a mystical möbius — curating facts, ideas, text, and media to create a contemplative space.

.

~~~~

Grievance Grift [GG]

Grievance Grift (part 1)   ||    GG (part 2)   ||   GG (part 3)   ||    GG (part 4)

.

.

I created the “GG HACK” meme to go with what I’m treating in today’s piece. So, it’s the cover illustration again, this time with this note to your attention:

I made the meme with considerable care. If you look really closely at the text under “Political Technologies” you’ll see it reads, in part: “The value and importance of the Word of God cannot be over-estimated at the present time.”

While I’d suggest that’s true everyday, the sad reality is that this admonition applies here to the particular adapted form of political technologies [PT] used by DJT in his MAGA campaign—e.g., a twisted American jeremiad (see Scientific American article):

What distinguished Trump’s version from the original Puritan one is, first, that the failings are a matter of power and wealth rather than of moral purpose and, second, that they are caused by the depredations of others rather than the weaknesses of the in-group (that is, his supporters).

.

.

So, January 6, 2021 was the smoking-gun evidence of the impact and results of DJT‘s political technologies, e.g., some of the fruit of his PT formed an unholy intersection of militant White supremacist extremists, terroristic White Christian nationalists, and DJT‘s MAGA campaign [7:55]:

.

 

The DJT/MAGA cult

What better way to gain control than to tap into these four (B.I.T.E.) cult channels by using religion? Aligning MAGA‘s politics, and jeremiad, along the contours of right-wing Christian grievance was a hyper-cynical, yet effective move for DJT. Witness from the video above (@ 7:55), self-styled Q-anon shaman, Jacob Chansley, prayed thanks for god’s “divine white light of love…for filling this chamber with patriots”—e.g., he thanks god for justifying the Capitol assault!

..

Hyper-cynically, DJT leveraged the grievance of the Christian right into a twisted jeremiad that pitted MAGA “us” against all abortionist, foreign, globalist, socialist, communist, woke-ist, et al., “them” (e.g., anyone not-loyal to DJT). In Black vs White protest, my January 10, 2021, a mystical möbius piece, I wrote:

However, some White Christian nationalist groups are violently militant. They act-out and serve as avatars for the system of White supremacist racism—a system that has always been held in place by cruel violence.

.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

.

No doubt, many quickly want to object, and say:

“Wait! Those riotous criminals may have displayed a misguided expression of MAGA, but the sad, tragic attack on the Capitol completely misrepresents DJT and his true cause! Those riotous criminals in no way reflected the vast majority of good, law-abiding DJT/MAGA supporters!”

Another Big Lie?

Whenever I call out Senator Marshall on his The-facebook page with regard to his support of DJT‘s “stolen election” disinformation, his supporters—well, those who don’t blame January 6 on BLM and Antifa—are always very quick with something like:

“Those riotous criminals (MAGA-terrorists) in no way reflected the vast majority of good, law-abiding DJT/MAGA supporters!”

“In no way?” Really?

.

Invoking an interesting first-person narrative approach, D. L. Mayfield creatively explores a problem that has troubled me for over four years. The Mayfield article was recently published in The Christian Century. It is entitled:  “The good White Christian women of Nazi Germany.”

Despite what you’ve read, most of them didn’t resist.

Mayfield compares the evil of German Christian complicity with the Third Reich and the evil of American Christian complicity with DJT/MAGA. Obviously, her use of the term “good” in the title (and article) is meant to be in-your-face irony. Mayfield writes [my emphasis]:

Men—the generals, the guards—had been interviewed so much that the phrase “I was only following orders” became a part of our cultural understanding of World War II. But what about the women? Owings wondered. Why did so many good Christian German women support the Nazi Party?

The truth is, good Christian women supported Nazism be­cause it benefited them, and it seemed to reinforce the cultural values that gave meaning and purpose to their lives. They believed God was in control and had blessed their culture and their leader for special greatness—and that outsiders and foreign influence needed to be subjugated or eradicated in order for Germans to protect themselves.

.

And from this morning [4/18/2021]…

tl;dr

Senator Roger Marshall, et al., have adopted DJT‘s political technologies that are so hyper-cynical as to leverage god for political exploit—e.g., hacking religious lifestyles. Resist.

Next week: GG (part 6) …. Come and meet Putin’s political technologist, Vladislav Surkov:

.

 

[this post approx. 800 words (3 min. read)]

Your thoughts? 

I never know what I’ve said till I hear the response. What did you hear me say? 

.