Thread by @dogemperor

Yeah, I think it's about Time for that seminar on Christian Nationalism in South Africa during the Apartheid era (and why it's NOT a shocker to students of history why Phony Stark has gone *full* fash)

A thread, and a bit of a history lesson that isn't touched much on:

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https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1601715399904866304

So, the *start* of this is all the way back to the colonization/European invasion of South Africa back in the 1800s, and (rather similarly to the Americas) you had two major groups of Europeans: British, and people of Dutch origin (aka Boers or Afrikaaners).

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And to say that there has been bad blood between the two groups of settlers is an understatement (in addition to the wars against indigenous South Africans who did not want their land invaded, there was functionally a war ongoing between the British and the Afrikaaners,

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And South Africa functionally had MULTIPLE civil wars over the issue of Whom Was To Be Master, including a second war (where the British pretty much went *full* total warfare) which crushed independence moves by Boers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bo…

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So there's been a real "glory days" narrative on both sides, and and...it's worth noting that Afrikaaners have trended very conservative (Americans may see some strong parallels here in regards to our own issues with the South), and this prior history led up to, well...

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some pretty permanent Antagonism between the two sides (with indigenous South Africans really caught in the middle and wishing both would leave them the hell alone).

Fast-forward to the 30s. That's when things *started* to get bad, and got worse.

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So by this time South Africa had been recognised as independent enough that they were managing what would become Namibia (and was then an ex-German "colony" seized by the League of Nations) and was a Commonwealth member in good standing,

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Even political parties had been split among ethnic lines in South Africa by this point, and even after South Africa had been granted independence, there were STILL Boer insurrections pushing for the (old) South African Republic to Rise Again en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritz_re…

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So, basically imagine at least *two* states in a union that are functionally the equivalent of Texas (including with populations that remembered their days of being Independent Countries).

That's basically South Africa, circa 1936.

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And one of the decidedly more liberal (and more British) states actually still had a vote for indigenous South Africans and women as of 1930--anyone who could pay a very small poll tax could vote.

By 1929 and 1930, the rest of South Africa was functionally stripped...

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of the full franchise (in most states, particularly states with Afrikaaner "white majority" populations, indigenous South Africans as well as people of multiracial and South Asian descent were being stripped of franchise rights if they ever had them at all).

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Starting from 1931, laws were passed in the South African Parliament and the Cape Province parliament that effectively stripped indigenous South Africans of the vote

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Qual…

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And this culminated in the pre-Apartheid. pre-World War II era of the Representation of Natives Act, which basically split all indigenous South African representation (what little was left) into a "Separate and Unequal" parliament with no real power

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Represent…

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And this was followed with a whole series of laws that restricted the ability of non-white folks to own land and the beginning of the foundations of pass laws:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Tr…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_L…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_laws
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Yes, this was basically Jim Crow on steroids; indigenous Africans, persons of mixed racial ancestry, South Asians, and anyone insufficiently Legally White (we'll get into that later) literally had to carry an internal passport showing they could legally enter "white areas".

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Fast-foward to World War II.

It is probably not a shock to those of you reading that different groups of colonizers picked entirely opposing sides in the War.

The British settlers picked the Allies. The Afrikaaners...

Well...

uhm...many picked a less savory sort.

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By which I mean you had full-on groups of Afrikaaner Fifth Columnists literally working for Hitler in South Africa:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Afr…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossewabra…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Pi…

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And South Africa not only had to deal with sending men to the war front in Europe, but also having to deal with a literal Nazi insurgency at home.

Oh, and a certain Walter Hertzog, head of the Afrikaaner-preferred party, was arguing to Not Join The War.

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Both this history, and Hertzog in particular, become VERY important after the war.

You see, a good part of Hertzog's base WERE South African Nazis, and a whole lot of those South African Nazis got into politics after the war...

newframe.com/a-history-of-s…

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And, well (all too much like the US with the Confederacy) the Nazi Problem in South Africa wasn't dealt with appropriately, and, well, the Nazis embedded themselves in the National Party, and got voted en masse in 1948 to office.

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And that, kids, was the start of Apartheid proper, and the world's first Christian Nationalist state.

No, I am not exaggerating. The National Party, during their regime, actually *coined* the term "Christian Nationalism" for religiously motivated white supremacy.

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And yes, they were EXPLICITLY Friends Of Nazis. (There are arguably unbroken chains to modern neo-Nazi movements in South Africa: samilhistory.com/tag/christian-…)

But yes, in 1948 a bunch of Nazi-friendly Christian Nationalists got voted in. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Sout…

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And let me give you some info on what Christian Nationalist rule was like in South Africa, as many of you on this bird app are a bit young to realize (and even in my case it was in my school days before Apartheid was to fall), so...

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That Hertzog fellow I mentioned? Actually was responsible for a ban on television in South Africa that lasted until 1976 (and who founded his own equivalent of the Constitution Party when even the National Party found him TOO Boer-supremacist): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_He…

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The South African state, and all the evils of apartheid, were explicitly religiously motivated, and official school instruction in South Africa until 1992 was explicitly on a Christian Nationalist line scielo.org.za/scielo.php?scr…

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And in part because the South African state saw what was being done in Virginia and other places to subvert "Massive Resistance" (the shutdown of schools and funding to "segregation academies"), they literally banned *all* schools not run by Christian Nationalist standards

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And this in turn was arguably part of an ideological indocrination program that had gone on since the 1870s, not unlike how the Unreformed Confederacy pushed Lost Causeism in textbooks well into the 2000s jstor.org/stable/41801530

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And really, the education system could be described as explicitly Afrikaaner Supremacist. Education in indigenous languages was banned, only English and Afrikaans were allowed, many courses were only in Afrikaans

disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/…

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And these promoted a sort of uniquely South African Lost Causeism, along with explicitly wrapping the evils of Apartheid-era South Africa's regime (which I will subsequently describe) in the flag whilst carrying a cross.

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Christian Nationalism in the South African educational system was an extremely important method of radicalization (think of this when you hear Christian Nationalists in the US, who are awful fash-adjacent, rail on about CRT): uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/hand…

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And yes, just like in the US, the churches were an active partner--in this case, the Dutch Reformed Church, which *functionally* became the state church of South Africa tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

(Also this is why Desmond Tutu's resistance was so important)

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But yes, this is what young Phony Stark was being marinated in as a youth sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4026/1/I_R_Hex…

And, oh, let's just give y'all a glimpse of what it would have been like for ol' Phony Stark growing up in South Africa in the 70s, with his rich-AF dad

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So, between 1948 (which amounted to a literal religio-fascist takeover of South Africa) and 1971 (when Phony Stark entered the world), a brief listing of Apartheid-era South African legislative stunts:

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a) A law against miscegenation which also defined being "Legally Colored" in South Africa: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibiti…
b) Doubling down on said act and declaring it a literal sexual offense: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immoralit…

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c) The law requiring people to register by race (which also, of note, could result in one being classified Legally Coloured if a pencil stuck in your hair, and yes, I am being *very* serious and there were families split up as a result): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populatio…

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d) Legal redlining, where people could only legally live in an area designated for their own race and could only be legally *present* with an internal passport: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Are…
e) Declaring all anti-Apartheid groups to be Legally Communist: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressi…

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f) Actually made it illegal for indigenous South Africans to do construction for settlers without a permit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Bu…
g) Completely stripped non-white-settlers frorm the voting rolls: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_…

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h) Effectively legalized forced removals of indigenous South Africans if it was declared they were "squatting": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventio…
i) Set up the initial stages of the "bantustan" system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_Aut…

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j) Functionally banned indigenous South Africans from living in urban areas: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_La…

(This is what "District 9" is based on, with the RL District 6 and ethnic cleansing of non-white-settler South Africans being the basis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_…)

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k) Set up the infamous "dompas" laws as they're most commonly known outside of South Africa, where non-white South Africans functionally had to carry an internal passport outside of "bantustans": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_laws…

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l) Allowed the South African government to pass emergency laws functionally at will, including prohibiting protest against laws (and these were one of the laws that even targeted settlers criticizing apartheid): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Sa…

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m) Effectively stripping (the legally segregated) labor unions of indigenous South Africans of all power: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_La…
n) "Separate and unequal" education for indigenous South Africans: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_Edu…

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o) Separation of all facilities by race, again Jim Crow on Steroids, which by this point was just insult to injury: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservati…
p) THE act authorizing ethnic cleansing and forced Removals of indigenous South Africans: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natives_R…

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q) Effectively enforcement of all the other laws mandating separation and removal of anyone Insufficiently White from non-white areas: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Are…
r) A public ban on gatherings, especially for protesting Apartheid laws: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riotous_A…

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s) A legal prohibition on interracial trade unions, and functionally banned even white and non-white trade unions from having any association (effectively the end of trade unions, esp. with international presence, in South Africa): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industria…

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t) Effectively stripping indigenous South Africans of any legal redress through the court system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natives_(…
u) Again defining sex between races to be up there with active child molestation as violation of law: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Of…
(being LGBT also illegal)

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v) A law allowing "Development Corporations" partnering with white-owned South African companies to take advantage of "Bantustan labor" (a thing Phony Stark's dad did, by the way): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_Inv…

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w) A ban on interracial universities, with the best reserved for white settlers, and again "separate and unequal" facilities set up for non-white South Africans: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extension…
x) The law setting up the "Bantustan" system proper: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion…

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y) A law effectively banning any civil rights group, political party, or any group seen to "threaten public order", especially opponents of Apartheid (this was used to ban the ANC, just after the Sharpeville Massacre):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpevil…

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z) A law literally protecting the South African government from any legal claims or repercussions for killing 249 people in a protest against the pass laws: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indemnity…

(Yes, we're only HALFWAY done through this list. Apartheid era South Africa has MANY sins.)

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aa) Another law that pretty much stripped indigenous South Africans of the ONE remaining protection they hadn't yet been stripped of other than the loss of their citizenship (namely, minimum wage laws in Cape Province): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloured_…

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We're only at *1961*, kids. It gets worse.

By this point it was too much for the Commonwealth.

So the Afrikaaner-run, Nazi-friendly, Apartheid-ing National Party used this as an opportunity for a final "fuck you" to the Queen en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Afr…

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And it was the whole "We're declaring a Republic, with no television (because it's full of Interracial Satan) and turning the evils of Apartheid up to *eleven*" that was really the start of places putting in boycotts

Phony Stark wouldn't be born for a decade

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bb) Setting up potemkin councils for the few urban councils that still existed for urban communities of indigenous South Africans which hadn't yet been ethnically cleansed out of existence like District Six: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Ban…

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And then things got worse.

cc) A law that literally allowed the South African government to detain anyone, without warrant, for up to 90 days if they were SUSPECTED of politically motivated crimes (including merely being against Apartheid): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_L…

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dd) Consolidating apartheid even FURTHER, in...removing the potemkin council altogether for indigenous South Africans and setting up a potemkin Parliament for non-whites who weren't Legally Black: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloured_…

This would exist until 1984

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And then it got worse.

ee) Legally defining the act of terrorism as "anything that might stop us being Christian Nationalist, Nazi-friendly chuds who want us to stop all the apartheid-ing" and allowing detention without trial en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism…

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(No, it's not an exaggeration to note South Africa was a full-on fascist police state at this point. Complete with a secret police: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Afr…)

And then it got worse.

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ff) An actual ban on interracial parties or *any* interracial social groups, especially those that might collaborate with each other for purposes of actual representational government: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibiti…

And then it got worse to "warning signs of genocide" points

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gg) The law that actually legally authorized the South African government to ethnically cleanse indigenous South Africans to "bantustans", strip them of South African citizenship (leaving them legally stateless), and washing their hands: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_Hom…

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hh) The law setting up these glorified reservations (where people were legally STUCK, because THEY HAD BEEN DENATIONALIZED, and LEGALLY WERE CITIZENS OF NO COUNTRY, and only South Africa recognised their "independence"): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_Hom…

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ii) A potemkin law to allow South Africans of South Asian descent to travel with a passbook between provinces (never mind that Orange Free State and Natal actually had bans on Desis under law): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_Co…

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jj) YET ANOTHER GOD DAMN INDEMNITY LAW that pretty much absolved the South African government for any responsibility on yet another incident of mass killing (this time with the Soweto Uprising):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_up…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indemnity…

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kk) Oh, a fun one a lot of folks don't know about: South Africa actually declares a system of Russian-style "closed sites" where any place can be declared of National Security Interest and ordered to be guarded:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_…

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ll) South Africa's Enabling Act, in all but name: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_… (It led to five declarations of emergency suppressing civil rights until 1990.)
mm) Declaring even the boycotts, protests, etc. to be illegal "intimidation": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intimidat…

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nn) Another series of potemkin reforms in 1983 (the 3rd that they'd had since the Christian Nationalists took over), setting up a potemkin parliament with token representation for South Africans of mixed racial ancestry and South Asians but not...

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any representation for indigenous South Africans (who were increasingly being shipped to bantustans and rendered stateless, courtesy of the Christian Nationalist government): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Afr…

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On the bright side, South Africa got *heavily censored* TV in 1976 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisio…

(Any show showing interracial friendships would be blocked, among other things, it was 1955 Leave it to Beaver standards)

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Oh. It still gets worse.

I haven't even mentioned South Africa's NBC program yet. Not only did they dabble in nukes (with assistance from the French and/or Israeli governments), but...chemical and biological warfare, too.

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Not only did the Apartheid-era government actually engage in chemical and biological warfare programs, but there is at least some evidence to suggest they actively *used* biological and chemical warfare

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_C…

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There is even evidence that South African CBW research did involve targeted measures against indigenous South Africans (including involuntary birth control targeting indigenous South Africans), as well as a lot of "crowd control" agents targeting indigenous South Africans

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This may have also included human experimentation, including by the Rhodesian government (which in the 70s was controlled by white supremacists who'd also told the Queen to fuck off rather than allow majority rule) with help from South Africa en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia_…

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There's even been a United Nations study on the South African CBW program, which was done during the post-Apartheid disarmament program South Africa did and in hearings through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission unidir.org/publication/pr…

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And it's definitely known (thanks, again, to the TRC) that the South African government may have actually engaged in Russian style "Novichok tea" assassinations, as well as used anthrax and cholera as biowar agents in the Rhodesian Bush War

pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fro…

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I mention this litany of sins, mind, because this is all very, very Necessary Context for what it was like for Phony Stark to grow up, with a dad who was involved in emerald and precious stone mining (which was done through those "cheap labor from bantustans" contracts),

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as a privileged kid in a very privileged class in a *VERY* fascist regime.

And by "privileged", I mean "His dad had a direct in with the very lovely sorts in the South African government who were doing all this criming-against-humanity".

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And I will *NOT* say it's not impossible for someone to effectively deprogram themselves from this societal-level, systemic-level indoctrination since birth (and not all of it even conscious indoctrination, when your society has been THAT fucked up for THAT long...)

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But it takes a long time and real effort. (I say this, being raised in an anti-LGBTQIA Christian Nationalist hate group that at least cheered on domestic terrorism if not dabbled in it. Then again, I'm neither cis nor het, so I do have SOME motivating factor :D)

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And based on his general behaviour, I'd argue Phony Stark does not really branch off very much from the family tree (and I'd literally be shocked if he WASN'T extensively marinated in that)--he's definitely not had the Short, Sharp Shock to bust him out of cult programming

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And that's another point I want to bring up. These groups, and the South African government in Apartheid days--they're cults with political aspirations, which makes them more dangerous in the long run. (Pretty much *all* the longer-lived fascist groups use religion)

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And even though I have not been a member of an Abrahamic faith for some time, the old adage "by their fruits shall you know them" is true...and I'd argue Phony Stark grew up in a Superfund site from the metaphorical equivalent of a manicheel tree

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