Americans are fond of calling people Good Samaritans.
The point of the Good Samaritan parable is the Samaritan stopped to help a person he was supposed to hate, someone from another culture, one considered his enemy, and he helped after people considered allies had refused to help.
There is a difference between a good person and a Good Samaritan.
Today De Santis called a man a Good Samaritan because he choked another man to death.
Members of St. Marys five-person city commission, all of whom are members of an extreme Catholic religious sect, have threatened to pull the lease of the public library if they don't remove all LGBTQ+ and other "socially divisive" books from the shelves. Their efforts have drawn a warning from the ACLU of Kansas.
#Hatespeech#religion#Ethiopia
THREAD: I know the adjustment period, where half of our Mastodon posts are about Twitter is long past...but my Globe and Mail story on war crimes published last week highlighted major failures of the social media giants including X & Facebook (what's new?) & their refusal to moderate dangerous speech in non English languages. For non Amharic speaking friends, this thread should be revelatory of the sort of inflammatory material going viral in Ethiopian circles.
I am reading an article about how every time ancient art depicts a goddess as sexually alluring, they always get labeled a "goddess of fertility". Even when there is no indication of children, pregnancy, or anything fertile.
The article argues that some goddesses were deities of sex and pleasure, without the maternal fertility aspect.
I am like 🤯 🤯 I have a whole entire archaeology degree and we never addressed this...
Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.
Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.
Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.
Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
#Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
#Fraudulent#Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."
Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God…
"Ultra-Orthodox members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition want to expand the powers of all-male rabbinical courts, and to bar women and men from mixing in many public arenas. ...
The Israeli news media has been full of reports in recent months about incidents seen as discriminatory."
#culture#books#history#censorship#politics#religion The quote is actually a paraphrase of a passage from a book called The Book of the Dead by P.D. James
• The original passage reads:
You should never trust people who have only one book. It doesn't matter whether it's Marx or Hitler or the Bible; if they have only one book, they're dangerous. And they've probably never read it anyway.
I just read an unsettling story about the continuing knock-on effects of the right's all out war on trans people.
In the Beechmont neighborhood of Louisville, KY, an open-air market has lost its manager and perhaps its future existence after a Baptist pastor objected to how the marketer, a transfemme, was dressed. #trans#news#journalism#religion
Join us #Monday for the theme #religion and #faith in #mythology. Which myths feature religious rituals or faith in gods or goddesses? Tell us a story in your toot and tag us with #MythologyMonday. See you tomorrow!
..."sie wollte nicht dazu beitragen, die Konkurrenz zum Angebot kirchlicher Gottesdienste zu vergrößern".
Kann man sich im Jahr 2023 nicht ausdenken. Weil irgendwelche Leute ihre #Religion ausüben, sollen alle anderen keine Bibliothek nutzen dürfen? Echtes #Mittelalter. Seit 1386.
«The religion of techno-optimism:
Tech billionaires are using faith to solidify their power»
– by @parismarx
This is also the reason why many people fall for it blindly and also why it is a secure income for those who sell it but are not necessarily sure what they are selling.
I've long felt that 'Potato Jesus'/'Monkey Christ' has not received the respect he rightly deserves, so I have immortalised him in a medieval stained-glass window...
"For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his spud?" #graphicdesign#meme#potatojesus#art#religion
“‘Although race is often cited as the central cleavage in America, the single most powerful predictor of #voting intention is #religion,’ the Economist noted. ‘A model that knows nothing save for respondents’ religious affiliations can correctly identify which of the two leading candidates they prefer 62% of the time.’”
A Kansas town is threatening again to kick out the public library unless it removes LGBTQ+ books (www.kcur.org)
Members of St. Marys five-person city commission, all of whom are members of an extreme Catholic religious sect, have threatened to pull the lease of the public library if they don't remove all LGBTQ+ and other "socially divisive" books from the shelves. Their efforts have drawn a warning from the ACLU of Kansas.
UK teachers want cash skills to replace religious studies lessons, study finds (uk.news.yahoo.com)
BRITAIN wants personal finance lessons to replace religious studies on the school curriculum, new national research reveals.
Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup (thehill.com)
Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God…