Tea Pain thread on White Christian Nationalism.

[Nevilledog]

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Tea Pain
@TeaPainUSA
MINI-THREAD on White Christian Nationalism.

1) Religion is a funny thing, ain't it? It can guide you, comfort you, then turn around and try to kill you. Tea would bet you a set of banjo strings that almost every one of them traitors that attacked our Capitol identify...
9:19 AM · Feb 6, 2021

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1358087924072521730.html

MINI-THREAD on White Christian Nationalism.

1) Religion is a funny thing, ain't it? It can guide you, comfort you, then turn around and try to kill you. Tea would bet you a set of banjo strings that almost every one of them traitors that attacked our Capitol identify...

2) ...as Christian. How does a religion founded by the "Prince of Peace" transform into a blood-thirsty mob bent on killin' their own brothers and sisters?

3) Truth be told, religion has been responsible for more deaths than global pandemics, world wars and meteors. For millennia, greedy politicians in every age observed that folks consumed religion and politics in much the same manner.

4) Religion is driven by faith, essentially belief in the unseen and unexplainable, which deters critical thinkin' and questionin' things with higher order parts of the brain. Turns out scoundrels figured out if they could mix politics in with their religion...

5) ...it would be embraced with the same devotion and lack of scrutiny, creatin' an army of zealots ready to carry out the "commandments of the Lord." All corrupt politicians needed to do was make their wide-eyed followers believe their political agenda was indistinguishable...

6) ..from God's will. This is why Republicans promote religion while devaluin' education, since one is the natural adversary of the other. Have you noticed that in almost every war, both sides firmly believe that their deity is on their side?

7) So how do we create a separation of Church and Hate? The answer is simpler than you may think: education. We need to promote education as one of our top priorities. The more folks think, the less they'll be tempted to give in and embrace these idiot conspiracy...

8) ...theories, which are nothin' but gateway drugs to racism, division and hatred. Every time you see a dead-eyed MAGA spewin' their brainless hate, that's just one more child left behind. If we took just one percent of our military budget and invest it in education...

9) ...we would see a magnitude of improvement in the quality of life in our nation and reap rewards for generations to come. Try it and see if Tea Pain ain't right.

[sanatanadharma]

1. More and better education

More classes in epistemology, logic, ethics, science and civics.

[BComplex]

2. Tea Pain is so right. Religion and politics are the devils workshop.

[MagickMuffin]

3. And mixing politics and religion they GET $$$$$$$$$$ from the Sheeple People

The Sheeple People throw money after the politicians and the church. It's amazing how they have any money left to but their guns.

The Sheeple People are extremely easy to manipulate. And since their leaders know how to push the buttons to drive their agenda, that is filled with hate and malice, they can really do these things without much effort on their part.

[keithbvadu2]

4. Religion and politics use each other to gain power and wealth.

[Victor_c3]

5. Even more specifically, dump the education money into the poorest districts

Our education in the more affluent areas of the US ranks right up there with the best in the world. It’s just that there is a huge disparity between the top, the middle, and the bottom.

My kids both go to one if the best school districts in Ohio and I’m completely blown away by the projects and things they are learning. In fifth grade, they aren’t just learning about grammar and simple essay writing - they’re writing critical thinking essays akin to what I was doing in high school. In sixth grade they’re studying algebra that I did in 8th and 9th grade. In other classes, they’re even dabbling in CAD drawing and 3D printing in both 5th and 6th grade (that wasn’t even offered until I went to college). The schools my kids attend are doing a fantastic job teaching critical thinking.

The resources of my school district need to be applied to the poorest districts in our country. Education is supposed to be “the great equalizer”, so let’s actually make it that way.

[Azathoth]

6. This is naive. Education gives you people like Cruz and Hawley

It's like giving a drunk person coffee to "sober" them up. All you end up with is a wide-awake drunk, which in some cases is even worse than a drunk who just wants to sleep on the couch.

Education is not a silver bullet for cultural irrationality. What it does is give people more sophisticated toolsets to believe what they want to believe.

The Christian right aren't who they are because they never took a high school biology class. They're that way because "That's how we do things here" and because "I'm saved and you're going to hell." Education in and of itself won't fix that.

[Mosby]

7. Republicans promote ONE religion, Christianity.

The whole thing is intellectually lazy.

The problem isn't religion, it's certain religions.

But we aren't supposed to talk about that.

[gibraltar72]

8. Certain religions are pre programmed

to magical thinking. They are already 80% ready for someone like Trump or Repliquan party.

[Hortensis]

9. Agree and disagree. We HAVE tried education and it works but is no panacea.

Like Josh Hawley. Prep school, Stanford and Yale all failed to transmogrify the material they were brought into something better. In his case, instead of turning out a dud who could recite but couldn't care less about principles and practice of the Bill of Rights, they helped develop a technically highly intelligent mind into a very well educated but still extremely flawed, and now even more dangerous, one.

Tea Pain's right of course that improving education will yield great benefits to society, not least higher societal standards of what's normal and acceptable in people. We can and should add back in civics education, work harder to instill understanding of moral issues and what makes right right and wrong wrong, and of course jack up focus on developing cognitive abilities in individuals. Etc.

We'll always have to work, though, with the basic material of individuals, with a whole range of abilities and limitations in the people we graduate into the world.