yes, skilled manufactoring labor) they are actually suffering a shortage of workers. They can't retain older guys who are retiring, and they can't find anybody to even train to take their place (due to the dirty image of manufactoring).