The deranged rant just delivered by Jim Caviezel, the Christian extremist actor, sounds like a bunch of random nonsense.

Instead, it's an example of a large-scale "spiritual warfare" delusion that predates QAnon by decades & is believed by millions more. flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
QAnon became popular for two reasons: 1) It's an updating of much older conspiracy theories that fundamentalist Christians battle daily against Satan and his mortal dupes/worshippers. 2) It was deliberately promoted by greedy social media companies
Most religious movements have the concept of "hidden knowledge," information that can only be known by the righteous, or God's chosen people.

Over time and at great cost, society accepted the idea that knowledge comes from observation. Mainstream religions accepted as well.
But people who cling to literalist interpretations of ancient literature have never accepted this idea.

Their irrationality hampered their ability to organize against modernity until the rise of tech billionaires who gave them the tools, purely to get rich.
And in the US, the GOP has decided to give deranged religious fanatics as much power as possible, in order to get some tax cuts and deregulation.

Jim Caviezel's rant is merely a reworded version of one given by Paula White, Trump's "spiritual adviser." Here's his:
Caviezel's words are really not that different from Paula White, and many other insane "charismatic" preachers who speak routinely personal combat with demons.

The difference is that she was a federal employee, in the White House Office of Public Liaison.
The only way things improve is if the many Christians who reject these lies make it a point to regularly expose and condemn peddlers of superstitious filth.

America's dangerous polarization began when Southern white churches began lying about everyone who disagreed w/them.
Luckily, there are lots of historians w/knowledge of how extremism began infiltrating mainstream Christianity and how Southern white identity politics took over the GOP.

Here's an interview I did with @AngieMaxwell1 about some of her great work /end flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
Apparently, this thread has been massively triggering to a handful of Christianist "comedians."

Their dimwitted rage is funnier than any of their so-called material.

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More from @mattsheffield

26 Oct
Biden talking about how Fox News's vaccine/testing requirements parallel his own policies is drastically undermining the credibility of FNC.

Biden, @PressSec, & her entire team should focus on this point on a 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘀 for this reason. mediamatters.org/coronavirus-co…
Why should Biden press Fox's callous hypocrisy daily? Because right wing politics has become inverted.

Democrats' real opposition is the right wing media, not Republican politicians.

GOP voters hate their elected officials, so attacking them does nothing for Dems.
Reactionaries have created so many media outlets that they fully insulate almost all GOP voters from reality.

The system is protected further because the media outlets don't have to make policy. So they have no accountability for their lies and dumb ideas.

...
Read 7 tweets
26 Oct
The Claremont Institute, employer of John Eastman, is trying to claim it's not a radical organization.

At the same time, one of its Lincoln Fellows recently appeared on a white supremacist podcast where he said he hoped to learn from "terror groups." angrywhitemen.org/2021/10/04/cla…
The show, as @EyesOnTheRight reported, is hosted by one of the organizers of the "Unite the Right" fascist rally of 2017.

Claremont also has hosted a full-length podcast interview on replacing American democracy with monarchism, as @DamonLinker revealed theweek.com/politics/10030…
Initially, Claremont was a relatively mild-mannered right wing group. It was always big on the "God made muh constitution" myth though, which led to much worse things.

The spiral downward began with nonsense about "multiculturalism" as @jaredlholt noted rightwingwatch.org/post/pizzagate…
Read 8 tweets
22 Oct
People who aren't familiar w/ the traditions often don't believe that millions of far-right Christians think they're in a Bible story battling demons daily, and that anyone who disagrees is a servant of Satan.

All the details on this week's @TheoryChange: flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
My thanks to @crddouglas for sharing his learning on the episode. Please follow him to keep tabs on the dangerous delusions of "spiritual warfare."
This is a very important episode with lots of information not available in the mainstream press so please share this thread.

It would mean a lot to me if you could, please. We need to reach people who unwittingly help the lunatics.
Read 9 tweets
18 Oct
Bari Weiss constantly whines about being "canceled" despite:

-Making at least several hundred thousands of dollars a year writing poorly researched drivel.

-Constantly being invited onto TV shows where she never has to face tough opposition

-Having voluntarily quit at the NYT
The truth is that Bari Weiss is like many reactionaries in that she has no ideas, but she feels entitled to free promotion of her incoherent beliefs.

And if you look at her career, she has been handed that.

There is no better example of affirmative action for right wingers.
She whines about the Hunter Biden laptop story not being covered before the 2020 election but leaves of the reason it wasn't: Rudy Giuliani explicitly refused to release the data for inspection.

Considering that he's obviously insane, no one was going to take him at his word.
Read 6 tweets
17 Oct
1/x: Coverage of "critical race theory" controversies must explain GOP strategists are making them.

Fox News has unwittingly proved it. Often, when trying to find regular parents concerned about CRT, it has featured GOP activists w/o disclosing h/t @MattGertz

Pics related. ImageImageImageImage
@MattGertz More Republican activists pushing fabricated "critical race theory" controversies... ImageImageImageImage
Still more...

Read these two articles for details on the hidden Republican ties of these "concerned parents."

Fox News routinely makes mountains out of media molehills but then engages in outright lying to its audience. 1) mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-… 2) mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-s… ImageImage
Read 8 tweets
17 Oct
1/x Jon Stewart today reminding that he still doesn't get politics.

He was right to point out far-right extremism on "TDS," but he trained liberals and moderates to just laugh at it rather than see it as the threat to democracy that it is.

This mindset still rules elite media.
So much of what he said to Jake Tapper today was about 80% of the truth. Doing that seems to be Jon Stewart's actual schtick.

His 2020 movie "Irresistible" really illustrated his worldview. He truly believes that we just need to all hold hands and pass some campaign finance laws
Jon Stewart's famous appearance on "Crossfire" also showed his naïve worldview. "Say something nice about X" does nothing.

That attitude is even more anachronistic after Trumpists tried to kill members of Congress and overthrow democracy.

Read 6 tweets

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