Devils And Idols Of Gold (Reason For The Season 2025, Five.)

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.

...

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix — a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing... And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Generation Of Swine.

...

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ~Luke 2:1-14

I saw this the other night (and the second screenshot yesterday.)

It's an understatement to say that after a decade of this bullshit, I'm tired of this "Trump is God" crap.

It's been going on long enough that people have certainly gone to Hell because of it. There's people that I know personally, alleged "Christians" who Believe way more in Donald Trump than they ever did in Jesus Christ.

And most of them can't, or simply won't, even tell you why.

They'll even say that with idiotic smiles on their faces, like they think it's funny, or some great secret in and of itself.

I mean, I get it really. The authoritarian social memes created by Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal forms of Christianity are more important to them, their greed, their racism, their want for wealth without work, and the xenophobia all means more.

Note it's an and not an or for a reason, I'll come back to that in a second.

But first you have to make sure these idiots can't even admit to themselves that they're bigoted or greedy or simple-assed shitty little cowards.

Now, You can't stop at any point or it all falls apart. You have to buy the whole hog every time...and yet eventually either this shit becomes unsustainable anyway or these motherfuckers come after you or somebody or something that you care about or you just plain get cast aside anyway and you're gonna hit that wall no matter what. Especially if you're not that kind of person that I described above, but just happen to be conservative.

It's meant to be self-destructive and unsustainable.

You are intended to marinate yourself in Apocalyptic thinking, then destroy yourself, and pay the preacher for the privilege.

I remember what from about 2001 to around 2011 or so was like for me, it was rough. I look angry in all my early pics on social media.

Even if you were never all the way in it, this crap is hard to get yourself out of, and back when I did it there was no support and damned few people who even knew what I was talking about.

It's like I've long said about Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, the only person who really prospers is the Preacher.

It's the same way with this bullshit, the only person who really benefits from Trumpism and the only person this horseshit won't eventually fuck over or throw out is Trump.

But the thing is, enough Evangelical Christians and "Movement Conservatives" have made this bright-blue supergiant star of Narcissism the center of gravity in their moral universe, their politics and their religion that, very likely, when he goes they go. When Trump dies of old age and too many cheeseburgers or something otherwise happens to him in a supernova of confusion as one moment he's looking at all these slobbering gobshites who he detests for their adoration of Himself and the next he's looking Allah, Buddha, Jesus, and The Great Pumpkin in the face and wondering what the hell happened? 

Yeah, at that point, dude becomes a Singularity of Consequences.

Oops.

AND the whole idea here, as with the stock market, tech and sub-prime mortgage bubbles, the Great Recession, the Obama comeback, Trump 1.0, the Biden Economy and now this crap *Is* "Everybody hopes they can cash out before it all comes crashing down."

But they get addicted to the easy money, to the fight and the narcissistic fuel, the rush, the scam, whatever. It's not just that they're bad people or marks, it's that they're like gambling addicts and shit. These are the kind of people who end up in a conservatorship and with somebody else's name on their checking account.

But it's politics and not real life and so America tolerates this absolute fucking dumpster fire! At least, we do until it fucks up too many people's real lives and I think we're there already and people are starting to see it.

But there's a certain part of these people that this is what they are now. No, there never was a "who." You have to be human first, for that.

Of course those fucking people are gonna forget the "Cash Out" part, because this fucknuggetry is their entire being now. 

Oops.

And they end up denigrating and dismissing real shit (like the fact that Ukraine is a genuinely religious, majority-Christian and old-school conservative country...but one that consciously and with intention and a will chose democracy and freedom and was willing to fight for it) in favor of Putin and Russia and the Scam.

With a side of cruelty and no, they don't give a damn that Russia has over a million combat casualties now, either.

Really, that's just the paranoid shitty side of Republican ideology talking. I mean, if everything sucks, they're right in being terrible people, right? 

That's before all the leftover Nazi-ideation.

And yes, this is the underlying premise of some Republicans at least since Richard Nixon. But since at 2008 this crap became self-lobotomizing 

It's like the name-it-and-claim-it Word Of Faith bullshit my ex-wife looped herself into for a long time. The most insidious thing about that brand of Pentecostal garbage is it functionally addicts you to your own brain chemicals and dopamine hits, and honestly fighting with somebody who's in the throes of all that ends up being pretty addictive itself not least because whatever you're looking to score...people like that are pretty easy to score on Because They're Stupid. It's fun...for awhile.

And I'm here to tell you there is no more Godless people in the whole Universe than the motherfuckers at the top of that system. If anybody in the world really believes that there is no God, it's them.

Not least because one way or another, for or against, you basically become your own God.

I'm increasingly convinced that the Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Pentecostal conceit of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the root of the whole damn problem.

And when you say "Nah, bro" if you're still caught up in the mentality, that can still be the same way.

But eventually that shit starts to have bad effects on everything else, wrecks your other relationships, etc. until it becomes all you have...until it uses you up. I got out, moved away, inadvertently found a job that helped me deconstruct a lot of this bullshit and entirely by accident found myself a life-partner who inoculated me from ever going back to that shit and eventually and very succinctly made herself the freaking solution to the whole mess by making me see the world just a little differently.

But a lot of these fucking people refuse #1 to see women as people #2 they don't want to even accept the possibility of such an unlikely guardian angel. #3 They care more about the scam than they do about being lonely, in real terms.

And, really, a lot of these motherfuckers would just rather serve the Archangels of Dis Pater, like Andrew Tate, Donald Trump and Elon Musk on the principle of Literally Anything but Love Thy Neighbor.

'Cause they think just being around such people for a few minutes will somehow have some magical effect on their lives, or some such bullshit.

None of this works that way.

Trumpism is a Christ-less Christianity without the rules and without repentance or sacrifice, it's the Prosperity Gospel, secularized.

This crap is Antichrist.

Again, despite having been a member of the End Times Prophecy movement, I always wondered how people could look at angels, demons, fire falling from the sky, monsters rising up out of the sea and all that and just dismiss it.

Well I guess now we know?

You can either worship whatever God or other entity out of the Holy Books and world religions that you want...or you can worship this crap. 

There's no middle of the road, one of these things is not like the other.

There is a reason for the season, and it ain't Donald Trump.

Where are we, who are we??

I don't want to live in that kind of world, that's who I am.

I'm not a Born-Again anything and I don't want to bow before Devils and Idols of Gold.

And I don't want my partner or her kid to have to, either.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

That's where we're at.

Now what are we going to do about it?

Слава Україна!

When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who so reads, let him understand)

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ~Matthew 24:15-27

Four

We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. ~George Orwell, 1984