Every member of the intelligence community and armed services community should read this essay. Certainly, mandatory reading for every Democrat in the Senate.
The Christian Nationalists and the Christian Reconstructionists are enough to turn this agnostic into a full-fledged atheist. Sorry if I offend anyone but these people are truly anti-American.
I am not offended, but I do not conflate CNs and CRs with Christians. They are their own sects that use Christianity as a convenient political prop to try to reshape our country and subvert our constitution.
I’ve heard the 4B movement is spreading from South Korea. That needs to be targeted at MAGIDIOTINCELS since they are definitely targeting women, especially white women:
“How the loss of Roe directly serves white supremacists' horrifying plot
Some enhancements to Tim's excellent exposition of Hegseth's (probable) ghostwriters' rhetoric. In the last 2 or 3 years archaeological excavations of early medieval Scandinavian and northern European/Northern Scotland/Northern Isles sites, including graves, have demonstrated that a significant number of northern fighters popularly known as "Vikings" (sorry folks: viking is a verb not a noun: people went "a-viking") were in fact female. Excavations in London in areas known to have significant Roman remains have identified at least two women who were gladiators buried with high honors. The whole mythology of a) those scary, scary Amazons (now identified with the Scythian warriors Tim mentions, but largely invented by Herodotus based on hearsay rather than actual contact) and b) gender binaries and the supposed superiority of males (Aristotle) is entirely based on a fear and loathing of women because, well, women are in fact tougher, more resilient, and more disciplined as a group than are men. Sorry guys: take a look. If rape, torture, and outright oppression are the only mechanisms men have for keeping women under their thumbs that tells you that, given a chance to get even a small step away from the psy-ops that men engage in against women, they will rebel. That is the message Atwood is teaching--and that is why it scares the gonads off of a lot of men.
Mary Wollstonecraft, in A Vindication of the Rights of Women (published 1792), completely debunks the idea that women are inherently stupid by pointing out that male soldiers, who are abysmally ignorant and poorly educated, are less able than the downtrodden and poorly educated mothers, sisters, and daughters they want to oppress. And yet soldiers at the time were often chosen to be MPs--because they were docile and followed orders, not because of any inherent ability. One of the most significant movements in the 19th century was the one white males promoted to counter women's suffrage, which in England involved the actual torture of women jailed for protesting against their oppression. And yes: I know that there are women who also adhere to this anti-female rhetoric, but the sociologist Denise Kandiyoti decades ago pointed out that this is because they see some kind of personal benefit in agreeing to what she called the Patriarchal Bargain. And Gayatri Spivac, using a similar approach, identified the ways in which especially men in colonized countries who sought power, embraced what she calls the Postcolonial Bargain, which takes on the rhetoric of the colonialist oppressors in order to succeed them. I would also like to point out the hypocrisy of women like Phyllis Schlafely, Ronnie Ray-gun's fave female, who vigorously sought the spotlight while telling women they should remain hidden in the kitchen and the bedroom--two places she probably rarely interacted with.
Linda, you mention Hegseths tattoos. It was one particular tattoo "Deux Vult" which was noticed by a fellow National Guardsman and lead to Hegseth being removed from Security Detail at President Biden s Inauguration. Article here https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-insider-threat-biden-inauguration/
Yes, Sara: I know. I'm a medieval historian, as are David and Matt. Deus Vult was supposedly the chant (God Wills It) the western soldiers in the First Crusade used as they slaughtered civilians in Jerusalem after breaking through the wall. The French chronicler Fulcher of Chartres described the scene as "rivers of blood from the slaughtered as high as our ankles flowed from the Holy Mount through the streets." Nice imagery, eh? But as David and Matt point out he has other tattoos, such as the Jerusalem Cross, which has been associated, like the Islamophobic "Deus vult", with white supremacist groups. I recommend you read their post, as they--unlike CBS News--are professionals. To identify only the Deus Vult tattoo misses the point. The guy is a thoroughgoing white "Christian" nationalist. Here's another crusades tidbit for you: during the so-called Albigensian Crusade of the first part of the 13th century, Simon de Montfort, who was chosen to lead the attack on people in the south of France who disagreed with the papacy about things like the importance of the papacy, the efficacy of "works", and the designation of who comprises the Elect, asked the the ecclesiastic who was in charge of the attack on Béziers, Cistercian abbot Arnaud Amalric, how to tell the difference between the orthodox and the "Cathars" (what the Roman Church called this group of sectarians). Arnaud's reply was "Kill them all: God will sort out his own." I bet CBS didn't tell you that. Deus vult was also the rallying cry for that crusade.
Yes, this language works in some contexts, I think. So today we have, not just "political Islam", but also "political Christianity"? And "political Buddhism/Hinduism/Shintoism"…?
Except before the separation of Church and State, the Church was the State, so the religious was the ideological?
The Guardian and the BBC have been reporting on this for years. The excavations in London are published by the Museum of the City of London and the British Museum
Then they’d have to return to the draft. The military has
a problem as it is recruiting enough men or women to fill their ranks. At 17%, women are carrying a significant load of personnel overall.
As for killing, Mr Hegseth would do well to revisit some of history’s greatest female warriors or murderers. He might be more on guard concerning who he rapes the next time.
As an American Jew I have a particular loathing for crusades, as each of the three medieval ones included Crusader pogroms against the European Jewish communities that lined their path to the Mideast. Religious antisemitic fervor resulted in the thefts & destruction of Jewish property in addition to the rapes & murders of thousands. A modern crusader spirit born of purported personal knowledge of what God wills is more prone to animate ignorant, lowlife mobs than anything more wise or constructive.
Timothy, your synopses of Hegseth’s books are frightening. Thank you for reading them so we don’t have to, but it must have been traumatic. I do hope you did some meditation afterward to re-center yourself.
We need to remember that religion and the Bible were used in Hitler’s Germany to justify cruelty and also used to justify slavery here. Also it is used for cruelty to anyone who does not share their extreme beliefs. They are definitely not following what has been attributed to Jesus.
The religion brings Christ, hence its name, Christianity. Its name is not Jesusism.
Manifold are the crimes and errors committed in the name of Christ, but for a particular relevance to the US right now, focus on the Jesus freaks. Mostly they are the ones pushing the rigid, evangelical, fundamentalist literalism that does not owe allegiance to any tradition, but tries to justify itself via its misreading of the Bible. Its preachers are their own authority, and they speak from a defective revelation .
They have become a political movement with tax breaks. The nationalists are using the tax breaks given to churches so they have enough money to impose their beliefs on all of us through government actions. Clearly this type of influence was not intended by our founders. We do have separation of church and state so we can practice different religious beliefs. One religion cannot be the religion of the United States. Religion is not supposed to drive our government. Too often that leads to tyranny.
Yes, indeed. The defective cult becomes political, aiming to take power then lead us backward to a time preceding separation of church and state. So undoing hundreds of years of progress.
It's interesting that this contradiction still reigns at the heart of the British state. The English love their monarchy, and in fact have not yet progressed enough to disestablish it. Even the Europeans have managed that. In Australia where I live, too, too many people still love the monarchy.
The reference to Mordor is noteworthy. The blurred line between fantasy fiction and historical reality is important. Psychologically this shows us what is going on in the brains of conspiracy adherents and these advocates for radical authoritarianism.
They feed on myth, not fact. Myths are not all bad, but when they entirely supplant facts and science, the mind becomes unmoored.
Many of us spend too much time in fantasies and fictional narratives as part of our identity. We fail to face up to our challenges because of fear and disappointments.
When we face our real lives head on, we are always the better, the stronger for it. That's what I have learned, including from these posts and comments.
That jumped out at me too. Hegseth has actually read, or at least heard of, Tolkien? What he doesn't seem to realize is that he's on Sauron's side of the gates, so of course he's threatened by the separation of church and state.
Why aren't we still fighting for the ERA? Why aren't we still fighting for Civil rights? We might stop jumping up and down with outrage over particular figures. In this case especially - it is a distraction. I can hardly inhale for the lack of air. Combat, bathrooms, sports teams...etc..should be absorbed into - food, health, safety, shelter, contact. (being able to communicate with one another free from persecution). We can stop. we can just stop and redirect away from this sh8t being flung out into the atmosphere. We can step back and fight for causes that are inclusive. If we are going to be specific- we should fight for Civil rights and Women's rights. if anyone has an answer as to why I never hear about the Equal Rights Amendment besides "we tried it died". I'd love to hear about it. Handmaid's tale is in excellent example of a society that took these things for granted and then......
I really appreciate your naming what is important beside standing in the breach between those things you name and our efforts to make sure true, integrity, the rule of law are guided by facts I the choices we make. Thanks Cathryn!!
I will just say that we live in the era of Post-Enlightenment, wherein the hope that knowledge will liberate us has been displaced by the study of how propaganda (Berneys, Lippmann, Canetti. Trotter, etc) invigorates the gullible masses.
“Herodotus, reminds us that the greatest warriors of the age, famously undefeated by Persia, were the Scythians. And the Scythians did have female warriors, cavalry armed with recursive bows. Custom and technology permitted them to fight, and they did!”
Well said Tim. Let’s not forget that Israel also deployed female troops successfully in its wars in the Middle East, until female captives were repeatedly raped by their enemies.
Furthermore, there is another perfect example of women in the military with the Syrian Kurds.
“Women's Protection Units (YPJ): The YPJ is the all-women fighting force of the Kurds. The number of members in the YPJ fluctuated over time, but was estimated to be between 7,000 and 20,000 between 2014 and November 2016. As of August 2017, the YPJ had 24,000 members. In 2021, Commander Ahmed estimated that the YPJ had around 5,000 member.”
And the Kurds have led one of our most successful campaigns against the War on Terror. With only 2,500 US special forces troops in support roles: intelligence, special forces and air support, they managed to destroy the ISIS caliphate.
As for Hegseth and MAGA, being an ignoramus is a feature, not a bug!…:)
Pay attention to the jokes that the trumpsters are making about repealing the 19th Amendment and taking away women's right to vote. They don't joke really and this is the beginning of slipping the concept into the MAGA subconscious.
Raised in a truly liberal, conventionally Christian culture in Canada (not sure how many people can understand what that means anymore) I simply do not recognize this “Christianity.” My mother and father taught me normative Christian values overwhelmingly *by example* and, perhaps not ironically, my mother, who whispered to me that she didn’t really believe in the dogma, was the best of the best, kindest of the kind.
American culture is confusing to me in one sense but I’m also absolutely certain that this behavior is not remotely moral.
But this is a delicate subject, because it touches on the radical difference between US "religion" and "Christianity", and the way those words are understood and practised by everybody else in the developed world.
I live in Australia, which is quite heavily influenced sociopolitically by post-WWII American imperialism, but which nevertheless has firm UK–European cultural roots which still determine the flavour, and basic language of meaning, of our society today. (And we are still falling short of bringing the true indigenes of this continent, our Australian Aboriginals, into full consciousness.)
So for us here, most people still understand the traditional meaning of those words "religion" and "Christianity" as you describe.
But people like me experience an internet-carried assault of American cultural language preferences on a daily basis, which is accompanied by an equally overwhelming infiltration of US pseudo-religious cult language carried via online establishment of increasing numbers of massive "gospel churches" on this continent. These are an alien intrusion into our culture. There is right now an intermediate generation of young people who have been swayed by this pseudo-Christian appeal to their raw teenage emotions and desire to belong somewhere.
I think we have no alternative but to call this stuff out wherever it appears. The US does not have any god-given right to mould our language and change our brains to suit them and their aims in life, which are still radically different from ours.
I am very grateful you had the guts to call this out. Thankyou.
When all is said and done, it is Canada which saves the Gilead world. I note that Dr Snyder omits to mention that fact…
Penelope - you have an election next year! Please help spread awareness of your far superior preferential voting system that actually allows for more than two parties:
Thankyou, Jason. Yes, I do what I can. Our system has allowed a range of independents and smaller parties to achieve some political voice and sway. But we still have the big two, and they never give up.
Our supposedly centre-left Labor Party, which is currently in power federally, has been indulging in some very dirty tricks to try to defang our Greens, who are our only significant leftwing party these days. And in parallel, our rightwing Coalition opposition has been desperately trying to head off the Teals, who are an informal but influential grouping of socially liberal voters to the right of centre.
I'm currently involved in a major campaign to elect an independent in my own federal electorate. The old rusted-on senior rightwinger needs to be turfed out. But it has to be said, it is easier to effect this type of electoral change in a small country like ours (only 25 million or so) compared to the US. Maybe the comparison, and possibility for change, lies more with your major states?
Penelope - Hope you took the time to watch TheJuiceMedia's Honest Government Ad (HGA). They are based in Melbourne and are lead by a former history professor who is deeply concerned with our climate. If you explore their HGAs you will find many that delve into the advantages of your system of voting compared to the mess we have in the US; eg, they have one that specifically talks about the advantages of a hung parliament: https://youtu.be/rnzaiYrvvrw
Unfortunately, the Electoral College takes the power from our major states and has put our Presidential election in the hands of smaller swing states where voter suppression is targeted by the Republicans. It is a mess. We have voter suppression fueled by gerrymandering. Voter suppression fueled by laws and actions that targeted voting in Dem majority districts. Voter suppression by ads micro targeting specific groups often with opposite messages. Voter suppression by phoning in bomb threats to polling places in swing states.
I believe that the a number of around 300,000 votes in three swing states cost Harris/Walz the election. I look forward to an analysis of how many votes the billionaires helped suppress so the Christofascists could steal this election. Only about a third of eligible voters elected Trump/Vance.
Mr Snyder, please send a copy of your article to the US Senate.
My thoughts exactly!
Every member of the intelligence community and armed services community should read this essay. Certainly, mandatory reading for every Democrat in the Senate.
Good idea! Send this to the Senate!
A US Senator needs to have Professor Snyder testify! (Assuming there’s even a chance and this isn’t all done with recess appointments.)
The Christian Nationalists and the Christian Reconstructionists are enough to turn this agnostic into a full-fledged atheist. Sorry if I offend anyone but these people are truly anti-American.
I am not offended, but I do not conflate CNs and CRs with Christians. They are their own sects that use Christianity as a convenient political prop to try to reshape our country and subvert our constitution.
Agree, Linda. They are Christianists. It's an ideology, not a religion.
The stronger the faith, the closer the devil 😈 #TaxTheChurches
Thank goodness for your cogent and vital writing. I tell everyone I know to read your work in order to understand what we are living through.
BTW- The Hegseths of the world are the reason we women say: “ Men are lucky we just want equality not revenge.”
IJBOL!!!
I’ve heard the 4B movement is spreading from South Korea. That needs to be targeted at MAGIDIOTINCELS since they are definitely targeting women, especially white women:
“How the loss of Roe directly serves white supremacists' horrifying plot
“Some white supremacist groups see rape of white women as an “extremely effective” way to increase white births. After the death of Roe, the ideology is all the more horrifying.” https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/how-anti-abortion-rights-white-supremacist-extremism-overlap-n1297896
Some enhancements to Tim's excellent exposition of Hegseth's (probable) ghostwriters' rhetoric. In the last 2 or 3 years archaeological excavations of early medieval Scandinavian and northern European/Northern Scotland/Northern Isles sites, including graves, have demonstrated that a significant number of northern fighters popularly known as "Vikings" (sorry folks: viking is a verb not a noun: people went "a-viking") were in fact female. Excavations in London in areas known to have significant Roman remains have identified at least two women who were gladiators buried with high honors. The whole mythology of a) those scary, scary Amazons (now identified with the Scythian warriors Tim mentions, but largely invented by Herodotus based on hearsay rather than actual contact) and b) gender binaries and the supposed superiority of males (Aristotle) is entirely based on a fear and loathing of women because, well, women are in fact tougher, more resilient, and more disciplined as a group than are men. Sorry guys: take a look. If rape, torture, and outright oppression are the only mechanisms men have for keeping women under their thumbs that tells you that, given a chance to get even a small step away from the psy-ops that men engage in against women, they will rebel. That is the message Atwood is teaching--and that is why it scares the gonads off of a lot of men.
I would direct you to David Perry and Matt Gabriel's excellent essay about Hegseth's tattoos and his fantasy of being a "medieval crusader." They're on Buttondown because Substack is happy to field pages written by self-avowed Nazis, by the way. https://buttondown.com/ModernMedieval/archive/a-wannabe-crusader-in-the-trump-cabinet/#comments
Mary Wollstonecraft, in A Vindication of the Rights of Women (published 1792), completely debunks the idea that women are inherently stupid by pointing out that male soldiers, who are abysmally ignorant and poorly educated, are less able than the downtrodden and poorly educated mothers, sisters, and daughters they want to oppress. And yet soldiers at the time were often chosen to be MPs--because they were docile and followed orders, not because of any inherent ability. One of the most significant movements in the 19th century was the one white males promoted to counter women's suffrage, which in England involved the actual torture of women jailed for protesting against their oppression. And yes: I know that there are women who also adhere to this anti-female rhetoric, but the sociologist Denise Kandiyoti decades ago pointed out that this is because they see some kind of personal benefit in agreeing to what she called the Patriarchal Bargain. And Gayatri Spivac, using a similar approach, identified the ways in which especially men in colonized countries who sought power, embraced what she calls the Postcolonial Bargain, which takes on the rhetoric of the colonialist oppressors in order to succeed them. I would also like to point out the hypocrisy of women like Phyllis Schlafely, Ronnie Ray-gun's fave female, who vigorously sought the spotlight while telling women they should remain hidden in the kitchen and the bedroom--two places she probably rarely interacted with.
Linda, you mention Hegseths tattoos. It was one particular tattoo "Deux Vult" which was noticed by a fellow National Guardsman and lead to Hegseth being removed from Security Detail at President Biden s Inauguration. Article here https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-insider-threat-biden-inauguration/
Yes, Sara: I know. I'm a medieval historian, as are David and Matt. Deus Vult was supposedly the chant (God Wills It) the western soldiers in the First Crusade used as they slaughtered civilians in Jerusalem after breaking through the wall. The French chronicler Fulcher of Chartres described the scene as "rivers of blood from the slaughtered as high as our ankles flowed from the Holy Mount through the streets." Nice imagery, eh? But as David and Matt point out he has other tattoos, such as the Jerusalem Cross, which has been associated, like the Islamophobic "Deus vult", with white supremacist groups. I recommend you read their post, as they--unlike CBS News--are professionals. To identify only the Deus Vult tattoo misses the point. The guy is a thoroughgoing white "Christian" nationalist. Here's another crusades tidbit for you: during the so-called Albigensian Crusade of the first part of the 13th century, Simon de Montfort, who was chosen to lead the attack on people in the south of France who disagreed with the papacy about things like the importance of the papacy, the efficacy of "works", and the designation of who comprises the Elect, asked the the ecclesiastic who was in charge of the attack on Béziers, Cistercian abbot Arnaud Amalric, how to tell the difference between the orthodox and the "Cathars" (what the Roman Church called this group of sectarians). Arnaud's reply was "Kill them all: God will sort out his own." I bet CBS didn't tell you that. Deus vult was also the rallying cry for that crusade.
Wow! Such important knowledge.
And thankyou from the bottom of my heart for having the intelligence and the understanding to put "Christian" in inverted commas in this context.
In this, you show more wisdom than Dr Snyder.
I'm sure Dr. Snyder would agree with my characterization of them above: They are ChristianISTS. They are ideological, not religious.
Yes, this language works in some contexts, I think. So today we have, not just "political Islam", but also "political Christianity"? And "political Buddhism/Hinduism/Shintoism"…?
Except before the separation of Church and State, the Church was the State, so the religious was the ideological?
Thank you.
This was very interesting and informative. As was the link to the piece on the Crusades.
Linda, I need a credible source for the reports of the archaeological excavations you note.
The Guardian and the BBC have been reporting on this for years. The excavations in London are published by the Museum of the City of London and the British Museum
Thank you. But "reporting on this for years" sounds like a dig at me for not knowing about it.
Hopefully Hegseth will not be confirmed. The rape allegation is disqualifying. He would want an all-male military if he was in charge.
Then they’d have to return to the draft. The military has
a problem as it is recruiting enough men or women to fill their ranks. At 17%, women are carrying a significant load of personnel overall.
As for killing, Mr Hegseth would do well to revisit some of history’s greatest female warriors or murderers. He might be more on guard concerning who he rapes the next time.
As an American Jew I have a particular loathing for crusades, as each of the three medieval ones included Crusader pogroms against the European Jewish communities that lined their path to the Mideast. Religious antisemitic fervor resulted in the thefts & destruction of Jewish property in addition to the rapes & murders of thousands. A modern crusader spirit born of purported personal knowledge of what God wills is more prone to animate ignorant, lowlife mobs than anything more wise or constructive.
Thank you for this. I will share it with my Jewish friend who listens to right-wing talk radio, particularly Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro.
Timothy, your synopses of Hegseth’s books are frightening. Thank you for reading them so we don’t have to, but it must have been traumatic. I do hope you did some meditation afterward to re-center yourself.
We need to remember that religion and the Bible were used in Hitler’s Germany to justify cruelty and also used to justify slavery here. Also it is used for cruelty to anyone who does not share their extreme beliefs. They are definitely not following what has been attributed to Jesus.
And the Vatican made a deal with Hitler 😇
Yes
Yes, read D
goldhagen in support.
The religion brings Christ, hence its name, Christianity. Its name is not Jesusism.
Manifold are the crimes and errors committed in the name of Christ, but for a particular relevance to the US right now, focus on the Jesus freaks. Mostly they are the ones pushing the rigid, evangelical, fundamentalist literalism that does not owe allegiance to any tradition, but tries to justify itself via its misreading of the Bible. Its preachers are their own authority, and they speak from a defective revelation .
They have become a political movement with tax breaks. The nationalists are using the tax breaks given to churches so they have enough money to impose their beliefs on all of us through government actions. Clearly this type of influence was not intended by our founders. We do have separation of church and state so we can practice different religious beliefs. One religion cannot be the religion of the United States. Religion is not supposed to drive our government. Too often that leads to tyranny.
Yes, indeed. The defective cult becomes political, aiming to take power then lead us backward to a time preceding separation of church and state. So undoing hundreds of years of progress.
It's interesting that this contradiction still reigns at the heart of the British state. The English love their monarchy, and in fact have not yet progressed enough to disestablish it. Even the Europeans have managed that. In Australia where I live, too, too many people still love the monarchy.
Yes this is true
Isn’t Hegseth also a “wannabe war criminal?” Intentionally attacking civilians being the definition?
Yes, I understand that international laws are for international crimes, but I think it bears attention as to how depraved his ideology is.
The reference to Mordor is noteworthy. The blurred line between fantasy fiction and historical reality is important. Psychologically this shows us what is going on in the brains of conspiracy adherents and these advocates for radical authoritarianism.
They feed on myth, not fact. Myths are not all bad, but when they entirely supplant facts and science, the mind becomes unmoored.
Many of us spend too much time in fantasies and fictional narratives as part of our identity. We fail to face up to our challenges because of fear and disappointments.
When we face our real lives head on, we are always the better, the stronger for it. That's what I have learned, including from these posts and comments.
Thank you.
That jumped out at me too. Hegseth has actually read, or at least heard of, Tolkien? What he doesn't seem to realize is that he's on Sauron's side of the gates, so of course he's threatened by the separation of church and state.
FWIW, I myself do not spend time in fantasies and fictional narratives as part of my identity. Your "us" doesn't include me.
Really What else is day-dreaming? Don't you know how your consciousness comes about? Read Sapolsky on free will.
Why aren't we still fighting for the ERA? Why aren't we still fighting for Civil rights? We might stop jumping up and down with outrage over particular figures. In this case especially - it is a distraction. I can hardly inhale for the lack of air. Combat, bathrooms, sports teams...etc..should be absorbed into - food, health, safety, shelter, contact. (being able to communicate with one another free from persecution). We can stop. we can just stop and redirect away from this sh8t being flung out into the atmosphere. We can step back and fight for causes that are inclusive. If we are going to be specific- we should fight for Civil rights and Women's rights. if anyone has an answer as to why I never hear about the Equal Rights Amendment besides "we tried it died". I'd love to hear about it. Handmaid's tale is in excellent example of a society that took these things for granted and then......
I really appreciate your naming what is important beside standing in the breach between those things you name and our efforts to make sure true, integrity, the rule of law are guided by facts I the choices we make. Thanks Cathryn!!
I will just say that we live in the era of Post-Enlightenment, wherein the hope that knowledge will liberate us has been displaced by the study of how propaganda (Berneys, Lippmann, Canetti. Trotter, etc) invigorates the gullible masses.
“Herodotus, reminds us that the greatest warriors of the age, famously undefeated by Persia, were the Scythians. And the Scythians did have female warriors, cavalry armed with recursive bows. Custom and technology permitted them to fight, and they did!”
Well said Tim. Let’s not forget that Israel also deployed female troops successfully in its wars in the Middle East, until female captives were repeatedly raped by their enemies.
Furthermore, there is another perfect example of women in the military with the Syrian Kurds.
“Women's Protection Units (YPJ): The YPJ is the all-women fighting force of the Kurds. The number of members in the YPJ fluctuated over time, but was estimated to be between 7,000 and 20,000 between 2014 and November 2016. As of August 2017, the YPJ had 24,000 members. In 2021, Commander Ahmed estimated that the YPJ had around 5,000 member.”
And the Kurds have led one of our most successful campaigns against the War on Terror. With only 2,500 US special forces troops in support roles: intelligence, special forces and air support, they managed to destroy the ISIS caliphate.
As for Hegseth and MAGA, being an ignoramus is a feature, not a bug!…:)
Robert - Great point about Kurdish women fighters and leaders!
https://dckurd.org/2021/04/04/kurdish-women-politicians-revolutionary-trailblazers-for-the-next-generation/
Robert—
Dr Snyder got it wrong: in prehistory circa 3000 BC women didn't need permission. They gave it.
The patriarchy only began to rule after that.
Pay attention to the jokes that the trumpsters are making about repealing the 19th Amendment and taking away women's right to vote. They don't joke really and this is the beginning of slipping the concept into the MAGA subconscious.
Sounds like Hegseth's calling for a jihad of some kind against us "infidels". Familiar?
It's the horseshoe theory [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory].
Hegseth scares the shit out of me. Still, I plan to protest. Not only will I not obey in advance, I will dissent in advance.
Can’t thank you enough Professor Snyder, truly.
Raised in a truly liberal, conventionally Christian culture in Canada (not sure how many people can understand what that means anymore) I simply do not recognize this “Christianity.” My mother and father taught me normative Christian values overwhelmingly *by example* and, perhaps not ironically, my mother, who whispered to me that she didn’t really believe in the dogma, was the best of the best, kindest of the kind.
American culture is confusing to me in one sense but I’m also absolutely certain that this behavior is not remotely moral.
You are spot on. Congrats!
But this is a delicate subject, because it touches on the radical difference between US "religion" and "Christianity", and the way those words are understood and practised by everybody else in the developed world.
I live in Australia, which is quite heavily influenced sociopolitically by post-WWII American imperialism, but which nevertheless has firm UK–European cultural roots which still determine the flavour, and basic language of meaning, of our society today. (And we are still falling short of bringing the true indigenes of this continent, our Australian Aboriginals, into full consciousness.)
So for us here, most people still understand the traditional meaning of those words "religion" and "Christianity" as you describe.
But people like me experience an internet-carried assault of American cultural language preferences on a daily basis, which is accompanied by an equally overwhelming infiltration of US pseudo-religious cult language carried via online establishment of increasing numbers of massive "gospel churches" on this continent. These are an alien intrusion into our culture. There is right now an intermediate generation of young people who have been swayed by this pseudo-Christian appeal to their raw teenage emotions and desire to belong somewhere.
I think we have no alternative but to call this stuff out wherever it appears. The US does not have any god-given right to mould our language and change our brains to suit them and their aims in life, which are still radically different from ours.
I am very grateful you had the guts to call this out. Thankyou.
When all is said and done, it is Canada which saves the Gilead world. I note that Dr Snyder omits to mention that fact…
Penelope - you have an election next year! Please help spread awareness of your far superior preferential voting system that actually allows for more than two parties:
HGA: 2025 Election
https://youtu.be/-oxQ5fmiI9M?si=HIy8tSSyaODya0jJ
Thankyou, Jason. Yes, I do what I can. Our system has allowed a range of independents and smaller parties to achieve some political voice and sway. But we still have the big two, and they never give up.
Our supposedly centre-left Labor Party, which is currently in power federally, has been indulging in some very dirty tricks to try to defang our Greens, who are our only significant leftwing party these days. And in parallel, our rightwing Coalition opposition has been desperately trying to head off the Teals, who are an informal but influential grouping of socially liberal voters to the right of centre.
I'm currently involved in a major campaign to elect an independent in my own federal electorate. The old rusted-on senior rightwinger needs to be turfed out. But it has to be said, it is easier to effect this type of electoral change in a small country like ours (only 25 million or so) compared to the US. Maybe the comparison, and possibility for change, lies more with your major states?
Penelope - Hope you took the time to watch TheJuiceMedia's Honest Government Ad (HGA). They are based in Melbourne and are lead by a former history professor who is deeply concerned with our climate. If you explore their HGAs you will find many that delve into the advantages of your system of voting compared to the mess we have in the US; eg, they have one that specifically talks about the advantages of a hung parliament: https://youtu.be/rnzaiYrvvrw
Unfortunately, the Electoral College takes the power from our major states and has put our Presidential election in the hands of smaller swing states where voter suppression is targeted by the Republicans. It is a mess. We have voter suppression fueled by gerrymandering. Voter suppression fueled by laws and actions that targeted voting in Dem majority districts. Voter suppression by ads micro targeting specific groups often with opposite messages. Voter suppression by phoning in bomb threats to polling places in swing states.
I believe that the a number of around 300,000 votes in three swing states cost Harris/Walz the election. I look forward to an analysis of how many votes the billionaires helped suppress so the Christofascists could steal this election. Only about a third of eligible voters elected Trump/Vance.
Yes, thanks, I watched it, then shared with family and colleagues. I have watched some of The Juice stuff in the past. Love what they do.
By the way, fascism has nothing to do with Christ.