agreed overall. just a tiny departure on a single criterion in the 'what TFG finds genuine/authentic' checklist:
of course i'm long past convinced that he depends on a significant [coalition? plurality? whatever] of Christians as a voter base and/or cover for getting away with so much repugnant shit. and that he benefitted from the guidan…
agreed overall. just a tiny departure on a single criterion in the 'what TFG finds genuine/authentic' checklist:
of course i'm long past convinced that he depends on a significant [coalition? plurality? whatever] of Christians as a voter base and/or cover for getting away with so much repugnant shit. and that he benefitted from the guidance of Norman Vincent frigging Peale. but he also owes more to Roy Cohn than he could probably ever articulate (even if he were to ever begin expressing gratitude to anyone for anything).
anyway, i'm nowhere near being even half-convinced that he genuinely takes anyone seriously on the basis of whether they cleave to any particular religion. i've never seen/heard evidence that he's given more than lip service to any Christian-qua-Christian element/enterprise. which i only really bring up because the idea of him making Christians look bad just always feels like an especially jarring category error. i mean, the converse is not that they make him look bad either - to the contrary, countless hacks with undeserved platforms and influence [Dobson et al.] make him look good [to people who've had their curiosity about the world and how it works absolutely stunted] on the regular.
as an atheist raised Pentecostal-lite, I don't mean to appoint myself judge of who's 'really actually Christian' - I do mostly adhere to the "anyone who explicitly identifies themselves as X deserves to be labeled as X" - but allow for just as much nuance in interpretation as is justified when [e.g.] apologists drop well-poisoning, water-muddying turds like "take it from me - i used to be an atheist!"
the Christian componenr of the phrase is incidental rather than a criterion. Bur of course whatt's hardly coincidental is the sectarian slant of who's been cooking up pipe-nightmares like Project 2025 for the last 50+ years.
agreed overall. just a tiny departure on a single criterion in the 'what TFG finds genuine/authentic' checklist:
of course i'm long past convinced that he depends on a significant [coalition? plurality? whatever] of Christians as a voter base and/or cover for getting away with so much repugnant shit. and that he benefitted from the guidance of Norman Vincent frigging Peale. but he also owes more to Roy Cohn than he could probably ever articulate (even if he were to ever begin expressing gratitude to anyone for anything).
anyway, i'm nowhere near being even half-convinced that he genuinely takes anyone seriously on the basis of whether they cleave to any particular religion. i've never seen/heard evidence that he's given more than lip service to any Christian-qua-Christian element/enterprise. which i only really bring up because the idea of him making Christians look bad just always feels like an especially jarring category error. i mean, the converse is not that they make him look bad either - to the contrary, countless hacks with undeserved platforms and influence [Dobson et al.] make him look good [to people who've had their curiosity about the world and how it works absolutely stunted] on the regular.
as an atheist raised Pentecostal-lite, I don't mean to appoint myself judge of who's 'really actually Christian' - I do mostly adhere to the "anyone who explicitly identifies themselves as X deserves to be labeled as X" - but allow for just as much nuance in interpretation as is justified when [e.g.] apologists drop well-poisoning, water-muddying turds like "take it from me - i used to be an atheist!"
I don't think he has a sincere belief in Christian doctrine. I think he believes in (white) Christian supremacy.
again, I suspect that in his mind
the Christian componenr of the phrase is incidental rather than a criterion. Bur of course whatt's hardly coincidental is the sectarian slant of who's been cooking up pipe-nightmares like Project 2025 for the last 50+ years.