Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ As a practical-minded scholar who aspires to be expert in worldly wisdom, I've concluded that the easiest & most lucrative job for someone with my skill set is to provide an intellectual superstructure to validate selfishness, cruelty & greed.

2/ Fortunately, my ethical constitution & upbringing steered me away from profiting off the misery of others. But the job of the "conservative intellectuals" throughout human history has been to invent plausible ethical-sounding theories to be a terrible person.

3/ This job in the past were false prophets of the idolatrous kings, religious leaders who validated slavery, 19th Century social-Darwinists, and the entire "Right Wing Think Tank" ecosphere with their jewel: trickle-down economics

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1339650283400523779?s=20

4/ As a pulpit rabbi & medical ethicist, I know with utter certainty the paths I could have taken to make a boat-load of money by providing rationalizations for wealthy people to cheat at business, abuse workers & family members & elevate selfishness to the highest ideal

5/ I see this in most conservative religions, including my own. Certain clerics become millionaires & others gain prestige telling rich parishioners that everything they do and want to do is blessed by God.

This is a universalized "prosperity gospel"

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1310258503559372805?s=20

6/ Our pandemic year showed me that frum people who would never dare eat treife or drive on Shabbas - actions that require self-control - nonetheless run after any excuse to reject masks, act recklessly with disease and, of course, slavishly support Trump (ym'sh)

7/ The entire 'conservative' intellectual structure's role is to create slogans to whitewash sin. Racism, injustice, theft are "economic anxiety" or even "the American Way"

And since this year shows the full cost of this intellectual dishonesty, I must commit to destroy it.

8/ @threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threder please compile.