And so, it would seem, Texas is trying to go for Massive Resistance 2.0, possibly in an attempt at undoing the Supreme Court rulings in the late 60s that led to the initial voucher programs in the US being ruled illegal and BJU losing their tax-exempt
I say "Massive Resistance 2.0", of note, because Christian Nationalism in its modern form arguably got its start via the fight against desegregation by unreconstructed Confederate-sympathisers, and the FIRST round of "private voucher programs".
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(Yes, this is going to be one of those little history lessons.)
So after Brown v BOE, and subsequent rulings that mandated schools be desegregated...a lot of Southern "Jim Crow" states were exceptionally Salty about this, and so basically set out a plan or three...
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To whit: First ordering schools to not desegregate, and to ignore orders to desegregate.
When the US government started sending in the National Guard to enforce these orders, the chuds in chief proceeded to double down by the equivalent of shooting themselves in the jimmy:
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Namely: "If we can't have segregated schools, then we just won't have schools at *all*".
On the cruder end, this involved chuds (including the KKK 2.0) blowing up schools that had the courage to integrate and threatening families that attended:
And on a legislative end, you had stuff like the Stanley Plan, which...ordered the defunding, and closure, of any school system that integrated in VA (similar mini-Stanleys were in place throughout the South) in what was called "Massive Resistance" segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/massive…
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And basically when schools were ordered to integrate, or when school boards decided to stop fighting the march of progress...the school systems would be shut down, and vouchers given to private, Protestant schools which coincidentially didn't admit African-Americans
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These "Segregation Academies" (as they got to be called) were founded by "Southern" branches of churches, many of which would later become part of Christian Nationalist and/or neo-Confederate movements (like the Southern Baptists and the PCA)
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and at least two of them (Pensacola Christian College and Bob Jones University) would become major players in Christian Nationalist curricula...and pretty much the shape of Christian Nationalist pro-Confederacy apology (including slavery revisionism) was formed there
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So basically when a school system would get shut down, white kids would get vouchers to go to the local Protestant "segregation academy" (and it was almost always Protestant); African-American kids got sweet FA as far as education in most cases.
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It was so bad, and went on for so long, that there are populations of African-Americans who grew up in the mid- to late-50s who almost never got to attend school unless they were in an area where the Society of Friends had set up "freedom schools"
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because the specific wording of these voucher laws generally prohibited giving vouchers to most integrated schools, but there was enough of a loophole for religious schools that the Quakers took advantage of it (and bless them for it).
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And this kept on until a series of court decisions starting in 1964, which ordered the desegregation of schools and the reopening of Prince Edward County's school system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_v…
Which led to...modern voucher programs (seriously).
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Because the NEXT end-run was "OK, fine, we'll desegregate...but we're still handing out vouchers for segregation academies. As part of 'school choice' programs" *wink wink*.
Which was even referred to as "passive resistance".
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And *this* eventually led to another Supreme Court ruling, this time in 1968, which pretty much Officially Called Them On Their Bullshit, told them to Stop That, and ruled that state tax dollars for segregation academies was unconstitutional en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_v._…
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And there were subsequent rulings after that (some of which led to the first school busing programs), and the IRS also came to a decision that "segregation academies" could no longer be recipients of tax-exempt status
This caused BJU to lose its tax exempt
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And right around the time of segregation academies getting their groove on, and right around the time that schools were ordered to integrate...that's when the Christian Nationalist movement started feeling its oats and lobbying against desegregation theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
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And in fact a lot of the initial activism by Christian Nationalists was against Freedom Marches...and in support of segregation academies, many of which were now at risk of losing their tax exempt for being all racist on main slate.com/news-and-polit…
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In fact, the anti-reproductive-health stuff didn't heavily enter much of the Christian Nationalist movement until such time that "Traditionalist Catholics" (many of whom were salty over Vatican II) were recruited into the movement teenvogue.com/story/religiou…
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And that's why I've consistently been pointing out lately that the goal isn't them undoing *merely* Lawrence v Texas or Griswold v Connecticut, but *BROWN V BOARD OF EDUCATION* and pretty much EVERY decision from that point, and they're using the same playbook as with Roe
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And considering that the Christian Nationalist wing has been pretty much very mask off for the past four or five years (thereby confirming every word of what us #exvangelical folks have tried to warn you about for the past 50 years or so) one ignores this at one's peril
Your gentle reminders that pretty much *every* party engaging in physical shit-stirring today (from the pro-Trump ILA leadership, to Iran and its client army in Hezbollah, to Likud in Israel, to Hamas, to MAGAtbots and tankiebots on this hellsite) all have Russian links
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This is where, I again, implore you all to research the roots of Putinism and Putin's international policy, specifically in KGB-turned-religio-fascist Aleksandr Dugin's "Foundations of Geopolitics"
Few people realize the actual dogwhistle that's being blown here--a lot of racist-right MAGAts have openly admired the Romanian Iron Guard aka Legion of St. Michael the Archangel and its leaders Corneliu Codreanu and Horia Sima
So, in relation to ANOTHER little quote by The Former Guy today (specifically calling for an hour of violence to allow police to commit unspeakable violence against people with no consequence) I did a teach-in on this very group's history of violence
The Romanian Iron Guard was the most blatantly religio-fascist of all fascist (sensu "adopted at least SOME of their philosophy from the writings of Julius Evola") groups, in that for all practical purposes it was an Opus Dei-like coercive religious group
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Again, "The Purge" refs aside: This is classical genocidal language. Others are comparing to Kristallnacht, I myself have made explicit comparisons to Rwanda's Interahamwe and Montt's Kabiles in Rwanda, the Bucharest Pogrom is probably the most apt comparison
One of the groups I consistently point out in terms of historical genocides and what MAGAts and Christian Nationalists have been primed for--along with the NAR Christian Nationalist genocide in Guatemala in 1983 and Rwanda 1994--is Romania's pre-Nazi fascist era.
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Romania--to an extent seen with few other countries involved in fascism and Fascist (sensu Mussolini) inspired movements--were explicitly, overtly religio-fascist.
The Iron Guard and Legion of St. Michael the Archangel wrapped themselves in the cross while carrying a flag
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Ballot initiatives like the wording of Issue 1 in OH are specifically WHY I recommend making a voter's guide based on the *opposite* of what Christian Nationalist voter guides support
And in fact I'll show you how to do this with Issue 1
So basically the trick in making your own voter guide is "research what Christian Nationalist voter guides are recommending, and vote AGAINST that".
And yes, these include things like nonpartisan candidates and ballot initiatives like Issue 1.
Let's show how to do this
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So your 1st step is to go in private browsing mode to Google (or your search engine of choice) and search "(your state) christian voter guide" (an example for Ohio is here: ) which should bring up a whole list of Christian Nationalist voters' guides.
@cwebbonline Yes, there is a reason I keep bringing up Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines because there are STRONG parallels to what happened with the Voice of the Rwandan Genocide, and what's going on here on Xitter and on Facebook and on 4ch*n and other social media
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@cwebbonline So, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (referred to as RTLM from here on out) started up a year before the Rwandan Genocide, and it became very popular because of a combo of light entertainment (including regional pop music)...and talk show hosts/emcees
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There's a specific reason I keep warning that these attempts to foment race riots are LITERALLY using genocidal talk--and why I have, in discussions of the risk of a Christian Nationalist genocide in the US, used examples NOT from Nazi Germany.
Most people, when they think of genocide, tend to think of Nazi Germany--where genocide was systematic, industrialized, almost in the same way a Volkswagen was made.
More recent genocides--and even some World War II genocides by religio-nationalists--were far messier
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The examples I've generally brought out from history are three genocides in particular (and you could argue the Cambodian genocide--and Da'esh's genocide of Kurdish populations in areas it controlled--also fit this pattern) that are unfortunately more typical.
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