Revelation 18:4 OK, Let's look at this:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. ~Revelation 18:4 (KJV)
Revelation, chapters 17 and 18 detail the fall of the "Whore of Babylon" (which historically is John of Patmos' stand-in for Rome in the text.)
In most End Times Prophecy Movement circles 20 years ago (and I'd assume, today also) the "Whore of Babylon" was and is treated as a dog-whistle against globalization in general, global organizations in particular, and the European Union most of all.
Mostly because Ooga booga liberal multinational government something something gazpacho.
No, the average End Times Nut can't explain it any better than that. They can't, both from inside and outside the movement I asked serious questions and was met with New World Order talking points that basically originated with Pat Robertson in 1991, most of which have been proven wrong by the simple attrition of time.
Keep in mind that this phrase "A New World Order" was thrust into prominence by a Republican...and keep in mind how much current Republicans have been goaded into hating that particular Republican today.
It's of surpassing importance here, to realize that the original theology of the End Times Prophecy movement is functionally British, and mixed with a little Southern US Confederate Fundamentalism later on.
I read an article from the Irish Times on Friday night about rising radicalization and sectarianism and desire for sectarian conflict among Ulster Unionists in Northern Ireland that specifically mentioned Ulster Unionist bagpipers carrying Confederate Flags at an Alt-right Nazi rally in London that was headlined by British Nazi, criminal, EDL and UKIP founder Tommy Robinson.
Trust me, if the European Union's fundamental ideals were gimcrack Christian Fundamentalism, Far-right politics, racism and White Supremacy...these fools would be calling some other entity the "Whore of Babylon."
Let's get one thing straight. In Revelation, Babylon is Rome. Rome represents Empire, the Imperial cult and the false World System that Christianity originally set itself against, before Constantine co-opted the faith by placing it at the top of said world-system and the Christians have been defending it ever since. These fucking people aren't mad about the European Union...they're mad because they're not running it, it's not based on their ideals, and even if they somehow gained control they'd have an uphill battle against three generations of inertia pushing in the opposite direction. They're not mad because other countries have had a say in how theirs is run for a generation...they're mad because they're not the ones running the show. They're unhappy because they can't dominate everybody else. They're mad because the Whore Of Babylon keeps demanding money and won't lie down with them for free.
It's really that simple. They don't even want the Empire if they can't be Caesar.
The Irish Times article I link to above mentioned something that, I think, summarized the current issues that much of the world is facing pretty concisely, the author notes:
In the same area last week I saw two murals facing each other across a redbrick side street.
One featured multicoloured greetings in many languages and the words peace and love in soft, friendly lettering. This area has a substantial minority population of people from other ethnic backgrounds now.
The other mural, in shades of black and grey, was more traditional – this had men with guns in paramilitary uniform glaring from behind balaclavas under the insignia of East Belfast UVF, which has lately been accused of murder and drug dealing.
If that doesn't sum it up for you at this point I'm not sure what will.
This isn't really about conservatism vs. liberalism, globalization vs. protectionism, or anything like that. Those are the big words we use to sum up a lot of smaller ideas for the TL/DR people in the back. NO, what this is really about is peace and love (and desire for either) vs. conflict, power and forced uniformity that flows from the barrel of a gun...and no small amount of criminality, either.
It's really that simple...at least on the surface.
You'll note that in the mural, it's masked men with guns representing secretive groups, not uniformed military personnel openly acting on behalf of the State. Per Fox News, Republicans seem to be making a decisive pivot against the military and veterans...and particularly the benefits owed the latter.
What's really going on here, aside from the fact that Republicans pull this bullshit every time they think it's politically safe to do so...is likely that Trump, his cronies and their assorted enablers have figured out that they don't have as much support among current service members and veterans as they thought they did.
It's the same shit on either side of the Atlantic, really.
And thus, the pivot toward unaccountable secret groups that might enforce the power of some hidden right-wing oligarchy at the barrel of a gun...
I mean, let's get real here, what else did you think this Q-Anon shit was?
Whether American or Northern Irish, These Fucking People and their atavistic fear that some dark something or someone is going to come and take away their guns and their Jesus and fuck their daughter (or insert other random something-something-gazpacho here) or that somebody somewhere is doing something they don't like, all while upending their dreams of a caste system that they are forever at the top of, are fiending like broke heroin addicts for somebody...hell, anybody...to gather them up and surround them with barbed wire and machine gun pits and walls and defend them from all the things their small minds are afraid of. In effect, if they can't put everybody else in concentration camps, they want to live in one...just so they're protected and various and assorted people that they don't like are dead. God, it must be a hell of a life, to want to live that way, but I digress.
I literally don't understand this crap, and I used to be a conservative.
And apparently, at least some of These Fucking People are not any happier with the job their Dear Leader has been doing than the rest of us are, though of course for vastly different reasons.
Let's get one thing straight.
These fucking people are impatient, and either unhappy with their political prospects and the results of their electoral process, or they're just fucking terrified that they're going to lose if the current situation, let alone their ideology, gets put to a vote.
At the rate things are going, I'm going to be surprised if we make it to the next election without Americans shooting at each other, for the same reason that I've been thinking since Brexit that Northern Ireland might see a reboot of the Troubles.
These fucking people don't believe in democracy or any other system that doesn't always favor them, they don't respect their fellow humans, and they see most (if not all) current political systems aside from dictatorship, oligarchy and maybe in some cases monarchy as being against them...but even that only holds true when the dictator, the king or the oligarchs are seen as Movement Conservatives...or whatever these people have become...or allies of the same. They only want a dictator if the dictator is their guy.
And they want that guy to tell them that it's Okay to shoot down their neighbors.
If we've learned anything from the last few years, it's that these idiots are positively butt-hurt about the existence of other people.
And their message to the rest of the world is quickly morphing into "We are coming to kill you." That's what a lot of this crazy shit, from the Christchurch terrorist's manifesto to the Q-Anon horse shit, is about. These Fucking People are trying to psych themselves up, trying to work up their courage, to go after everybody else. At absolute minimum the occasional nut will succeed in doing so.
Whether a significant portion of the body politic follows them into the breach remains to be seen.
But somewhere, they will, the laws of probability alone dictate it.
It's getting to the point where the rest of us need to be aware, and need to be prepared, and any or all of us may have to defend ourselves...and don't think Republicans are safe. When the Rwandan Genocide happened..on this date in 1994, mind you...those who desired only to kill started with most of what was then current leadership of that country. These fools will attempt to start with those they judge to be insufficiently "Conservative" or insufficiently racist, or all-around lacking in following after their tribalism and my guess is that this won't be limited to America...hell, it may not even be here that it happens...either. But it will happen.
It may not be Trump...I think chances are increasing that the ship has sailed on him. I don't think he has the level of public support he would need to become a dictator. But he has certainly awakened the fanaticism...and fanaticism abhors a question mark. These idiots will find somebody, somewhere.
It may be here, or it may not be here.
But these fools will succeed somewhere...and so we all have to be on our guard in case it's us.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
No comments:
Post a Comment