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Nov 30 • 24 tweets • 9 min read
#THREAD

Christian fascism is a far-right political ideology that denotes an intersection between (neo)fascism & Christianity.

It is sometimes referred to as #Christofascism, a neologism coined in 1970 by the liberation theologian Dorothee Sölle.
Most fascist movements portray themselves as defenders of Christianity & the traditional Christian family against atheists & amoral humanists. Modern #neofascists claim "Judeo-Christian values must be defended", or are "under attack from western liberals".
This was true of Catholic fascist movements in Poland, Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, & Brazil.

We see the rise of divisive, intolerant, nationalistic & fundamentalist #Christofascist rhetoric in the USA, & now here in the UK too.
In France, Valois, Taittinger, Renaud, Bucard, & La Rocque were Catholics, & Doriot appealed to Catholic sentiments after he became a fascist. Although Maurras was an agnostic, he defended the Catholic church as a pillar of social order: many Catholics were among his followers.
The fascist Robert Brasillach described the Spanish Civil War as a conflict between Catholic fascism & atheistic Marxism.

Drieu La Rochelle rejected liberal Catholicism but praised the “virile, male Catholicism” of the Middle Ages & the “warrior Christianity of the Crusades.”
Although fascists in Germany & Italy also posed as protectors of the church, their ideologies contained many elements that conflicted with traditional Christian beliefs, & their policies were sometimes opposed by church leaders.
The Nazis criticized the Christian ideals of meekness & guilt on the grounds that they repressed the violent instincts necessary to prevent inferior races from dominating Aryans.

Today's potential #Christofascists too reject meekness & guilt.
Martin Bormann, the second most powerful official in the Nazi Party after 1941, argued that Nazi & Christian beliefs were “incompatible,” primarily because the essential elements of Christianity were “taken over from Judaism.”
Despite the many anti-Christian elements in Nazism, the vast majority of Nazis considered themselves to be religious, & most German antisemites supported Christianity purged of its “Jewish” elements.
The pro-Nazi German Christians held that Christ had been a blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan, & male members called themselves “SS men for Christ.”

In many German families children began their prayers before meals with the phrase, “Führer, my Führer, bequeathed to me by the Lord.”
In Italy, Mussolini signed a concordat with the papacy, the Lateran Treaty (1929), which, among other things, made Roman Catholicism the state religion of Italy and mandated the teaching of Catholic doctrine in all public primary and secondary schools.
Later, many practicing Catholics joined the conservative wing of the Fascist Party, but in 1931, Pope Pius XI denounced fascism’s “revolution which snatches the young from the Church & from Jesus Christ, &which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence & irreverence.”
Chris Hedges & David Neiwert contend that the origins of American #Christofascism date back to the Great Depression, when Americans first espoused forms of fascism that were "explicitly 'Christian' in nature".

archive.org/details/elimin…
Hedges writes that "fundamentalist preachers such as Gerald B Winrod & Gerald LK Smith fused national & Christian symbols to advocate the country's first crude form of Christofascism".

simonandschuster.com/books/American…
In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy, arguing that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism & a hatred for open society.
Hedges argues the Christian right has lured millions of Americans, who rightly feel abandoned & betrayed by the political system, from the reality-based world to one of magic — to a childlike belief that God has a plan & Jesus will guide & protect them.

popmatters.com/christian-fasc…
The 1980s saw the founding of the Council for National Policy & the Moral Majority, two organizations which carried on the tradition, while the patriot & militia movements represented efforts to mainstream the philosophy in the 1990s.

brill.com/view/journals/…
Incidents of anti-abortion violence, including the Atlanta & Birmingham bombings committed by Eric Rudolph, & the assassination of George Tiller at his Wichita, Kansas church in 2009, have also been considered acts which were motivated by #Christofascism.

thestar.com/opinion/column…
More recently, parallels between #QAnon & the history of #Christofascist ideology have become more apparent: Christofascist organizations like the Christian Nationalist Crusade explicitly rail against Communism, a “one world government,” & immigration.

bylinetimes.com/2021/06/09/the…
Hedge's pessimistic but well-informed assertion is that: "In the end, even the liberal class will choose fascism over empowering the left wing & organised labor. The only thing the ruling oligarchy truly cares about is unfettered exploitation & profit."

salon.com/2022/06/28/chr…
"They, like the industrialists in Nazi Germany, will happily make an alliance with the Christian fascists, no matter how bizarre and buffoonish, and embrace the blood sacrifices of the condemned."

#NeverForget #NeverAgain

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More from @docrussjackson

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Dec 1
#THREAD

'Divide & rule' is an effective political strategy.

"Far-right populist parties thrive whenever there is a crisis. They either construct or exaggerate a crisis, or instrumentalize existing crises." It's all they've got - but around 30% of voters fall for it every time. ImageImageImage
'Divide & rule' (Latin: divide et impera), is gaining & maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into smaller groups, by turning them against each other: individually, these groups then have less power than the one implementing the strategy. ImageImage
It is a political strategy to gain or retain power, & it works primarily by cultivating disunity among potential opponents, often by co-opting some individuals & groups, while excluding others.

It often involves scapegoating particular identities - as the Nazis did with Jews. Image
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Dec 1
#THREAD

Smith & Engel showed 120 men a photo of a car. For half the subjects, the photograph showed only the car, whereas for the other subjects a sexually objectified woman features. After examining the picture, participants were asked to evaluate the car on several dimensions. Image
Those who saw the car with the attractive female next to it rated the car as significantly more appealing & better designed. They also estimated it to be more expensive & faster.
When the authors later asked a subset of the participants of their ratings had been influenced by the presence of the model, 22 out of 23 denied it.

One respondent claimed, “I don’t let anything but the thing itself influence my judgments. The other is just #propaganda.”
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Nov 30
#THREAD

Unlike damaged Kanye “death con 3 on Jewish people” West & loads of cowardly anonymous far-right trolls, Donald Trump & West's new mate White Supremacist Nick Fuentes is (at least for now) even too much for "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk's @Twitter.
Scott Wiener is a California state senator who represents San Francisco and northern San Mateo County. A day after Elon Musk reactivated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter account, she tweeted that he was a “communist groomer,” presumably because Wiener is gay Jewish Democrat. Image
The thread that follows quotes extensively from Wiener's article, here:

technologyreview.com/2022/11/30/106…
Read 32 tweets
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Nov 30
#THREAD

Non dom billionaire Jonathan Harmsworth's DMG Media & Harmsworth Media are the media subsidiaries of DMGT, & publish the following titles:

i
Metro
Daily Mail
MailOnline
New Scientist
Mail on Sunday
Irish Mail on Sunday

#EnoughIsEnough
DMG Media is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media, & other subsidiaries of Daily Mail & General Trust.

Its portfolio regularly reach 63% of the GB adult population every month.
The London Evening Standard was owned by DMGT, then sold to Lebedev in 2009. DMGT maintains a 5% share.

On 27 April 2007, Associated Newspapers was ordered to pay undisclosed damages to Hugh Grant.
Read 12 tweets
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Nov 30
'Critical theories of neoliberalism (CTNL) & their significance for left politics', by Matthew Lepori.

A thoughtful discussion article attempting to synthesise a very wide-ranging critique of #neoliberalism in order to build left-alliances.
It's not open access, I'll just thread a few extracts.

There is no battle between those studying #neoliberalism as a political economy (‘Marxian’) & those studying it as a governmental project designed to constitute particular types of social & political subjects (Foucauldian).
Some analysts treat neoliberalism as an ideology & class project emerging in reaction to falling rates of profit, this economic ‘trigger’ is not explained through structural-economic contradictions but through politics eg strikes, inflationary policies, & an open global economy.
Read 53 tweets
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Nov 29
Ignore the divisive reactionary dickheads demonising & scapegoating Albanians.

FUN FACT: 53% of Albanian asylum seekers' claims were granted in an initial decision in the year to June 2022 (the share is expected to increase after accounting for appeals).

britannica.com/place/Albania
The largest nationality crossing the channel in small boats in the first half of 2022 was Albanians.

In the second quarter of the year, Albanians also became the top country of nationality for asylum applicants (3,289 people).

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/a-tale-o…
In the year ending June 2022, a majority (53%) of Albanian asylum applicants were successful at initial decision, and the share is expected to increase after accounting for appeals. This compares to 76% positive initial decisions for all nationalities.
Read 4 tweets

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