I think this is all very true -- but another important and missing element in these conversation is how christian fascists have targeted young people in particular. Child indoctrination and religious abuse is so widely under-reported and I believe that is connect to Christian supremacy here in the U.S. I was raised in these homes and was groomed from a very young age to become a Christian fascist -- as were millions of other white evangelicals. So many authoritarian churches market themselves to families with young children and promise to "help" the parents. And in a society that has very few free resources for families, it makes sense why this is attractive.
On FB when I see a Boomer or Gen X whine that the kids never go outside, MY response is.
Who turned your Sandlot into a parking lot?
Who turned your big field into a shopping mall, that is now a dead mall.
Who turned your local woods where you had weekend adventures into condo mcmansions?
Who turned the public park into a corporate sportsplex, where you spend $300 to sign kids up to a sport you used to do for free, where they got burned out from.
You wonder why they are in front of the PS5 all day?
So I just want to mention something I posted under another piece about this law.
The election that led to the current governor of Louisiana winning the race had one of the lowest voter turnouts in recent history. 36% of registered voters showed up to vote. The governor won with 52% of that 36%. So under 20% of the registered voters actually voted for him. I don't have the numbers for the state legislators who supported him in this but it's usually safe to say that state representatives get even lower turnout for their races. Obviously it's not a stretch to say that Louisiana doesn't do all that it could to register voters so there are more people who could vote (or at least register to vote and then stay home). We all understand a lot about why so many people feel like it's not worth their time. But the problems are not going to fix themselves. And it's true that frequently our choices are pretty shitty. It's also true that people who start out with best intentions of serving the public frequently end up either selling out or dropping out of politics. But we have to do more with engagement for everyone. We have to build networks that can withstand the attempts to turn regular people with interest in public service into automatons that answer to lobbyists. Otherwise we'll be getting more of these laws and more of corporate lifestyle s complete with real estate options.
I think this is all very true -- but another important and missing element in these conversation is how christian fascists have targeted young people in particular. Child indoctrination and religious abuse is so widely under-reported and I believe that is connect to Christian supremacy here in the U.S. I was raised in these homes and was groomed from a very young age to become a Christian fascist -- as were millions of other white evangelicals. So many authoritarian churches market themselves to families with young children and promise to "help" the parents. And in a society that has very few free resources for families, it makes sense why this is attractive.
On FB when I see a Boomer or Gen X whine that the kids never go outside, MY response is.
Who turned your Sandlot into a parking lot?
Who turned your big field into a shopping mall, that is now a dead mall.
Who turned your local woods where you had weekend adventures into condo mcmansions?
Who turned the public park into a corporate sportsplex, where you spend $300 to sign kids up to a sport you used to do for free, where they got burned out from.
You wonder why they are in front of the PS5 all day?
So I just want to mention something I posted under another piece about this law.
The election that led to the current governor of Louisiana winning the race had one of the lowest voter turnouts in recent history. 36% of registered voters showed up to vote. The governor won with 52% of that 36%. So under 20% of the registered voters actually voted for him. I don't have the numbers for the state legislators who supported him in this but it's usually safe to say that state representatives get even lower turnout for their races. Obviously it's not a stretch to say that Louisiana doesn't do all that it could to register voters so there are more people who could vote (or at least register to vote and then stay home). We all understand a lot about why so many people feel like it's not worth their time. But the problems are not going to fix themselves. And it's true that frequently our choices are pretty shitty. It's also true that people who start out with best intentions of serving the public frequently end up either selling out or dropping out of politics. But we have to do more with engagement for everyone. We have to build networks that can withstand the attempts to turn regular people with interest in public service into automatons that answer to lobbyists. Otherwise we'll be getting more of these laws and more of corporate lifestyle s complete with real estate options.
You just play RIGHT into the hands of the fascists when you imply all Christians are fascists.
And when you don't bother to do real research on facism or Christianity.
They would pay you to do this.