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hillbillyoracle · 2 years

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As an ex-fundie, every time there’s a conservative related tragedy, I just really want people to realize that there are two levels at which the religious right in the US operate.

There’s the select few that are using the movement as a means to coalesce power for themselves. They know what they’re doing, they understand it’s not rooted in religious morality, and you’re never going to convince them of shit.

There’s the much larger group of genuine believers and their beliefs are actually internally consistent much more than the Left would have you believe (saying this as a Leftist).

Per gun violence, yes many of them would indeed rather risk their child’s life ending (and in their view, them going to heaven) than limiting guns.

Something that doesn’t get a lot of media attention outside of fundamentalist churches is that most of them have an emphasis on what I can only describe as apocalyptic fascism. It’s this idea that the end of days have already begun and we’re living in the first phase of the apocalypse and ultimately the return of Jesus Christ. So people shooting up schools is a sign at that escalation and - while no one will admit it - there is an idea that if someone passes away, they’re being spared seeing the more grizzly impacts of the apocalypse as it progresses. That they’re kind of lucky.

They also think that any limitation on guns is more dangerous. They believe True Believers will be rounded up and exterminated at some point (yes, the irony is not lost on me). That one of the signs of the apocalypse escalating is that being a Christian will be effectively outlawed. The select few using the movement have framed protecting ones family as a intrinsically Christian value so - as you might see where this is going - any attack on owning guns is an attack on Christians.

I want to be very very clear that I’m talking about fundamentalist and charismatic Christian churches - not each individual fundamentalist and charismatic Christian, let alone all Christians. I can tell you from personal experience most Catholics and Episcopalians I’ve met when I related some of my experiences as a kid are generally respond with “what the actual fuck.”

So why am I writing about this at all? Isn’t this like a divination blog? Well, one of the Left’s favorite coping mechanisms after tragedies is to funnel that frustration in to picking apart the so called idiosyncrasies in fundamentalist Christian dogma. While I understand it, I just want to help dispel the idea that it’s in any way useful. I want to frame that reaction for what it is - a reaction, a sign that a community in mourning and under real material threat has unmet needs.

But the illusion that what you’re doing will impact people in some way, that being technically correct will protect you, is a trauma response and doesn’t actually take care of the trauma. It tends to make another group a monolith and create more fear and aversion in oneself. Which makes further trauma reactions more likely to less stimulus. And so on. It’s understandable but it’s also avoidable. I just hate seeing folks in my orbit set themselves up to deepen their trauma through participating in ineffectual means. Believe me, I have been there and...yeah. Trauma reactions never heal trauma in my experience.

So what to do instead?

One, vet the information you’re sharing. See if you can confirm it with a known valid news source. If you don’t have the energy to check, just pause on sharing things. You can always share later. It’s important people have accurate information and not info based on fear or theory. One the best ways you can help regulate your community’s nervous systems and not make potential trauma worse.

Two, if you have a personal relationship with people in or still connected with the fundamentalist Christian movement and if you are in a healed enough place to do it, they need your love and compassion. You want to know why my family is substantially more open to social support services and some gun restrictions than the average Fundie family? Because of good faith conversations. I didn’t police which words they chose to use and focused on arriving at a mutual understanding of each others positions. Over time, they’ve shifted. It took about 5 years but most now vote Democrat which would have been unthinkable years ago. They’ll never credit me and I am 100% okay with that. Cause that’s often what it takes to change hearts and minds.

These conversations need to be held in private, away from the public spotlight where people, in my experience, are more open to change. If you’re going to attempt it, the first couple attempts might be rocky. I encourage you to cut things off when you feel yourself getting too angry or you lose touch with compassion. Remember that it’s less about supplying them with facts and more about trying to understand their position. By trying to understand their reasoning alone, you’ll likely change how they think because the perspective your questions come from alone will generally cause them to think about their belief in new ways. Then give it time.

Trust the process. This is basically how my friends helped me begin to break free of fundamentalism as a teenager. By having those conversations, you are engaging in activism, because what most destroys the hold those select few have is their flock beginning to realize the nature of the wolf leading them.

This is one of the reasons I think one of most valuable things we can do as ex-fundies is to heal our relationship with Christianity enough to reengage with it. It’s almost like being bilingual. We know the language, we know what is culturally significant and why, we know what events are treasured and what causes fear. We have the ability to, if we get to a stable place, to best engage with them on their own terms. Which is why so many churches demand friends and family cut off contact with us. They know. They fucking know.

Three, if you don’t have personal relationships with fundamentalists, join larger efforts. I know a lot of people think of protests and they are good, but other work is often needed. If you can provide material support like money - do so. If you can’t or just want to do more, I really can’t understate how useful calling in, writing emails, and writing letters is. I’ve seen direct change from those efforts.

So yeah, this was...way longer than I meant it to be. But basically, one, the fundie political ideology is internally consistent so the nitpicking is just for you but it’s honestly not that good for you and there are ways to actually meet the unmet need you’ve got. For me, this whole process can intersect with shadow work which is why it’s been on my mind lately.

#cw: guns #cw: gun violence #cw: conservative #cw: politics #cw: fundamentalism #cw: trauma

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sarasa-cat · 6 months

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An Israeli government request for 24,000 assault rifles from the United States is drawing scrutiny from American lawmakers and some State Department officials who fear the weapons might end up in the hands of settlers and civilian militias trying to force Palestinians from land in the West Bank, where violence has been surging, U.S. officials say.

The three proposed tranches of semiautomatic and automatic rifles are valued at $34 million and are being ordered directly from American gunmakers, but they require State Department approval and congressional notification. Israel says the rifles would be used by the national police force, but has also indicated that they could be given to civilians, people familiar with the weapons orders told The New York Times.

The State Department gave informal notification of the sale last week to congressional committees, which ignited concerns and prompted requests for the department to ask Israel tougher questions about how it intends to use the arms. Within the department, officials working on human rights issues have expressed reservations, while those overseeing weapons sales intend to approve the orders and announce them in the coming days, U.S. officials say.

The Israeli police are seeking to bolster their weapons arsenal after officials pledged to supply thousands of weapons to Israeli civilians in at least 1,000 towns and cities, including Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. About 500,000 Israelis have moved to settlements there over many years, which, along with military checkpoints, fences and other measures of the Israeli government occupation, keep the area’s 2.7 million Palestinians living in separate small enclaves.

Although much of the global criticism of Israel’s recent actions has centered on its airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which health ministry officials there say have killed nearly 10,000 people, President Biden and his top aides are increasingly worried about rising violence in the West Bank.

Even before the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks set off the current war in Gaza, violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank who aim to force Palestinians from strategic tracts of land had risen well above the level of recent years.

U.S. officials attributed that to the encouragement of settlers by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and statements by some Israeli officials supporting the annexation of the West Bank. Since Oct. 7, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — nearly equal to the number in all of 2022, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Most of the killings have taken place during encounters with the Israeli military, but some have been at the hands of gun-bearing civilians. Mr. Biden said on Oct. 25 that violence by “extremist settlers” was “pouring gasoline on fire.” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken raised concerns with Israeli leaders during his trip to Tel Aviv on Friday and spoke about the problem with Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, in a meeting in Ramallah on Sunday.

The two discussed “efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible,” the State Department said in a statement.

Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken have stressed in recent days that a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel is the best long-term solution to the decades-old conflict. Settler intimidation of Palestinians, leading to their displacement from strategic areas of the West Bank, makes any prospect of that much more difficult.

State Department officials who oversee weapons sales have discussed potential concerns with Israeli counterparts. “We received assurances from the Israelis that these will only go to I.N.P.-controlled units,” Jessica Lewis, the assistant secretary in the political-military affairs bureau, said in a statement to The Times, referring to the Israeli National Police.

Officials gave no details on what “I.N.P.-controlled units” means, though one said such units do not operate in the West Bank. And they said the agency does not provide specific comments on licensed commercial arms sales.

However, Israel’s minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who oversees the police, promised last month to provide guns to settlements.

U.S. officials looking at the orders say this request from Israel differed from previous ones in that Israeli officials made explicit reference to the idea that the rifles might be given to civilian groups. Israel placed at least one other large order of rifles this fall. Given the violence by settler extremists, that also prompted concerns from some Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. The senator is among the lawmakers pressing the Biden administration for assurances on the current orders.

The United States regularly sells a wide range of weapons to Israel, including the powerful munitions the Israeli military is now using to pummel Gaza. Mr. Biden has asked Congress for an additional $14 billion of military aid for Israel, even as criticism of his position is rising among Democrats.

Israel is buying more than three-quarters of the pending rifles from Colt’s Manufacturing. The orders include M4s and MK18s, and some are ready to be shipped out while others still need to be made.

Asked about the intentions for the rifles, the Israeli Embassy in Washington said, “These questions and others came up and were duly addressed in the process of obtaining the U.S. government’s approval for the licensing and procurement of the firearms.”

Israeli officials and settlers say the mass distribution of weapons to civilians is necessary to prevent a repeat of the Hamas-led attacks last month on southern Israeli towns, when unarmed civilians were forced to defend themselves for hours before security forces arrived. The national security ministry, which oversees the police and is run by Mr. Ben-Gvir, says the newly armed civilians will be organized into what it describes as “security squads” in each city that are trained by the police and placed under the control of the local police force.

“Guns in the right hands save lives! We saw that in the first days of the war,” said Mr. Ben-Gvir, who has criminal convictions for anti-Arab incitement and support for a terrorist group.

“Every place there were guns, the scope of the catastrophe was smaller,” he added in a social media post.

In parallel, the government has made it easier for citizens to obtain gun licenses, a move that Mr. Ben-Gvir has said will allow 400,000 more civilians, or roughly 4 percent of the population, to get a gun.

In late October, Mr. Ben-Gvir posted photographs showing him handing out assault rifles to civilians at a political event. The images alarmed officials in the Biden administration and in Congress.

Critics say the new measures will create civilian militias that could target members of Israel’s Palestinian minority, who form roughly a fifth of Israel’s nine million citizens, as well as the Palestinians living in the West Bank.

“It’s a very dangerous step,” said Rula Daood, a co-director of Standing Together, a grass-roots movement that promotes equality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“They are using this war to give civilians what they call protection from danger,” Ms. Daood said. “But when they say danger, they mean the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. The people receiving these guns are extreme right-wing people who believe there should be first-class and second-class citizens.”

Those fears have heightened because the process has been overseen by Mr. Ben-Gvir, who was barred from serving in the Israeli military as a teenager in the 1990s because of concerns in the security services about his extremist views.

Until 2020, Mr. Ben-Gvir displayed a large photograph in his living room of a Jewish mass murderer who killed 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994.

Mr. Ben-Gvir’s ministry and Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not respond to queries about how many weapons would be provided to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

In a statement on Oct. 10, Mr. Ben-Gvir’s political party, Jewish Power, said the minister would distribute 10,000 rifles to civilians, some of them in West Bank settlements. In a subsequent statement on Wednesday, Mr. Ben-Gvir’s ministry named 57 towns and cities that it said would be among 1,000 places to receive the guns; none of the 57 were in the West Bank.

In a separate initiative, a settler council in the northern West Bank said on Oct. 24 that it was independently issuing more than 300 guns to civilian settlers.

Just as settler-led violence against Palestinians is at a two-decade high, according to U.N. records, so are deadly Arab attacks against Israelis in the West Bank.

Naomi Kahn, a spokeswoman for Regavim, an advocacy group that lobbies for settler interests, said that “the data regarding Arab violence against Jews — in Judea and Samaria and throughout sovereign Israel — explains why emergency security squads are necessary.”

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Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, and Jonathan Rosen from Rehovot, Israel.

Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 24 years from New York, Baghdad, Beijing and Washington. He was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists for Iraq War coverage. More about Edward Wong

Patrick Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian. More about Patrick Kingsley

#cw: politics #cw: war #I said I wasn’t gonna post stuff like this #BUT THIS IS THE HEADLINE RIGHT NOW #on the NYT #cw: guns #cw: far right violence

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chelledoggo · 5 months

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confederates lost the civil war, but alt-righters idolize them anyway.

nazis lost WW2, but alt-righters idolize them anyway.

Trump lost in 2020, but alt-righters idolize him anyway.

these guys sure seem to like rooting for the losers.

#cw: nazism #cw: confederacy #cw: trump #cw: alt-right #cw: politics

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furby-organist · 3 months

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> Opens the newspaper on topside affairs,

> Russia want to annex Alaska, Texas might start a civil war,

> Wow! It's chaos! That's entertaining!

#// me when I open twitter and the idf friendly fire rate continues to be through the roof.#an ex idf soldier on his crackhead behavior just walked into gaza like he was gonna fistfight khamas and got blown up by an idf drone #cw: politics #like how do you respond to 'putin wants to annex alaska' first of all. why do you want alaska. it's cold as fuck

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lilliths-httyd-blog · 6 months

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new zealands election night starts in like six hours

#New Zealand #election #nz election #New Zealand election #politics #cw: politics

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weaselbeaselpants · 6 months

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Just so that we're clear, this blog is pro-Palastine (the people, and also their government being right that what's happening to them is colonization+genocide) and anti-Israeli government, not individual Israelis. As Ari Foleman showed me, heck as A LOT OF ISRAELIS have showed me -people living there can and have recognized their occupation for being what it is and want it to end/begin the process decolonization within their lifetimes.

And, just like America and Russia are interested in doing to it's 'good citizens' who don't kill who they want killed and stay loyal and quiet, those same people are literally being thrown under their artillery fire.

I hate my government. I hate Israel's government. They're all killers and they want us to suck it up and be okay with the killing.

#sorry for the vent #doomer #despair #tw vent #cw: political events #cw: politics

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betty-bourgeoisie · 7 months

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The basics are colonialism. Zionists in Europe decided they wanted to do colonisation like the western Europeans but specifically for Jewish Europeans who were zionists. Keep in mind, there were and are many Jews who reject zionism. So, the Jewish zionists talked to the Europeans with colonies and floated the idea, and Brits took it up and offered them their colonies in Africa, but the zionists decided on Palestine, when the Brits took it over from the ottoman empire. They drew up plans, made connections, had zionist chapters in each continent, and mostly in the US and Europe, with the aim of making a country in Palestine. The Brits were willing to give a small part of Palestine because they wanted to control Palestine, especially Jerusalem. This didn't go down well with the zionists. They started fighting the Brits for independence. The Palestinians had already been fighting for independence even under the ottoman empire. To mess up the Palestinians and zionists fighting them, the Brits lied to both about giving them the territory. The zionists called the Brits bluff, and they teamed up to take Palestine from Palestinians. The US entered the mix officially, and then there was a huge migration of Jewish Europeans into Palestine. All this contributed to the zionists becoming dominant in Palestine and having the upper hand, especially in international recognition. The UN, then only made up of mostly European countries and the US, officially created Israel and gave them their support. The entire operation was to ensure Europe and North America have somewhere to take their Jewish populations, at first. Somewhere along the way, a brand of American Christianity decided to make it about the second coming of Jesus. Regardless of that, the whole situation comes down to a bunch of Europeans decided to colonize Palestine.

I'm gonna start by saying I appreciate you writing this all out anon. I know it takes time and energy on your part and I am genuinely grateful that you were willing to educate me on this issue.

But honestly, the more geopolitical aspects of the Israeli-Palestine conflict are not really what I'm confused about. Like I said, I've taken time to try and educate myself on this issue and the facts surrounding things like military conflict, water rights, encroachments on Palestinian land, etc, are all fairly standardized and I have been able to find *mostly* unbiased and accurate sources on them.

The part where I always get lost is the religious aspects of the conflict. While my understanding is that theological differences are not at the root of the conflict between Israel and Palestine itself, theology does play a significant role in how the conflict is discussed within the U.S. political theater. As a U.S.-American I feel like it's important for me to understand the background and religious implications of how people within my country are talking about this issue so that I can do things like, you know, be an informed voter.

This comes back to my original post because like I said, I am not from an Abrahamic religion. I already have a fundamentally difficult time wrapping my head around things like monotheism or even basing your religious beliefs and practices on scripture because I was raised in a very devout Pagan animist household and that is simply not how we do things.

So as you might imagine, understanding the (usually fundamentalist Christian) religious rhetoric that regularly shows up in U.S. political discussions is hard for me in the simplest of situations. For something like the Israeli-Palestine conflict, which has never once been simple, it becomes downright impossible to decipher. And when I try to ask questions about it I always get a response like this one. Answers that recite the aspects of the geopolitical conflict that I already know, while completely brushing over the religious issues that I'm actually asking about with the assumption that I understand what is being said.

"Somewhere along the way, a brand of American Christianity decided to make it about the second coming of Jesus. Regardless of that-" do you see how this response is difficult for me? I don't understand how they could make it about the second coming of Jesus! Where does that come from? How does that even begin to relate? The responses I get to these questions are always so vague that they don't even give me keywords that I can easily google to help find an answer!

My admittedly muddled understanding is that the tying of the Israeli-Palestine conflict to the rapture is rooted in anti-semitism, and I would like to be active in pushing back against that, but that's kind of hard to do when you don't even understand what's happening!

I want to be clear that I am not frustrated with you in particular anon. As I said, I do genuinely appreciate you trying to take the time to educate me. But this is a persistent problem that I come across when trying to understand the Israeli-Palestine conflict from an American political perspective and it gets very frustrating.

Side Note: For any of my followers that have read this far, I just want to say, like, please do not take the majority of your information on the Israeli-Palestine conflict from Tumblr posts. I appreciate you reading all this, but if you're interested in getting a basic understanding of the geopolitical aspects of this conflict I recommend watching the Crash Course World History episode on it or something.

#thanks for the ask #cw: religion #cw: politics #long post #I am really not trying to be a dick #I have been trying to understand how Christian religious scripture works in relations to an individuals personal beliefs for the last year #if not longer #but I still don't get it #and I get it even less in the context of politics

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