Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

(1) Thread: Politics and religion in early 2021.

The head of the LDS (Mormon) church,#PresidentOaks, gave a speech today that ruffled quite a few feathers.
thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-mi…

I decided to write about some examples of MAGA responses posted by

(2) If you're new to my threads, I'm a female New Zealander & lifelong observer of US politics. A non-fundamentalist Christian dismayed by the brainwashing of voters at any point on the political spectrum. I've been given a prodigal daughter welcome home to my faith 3 times.

(3) That means I occupy a pretty unique place on the political and religious spectrums. I learned all the arguments made by anti-theist atheists. My approach to religion is "live and let live." Which is exactly what the US founding fathers and mothers had in mind for the country.

(4) I only oppose faith-based actions when they violate the civil rights of others. For example, Alabama's Roy Moore was rightly fired for insisting the Ten Commandments be displayed _inside_ the courtroom where he presided.

Those who don't understand why, should do more study.

(5) I viewed Moore's religious bigotry as more disqualifying than his alleged sexual assault of minors.

Spiritual abuse is a thing. It does immense harm to individuals, & can even lead to violence, as we saw on 1/6. I cover that issue in other threads but here's a good example:

(6) In just the past 12 months we've seen violence and domestic terrorism perpetrated in the US by people who believed political AND religious brainwashing to the point they're willing to beat up cops, & risk their own lives.

It hasn't gone away. The threat is ongoing.

(7) I criticize domestic terrorism regardless of whether it's far-right, far-left, or anything else.

We don't just have a right to do this, IMO we have a duty.

Rhetoric CAN lead to lawlessness and even violence. That shouldn't be up for debate, but here we are.

(8) So let's examine some of these MAGA responses.

Point 1: Feel free to disregard all that comes after the word "but" in a sentence.

Point 2: The fraud & corruption he refers to was never "proven" despite every available opportunity to seek that. Trump conceded on 1/7/21.

(9) Point 3: Continuing to claim the election was won by Trump, long AFTER he himself conceded, contributes to the ongoing threat of violence and other harm by people who believe the lies.

In a few years, almost everyone will agree with this view. Court trials are coming.

(10) Two issues here. First, routinely calling behavior, people, or beliefs "evil" is a very powerful form of rhetoric when combined with an ongoing domestic terrorist threat.

It's one of the most obvious things that is done by BOTH the far right and far left.

(11) Secondly, calling far left violence "just as bad" has to be one of the lamest excuses I hear in all of this.

YES, their violence, incl Summer 2020, was heinous & must be addressed.

But none of them used the highest office in the land to encourage an attack on government.

(12) "Will be wild!" is not the way a competent, trustworthy POTUS would refer to an upcoming protest that he knows will occur right outside the building where an important Constitutional process is taking place.

Clearly, he wanted the crowd to INTIMIDATE lawmakers.

(13) Intimidation is how Trump was able to build a movement large & agitated enough to make GOP lawmakers think twice about standing up to him.

On 1/6 the bullying moved up a notch from holding their voters hostage to threatening the physical safety of them & their families.

(14) Trump loves to throw around the accusation of cowardice (while at a safe distance), but 1/6 showed us (who are willing to be objective) which GOP lawmakers are courageous & which are the cowards.

Courage: accountability.gop/courage/

Cowardice: accountability.gop/cowardice/

(15) BTW, a quote from my DMs recently:

"For Pete’s sake, will you shut the F up about Jan. 6th? You’ve become freaking insufferable, you Cheney-loving RiNO traitor."

Which, along with last week's big Trump lies (below) strengthened my resolve to never stop talking about 1/6.

(16) More MAGA replies to the LDS. I just realized the original tweet with the screenshots was from Jan 15th, and was re-upped today. No matter, because all the same assertions are being made about today's speech anyway. They represent the main MAGA talking points at this time.

(17) IMO any part of the Bible or other holy book can be twisted like a pretzel to support your personal point of view.

That's why, sadly, we have fundamentalist sects: of every religion; and even among secularist activism itself.

(18) By the time this tweet was made, Trump had already conceded to Biden, and the joint session had ended on 1/7 with few of their MAGA heroes still raising concern in Congress.

In terms of "harmful consequences," 1/6 & it's apologists are doing far more harm to the country.

(17) Granted, the Biden policies I disagree with are doing and will do damage to the country.

But sedition is worse. Especially when it is condoned by a majority of GOP lawmakers.

Everything Trump did after the election has the effect of giving even more power to Democrats.

(18) The moderate left & moderate right must work together to address the issues dividing us the most right now. Far left & far right extremism has been allowed to worsen.

We need to hold to account the GOP lawmakers who were OK with 1/6.

No justice, no peace.