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Protesting Christian Fascism April 26, 2005 by RedStar2000 |
Once upon a time, a Leninist-Maoist party had a good idea...surprise!
And what kind of reception did this idea receive among non-Maoists? Did they get one of those "fair hearings" that the "left" reformists always talk about?
Do bears shit in outhouses?
====================================================
I think the fact that the RCYB kids have stood up and denounced the Christian Taleban propaganda on NBC is terrific!!!
And the fact that they did it without their usual "Bob-babble" makes it even better.
As to the implications that this is "bigotry", I suggest that Christians confine themselves to writing "how-to" manuals on that subject...as they have about a 1,700-year lead on the RCYB when it comes to the theory and practice of bigotry.
Christians are world-class experts at persecuting anyone who disputes their dominion. --------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 14, 2005 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
You, despite some justified criticisms of the RCYB's Avakian cult, are nevertheless wrong about "Revelations" and the RCYB is right.
That happens, you know. People can be wrong about some things and right about other things.
That you equate the far left (given its pathetic means to send its messages) with the Christian Taleban (whose message appears in prime time on a major dummyvision network) suggests a deliberate effort to ignore the social context of this event.
Bob Avakian, for all his shortcomings, is not in the White House and the RCP does not have a majority in congress. There is zero possibility that the RCP's agenda is going to be enacted into law.
The Christian Taleban has a supporter who happens to be in the White House and other outspoken supporters in Congress in both parties.
So a dummyvision program that promotes the Christian Taleban agenda under the guise of "entertainment" is pretty damn serious!
Imagine a German radio mini-series in 1931 -- based on "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as if that concoction of lies was "true".
Just "harmless entertainment"?
Or "free speech"?
(By the way, the banalities -- "get a life", "get a job", etc. -- are common reactionary responses to any serious criticism of capitalist society. What they really mean is usually: "Learn to like the taste of shit...like I have.") --------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 17, 2005 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
quote: Here's what I don't get. Why the focus on this all of a sudden?
I believe it's called waking up to "a clear and present danger". Yes, the Christian fascists have been around for quite a while. And everyone laughed at their foolishness.
Now, some of them are in the White House, in Congress, and even on the Supreme Court.
And their foolishness is now being presented as a legitimate viewpoint on a major television network.
Sure, it's "only fiction".
So was "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
Still laughing?
Try this...
http://harpers.org/StationsOfTheBoss.html
or this...
http://harpers.org/1993-01BuildingAChristianGOP.html
or even this...
http://harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html
quote: I'm doubly puzzled when you take into consideration the current political landscape. There's a *war* on, for crying out loud. And some serious talk about extending it. There are attacks on abortion rights, social services, MARTA--attacks that will disproportionately affect working people and people of color.
Taking on these issues would be great, but taking on the "Christian fascists?" There's virtually no movement out there right now dedicating to "fighting the Christian fascists"--a broad range of subjects if I ever saw one...
I'm certainly not sympathetic to the "Christian Fascists"--far from it--but this campaign just doesn't make any sense, especially when there are other things going on.
Perhaps those "other things" (or many of them) actually have something to do with the rise of Christian fascism. Perhaps those things are part of their agenda -- not in a conspiratorial way, but because they naturally follow from their Christian outlook.
Who wants and indeed expects lots of wars in the Middle East as required for the "return" of "Jesus"? Who thinks the rights of women should be sharply curtailed? Who believes that social services should be replaced by "faith-based charity"?
There is indeed "no movement" against Christian fascism at this point. Which is to say that the most popular and the most reactionary social formation in this country has thus far gone completely unopposed. (Not counting the jokes, of course.)
Avakian's RCP makes some rather apocalyptic predictions of its own...and I do not necessarily share all of their assumptions about how this will "play out".
But is it not idiocy on our part to pretend that this shit will "just go away" because we on the left "think" that it's "amusing"???
Do you really want to wait until they burn a "witch" at Turner Field? --------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 19, 2005 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
quote: One, if the RCP is just waking up to this terrible menace, does that mean the Great Bob A and his party was previously in error?
Yep...along with all the rest of the head-up-ass "left" in this country -- who think religion is "an amusing superstition" but not to be taken seriously by us "superior" folks.
quote: Two, since the RCP views Christian piety as the number one enemy and since the RCP claims to speak for the masses, aren't they in the midst of a contradiction since the overwhelming majority of working people in this country (especially black and Latino people) are Christians -- and mainly conservative Christians at that -- or does the RCP think that they can somehow invent a new "masses"?
Why don't you stop evading the central issue here?
It does not matter if Avakian is a drooling idiot and the RCP a hopeless bunch of jerkoffs.
It is not true that "the overwhelming majority of working people in this country (especially black and Latino people) are conservative Christians."
What does matter and, in my view, is true, is that Christian fascism does have a mass base and is "a clear and present danger".
What does matter is that the kids at the RCYB are trying in their limited fashion to begin a struggle against the bastards.
You can support their honest efforts or you can just keep on laughing.
All the way to the stake. -------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 19, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------
quote: And I guarantee you anyone who considers themselves Christian will be put off by the phrase "Christian Fascism"; how you mean it and how it's perceived are two different things.
I would like to suggest that this sentiment is at the root of our difficulties with "faith-based reactionaries" (like that phrase better?).
It has come to pass in recent decades that the "left" (such as it is) has seemingly found it "distasteful" to confront superstition for what it is.
This desire "not to turn people off" fails to grasp the social reality that Christians oppose communism.
They are already "turned off" to us and even more than that! Yet many "lefties" think that by remaining diplomatically silent, we will somehow "win" those people to the side of reason. And so it is that "intelligent design" can now be seriously considered as an alternative hypothesis to evolution in public schools. Or that a fetus has become "a baby".
A leftist campaign against Christian fascism will be perceived as an attack on Christianity itself...and that's a good thing!
In fact, it's long overdue in this superstition-ridden country.
quote: The real up-and-comers aren't the Christian Rightists; it's the neocons. Fairly secular, even with a smattering of Jews, these folks dominate foreign policy right now. They're not led by their views on the Bible, they're led by a desire for an increasingly imperial American world order. In fact, I would argue that the neocons use the Christians to secure the votes and dialogue, but for the most part don't care enough about them to throw more than a bone or two their way.
In this regard, I'm inclined to agree with your view more than that of the RCP.
Nevertheless, the neo-cons (Leo Strauss is their "Bob Avakian") lack a mass base. They can only publicly articulate their views "inside the beltway" -- there are no t-shirts proclaiming "IMPERIALIST -- and PROUD!".
It is the Christian fascists that supply the bulk of popular support for American imperialism; whose version of the national anthem is "Onward, Christian Soldiers".
Consequently, I think it makes excellent strategic sense to attack the Christian fascists directly and publicly...even if they have little chance at ever getting their own grubby paws on the levers of power.
And we don't know, of course, how big or how small their chances really are. Recall that all the reasonable capitalists in the Weimar Republic turned to Nazism because the Nazis did have a mass base. And they believed to a man that they had "hired Hitler". Little did they know, eh?
The American neo-cons could find themselves in a similar position; their Christian "servants" could become their Christian masters.
And ours as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 20, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------
quote: redstar's latest argument makes it sound as if the RCP's real goal...
And we'll stop right there. I am not a member, supporter, or in any way associated with the RCP! I speak for myself and they speak for themselves.
What I agree with them about is this issue: Christian fascism should be openly and aggressively attacked by the left!
If anything, I am more extreme on this issue than they are; I'd like to see a couple of thousand people at the NBC studios in Manhattan raising hell about "Revelations".
And I'd like to see a similar demonstration every time one of those Christian fascist bastards makes a public appearance anywhere.
Even in the "Holy City" of Atlanta.
quote: Anyone who thinks that all Christians hate all leftists is obviously a dolt (and probably not from around here). Most Georgia activists though remember that it was the Christians and not the Avakianists who led in the Abolitionist movement, in Civil Rights, at Fort Benning, in the campaigns against homelessness, and on and on.
quote: Add that to the fact that the liberation theology movement--a radical wing of the Catholic Church--has been prominent in pretty much every Latin and South American liberation movement, *including* socialist movements.
I didn't say Christians "hated leftists", I said they opposed communism.
Which they do, of course. Socialism and Communism were condemned by 19th century popes...something that has never changed.
I highly doubt that there are any "Georgia activists" old enough to remember the abolitionists...who were not communists.
I am old enough to remember the civil rights movement...it was not communist (J. Edgar Hoover thought it was but no one with any sense did).
And the Catholics at Fort Benning? Tell me, don't they still think that women who have abortions should go to prison and the doctors who perform them should be tried for murder? Isn't that the Catholic line? Do you think that's a "communist position"?
Then, the biggest fake of all -- "liberation theology"... Excuse me, wasn't that invented in response to the Cuban Revolution? The Church was losing "market share" and tried to "re-brand" itself.
Now, of course, it's as dead as Catharism. The "market leader" at the Vatican Mall for the last couple of decades has been...Opus Dei -- a clerical fascist cult.
----------
Both of you guys are perfect examples of why Christian fascism has had such a "smooth path" so far. The idea of directly confronting superstition just makes you both cringe and whimper. Nearly all of what passes for a "left" in this country is guilty of the same cowardice.
It's time for a change! -------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 21, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------
quote: Here's some news for you blowhards; in this state, 94% of the population self-identifies as Christian yet there are only 307,000 Catholics in Georgia.
Well, now, how about that? And Georgia is the "center of the universe", right?
And Georgia's protestant fundamentalists love commies so much that they celebrate "Take a Commie to Lunch" day pretty much every week, right?
quote: So? Where are the reports of the teeming thousands protesting loudly in front of NBC's office?
Let me guess; I was correct, and the total turnout was the RCP, their sympathizers, and maybe a couple other people. 20 people, max. Probably more like 10-12.
Yeah...no thousands. That will take awhile.
Does that make you happy?
Gee, you would have loved the first picket I ever walked outside a segregated restaurant (in 1961)...only 8 people!
You could have added so much in the way of empty-headed scorn and ridicule to the event.
Thanks for your support. -------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 22, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------
More on the Christian fascists...
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/148607/index.php
(It's "safe to read" -- not written by an RCP member or supporter.)
quote: This "down with Christian Fascism" bit is a poorly thought-out strategy conceived entirely by the RCP. The Party basically split off from the rest of the movement in order to promote this campaign, using approved RCP rhetoric and denouncing anyone who dares question their wisdom.
And, mysteriously, not a whole lot of people responded. Maybe it's because most people just haven't woken up to the wisdom that is Avakian worship. Or maybe it's because this is a poorly conceived strategy that will not result in a successful movement.
This simply isn't going to work. It's not a matter of scorn or ridicule, or my desire to see it fail, it's just the way it is. This campaign is going to fail.
You can either be open to criticism and the possibility that this is in error, or you can continue to simply accused anyone who disagrees with you of "COWARDICE," which I'm sure will greatly bolster your numbers and influence.
I think honest criticism is one thing and Avakian-baiting is quite another. You say this campaign "is going to fail" without any reason offered except that "it's Avakian's idea". You are as obsessed with that guy as any RCPer. If they think he's "Moses", you evidently think he's simply an autocratic moron surrounded by hopeless dupes.
Fair enough, I suppose. The idea being that Avakian has been wrong so many times (which is true) that it's simply "impossible" for him to have a good idea.
If an idea doesn't come from someone on your "approved list", then it couldn't possible be any good, could it?
As I indicated earlier, I am not a follower of St. Avakian and I do not worship at the First Church of Mao.
I am an intransigent opponent of Christian fascism and I am quite willing to give credit where credit is due. The RCP/RCYB are the only ones so far to put up any kind of public opposition to that crap.
And that opposition (like any rebellion) has to begin with someone or some small group.
Now go play with the godsuckers. -------------------------------------------------------------------- First posted at Atlanta IndyMedia on April 22, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================= |
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