Thread by @KrisAtLarge

it's getting late; I should think about bed, but I'd like to close with some thoughts about this and that. let's see what I come up with in a few tweets. I like writing for #Twitter! @NateSilver538 thinks he's above this place; really he's the ooze dripping out the sides.

(1/x)

first: have people noticed the British-American *ratchet effect* with right-wing Western politics? I sure have; the "gender critical" movement has shown it off to good effect.

you've got the British secular "experts", and the American Christian moonbats who listen.

(2/x)

as the existence of frauds like @RichardDawkins and @bindelj amply shows, the British intellectual establishment is jam-packed with reactionary, bigoted cranks. they supply what thin tissue of rationalization they can for the #Christian reactionaries who help support them.

(3/x)

undoubtedly the right-wing Christians in the U.K. and in America are mostly allies—in that love-hate way that you get with Christians. it's like how evangelicals (e.g. @DavidAFrench) deign to share room with Catholics (e.g. @DouthatNYT) even though they condemn each other.

(4/x)

bigotry about sex and gender (and other things) supplies the medium of agreement among splinters of Christianity who otherwise loathe each other. so in all likelihood, British Christian bigots and American Christian bigots have been swapping notes and making common plans.

(5/x)

that's probably how American Christians have been able to make common cause with secular and even atheistic right-wing British blowhards like @RichardDawkins—it's to be borne in mind that the "New Atheist" clowns maintain close social contacts with right-wing Christians.

(6/x)

the two camps stage meaningless pantomine "debates" with each other and at a certain level it's probably all very convivial—an ever-shifting constellation of associations and friendships among British and American right-wing academicians and religious leaders. #networking!

(7/x)

hence there must be a kind of ebb and flow, back and forth across the atlantic: British reactionaries cook up "rational" and "scientific" ideologies in support of things that American Christian extremists and @GOP politicians wish to force on the people at gunpoint.

(8/x)

the @bindelj / @Docstockk / @RGalbraith camp even experimented with a more visible alliance with a right-wing Christian fanatic, noted @realDailyWire child-abuser @MattWalshBlog, but backed away from it pretty quickly; Matt Walsh is a bit *too* radioactive for comfort.

(9/x)

anyway it threatened the illusion that needs to be maintained in this arrangement: the @bindelj / @Docstockk / @RichardDawkins people have to pretend they're totally independent and objective and scientific even though they're a pack of cranks with mostly #Christian fans.

(10/x)

but then the @GOP politicians and U.S. allies like @realchrisrufo and @MattWalshBlog point to the British crackpots and say: "hey look! penis policing is Science™! so we should totally write it into a bunch of laws." and that's how we get mandatory crotch inspections.

(11/x)

thanks to bigots like @jonathanchait and @mtaibbi (who says he's a reporter but I've reason to disbelieve him) who monopolize press attention, nobody asks why a bunch of American Christian fanatics are getting away with pretending that they're "just following science".

(12/x)

that's not what American Christian fanatics *ever* do—people like @MattWalshBlog and @PastorMark don't make decisions on logical grounds. they're extremist religious cultists, thirsty for End-Times mayhem. they only care about "science" to the extent of lying about it.

(13/x)

why do @jonathanchait, @jessesingal, &c. all pretend there's no connection between the British "gender critics" and the American Christofascists who are their biggest base of support? well, they're bigots. who knows what Chait or Singal or @mtaibbi are thinking? *shrugs*

(14/x)

well I think that's enough for now. ~Chara