Invasion of the body snatchers (Lost Souls, Part Four)

I am the way into the city of woe.
I am the way to a forsaken people.
I am the way into eternal sorrow.
Sacred justice moved my architect.
I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect
Only those elements time cannot wear are beyond me,
and beyond time I stand.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'
~Sign above the gates of hell (variant translation) Canto III, Dante's Inferno, the Divine Comedy.

Well, there it is.

The stupidest thing I've seen all day.

That was the first coherent thought I had when I got up last night and checked my Twitter.

"Demonic connection" "radical feminism" "Witchcraft" "Attack on Masculinity" (tm)

Throw in the Kennedy assassination, Hillary Clinton and the Loch Ness Monster and I think we might have ourselves a conspiracy theory.

So, basically, people practicing whatever beliefs they want, standing up for their own rights and having sovereignty over their own bodies is...demonic?

Funny, but I don't remember being taught any of that in the various Christian schools that I attended as a kid. Other beliefs were, well, other beliefs that didn't concern us. Otherwise what I was taught tended to err on the side of personal freedom, even if it might produce results we didn't necessarily agree with. The idea of course, was that we in turn were free to follow our own beliefs. My early education had steeped me in Christian doctrines and history, so I knew then, as I know now, why that's important. People died for the right to read the Word in their own languages, nations fought wars so that their people could be free to follow their own chosen doctrines and interpretations.

I mean, sure, I spent a good chunk of my life being personally against abortion, even as I conceded that under Man's law a woman had a right to one. As a younger man, I made fun of gay dudes on occasion. I don't do things like that anymore, but I'm no one's ideal in the liberal purity-arguments today...which is probably why I put no stock in such things and think they're stupid. The point is, we're all human, we should all be free to act as such without having any religious doctrines we don't want thrust upon us. Common decency on the other hand, yeah, we should have to observe that.

But that's not what this is.

The funny part here is, Mr. Masculine here appears to have a pretty feminine-sounding name. That's OK, even if it apparently turned him into an overcompensating dickbag. The point is, right out the gate he wouldn't make the cut for his own bullshit. That's par for the course with these fucking people.

And then of course there's this guy, some idiot claiming that Latino immigrants practice "Syncretism" and thus something something gazpacho "DEMONS!"

No. No. No. No. And No. None of this bullshit in the quote is true.

Do some people practice religions like Santeria or Voodoo that are fusions of African Traditional religions and Christianity? Yes. Are those things demonic? No. Also, those aren't, by and large, Latino faiths. Most Latinos are Catholics, and even the most liberal of them is pretty orthodox. Do some people still practice Native customs? Yes, but that's got nothing to do with "Demons" either. This is just fear-mongering woo woo bullshit dressed up in Pentecostal mumbo-jumbo and superstition. The truth is that an African traditional believer or a Voudounista or a Pentecostal share much the same definition of "Witchcraft." Oh, yes, Pentecostalism is absolutely a syncretic faith incorporating elements of the Calvinistic faith of White southerners and the half-remembered practices of Traditional faiths that existed among Southern Black people. The same goes for a Catholic, a believer in Native spirituality, or a Santero on the Latino side of this equation. Syncretism exists because colonized and enslaved peoples sought to maintain some elements of religious continuity with what they had before. This echoes down to today with the common call-and-response rituals and Spiritual songs of African American churches, and with the celebration of things like Carnival and Mardi Gras among Latino and yes, white people in both Latin American countries and the United States. Those customs are a celebration that traditionally marks the onset of Lent, the time of cleansing of 40 days before the celebration of Holy Week. There ain't no Catholic priest in the world that goes around repetitively "blessing" people's houses.

Performing an actual exorcism according to Catholic doctrine is an involved process, and these days typically also might involve secular medical and psychological advice beforehand. No, what this guy is doing is generalizing the Pentecostal tendency to go around "Anointing" things with Olive oil or Wesson oil and praying in an effort to "drive out evil spirits."

Do not be like the heathen who think that God will hear them for their much speaking, but I digress. I've seen what these people do, and the nearest equivalents are found in Traditional religions, not Catholicism.

This motherfucker is just literally trying to demonize immigrants, despite the fact that no less of a person than Jesus Christ told His followers to take care of the needy and visit the prisoners and welcome the stranger.

And for what?

Because their racism and belief in white supremacy trumps their belief in Christ, every fucking time.

Seriously, who the hell sits around watching what's going on at the neighbor's house and has so little else going on that they kick up a fuss about it...and then has a gun handy to go out and threaten somebody before they can even explain what they are doing?

Who the fuck has that little to do with themselves?

And all over a guy that, to be honest, does not look to me at all like he'd be out of place in the average "white" neighborhood. Not that it matters, but if I didn't know his name and met him on the street I'd probably be surprised that his name was Arash and not, say, Joe or something. I know a guy named Joe who's white and has darker skin than that dude. I have to wonder if these idiots that sit around waiting for chances to threaten random people passing through also harass and threaten to murder Italians?

Of course, I also know a white Mexican lady, and I have Muslim friends who are white. Are those people automatically assumed to be "Demonic" as well? Or would they have to say something first? Does a Mexican accent, or a greeting of "As-Salaam Alaykum" automatically disqualify one from Evangelical Racist Exorcist Heaven?

Not that I can imagine anybody wanting to go to such a place that I'd want to spend eternity with, but I digress.

Skin color is a dumb-ass way to try and sort people.

Religion, especially arrogant, entitled religion, is worse.

Pawning it off onto arbitrary made-up evil spirits is even dumber, and more dangerous, especially given the Invasion of the Body Snatchers level paranoia that these fucking people are getting themselves into.

And the Christians keep involving themselves in this shit, typically out of fear. Mix up fear and paranoia and give it a religious cast in a bunch of gun-happy idiots and the end result is always going to be a lot of dead people.

One hell of a lot of the world's Christians, almost certainly a majority at this point, are Black, Brown or otherwise People Of Color. For that matter, there's lots of Jews and Muslims and Traditional peoples whose beliefs are not that different from those of Christians.

Yes, there are things out there that cannot be explained, but Demons, Poltergeists, etc. etc. generally are not real. People, on the other hand, are.

I was taught that the Shining City on a hill was for everybody, and none less of a conservative icon than Ronald Reagan spoke of such a view. These fools on the other hand, see it the way the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did...that their imagined utopia is only for them.

Heaven isn't heaven if everybody gets to go. America isn't America if everybody gets some.

That's what conservatism has come to, not much more than whored-up cover for white supremacy and every other form of bigotry...because every last one of these fools thinks they'll be the lord in the manor, and not the serf in the fields.

Every last one of these idiots thinks the bad stuff won't apply to them, because they're holy, they're righteous, oh yes, that's what they think.

And this bullshit mentality dragged a hell of a lot of American Christianity down  right along with it.

Fuck that shit.

And why is this a problem? Because today, in the same session in which Trump's citizenship question on the Census was struck down, the Supreme Court claimed that it had no authority over partisan Gerrymandering and punted the question back to state legislatures.
Which will, in effect, likely enable the sorting of the country into separate Blue and Red republics to continue.

In effect they're continuing, as damned near everybody in a position of authority or importance is, to try to have it both ways, to both profit from and resist (in half-ass fashion) the current political crisis.

When we as a society are literally dealing with people who practice all forms of bigotry, deciding that other people do not have a right to exist, neutrality equals collaboration and signals tacit acceptance of genocide and murder.

Somebody needed to take a stand here. No one did. The one time we needed these motherfuckers to stand athwart the flow of history while yelling "Stop!" they punted the decision back to somebody else, who likely won't want to make it, either.

Instead of leading the lost souls even more astray for financial and political gain, somebody should have given them something to hang onto. Maybe instead of ranting about "Attacks on Masculinity" and whining about demons, somebody in the Church should have looked to the spiritual welfare of their people...and when they noticed a problem, done what was right or needed rather than what was popular.

But nobody wants to do that, often for fear of offending somebody's "feelings" or because then they might not give you their money afterwards.

Trying to play both sides, to remain neutral, is a terrible idea.

Neutrality equals collaboration. Silence equals consent. Especially now, if you're not willing to stand up and vote to end this bullshit, you're making what comes after and the fact that America will likely violently sort itself out into Blue and Red republics instead of simple voting blocs more likely.

The Far-Right wants that because they think they'll win if we solve our conflicts with bullets instead of ballots.

They won't. No one will...except for the weapons manufacturers.

Think about that, until you understand it. If you can make yourself understand it, act.

Because sooner or later it's going to be too late. If our sense of community, of decency or at least of self-preservation doesn't override our fear of offense (or the glorying in imagined offense to others) or our worship of Capitalism soon...I do not think it's not that much of a stretch at the rate things are going to imagine that separate 2020 elections might be held in separate Blue and Red republics.

That only ends one way.

And War, my friends, is hell, and it only gets worse when religious fanaticism is involved.

I've been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. 
Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell! ~William Tecumseh Sherman

Part 3.