Thread by @PnictogenHorses

ah yes, I was going to say more about The Fear™, which is so difficult to discuss. discussing #fear in general is tough; the social taboos of Western culture and Western discourse forbid open discussion of fear. hardline Christianity is largely to blame; fear is useful to them.

https://twitter.com/PnictogenHorses/status/1642694617228509184

fear is the chief weapon of Christian fanatics—e.g. @MattWalshBlog, @laurenboebert, @PastorMark, even mild-mannered @DouthatNYT—and they've good reason: they themselves are afraid. it's likely that they're at least partly afraid of *themselves*; they feel they need a tight leash.

that's the general effect of fear on the human psyche—limitation. your fears determine your boundaries and the range of your likely actions.

extremist Christians believe they've solved the problem of fear, through unwavering faith in...well, something. they have faith, though.

one can't be certain about what people like @MattWalshBlog and @HawleyMO *really* believe—but we can at least be certain that they believe in it very strongly. right-wing Christians, "patriotic" Christians, are highly ideological and predictable; they believe themselves reliable.

staunch faith in *anything*—even if it's just a physical object—is very powerful. it may be humanity's greatest strength, for in such faith lies the secret to human persistence...human #determination. it's a reason to keep going, keep stepping forward, no matter the cost.

#faith is not unique to hardline Christians and I'm not entirely sure how the @pastorlocke / @Franklin_Graham right-wing crowd deal with that truism. their bigoted terror of Islam and their staunch antisemitism (these two things are related) suggest a possible answer to that.

it's fairly clear to me that bigoted Christians like @DouthatNYT and @MattWalshBlog really and truly can't get their minds round the idea that other faiths exist and work out quite well for the people who have them. Judaism and Islam must *baffle* such dull, blinkered persons.

in any case, fear can keep a human being tethered to faith. extremist Christians have developed a lot of elaborate, ritualized ways of depicting and enacting their fear of somehow having their faith *ripped out of them*—taken away at gunpoint, or with some diabolical "medicine".

and they're dead certain that the only way to rule the masses is through pain and terror. @MattWalshBlog, @PastorMark, and the rest of them treat their own *children* like sheep or cattle to be screamed at, ordered about, whipped onwards with threats (and belts and fists.)

and because @MattWalshBlog and @pegobry and all the rest of these abysmally ignorant and brutish Christians view most of the *world* as if they were little more than surly spoiled children (or cattle), they think that fear and terror are the only way to manage a world hegemony.

the Christian fanatics want there to be only *one* acceptable answer for fear, all fears: themselves.

I'm not even going to say that @MattWalshBlog, @pastorlocke, @robertjeffress, &c. offer the comforts of God or Jesus. all of these people sell only themselves.

God, Jesus, the Bible, all the elaborate Catholic and Orthodox doctrines that fascist gasbags like @DouthatNYT and @ebruenig must love to chatter about—it's all set-dressing to them. props, ornaments, commercial tat decorating the walls, like in that infamous photo of @RepMTG.

@RepMTG and @MattWalshBlog and the rest of these extremely bigoted and nasty Christian persons will never stop talking about their faith in "Him ❤️".

but who is *He*, exactly? to myself, personally, "He" doesn't seem like anyone I'd like to worship. I don't feel the *need*.

maybe it really is a jolly strong and lovely faith that @MattWalshBlog &c. have, but considering what sort of people they are, I can only conclude that their faith isn't exactly doing them any favors. I do very much wonder what these people *actually* are putting their faith in.

if @RepMTG and @laurenboebert and @HawleyMO and @RonDeSantisFL and @RickSantorum and @GovMikeHuckabee and @DanCrenshawTX and all the other hardline Christians of the @GOP really are *scared* of losing this faith of theirs...maybe they should ask themselves what they're afraid of.

well. enough about fears. I fear I've run out of material!

~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen