Thread by @mattsheffield

One of the most significant content differences between right versus left political media is that right media often feature explicitly Christian religious content.

This is a fairly common phenomenon that is almost totally unknown to people who don't regularly consume rw media.

More explicitly religious content from right-wing media sites, this time from Daily Wire and Newsmax

I should note here that the Christian radio station company Salem Media, named for the legendary Biblical city, is the owner of most major conservative blog sites.

Because fundamentalist Christianity is so in control of conservative media, even right-leaning atheists have to genuflect.

This dynamic produced one of the most absurd and sad articles I've read from @hemantmehta back when @secupp was on the right: friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2012/07/09/ath…

Jewish right-wingers are in a similar boat. They can't actively advocate for their religious views so instead, they glommed onto the myth of "Judeo-Christian values" which when they speak of it seems to be about Jews being self-hating. Dennis Prager is the archetype.

Salem also owns more than 100 radio stations across the country and is also the owner of several talk radio programs. Their hosts don't have huge followings, but because Salem is the 5th-largest owner of stations, this doesn't really matter.

Another manifestation of Christian fundamentalism in right-wing media is that more than a few conservative pundits have secondary careers writing Christian books

More Christian books from right-wing pundits, this time Dinesh D'Souza, Bill O'Reilly, and Eric Metaxas

Also, I should mention here that these same Christian propaganda type books are also heavily marketed toward Republican kids, as I noted in a previous thread

https://twitter.com/mattsheffield/status/1343693696517230598

As GOP keeps losing politically & electorally, the Christian fundamentalism that undergirds the coalition is coming to the fore.

Conspiracy radio host Alex Jones has really personified this. He's morphed into a televangelist as @robej68
noted podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6L…

The Christian conservative feedback loop also works in the opposite direction with increasing frequency. It used to be that Christian radio stations focused mostly or only on preaching. But that's changed. Now, Christian radio is often just as political as it is religious.

Salem is the biggest example of this by turning formerly Christian stations into political-religious talk, but there's also American Family Radio which owns 180 Christian stations which it uses to push a GOP agenda afr.net/who-we-are/

This religio-political infrastructure is why boomer conservative Christianity is dying off.

Young Christians want acceptance for LGBT people, empowering of women, & often embrace progressive causes. But there's so much money on the other side that they are totally disempowered

There's also Trinity Broadcasting Network where former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has a show.

And of course there is also CBN, home of the 700 Club but many other religious political shows. There's an entire political media ecosystem most people have never heard of.

Covering right-wing media and fundamentalist Christianity is one of our specialties at @DiscoverFlux. We just published a piece on "exvangelicals" from the brilliant @C_Stroop if you want a sample: flux.community/chrissy-stroop…

Thanks for reading down to the end! Please share the thread so others can see it.

Conservative elites have constructed a perpetual motion machine in which Jesus is a Republican and good Republicans are all fundamentalist Christians. People need to know what happened. Thanks!