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eretzyisrael · 5 months

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The October 7 attack and its aftermath have finally brought the disparate elements of this struggle against Jews to the surface, its participants surging into the streets and onto social media—suggesting that Hamas knew something important about the world that many of us didn’t see, or didn’t want to.

When I was a reporter for an international news agency at the time of the Hamas takeover in Gaza in 2007, I discovered that it was impolitic to mention what Hamas clearly announced in its founding charter from 1988: Namely, that “our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious,” and the Jews were “behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions, and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.”

This didn’t sound like “Free Palestine.” But as a rule, on the rare occasions that Western news organizations felt compelled to mention the document, they left those parts out.

The historical examples from the charter suggest that in the war against Judaism, the ideologues of Hamas understand themselves to be operating in a broad coalition and carrying on a long tradition. This is true. “Islam and National Socialism are close to each other in the struggle against Judaism,” Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and one of the fathers of the Palestinian national movement, said in 1944. This was in a speech to members of an SS division he helped raise, made up of Bosnian Muslims. “Nearly a third of the Qur’an deals with the Jews. It has demanded that all Muslims watch the Jews and fight them wherever they find them,” he said, an idea that would reappear four decades later in the Hamas charter. When the mufti testified before a British commission of inquiry in 1936, he quoted The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Tsarist forgery describing a global Jewish conspiracy, which is also the source for parts of the Hamas charter and remains popular across the Middle East. (I once found the book for sale at a good shop near the American University of Beirut.) The Hamas army, known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is named for one of the mufti’s most famous proteges.

The movement became savvy enough to water down its charter a few years ago, but its leaders have remained honest about their intent. “You have Jews everywhere,” one former Hamas minister, Fathi Hammad, shouted to a crowd in 2019, “and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing, with God’s will.”

In the liberal West, no sane person would own up to believing The Protocols. (At least not yet; things are moving fast.) But an Italian can hold a prominent U.N. job, for example, after saying she believes a “Jewish lobby” controls America, and you can hold a tenured position at the best universities in the West if you believe that the only country on earth that must be eliminated is the Jewish one.

My experience in the Western press corps was that sympathy for Hamas was not just real but often more substantial than sympathy for Jews. In Europe and North America, as we’ve now seen on the streets and on campuses, many on the progressive left have arrived at an ideology positing that one of the world’s most pressing problems is the State of Israel—a country that has come to be seen as the embodiment of the evils of the racist, capitalist West, if not as the world’s only “apartheid” state, that being a modern synonym for evil.

Jews could no longer officially be hated because of their ethnicity or religion, but can legitimately be hated as supporters of “apartheid” and as the embodiment of “privilege.” The pretense that this is a critique of Israel’s military tactics, or sincere desire for a two-state solution, has now largely been dropped.

#hamas #wisdom #gaza #jews #antisemitism #hamas charter

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 5 months

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by Coleman Hughes

As with every society on Earth, there is racism in Israel. But the truth is that if you’re looking for the closest analogue to the racist propaganda experienced by blacks in European-offshoot societies, you will find it not on the Israeli side but on the Palestinian side. Consider the ghoulish, antisemitic TV programs that indoctrinate Palestinian children. There is no Israeli equivalent.

There is yet another inconvenient fact for those who want to reduce the Israeli-Arab conflict to a competition between European settlers and people of color: the majority of Israeli Jews are not European. They are Mizrahi Jews—hailing from the Middle East and North Africa. What’s more, it is not the European Jews but the Mizrahi Jews—who are difficult to visually distinguish from Palestinians—that form most of the voting base of the right-wing parties that Israel’s critics consider to be the truly racist ones.

When ideologues co-opt the African American freedom struggle and compare it to the Palestinian national movement, they do black Americans a grave disservice. Black Americans (aside from a fringe) did not seek to dominate and destroy white society, as Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized frequently in his speeches. African Americans pursued equality before the law and better economic circumstances. In black history, you can find the occasional Nat Turner, the slave who led a rebellion and advocated killing all whites. But compared to the leaders of the struggle—giants like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King—radicals like Turner amount to a footnote in the black American struggle for equality.

Even early Malcolm X, the most prominent mouthpiece for black radicalism, was not interested in a violent takeover whereby blacks would run all of America and render whites second-class citizens. When he expressed black nationalism as more than a metaphor, he made clear that he was interested in a partitioning of black and white states inside America or a black ethnostate somewhere outside of America entirely.

Palestinian leaders, by contrast, seek dominion over all the land existing between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Some, like Hamas, have even more radical ambitions: a global Islamic caliphate. Palestinian leaders have rejected every partition offer they have ever received: the Peel Commission in 1937, the UN partition of 1947, the offers made at Camp David as well as the Clinton Parameters in 2000, and Olmert’s proposal in 2008. In the Palestinian national movement, the common denominator has been the rejection of a Jewish state of any size and scope, as well as the unyielding demand for nothing less than a Palestinian Arab state to subsume Israel: “from the river to the sea,” as the chant goes.

#palestinians #black americans #zionism #israel #israel hamas war #hamas #gaza

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spiderfreedom · 5 months

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About this post, out of curiosity, when do you think it all started? Is there research on like how far back it goes? It obviously isn't inherent to human nature; I know it's not. Is it just one of those toxic things that started from the beginning of organized religion :( ?

There's research, but there's a lot of controversy on when/how patriarchy developed. The most important thing to note is that Greek/Roman/Chinese/Japanese style misogyny is not universal and has not always been the norm. Societies differed a lot in how much power and autonomy women had. At the same time, we must be conscious even the 'best' societies of the past still had faults surrounding women.

Some places to start are:

Alice Evans: Ten Thousand Years of Patriarchy: This article looks at it from an economic and cultural perspective. I strongly recommend reading her Substack, where she travels around the world interviewing Third World Women and Feminists to see why their women's liberation movements have succeeded or failed! From the linked article:

Our world is marked by the Great Gender Divergence. Objective data on employment, governance, laws, and violence shows that all societies are gender unequal, some more than others. In South Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, it is men who provide for their families and organise politically. Chinese women work but are still locked out of politics. Latin America has undergone radical transformation, staging massive rallies against male violence and nearly achieving gender parity in political representation. Scandinavia still comes closest to a feminist utopia, but for most of history Europe was far more patriarchal than matrilineal South East Asia and Southern Africa. [...] Why do some societies have a stronger preference for female cloistering? To answer that question, we must go back ten thousand years. Over the longue durée, there have been three major waves of patriarchy: the Neolithic Revolution, conquests, and Islam. These ancient ‘waves’ helped determine how gender relations in each region of the world would be transformed by the onset of modern economic growth.

Another thing to remember/consider when it comes to studying the past is how few resources we have. We only know so much about how pre-historical humans organized their societies. Colonialism destroyed evidence of other societies with different ways of approaching gender. Many of the great apes we study are endangered. And literate societies happened to be patriarchal societies (likely related to literacy going hand in hand with bureaucracy and agriculture and the development of a state?) so we don't know as much as we could about women in literate regions.

Organized religion definitely codified a lot about patriarchy, but the major religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) arose in regions of the world that were already patriarchal. So it's kind of a chicken and the egg problem when it comes to patriarchy and religion. We know that religions that worshipped goddesses, like Greek and Roman paganism and Hinduism, can still coexist with sexist societies.

These aren't great answers, but it's a big question and there are a lot of people working on answering it! It ties back into the bigger question of what our human ancestors were like, and whether we're kind of doomed to violence and xenophobia or whether there are alternatives. Some other books I've read that may be useful reading on this front are:

The Dawn of Everything. A long book, but it's a tour of human history and different societies and ways of organizing society. One of the chapters is on women, if I recall correctly.

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. Women have been working with cloth for a very long time. In some societies, this allowed women a high degree of status (see the Minoans!) and in others, women were worked to the bone producing textiles (Ancient Egypt).

The book "Demonic Males" looks at the birth of patriarchy from a primatology perspective. Our ape ancestors show male-dominant behaviors and societies. It's controversial the extent this is directly responsible for misogyny and male violence, but I think it's likely that our ape inheritance influenced the structure of early humans - so we basically have a lot of baggage.

Broadly speaking, reading books on feminist anthropology will help you, because a lot of what we know about patriarchy is based on highly literate societies, which as we established, are also agricultural societies with bureaucracies and a hierarchical culture. That's hardly representative of the human condition. As an example, look at Inuit society - on the one hand, there is arranged marriage and all that it implies; on the other, we do not have the same ideals of silent women who stay at home - women are valued members of the society and their skills are explicitly recognized as necessary for survival. Compare Western cultures that view domestic tasks as "support" tasks while the "real" work is done by men.

Finally, this one is a bit old (1974), but it may give you a starting point for understanding feminist anthropology and the search for the origins of patriarchy: "Is Female to Nature as Male is to Culture". It can help us understand how female subordination manifests itself in different cultures, and to know what to look for.

I hope this has been helpful. If anyone can recommend good books on the origin of patriarchy/female subordination (especially for non-Western cultures), please feel free to add in the replies or reblogs!

#asks

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justinspoliticalcorner · 22 days

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Matthew Taylor at Religion News Service:

(RNS) — This past month, a group of self-styled American Christian prophets released an urgent word from God on YouTube about an impending Islamic uprising in the U.S. Pointing to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, they declared that an “insurrection is forming that is like unto the communist takeover in Russia. … This is not only about bringing a Palestinian state to the Middle East but an Islamic state to North America and other nations.”

The good news, according to these prophets, is that God also says, “If the church repents, I will relent. I will protect your nations.” If this God-speaking-through-prophets-and-warning-nations-about-other-religions business sounds fringy and oddball in modern Christianity, it once was. But such prophecies and these prophets are rapidly redefining mainstream American evangelical theology, practice and politics. They are affiliated with a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, a set of leadership networks whose leaders call themselves modern-day apostles and prophets and believe they are commissioned by God to take over the world.

This NAR movement runs like a golden thread through recent flashpoints of evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump, Christian nationalism and Christian extremism. NAR leaders were central to the mobilization of Christians for the Jan. 6 insurrection, and many apostles, prophets and NAR symbols were present around the U.S. Capitol that day. NAR ideas helped inspire the recent controversy surrounding the Alabama Supreme Court in vitro fertilization ruling. House Speaker Mike Johnson flies a flag outside his office that is closely associated with the NAR’s aggressive prophetic politics. The reasonable objector may argue that all of those things might be true, and yet the NAR could still be a fringe movement. How much influence do NAR ideas have on broader American evangelicalism? It’s true that the NAR networks come from the amorphous nondenominational, charismatic sector of American evangelicalism that seeks to restore the supernatural dimensions of early Christianity. Historically these groups have been outside the evangelical mainstream.

But we have collected data showing just how far these NAR-associated beliefs and practices have spread within American evangelical communities. The present-day reach and influence of these ideas may be shocking to those acquainted with conventional evangelicalism. Charismatic theologies, NAR prophecies and radical politics that once operated on the margins of evangelicalism have moved to the center of the action. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this transformation has a lot to do with Donald Trump.

[...] In the intervening decades, NAR ideas and leaders have become extremely popular in charismatic media, functioning as some of the top-tier thought leaders in the burgeoning nondenominational charismatic world. NAR networks also became increasingly politicized in the late 2000s, especially by a prophecy called the Seven Mountain Mandate, first formulated by NAR apostle (and Wagner mentee) Lance Wallnau. The Seven Mountains prophecy imagines every society as having seven major arenas of influence — religion, family, education, government, media, entertainment and commerce — and the prophecy commands Christians to conquer the tops of each of these mountains so that Christian influence can flow down into broader society. Put simply, the Seven Mountain Mandate is a prophetically derived, systematic program for Christian supremacy. Shortly after Trump declared his candidacy for president in summer of 2015, he enlisted his friend and spiritual adviser, Paula White-Cain, a charismatic apostle and televangelist, “to be the bridge between him and evangelicals.” White-Cain began by inviting many of her fellow charismatic evangelical leaders — Messianic rabbis, televangelists, prophets, NAR apostles and megachurch pastors — to meet with Trump early in the campaign.

These were the first evangelical leaders to begin endorsing Trump, signing on to his policy agenda and offering theological rationales for choosing Trump over other, more conventionally evangelical candidates. The popular idea that Trump was anointed by God (like the ancient Persian emperor Cyrus) to be president and play a special role in protecting Christians was originally championed early in the 2016 campaign by none other than Wallnau, who was involved in the 2015 meetings organized by White-Cain. A few months later Wagner himself endorsed Trump in early 2016, and Wallnau and the other NAR leaders became the chief Christian propagandists surrounding Trump with theology and prophecy. They have written books, created memes, prophetically appropriated symbolic pieces of Americana and launched massive prayer and spiritual warfare campaigns, all to see Trump victorious. Charismatics, including a number of NAR apostles and prophets, have made up more than half of all of Trump’s evangelical advisory boards, including the new one for his 2024 campaign. In fact, these networks of NAR leaders were the central nervous system of Christian organizing and mobilization for Jan. 6, and many core NAR leaders, including Wallnau, were present at the Capitol that day.

Trumpism has fueled the rise of a very different breed of evangelical Christian movement: New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), NAR's tenets feature Seven Mountains Dominionism (7MD) and an aggressively Christian nationalist vision of America with a charismatic tinge.

#Christian Nationalism #Christian Right #Christianity #Religion #Donald Trump #Trumpism #New Apostolic Reformation #NAR #Paula White #Lance Wallnau #C. Peter Wagner

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female-malice · 2 years

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Opinion | Women are leading a revolution in Iran. When will Western feminists help?

By Masih Alinejad

A new popular uprising is taking place in Iran, and this time women are in the lead. It’s incredibly inspiring to see — for the first time I can remember — unveiled women marching at the front. They have overcome fear and are challenging one of the main pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran: compulsory hijab.

These women are marching shoulder to shoulder with men, chanting against the whole regime. They are facing guns and bullets and demanding an end to a system of gender apartheid.

Mahsa Amini was only 22 years old. She wasn’t uncovered; only a few strands of her hair showed. And yet she was arrested by the so-called “morality police” and packed off to jail. Three days later she was dead. Many Iranians are convinced she was killed —a belief reinforced by countless individual experiences with the brutality of the security services.

The news of her death has triggered outrage throughout Iran. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are defying security forces to ask why an innocent young woman lost her life to religious radicals who merely wanted to show off their militant male power. The compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth for Iranian women; it is the most visible symbol of how we are oppressed by a tyrannical theocracy. Now, by drawing attention to that injustice, Mahsa’s death has the potential to serve as a new turning point for Iranian women.

They deserve the support of their Western counterparts. Yet so far we see little evidence that women in Europe or North America are willing to take to the streets to show their solidarity for a women’s revolution in Iran.

Recent experience has been discouraging. Over the past decade, we’ve seen female politicians from democratic countries — including Ségolène Royal from France, Catherine Ashton from the United Kingdom, and Federica Mogherini from Italy — don hijab on their visits to Iran. All these female politicians are quick to assert their feminist credentials in their own societies — but when it comes to Iran they go out of their way to show deference to the men who have elevated misogyny to a state principle. A regime that abuses and harasses millions of women each year does not deserve our respect. To do so makes a mockery of all our talk of universal human rights.

When the Women’s March took place in Washington, D.C., in 2017, I was happy to join. Along with the rest I chanted: “My body, my choice.” Some women might well choose to veil their faces and bodies in accordance with their religious or cultural beliefs — but that should be a matter of their own choice, not a rule imposed by the whips and clubs of men. Yet Western women seem only too happy to succumb to the standards dictated by the male tyrants in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.

I don’t consider such feminists to be true advocates of women’s rights. The true feminists and women’s rights activists are those in Afghanistan and Iran who are stepping forward, at great cost, to resist the Taliban and Islamic republic. They are the true feminist leaders of the 21st century, risking their lives by facing guns and bullets. They will go on fighting against the regimes, and we who have the privilege to live in free countries should actively amplify their voices. This is the moment for women in the West to stand with Iran’s mothers, daughters and sisters.

I will not remain silent. I will continue to speak out until compulsory hijab laws are abolished. Like the women now taking to the streets in my home country, I, too, have been targeted by the regime. I have chosen to speak up despite that regime’s attacks on my family, and its attempts to have me abducted or killed. In this, I feel deep solitary with the thousands of women protesting in Iran. I will continue to do what I can to support their struggle, to help them achieve their rights.

My wish is for all of us to be louder than the tyrants. I call on the free world to join the protesters in calling for an end to the murderous regime of the ayatollahs. Iranian women are fighting to recover our dignity and exercise our personal freedoms — so that, one day, all Iranians can finally choose our government in free and fair elections. We shouldn’t be afraid of the religious fanatics and the jihadists. They are the ones who are frightened. It is why they seek to keep women down. Women in the streets are paying with their lives for change. But too many in the outside world are shaking hands with our murderers.

I am asking all Western feminists to speak up. Join us. Make a video. Cut your hair. Burn a headscarf. Share it on social media and boost Iranian voices. Use your freedom to say her name. Her name was Mahsa Amini.

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undeadcourier · 10 months

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I have a headcanon that my courier is from a small Islamic town/community near shady sands. I'm not sure whether the ncr would consider them tribals, bc they have a distinct culture outside of that of the mainstream ncr citizens, but they aren't indigenous (iirc the great khans are similar, bc they came from vault dwellers, and I doubt the vault dwellers in question were actually turkic or mongolian given how small that diaspora is). Do you have any thoughts on what a tribal actually is or means in postwar america?

Canonically, Shady Sands was founded by one group of former inhabitants of Vault 15, and other groups from the vault became the Khans, Jackals, and Vipers.

As far as how the label "tribal" is applied in canon, it's not incredibly clear. When Caesar, House, or the NCR speak of "tribals" it's often perjorative, referring to groups they deem uncivilized; more broadly, it's frequently used to refer to any distinct cultural group that lacks formal government and is self-sufficient.

Anthropologically speaking, a tribe is a group linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect—which covers a range of post-war societies and could very well encompass the society you described. Of course, there are still certain connotations associated with the terms (especially "tribal") both irl and in the game that you may want to avoid, especially if you're incorporating Islam and potentially MENA/MENASA diaspora.

I don't mean to suggest you wouldn't do your due diligence, and you've obviously given this a lot of thought, but since we're talking about how it relates to canon and the precedents Fallout sets wrt its fictional tribes range from thoughtless to abhorrent, you may prefer to refer to your society by a different term than to adopt the baggage that canon has attached to tribe.

Josh Sawyer has explained that, in Honest Hearts at least, the tribes were meant to be made up of descendents of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and I imagine that was likely the intent in the other games. However (and to his credit, JS owns up to this in the linked post), the end result still played into a lot of Western stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples, particularly Indigenous Peoples of North America.

Of course the problems didn't begin or end with Honest Hearts—from New Vegas' Blackfoots of Arizona (not to be confused with the irl Blackfoot Nation, whose traditional lands comprise what is now Alberta, Canada, and Montana, U.S.) to the Whachutu tribals of Peoria (from Fallout Tactics), whose name is a reference to the fictional African tribe called the Wachootoo from Ace Ventura, there are a ton of examples of how not to handle a topic like this in a culturally sensitive/respectful way.

I'm glad that the dev team at Obsidian is taking criticism of these depictions to heart and involving more sensitivity readers, but unfortunately there's a lot of shit baked into the Fallout canon that anyone making derivative works has to navigate with extreme care.

(Also, I'd love to hear more about your courier and their community!)

#barely got into how the geck races factor into all this #& essentially erase indigenous people who wouldn't also id as either black/white/hispanic/asian #the geck racial/ethnic categories are such a damn mess #on so many levels #fallout #fallout 2 #fallout 3 #fallout: new vegas #fallout 4 #fallout tactics #mojave express dropbox

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opencommunion · 5 months

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"From day one, theology has provided the narrative glue that keeps Israeli society together. Even for secular Jews this narrative became foundational. Atheist Jews might not believe in God, but they may well believe that God gave them the land, that they are 'returning' to the land of their ancestors, and that they have a divine right to the land. This particular narrative should not be seen as singular to Israel but as a common pattern used by empires time and time again. Similar theologies were developed by the whites of South Africa to justify apartheid, by the first colonists to ethnically cleanse the Native American population in North America, and by Australians against the Aboriginals. No serious Christian scholar today buys into any of the colonial theologies regarding South Africa or Australia. On the contrary, more churches started asking for forgiveness for siding with colonial powers over and against the native peoples of those countries.

Western and increasingly Asian theologians still ascribe, however, to the myth of a Judeo-Christian tradition. This myth of the Judeo-Christian tradition is unequivocally part of imperial theology that sees and believes itself as supreme. It is utilized theologically and implicitly against the Palestinian people and within the context of the clash of civilization against Islam. The other aspect of imperial theology has to do with the theologia gloriae of the so-called Christian Right, with its belief in the role of the State of Israel in the history of salvation and in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. It is noteworthy that, on the issue of Palestine, both supposedly liberal Western theology and conservative and fundamentalist theology are uncritical of the State of Israel and contain a pro-Israeli bias, choosing to ignore the presence and suffering of the native Palestinian people."

Mitri Raheb, Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible Through Palestinian Eyes (2012)

#palestine #colonialism #imperialism #zionism #theology

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ausetkmt · 8 months

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received an email yesterday concerning an article I wrote some time ago. The person asked me so many interesting and thought-provoking questions in that email. In this follow-up post, I will try to answer some of those questions to the best of my knowledge.

What role did the church play in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? What exactly does the Bible say about slavery? Is Christianity a “slave religion”? Why so many black people love the church and the Bible?

According to Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father and first president of Kenya, “When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible”.

That was the beginning of the European colonization of Africa. As I said in my other post, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was introduced by the coming of the Europeans. The Europeans came with the Bible the same way the Arab raiders and traders from the Middle East and North Africa introduced Islam and the Quran through the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade. So yes, the church did play a major role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In fact, the church was the backbone of the slave trade.

In other words, most of the slave traders and slave ship captains were very “good” Christians. For example, Sir John Hawkins, the first slave ship captain to bring African slaves to the Americas, was a religious gentleman who insisted that his crew “serve God daily” and “love another”. His ship, ironically called “the good ship Jesus,” left the shores of his native England for Africa in October 1562.

The church, especially the Roman Catholic and the Anglican Churches, had plantations with slaves working on them. For example, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) – the world's oldest Anglican mission agency, owned several acres of slave plantations. It has been documented that the 800 acre Codrington slave plantation in Barbados was owned and operated by the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) during the 18th and 19th centuries.

One may ask, why would the church condone such barbaric acts as slavery? Well, the answer lies in the Bible the same way the answer for extremist Islamic terrorism in the world today lies in the Quran. Yes, slavery isn't just "normal" in the Bible. It is perfectly OK (or can be interpreted so) according to the scriptures. There are several chapters and verses supporting slavery in both the old and new testaments of the Bible.

Exodus 21 of the old testament of the Bible for example, gives clear instructions on how to treat a slave. Both Deuteronomy 20:10-14 and Leviticus 25:44-46 also give clear instructions on who should be slaves, how and where to buy slaves, etc.

Some Christians argue those chapters and verses are in the old testament and therefore don’t count but that is heresy. Also, there are several chapters and verses supporting slavery even in the New testament of the Bible. For example, the book of Ephesians 6:5 of the New Testament clearly states “Slaves, Obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ”. Not just that, 1 Timothy 6:1 of the New Testament also clearly states “Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed”. I can go on and on.

Slavery existed during the time of Jesus and continued after Jesus. Slavery got abolished nearly 2000 years after the death of Jesus. Jesus had every chance to speak against slavery. The question is, did he do it? And if Jesus did speak against slavery then why did his followers twist his words? If Jesus did speak against slavery then why does the New Testament of the Bible support slavery? And if the Bible got twisted along the way then does it make much sense for us to put our trust in it?

Now back to the question, "Is Christianity a slave religion?" Well, I am not that great with the Bible so I will leave that to the experts to answer.

Reverend Richard Furman, President of the South Carolina Baptist convention 1823 said, “The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the holy scriptures, both by precepts and by example”.

In a letter to the Emancipator in 1839, the Reverend Thomas Witherspoon of the Presbyterian church of Alabama in the USA wrote, “I draw my warrant from the scriptures of the old and new testaments to hold the slave in bondage”.

"The extracts from Holy Writ unequivocally assert the right of property in slaves"--Rev. E.D. Simms, professor, Randolph-Macon College. I can go on and on.

So as we can see, the church and the early Christians saw nothing wrong with slavery and fully engaged themselves. Most churches and cathedrals owned several acres of slave plantations and owned several slaves. Even when slavery was abolished, most churches had to be compensated for setting their slaves free.

Yes, one of the ironies of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act was that, it was slave owners, not the slaves, who were compensated at the emancipation of slaves. The Anglican Church received 8,823 pound sterling in compensation for its loss of over 400 slaves. The Bishop of Exeter, along with three of his colleagues received some 13,000 pounds in compensation for over 660 slaves. All these have been documented and I can go on and on.

Why so many black people love the church and the Bible? Well, that is a question I cannot answer all alone.

#Christianity and Slavery: The role of the Church #slavery #church #catholic church #anglican church #christians #slavery in america

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thoughtportal · 5 months

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BreakThrough News is the official media partner of the The March On Washington For Gaza, streaming LIVE on Saturday January 13th at 1pm ET / 10am PST.

The March On Washington For Gaza is organized by the American Muslim Task Force For Palestine (American Muslims for Palestine, Council on American-Islam Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim American Society, Muslim Students Association, Muslim Legal Fund of America, Muslim Ummah of North America, Young Muslims) with its National Partner, The ANSWER Coalition.

#BT News #video #palestine #march #collective action #washington #protest #The March On Washington For Gaza

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stephenjaymorrisblog · 8 months

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America is Republic, not a Theocracy.

Part 2

Stephen Jay Morris

9/29/2023

For some time, I was aspiring writer. I wrote fictional stories. One was called, “The Flag and the Cross 2084.” It was a futuristic story about America conquering all countries on earth. America was this gigantic empire under which the residents of all countries had to learn English or be killed. They were also required to believe in fundamentalist Christianity or be killed. White Anglo Saxion Protestants were privileged citizens. Government was replaced by a corporate board of directors to run the planet. Only Aryan men were allowed to vote and only White men were permitted to be rich. It had an intergalactic space force called “God’s Aryan Warriors,” which mission was to conquer the universe by space invasions. It was revealed that so called UFOs were advance mode flying saucers, spying on all citizens.

The Christian Church of America oversaw law and order. In 2054, the Constitution was abolished and was replaced by the King James Bible as the official constitution of the planet. All other religions were abolished. Jews were forced to denounce their religion and accept Jesus as their lord and savior. If not, they were put into human sized, microwave ovens. White Women had to become baby producing machine for the Aryan race. In 2070, women lost their right to vote and were not permitted to be in the work force. They were relegated to being homemakers. In 2080, 40 million LBGTQ+ people died in Christian death camps. And yes, there were flying cars! Oh, I almost forgot: all citizens’ brains were injected with microchips that showed authorities their whereabouts at all times. Pretty apocalyptic totalitarian future, yes? One more thing about this futuristic nightmare: only married people were allowed to have sex. If you were caught, you were put in Jesus camps, otherwise known as prisons. And yes, masturbation was illegal.

Times have changed and history has made a liar out of me--thankfully. Someday I will do a third rewrite of my manuscript.

Back to the past of 2023. What is interesting about my story is that all Islamic theocracies were destroyed and replaced with Christian theocracies. Now I ask you? What’s the difference between Islamic theocracy and Christian theocracy? Answer: Most Christians are White. However, it doesn’t matter which religion controls a country. In any case, it is an authoritarian nightmare. If America became a theocracy, people would be swimming to Communist Cuba to become American exiles! Is Iran worse than North Korea? Not really. Left wing authoritarianism and Right wing totalitarianism both suck! That is the problem with absolutism: you are either against the Left or against the Right. If you believe in black and white vision, then you will never see a rainbow. That is why the religious Right hates rainbows; they see everything in black and white!

Some think that…I mean, “feel,” that a Chistian nation would be this Pollyanna society, wherein everybody is a sweetheart! Everybody follows God’s rules, everybody feels and thinks the same. A lily white, pure society. Wrong! Some Christians subscribe to the proposition that violence solves all problems. That freedom is reserved for Christians only. Is there taxation in this Christian society? Oh, fuck yeah, there is! Except it’s called, “tithing.” In this new society, you will have to pay 75% of your income. If you should have a heart attack, your pastor will say a prayer for you. If you masturbate, the God Squad will send you to Jesus’ camp. Do you want that? Good! Stay the fuck away from me!

I am not engaging in drollery here. To jerk off, I need a halophile environment. If the theocrats win, the American experiment is over. Plus, the bastards don’t believe in scientific methodology.

We don’t need religion. Really! Freedom is for all, not just a chosen few.

#stephenjaymorris #american politics #poets of tumblr #anarchism #baby boomers #anarchopunk #anarchocommunism #anarcho capitalism #conservatism #youtube #anti religion #atheism #agnostic

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womeninactiondubai · 1 year

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Influential women in Islam -Insiya and Thamanna

When a woman is born, she is a blessing known as the door to Heaven for her parents. When she is a wife, she is half religious for her husband. When she is a mother, Heaven is right under her feet

Khadija bint Khuwaylid (RA) broke down every obstacle in her path. She was the first wife of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the first believer in Islam. The face of confidence and persistence for women worldwide took over her father's business when he died. She never compromised her modesty in the male-dominated industry and built a powerful financial empire. Her astuteness and business aptitude made hers one of the most widespread businesses in her tribe. When the Prophet (SAW) received his wahiyy (revelation), no one believed in him, except Khadija (RA). She comforted and encouraged him during the most difficult days of his life and continued to single-handedly provide for her family.

Dr Haifaa Younis is an American board-certified obstetrician and gynaecologist. The founder and Chairman of Jannah Institute focus on debunking the Holy Book for Muslims, the Quran and its practical relevance in day-to-day life. From the United States, she moved to Saudi Arabia where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies and Al-Huda Qur’an Memorization School. As a woman in her sixties, she continues to listen to the woes of the Muslim ummah and helps guide them.

Amna Al Haddad was an unhappy journalist. Being overweight and unfit, she wanted to do something about it. So she did and ended up being the first female Emirati weightlifter at the age of 19. She started competing in Europe and America and became an icon for Muslim girls worldwide. Amna is a voice of empowerment for women, demonstrating that the two characteristics of being a woman and being physically strong can exist together.

Prof. Ingrid Mattson was born and raised in a non-Islamic household, but upon adopting Islamic ideologies in her mid 20’s, she has been extremely devoted towards Islam and the community's welfare. She has presided as chair of the Islamic Society Of North America from ‘06-’10. She is also the well-known author of "The Story of the Qur'an," which has earned enormous acclamation in the Islamic world. She has launched The Hurma Project, which extends to honour each person, as well as their physical, social, and emotional safety, in communities.

The first martyr in Islam was a mother, a wife and a firm believer, Sumayyah bint Khubat. She patiently endured persecution rather than give up her new faith and was eventually murdered by Abu Jahal. Her story remains one of the most tragic yet inspiring examples of powerful women in Islamic history. Even with death knocking on her door, Sumayyah refused to back down in the face of tyranny and injustice. Her devotion continues to touch the hearts of Muslims today.

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 15 days

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By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Published: May 14, 2024

In our inaugural piece for the Restoration Project, I laid out Yuri Bezmenov’s theory of Soviet subversion and how I believe that theory can help explain today’s discontents. The West’s enemies – though no longer masterminded by the Soviet apparatus – have successfully learned, adapted, and applied the secrets of subversion to great effect. As a result, the countries of the West are subject to relentless subversive activities. We are in now in a demoralized state in the key areas Bezmenov outlined. There is a whiff of destabilization in the air as well.

There are two channels through which modern subversion advances, one imported from abroad, the other raised domestically. These are, respectively, the rising tide of Islamism, and the resurgence of communism through its various woke avatars. These two forces have been so successful because they ruthlessly exploit time, discontented demographics, technology, and Western constitutional and legal frameworks. What is more, even though these two forces seem ideologically polarized, they collude in their stated objective to deconstruct the ideas and structures of Western societies. Green and red, hand in hand, against a mutual enemy.

In this piece, I will focus solely on the threat of political Islam or “Islamism.” Though I’m sure what follows will be deliberately misinterpreted by naysayers, I want to issue the by now familiar disclaimer that not all Muslims are Islamist. I refer purely to the threat posed by those Muslims who subscribe to the political agenda of Islamism: A theocratic agenda that seeks to replace our existing liberal, secular order with an alternative one based on Islamic law.

Time

Islamists are playing the long game. Through the process of conversion or missionary work and the gradual Islamization of institutions, the Islamist is committed to the transformation of Western society. How long does he hope it will take him to get Sharia established in Europe and North America? The answer to this question differs from Islamist to the next.

In the past, Islamists sought to physically and psychologically harm the West through acts of terrorism. They beheaded civilians, attacked crowds of people, and in their most visible act, flew planes full of passengers into buildings, hoping to strike fear into the heart of Western democracy. These attacks continue to have a huge impact on the psyche of the West. Countries like the U.K. and the United States sacrificed significant personal liberties for a degree of security; liberties which they have yet to recuperate.

It is important to recognize that by and large this tradeoff (of liberty for security) has worked. The United States resolved to never let something like the attacks of September 11th, 2001 happen again, and so far, they haven’t. Western omnipresence in the Middle East combined with pervasive surveillance networks at home ensured that Islamic terrorists never came anywhere close. Though smaller attacks persisted for some time, the threat of Islamic terrorism has mostly faded into the background, along with some of the fear. In the 2016 Presidential election, terrorism was the second biggest concern for Americans, only four percent behind the economy. In 2024, Islamic terrorism doesn’t even register in polling.

It would be a shortsighted mistake to say we defeated Muslim terrorists, however. Given the sustained and withering military operations the West inflicted upon them, I think it is more realistic to say that the Islamists who argued for gradualism and the methods of subversion defeated those who sought to fast track the imposition of Islamic law on the West through Jihad or coercion. In other words, the prevailing Islamists have simply altered their methods in favor of domestic subversion.

What 9/11 made clear is that the terrorists successfully built up a massive network of operators within the U.S. who were hard at work gradually radicalizing vulnerable targets. What is most interesting about this form of subversion is that it no longer requires direct contact between a source and a target. The perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, for example, had no clear links to a terrorist cell but were radicalized by osmosis, including through their mosque and through Islamist social media. These agents of radicalization are now telling their audiences to work within and through the system. Convert one person at a time; bring sharia law to one community at a time. Win one election at a time. Change and capture one institution at a time; and do so legally, without firing a single shot. Large, spectacular attacks weren’t the most efficient way. Perhaps this is.

Islamists have successfully implanted themselves within mosques, activist groups, educational institutions, and social media such that they can flood the ambient environment with pro-Islamist content. The effect has been to gradually subvert Americans and immigrants alike to support Islamist political objectives. The most obvious example of this is the seismic shift in public opinion on Israel among the youngest generations. No other issue in our time has seen so big a shift so quickly.

The rise and spread of Political Islam must be seen within the bigger picture of Western decline. Islamist ideas can only flourish in a society that is too feeble to defend itself. As I mentioned previously, Islamists have been able to exploit several assets to their advantage. The first is time. Like the Soviets, Islamists have learned that the attention span of American democracy is very short. We suffer from the myth that our domestic problems can be resolved in the next election with a reshuffling of the White House. Subversives know that weakening a nation is a generational prospect.

Migration

The second asset is discontented demographics, by which I mean the swaths of disaffected people, mostly young men, who are ripe for radicalization. These can be either the domestic population who feel largely alienated from their communities, or immigrants from developing countries who struggle to assimilate. The friction these groups feel with the rest of the society makes them prime candidates. In rich societies with welfare states, immigrants are put in the position where they are dependent on welfare and are not incentivized to participate even in the economy. Simultaneously, it is becoming more difficult to bring families, such that the immigrant population is heavily skewed towards young men. In Canada, for example, the population ratio between men and women ages 25 to 44 is widening, fueled entirely by immigration. Among the 20-24 year old age bracket, there are now 110 men for every 100 women, a disparity approaching China’s own much-reported male surplus.

Whereas the alienated domestic population might find meaning in wokeness or other para-religious movements, young immigrant men – alienated, angry, idle, and bored – enter the mosques and become radicalized. Sometimes these disparate groups interact, such as when we saw “Queers for Palestine” banners march to the tune of “from the river to the sea,” up until an avowed Islamist would confront them and knock them down. This is a recipe for disaffection. Such a society has sown the seeds of its own destruction. As for wokism: it is a pointless pseudo-religion and the Islamist knows this very well. Many converts to Islam first went woke and, when predictably they come out spiritually and morally empty, the Islamist is there inviting them into the warm embrace of the Muslim Umma.

Leaders in open societies have overlooked the fact that the advanced economies of the West have little-to-no socio-economic and socio-cultural mechanisms for assimilating large numbers of immigrant men with barely a high school diploma from developing or broken societies. These regions of the world, often tribal, do not have the same institutions, culture, or morals of the West. It is irresponsible to assume that all immigrants to the West will fully adapt to our way of life because they come here voluntarily. True, that was the case when large numbers of people fled European wars and economic stagnation in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. In a matter of one or two generations they were fully assimilated. Even though it took a little longer, the same can be said about immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and even parts of Africa.

It is obvious, however that immigrants who are predominantly Muslim struggle to fit in. Even when they flourish economically, as they have done in America, they are confronted with the insurmountable cultural differences between Islam and the West. Of course, many Muslims do manage to find a way of balancing their faith with their citizenship. But it is harder, and, unfortunately, a growing number of American, British, French, and other Western Muslims choose to turn to the Islamists instead.

Tech

Their third asset is technological. Here, the Islamists have deployed the techniques of subversion with much success. The earliest and most obvious example was the use of communications and social media to isolate and radicalize individuals, often for violent terrorist action. With the rise of mass social media consumption on sites like TikTok, Islamists have been able to inspire large swathes of young TikTokers to flirt with Islamism. As I mentioned previously, the most notable example of this is found in the rapid shift of opinion against the state of Israel among young people. Concurrently, we also see the stunning resurgence of antisemitism among the same population and the compulsory urge to attribute everything wrong in the world to Western action, and particularly the U.S. Just the other day, The Free Press obtained video of activists at the Teamsters Union headquarters being taught to chant “death to Israel” and “death to America” in Farsi. Yes, in Farsi.

It is important to call out what is happening on social media for what it is: It is reinforcing indoctrination that has happened at school or in the mosque. Maybe, these young people do not understand what they are saying or that they are being used. Maybe, they go along with whatever they are told to believe because it is exciting, or maybe it gives them a sense of belonging to a movement that fights for justice. Few of them can properly describe how what is going on in Gaza constitutes a genocide, as my friend Douglas Murray recently teased out of an Eyewitness News anchor. Technology provides the most effective means for priming the masses yet devised, and we are rapidly losing the next generation to subversion.

Law

The fourth and final asset, paradoxically, is Western constitutional and legal frameworks. This gets to what I said in our inaugural piece about the West being too tolerant of intolerance. Islamists have been able to wield legal institutions against their enemies. All they have to do in many cases is claim Islamophobia and any obstacles to their objectives clear themselves away. The fear of a discrimination lawsuit is enough to send nearly any person or organization running for the hills. For example, American universities are terrified of reprimanding Muslim students who antagonize other students and faculty. Just last week, pro-Palestine protesters disrupted a dinner for UC Berkeley law students hosted in the backyard of a leftist Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife, Professor Catherine Fisk. Chemerinsky and Fisk are extreme progressives, but those credentials seemed not to override the fact that they were Jewish. When Fisk went to confront one dinner-guest-turned-protester, physically gripping her mic, the protester invoked Islamophobia and her First Amendment rights.

Anyone who knows even the most basic facts about the First Amendment knows that it doesn’t cover screaming at people in their own homes. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop this law student from doing so. The Bay Area chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement even went so far as to call Fisk’s actions “assault,” and credited them to “Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and religious discrimination.” This incident also harkens back to Bezmenov’s description of subversion’s “death wish.” It doesn’t matter that Dean Chemerinsky and his wife are leftists or that they have no power over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It doesn’t matter that protesting them in their own home violates the law. All action is justified under the principles of subversion.

Berkeley hasn’t announced any disciplinary measures against the students yet. I’m doubtful they will, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they do. If measures are announced, the students will just lawyer up, and in the morally bankrupt California legal system they might even avoid punishment. What makes the concept of Islamophobia so dangerous is that the very effort to explore this question is deemed Islamophobic. There is no ability to probe the bounds of what counts as Islamophobia. Just the accusation is a death sentence in some circles.

France has embarked on an effort to insulate its legal structures from subversive Islamist influence. French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, recently announced an “uncompromising” campaign to ban abayas — the black full-body dress worn by Muslim women — in schools across the country. This move is part and parcel of a broader campaign to tamp down on the Islamist threat within the country and promote assimilation. In 2017, France enacted a sweeping anti-terrorism law which, among other things, allowed police to shut down mosques or other places of worship if preachers are found to be promoting radicalism. And in 2011, France also banned the niqab face covering, the first ban of its type in Europe. Granted, these actions fit into the language of the pre-existing concept of Laïcité, otherwise known as the constitutional principle of secularism in the public square. Countries like the United States have no sweeping legacy of secularism, instead granting maximal deference to the principles of religious freedom. However, even with France I fear this effort is too little too late. Islamization through demographic change will outpace any top-down campaigns to halt it.

In sum, we can see the outlines of the Islamist strategy for subversion. Absurdly high levels of open immigration have allowed Islamists to establish beachheads within Western societies with almost no filtering from immigration authorities. The conditions in the host country are such that assimilation can be avoided, while disaffected young men are gradually Islamized in their communities and through technology. The same process occurs for the young domestic population, which is indoctrinated through similar channels. Islamists infiltrate every institution and organization, cloaking themselves in the language and legacy of historic civil rights movements. Whenever they are confronted with objections to their activities, they are able to effectively wield the law against the host country.

I fear the window to address the Islamist threat is getting worryingly narrow. Many European countries are moving in a direction that would make vocal dissent either highly discouraged or formally outlawed. Most of Europe now has some system of censorship on the books. Scotland, a country known internationally for its free spirit, just joined the ranks of such countries, enacting a new hate crime law that aims to tackle “hatred and prejudice,” two notoriously unclear and ambiguous concepts. In Canada, Justin Trudeau has just introduced what journalist Matt Taibbi has described as a “blueprint for dystopia in a horrific speech bill.” This so-called “Online Harms Act” would allow administrative panels, not judges bound by rules of evidence, to fine or imprison citizens for internet posts they made in the past – in some cases, for life.

In Germany, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a politician in the Alternative for Germany Party, cited the government’s own statistics in an argument against resettling yet more Afghan nationals in Germany. Afghans in Germany commit rape at very high rates. Along with other migrants from places like Turkey and Syria, they commit half of gang rapes – despite being collectively only 14% of the population. She did not make up these numbers. They are, again, the government’s own. Yet, under German hate-speech laws, she has now been twice found guilty and fined thousands of Euros. It boggles the mind that you can get a criminal record in Germany for citing government-produced facts.

Forces in the United States hope to do so as well, though that remains a more distant threat for the moment. Still, the direction of travel is unmistakable: the Islamists are here, and they are winning.

Future articles will further detail specific events that illustrate the creeping threat of Political Islamism. In a later article, I will address the resurgence of communism, its kindred spirits, and show how it too is copying the subversive playbook to great effect. Yet, in the war for restoration, not all hope is lost. The West has its own unique set of assets that we too can deploy, if we have the will to do so. More on that too to come.

#Ayaan Hirsi Ali #islam #islamism #islamification #islamization #islamic supremacy #this is islam #religion #religion is a mental illness

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kudzucataclysm · 1 year

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America (aka DUSA or MEDUSA) in the Year 2005

Geography, Climate, Environment

The United States is one of the largest countries on Earth in terms of landmass, ranking near Russia and China in total size. The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way to deciduous forests and the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains divide the Eastern Seaboard with the Great Plains and Mississippi River of the Midwest. Further west lie the Rocky Mountains; to their south lies the desert of the southwestern states; to their north lie the wet, temperate forests of the former Oregon and Washington states.

By the late 20th century, corporate exploitation and shortsighted policies have degraded environmental conditions within America and the rest of the globe. Nuclear devastation, volcanic weather, and changing climates made it harder to grow crops, keep soil fertile, and irrigate effectively. These disasters culminated in the 1991 dust bowls and firestorms of the Midwest. By 1970, the previously profitable fruit-growing areas of California, Texas, and Florida were economic and environmental wastelands.

By the year 2000, large swathes of coastal America were underwater due to the destruction of the world’s weather and climate system from ABIS.

Demographics

Population

The last official census conducted in 1960 listed the official U.S. population at around 254,323,175 people. The U.S. population then plummeted post-Collapse by roughly 10,000,000 people between 1960-1970 if the death toll established by the MIC is correct. This equates to roughly 1/5 of the population dying in the span of a decade.

After the Collapse, society centralized for protection. Isolated rural towns were largely abandoned in a large migration to urban centers. The lack of protection and difficulty of acquiring food and medicine in the hinterlands has left large parts of America filled with ghost towns. As such, the vast majority of the population live in urban centers.

Religion

Some of the most popular religions in America include Islam (both Shia and Sunni) and Christianity. An Islamic mosque can be found in almost every major city, and is very popular among the urban poor. Christianity is divided into three major sects: a more liberal and relaxed Roman Catholic Church, Mormonism in the West, and Fundamentalist Christianity in the form of Evangelicalism in the southeast. A resurgence of Buddhism has also occurred in the West.

Family Structure

From 1960 to 2000, the number of Americans in a classic, two-parent nuclear family had gone from 60 to 2 percent. The deaths of 100 million during the Collapse meant that roughly every one in three of these deaths was a parent. Almost half the families were sole-parent families. With other socioeconomic factors in play this orphaned roughly thirty million children in eighteen months. Roughly ten million were unable to support themselves and died; another ten million died attempting to survive under martial law and the onslaught of feral Martian and Chimera hordes; the remaining ten million were set loose in society without the socialization skills of an adolescent amidst the violence and chaos, and many died.

By 2000, roughly eleven percent of the American population had grown up with no real family structure. This segment of the population also reproduced at twice the rate of other Americans.

Health

Several plagues, viral outbreaks, sky-high poverty rates, an alien invasion, and lack of affordable, quality healthcare have greatly impacted the average US life expectancy. Many individuals do not have health insurance, and virtually all hospitals are corporate-owned.

During the chaos of the 1960s, ADP, the Wasting Plague, urban civil war, and starvation killed millions of Americans. Nuclear radiation and volcanic ash has also impacted the livelihood of American citizens, from the 1962 nuclear exchange and Caldera Incident to the 1995 Nevadas nuclear spill that contaminated the Colorado river.

In 2005, the average life expectancy is 55 years of age. Due to the high rate of violence in the country, a majority of people are unable to live past 53 unless they are a part of the 1%.

Education

In 2005, a vast majority of states simply do not have a public education system. As a result, gang membership is at an all time high.

Any schooling in rural areas focuses on day-to-day survival rather than mathematics or higher education.

Government/corporate education is an alternative for those that cannot attend public schooling, and is fairly complete. However, it is known for producing very high stress levels and rates of suicide. Furthermore, individuals are subjected to behavior modification, loyalty testing, indoctrination and propaganda; and all curriculum is based on an individual's aptitudes.

American universities are notorious for being extremely expensive and having very long waiting lists. Since there is no common education system there is no common education theory. As a result, the process has fragmented. The most prolific school in the USA at the moment is the Promethean School of Science, or PSS-1, in the city state of Necropolis Metro.

One in six people in the NEC are chimeras, and less than a third of them are properly educated. There are no schools for them, but one “reform school” (Zone 6th Vocational) that’s more of a juvenile correctional facility than an actual education institution. Limited corporal punishment is used often, and the school has a very low graduation rate…if a child is even admitted at all. Thus the chimera population at large is extremely uneducated and typically illiterate, as well as socially, mentally, and emotionally challenged when it comes to society at large.

Government and Politics

Sometime in the 1960s in the mad scramble for order after the nuclear strikes and Yellowstone eruption, military government districts were declared, and military governors were named to oversee their districts. Each military governor was the leader of a military company, a collection of military units assigned to the same district. Pentagon planners grouped as many disparate units together as possible under the precept that every military control district should have the units necessary to handle any situation or emergency.

During this time individual states began to break away from the main body of the country. Local state governments were fed up with the ineffectual and dictatorial actions of the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. as well as the exposed machinations of CHARON.

The workings of what was left of the United States Government were returned to civilian jurisdiction in 1980 after the signing of the Intersolar Protocol and much control over Earth was handed over to the Martian Kingdom.

The Borderland States came into existence in 1981, when Texas threatened secession from the Union during a row over states' rights and Martian rule. After Alaska jumped on board, the newly reformed Federal government acceded to the economic pressure against them and established the Borderland States; states which had a quasi-independent status and greater autonomy with respect to the United States government. As such, state and local laws can be in direct opposition to federal law. Texas was the first Borderland State in 1983, followed by California, Alaska, Florida and Las Nevadas (formerly the state of Nevada).

Unfortunately, Texas (along with most of the Southwest), California (with Oregon and Washington state), and Alaska (which was handed over to the USSR) were annexed by Mexico and the SNPA almost immediately after their secessions.

Economy

In 2005, American industry is primarily divided into the manufacturing, technology, and service industries. The manufacturing industry has returned due to the low standard of living in America along with the lack of labor unions. The cyberware, nanotech, and biological industries within the technological sector are the highest-profit businesses in the American economy.

The crash of the World Stock Exchange in 1953 and the troubles of the World Bank meant the United States had no one to borrow money from to pay off its extremely high national debt. Federal Bonds were cashed in so fast the U.S. Government could not print money fast enough, and the value of the dollar plummeted. It’s now one of the most unstable currencies in the world.

Post-Collapse America has a two-tiered economy and an extremely small and shrinking middle class. By 2000, the United States had one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world, with 90% of the wealth controlled by 10% of the population. These 10% make up the ultra-wealthy; 15% make up the middle class (30,000,000 people); 10% are on the poverty line; and 65% live in squalid misery and third-world conditions. This is in stark contrast to Africa and parts of Asia in which 40% of the population is considered middle-class.

By 2000, roughly 30% of all citizens were receiving some form of government assistance. The Collapse saw the end to all social programs in America, including but not limited to: Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, welfare, unemployment benefits, subsidies and price controls.

Infrastructure

American transportation is built around major metropolitan areas surrounded by relatively empty, deserted ghost towns and wilderness. The civil strife of the Collapse prevented any new revolutions in mass transit from taking place. There is very little non-direct mass transit. Completed in 1982 by the Martians, the Starline bullet train runs underground across the nation and connects coast to coast.

The extremely high cost of jet fuel means flights are largely regional, such as Necropolis to Maine. Longer flights, such as across the midwest, are much more dangerous and expensive due to the erratic radioactive weather patterns present- as such, most cross country flights are sub-orbital.

After the dust bowls and acid rains of the 1980s, the power industry was able to make a smooth transition from coal-fired generators to a hydrogen-fired refit; cutting costs and reducing environmental damage. Nuclear power was never capitalized upon due to public superstition resulting from the nuclear war.

Almost all groundwater in the US is virtually undrinkable. Desalination plants have been built up and down each coast, with the east coast having a couple offshore plants.

Culture

Food

70% of all food on the market is mash, a slang term for all manufactured foods of varying quality. Mash itself is also one of the almost twenty manufactured foods that make up the majority of the American diet. Developed by Pfaff Corp for the American relief effort in the Urban Civil War Period, mash provides a full day's supply of vitamin and mineral compounds, as well as a minimal amount of complete proteins. It features a fairly dry and grainy consistency similar to animal food.

Roughly 28% of foods are OMSCPs, or Organically Modified Single Cell Proteins; or, also, OMs. OM is a generic term for any food niche such as hamburger om, chicken om, broccoli om, cheese om; and generally looks like any other food product. OMs have also been genetically tailored to fit any of the thousands of vegetable protein foods available.

The remaining two percent of foods are considered "fresh, real foods" and are available to the average millionaire. Three percent of the population eats fresh foods more than once or twice a year, with some estimates as low as one percent. With the contamination of almost all fresh water in the United States, fresh foods are grown in sealed hydroponic gardens or imported; parts of China and the Soviet Republics are the new breadbasket of the world.

Almost all of the food consumed in 2005 is eaten out, and many apartments simply lack a kitchen. Most city streets are filled with vendors. Most vendors sell either handfoods or prepackaged meals, though occasionally a vendor may have a pot of fresh soup or noodles in broth. Real fresh foods are usually only available in very expensive restaurants.

In order to accommodate the exploding population of Martians and Chimera across the globe during the 70s and 80s, Pfaff Corp and Sanguine Pharmaceuticals teamed up to create a line of both synthetic and non-synthetic blood and meat foods; BloodJump! It’s in almost everything meat based on the market. Other synthetic meat foods also include Nail Chips (fried nails), Placenta Rings (fried placenta chips), Eye Pops (caramelized eyeballs), Lung Bread and Blood Lemonade! While fairing very well in the diets of aliens everywhere, for many, it’s not as good as the real thing, and there’s debate over whether or not the synthetic foods actually have any nutritional value for even the average Chimera.

Sports

During the collapse, professional sports died for over a decade. Violent blood sports became the norm amidst the chaos. The great stadiums of the pre-Collapse largely disappeared save for the Arrowhead complex in Kansas City; and the "golden age" of professional sports was considered over; with the last Olympic Games held in 1960.

International Soccer is the only sport followed globally, and with the death of nationalism, corporations took over sponsorship of teams. American football had regained popularity by 1995, and remains the most violent sanctioned sport in the country. Many old sports are still played, however usually in scattered and disconcerted states. Golf is still enjoyed by some corporate executives. Baseball is also played. While largely unpopular in America, baseball is the leading sport in Asia for young people.

Some areas of the world and the Borderland States sponsor prison-inmate gladiatorial contests, full-contact obstacle courses, martial arts death-duels, and other wargames. While technically illegal, this does not stop the market from supplying demand.

In Necropolis, public assassinations are considered a sport in their own right, but only the highest bounties are considered for live broadcast. It's also dependent upon how many assassins there are after high end targets, and who. The Order of Antumbra hosts these events.

Mass media

Mass media in America is privately-owned and operated by corporations. While libraries, databases, and universities offered free information pre-Collapse, information has since become a commodity. Governments and corporations pay other governments and corporations for use of their databases.

After the war in 1962 and the subsequent ‘Chimera outbreaks’ as well as an epidemic of ADP, there was a global lockdown on information, leading to the balkanization of the internet and the mass censoring of information. Most people in 2005 aren’t aware of what ‘memes’ are, and are largely ignorant of what the world was like before 1950.

The most common form of media is television.

Major Cities/Population Centers

Necropolis Metro / N.E.C. - Speculated 30 million persons

Despite many attempts by the US govt, Necropolis remains an autonomous city state separate from the rest of the country.

Necropolis is one of the newer urban metropolises that was founded and built in 1980, by Lupe Altena, by combining the entire former northeast megalopolis area.

Necropolis is considered a modern multicultural and thriving city state of the 21st Century, overrun by corporations, corruption, aliens, organized crime and gang violence. It has wide streets and dense urban skyscrapers which are homes to thousands of people. Cultural diversity can be found all over, however it has clear Asian and West African influence dominance. The Martian Kingdom effectively controls the city and protects its borders from outside interference through the giant UFO that constantly hovers above the city. However, local government is still under civilian/corporation/human control- Martians simply oversee and monitor everything.

In 2000, it was considered the most dangerous place to live in the DUSA, with crime being doubled than that anywhere else. Homeless population had risen by 200% in the 1990s. Gang violence is commonplace and government oppression is found throughout the Undercity Necropolis.

There are also 3 main stack tiers- the Dredge, the sewer system, the Necropolis Undercity, the city under the surface, and Necropolis proper, which is divided into Upper and Lower Necropolis. The surface is half abandoned and crime ridden, with many (debatable) well-off Necropolites living in the Undercity.

Necropolis proper is divided into 21 special municipal zones- Zone 1 being the most secure and central in terms of the NEC government, and Zone 21 being nigh uninhabitable (to the average human).

Zones 10-21 have the highest concentration of Chimera and Martian populations, while Zones 5-19 have the highest mutant population. Zones 1 and 2 have the highest android population.

Philadelphia, DUSA - 3 million persons

The so-called ‘new’ capital of the US, and central seat of what remains of the federal government. In reality, most of what constitutes the real power behind the government remains somewhere in the Rockies.

Las Nevadas - 7 million persons

An independent city-state much like Necropolis, Nevadas formed out of the ruins of the former city of Las Vegas. The city eventually spread outwards in the aftermath of ‘62 and with the help of superpowered organized crime, Las Nevadas eventually wrestled total control over the Hoover Dam and much of the Southwest.

#shattered earth #my writing #superglue

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justinspoliticalcorner · 25 days

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Mike Hixenbaugh at NBC News:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The audience of about 1,500 people waved small American flags and chanted “USA! USA! USA!” as television cameras began filming last Friday inside a Regent University ballroom. Many in the crowd wore red “Make America Great Again” hats. Some carried Bibles. They had paid $60 each to attend a live taping of “FlashPoint,” a national TV program that’s won loyal viewers with a unique blend of pro-Trump political commentary and prophetic messages about God’s divine plans for America.

Over the next three hours, the audience heard the same overarching message that “FlashPoint” broadcasts three times a week on the Victory Channel television network and various streaming platforms: The world has entered its final years. Jesus will soon return. But Christians are not meant to wait idly while evil runs rampant; they are called to occupy positions of power and influence in society. And in the short term, that means putting Donald Trump back in the White House. “I watch to get the truth,” said one “FlashPoint” attendee, who described a “supernatural” rush of clarity the first time she found the show while flipping channels two years ago. “This is the only news show where you hear what Jesus thinks,” said another attendee, a mother of three school-aged children who’d driven four hours from central North Carolina for the taping.

Launched in 2020 and hosted by pastor Gene Bailey, “FlashPoint” at times looks and sounds like other right-wing cable programs. But unlike Fox News hosts, the rotating panel of conservative pastors and commentators on “FlashPoint” pepper their political analysis with messages that they say come directly from God. Viewers hear regularly from Lance Wallnau, a self-described prophet known for popularizing the Seven Mountains Mandate, a philosophy increasingly embraced on the right that says Christians are called to claim positions of power atop seven key “mountains” of society, including government, education, business and media. “FlashPoint,” which presents itself as an alternative to mainstream news, embodies that strategy. In a January broadcast, pastor Hank Kunneman, another “FlashPoint” mainstay, said the Lord told him that 2024 would be a year of “divine reckoning” and “vengeance against the wicked.” In the months since, the show has portrayed the presidential election as a spiritual clash while depicting Trump as a flawed leader — like a modern King David — who’s been anointed by God to save the nation.

The show draws a monthly cable TV audience of roughly 11,000 households, according to Comscore data, while clips of the program reach hundreds of thousands more viewers online. With a rabid following, it has “become incredibly popular and even gravitational” on the Christian right, said Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the nonprofit Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Maryland. Trump is one of several prominent Republicans who have appeared as guests on “FlashPoint,” including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. The program fits into a growing evangelical movement that calls on followers to “think of themselves as soldiers in a cosmic conflict,” said Bradley Onishi, a former megachurch pastor and author of “Preparing for War,” which documents the history and rise of Christian nationalism in America. To “FlashPoint” loyalists, political debates are no longer just about who wins the next election, Onishi said; they are about the fate of eternity.

“When you explain it that way to folks,” he said, “you’re able to prime them, not only for action, but I think for extreme measures.” Trump has embraced elements of this framing, warning in speeches that the left wants “to tear down crosses” and promising that his return to office would restore Christian power. He also has promised to eliminate the Johnson Amendment, a rarely enforced federal law that prohibits nonprofit foundations and religious organizations — including the one that operates the Victory Channel — from endorsing political candidates. White evangelical Protestants remain among Trump’s most loyal voting blocs, with more than 80% planning or leaning toward voting for him in November, a recent Pew Research survey found. Hoping to push that number even higher, “FlashPoint” has called on pastors to start preaching a pro-Trump message on Sunday mornings.

Bailey, the “FlashPoint” host, did not respond to messages requesting an interview. Rick Green, a regular “FlashPoint” panelist, is the founder of Patriot Academy, a Texas nonprofit that teaches courses about what it calls the nation’s explicit Christian origins — an idea disputed by historians. He told NBC News that he believes many critics of the show’s mixing of religion and politics are ignorant “about the founding principles of America.” Others, Green said, harbor “hatred and intolerance of differing views.” “You get more truth from ‘FlashPoint’ than any news program in the nation,” Green said.

To rally the show’s most loyal fans, known as the FlashPoint Army, the Fort Worth, Texas-based Victory Channel, a Christian network run by the nonprofit Kenneth Copeland Ministries, has hosted tapings across the nation as part of its Rescue America Tour. The live programs, even more than the regular broadcasts, take on the feel of a Christian revival service.

NBC News reports on the Christian Nationalist propaganda program FlashPoint that airs on The Victory Channel, which is run by Kenneth Copeland Ministries and hosted by Gene Bailey.

A typical episode of FlashPoint features prophecy and news from a Christian Nationalist pro-Trump perspective.