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21 Dec, 9 tweets, 6 min read
I'm looking forward to an excellent @DiscoverFlux discussion today about the theology of QAnon with @rothschildmd, @coolfacejane, @QOrigins, @brucewilson, and
@noturtlesoup17

Please join if you can!

twitter.com/i/spaces/1lDxL…
If you want to get into the topic early, please see this earlier @TheoryChange episode about the 20th century fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic tradition and its struggles against invisible demons. Q makes a cameo appearance.

flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
Far-right evangelicals have been churning out conspiracy theories about secretive elites killing children for Satan for decades as @brucewilson will detail today.

Here's a 1997 sermon excerpt by GOP politicians' fav pastor John Hagee as a preview. talk2action.org/story/2010/5/2… Image
Coming up in an hour! If you can't make it, we'll be releasing it to @DiscoverFlux patrons. Sign up here for as low as $3 per month: patreon.com/discoverflux
Please also check out @rothschildmd's book on QAnon. His first chapter on its relationship to failed conspiracy theories and human nature's desire to seek patterns is published here time-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/time.com/6…
Full book is available here static.mhpbooks.com/the-storm-is-u…
Here is a version of the "Great Awakening map" that @coolfacejane mentioned i0.wp.com/thegoldenlight…
Thanks to @AnnaTarkov for helping us with our technical issues on the space today! Please follow her!
Here is a link to Wikipedia on "Jay's Journal," the 1978 book about a Utah teen that started the great Satanic panic of the 1980s.

He lived in the same town that I did and the lies about his suicide (he never was into satanism) really shaped 80s Mormonism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay%27s_J… Image

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More from @mattsheffield

Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
19 Dec
Thread: The Democratic establishment and blue-collar workers

This is a summary of my latest @TheoryChange discussion w/@fstockman. Read, watch, or listen at the link below or continue on the thread: flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
@TheoryChange @fstockman Our discussion is centered around Stockman's book "American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears."

I highly recommend it. You can purchase here: bookshop.org/books/american…
Farah's book is excellent because, instead of just parachuting into a Midwestern diner, she spent years following and staying in touch with three steelworkers whose Indiana factory closed and moved to Mexico.

It's a deep case study of opinions, circumstances, and politics.
Read 13 tweets
Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
16 Dec
Thread: Kyrsten Sinema keeps saying that the U.S. Senate filibuster keeps federal policy from wide swings and that it encourages bipartisanship.

The literal opposite is true. For a prose version, see this essay I published in June. flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
In the first place, it's critical to note that the vast majority of state legislatures, including Arizona's, have abolished or never even allowed a filibuster.

Has anyone in the DC press corps ever asked Sinema about this fact?
Secondly, it's important to note that Sinema has taken her argument from Mitch McConnell. According to him, the filibuster “keeps America in the political center.”

McConnell doesn't care at all about bipartisanship and centrism, however, so Sinema has been totally had.
Read 9 tweets
Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
14 Dec
Kellyanne Conway just blamed the Biden administration for Donald Trump getting impeached.

This isn't her being stupid though, rather it's her being willing to say literally anything (true or otherwise). She and others in GOP elites were doing this long before Trump.
As a coda, I have to say that it's been so unfortunate seeing Harris Faulkner deliberately change her views and style to appeal to the Fox audience. She was a normal and credible anchor for years but seems to have decided to give the Fox fans the GOP bias they crave.
Sorry, had to run an unexpected errand. Back now to turn this into a thread. Kellyanne Conway's willingness to constantly and shamelessly lie about anything is why she's banned by most TV news operations.

Fox News loves having her on though, because their hosts act the same way
Read 12 tweets
Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
1 Dec
Marcus Lamb has become the latest far right media figure to die from Covid.

Over the course of his life, he stole millions from gullible ppl. He forgot to stay on the manipulator side of the grift at the end, however, like Fox News does, opposing vaccines while mandating them.
People who use religion to steal, cheat, and delude the naive are some of the worst people on this planet.

Marcus Lamb did so much harm during his life. There's no question that he harmed Christianity as well.
I'll highlight a few of the many stupid and dangerous things that Marcus Lamb told his viewers about Covid.

In November of last year, his wife promoted Listerine as a preventative. They were touting mouthwash.
Read 6 tweets
Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
24 Nov
This @michelleinbklyn column explores whether some left-of-center Americans are less politically engaged bc they might see fascism as inevitable.

I think that could be true, but I'd say more think that w/Trump out of the WH, no effort is needed nytimes.com/2021/11/22/opi…
Neither perspective is the accurate one in my opinion. To borrow the phrase of Stephen Jay Gould, the USA is currently in a "hopeful monster" phrase of social evolution. Lots of positive things have happened in recent years (especially for LGBT people)...
The danger of this moment is that religious and market fundamentalists have begun radicalizing as they see their last chances at democratic power fading.

The only way out is determined leadership to go where the public wants, but in a way that is inclusive...
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Sheffield Profile picture
3 Nov
Hello and welcome new followers! Here's a thread w/some of my writing & shows about right-wing brainwashing.

The most critical aspect is the manipulation of religion. I know because I experienced it first-hand before breaking free: flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
It all began in the 1960s when anti-New Deal reactionaries decided to use fundamentalist superstition/hatred as a leverage point to flip the "Solid South" to GOP.

The voters didn't want far-right economics, but it didn't matter bc of identity politics. flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
GOP consultants learned long ago that the majority of Americans don't want to slash the govt.

But a large enough minority are so full of rage about desegregation/secularism/feminism/LGBT that as long as they kept the focus on those subjects, GOP could win
Read 11 tweets

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