by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
June 7, 2010
Tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, have begun to dismantle the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. They are creating a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a recalcitrant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their perverted and heretical interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy the mass movement are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. All will be purged.
[…]
Copyright © 2010 Truthdig
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has written nine books, including Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009) and War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2003).
see
On the edge with Max Keiser: Gerald Celente on Fascism, the Tea Party protests, Israel & Iran
Chris Hedges: Is America Yearning for Fascism?
Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’ by Chris Hedges
The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London
Chris Hedges: Are the two main US parties just proto-fascist misfits?
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We need to stop calling these right wing extremists “Christian” anything. They are far from Christian. I agree with much of the article, but I grow weary, as a Christian that these extremists would prefer to eradicate, of the application of the word Christian to any faction of the far right. There are no perfect Christians (just as there are no perfect atheists, Muslims, Hindus, etc.), but we need to stop lumping all of Christianity together with these wingnuts.
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You should use more quotation marks. FOX cable may rant that the Obama administration is filled with commie fascist “liberals” but I take great offense at any group that panders to transglobal free trade corporatism and follows in the footsteps of the Bush regime on issues like illegal wiretapping like the Obama administration does being called “liberal” in the sense that an educated American might refer to the Enlightenment. Like Thom Hartmann says, there are no “liberals” with any power in American today. There are only “moderates,” the “right,” and the “Reich.”
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Hitler and Mussolini had the support of the Vatican.
Look it up. Many Nazis leaders were at least
nominal Christians.
Alright, somebody needs to take a chill pill. Seriously. This is not logical, this is not rational, it reeks of something written by fundamentalist dogmatic religious alarmists, or at the very least an easy to knock down strawman.
The American military is more of a threat than all of them put together.
Enough of this Harvard Theological School BS. It’s the Central banks who are screwing everybody.
Nazis were an unpopular minority in Germany, too… until economic collapse occurred. Bolsheviks were an unpopular minority in Russia…until economic collapse, coupled with a World War that decimated their numbers, occurred. We’re told that Islamic extremists are an ‘extreme minority’ yet they threaten and intimidate the entire world.
Excellent. I agree with you completely. As a 57 year old native Texan raised Methodist, I have witnessed a complete change in religious thought in this state. If the southern US is not a theocracy in 10 years, it will surprise me.
You can’t use “Christian” and “Fascist” in the same title. Did people forget what Fascism IS? Fascism clearly states that religion should not be a part of anyone’s life. Fascism is AGAINST religion. So, the title does not make coherent sense.
Furthermore, you deliberately attack specific individuals/groups in your article, but didn’t you say that these “Christian Fascists” are doing that as well? You judge and discriminate against certain people(s) just as you say the “Christian Fascists” do. You tried getting your point across by doing exactly what they do.
However, I did find the first bit about this whole movement interesting, but if you want to write an article about such a topic, keep it strictly factual and leave your biased opinions to yourself, lest you subjugate yourself to hypocrisy.
Best regards,
Tyler
right on dude . i am getting ready to write an article for this blog about Christophobia in america . it is rampant . and Hedges is just fanning the flames with irresponsible titles . the religiuos right is old news . it is the pc left that has to own up to Christophobia , which is as bad as homophobia .
Not true. First of all, there have been various forms of fascism: some fascist states have colluded with the religious and some have persecuted the religious. The term “fascism” itself has been the subject of much debate, so it’s not as if there’s a “fascist manifesto” sitting around somewhere that spouts anti-religious views. One definition calls fascism, “a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy, but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.” The only thing that’s missing from this equation is really a “mass-based party.” Could this be the Tea Party? I’d argue, there certainly are elements of racism and militancy, as well as the cult of purity that is fundamental Christianity.
Chris Hedges took the words out of my mouth, and said them much better than I could. But, let me add, that there is no counterweight to the Fascists right now. People of the reality based world must take bold actions: shut down government buildings and the major transportation systems; demand the resignation of the President, his Cabinet, and Congress; demand new elections with ALL ballots being “hand counted” (NO COMPUTER COUNTING); end ALL “revolving door” appointments to government jobs; dismantle the “too big to fail” corporations, and eliminate “corporate person- hood”; bring ALL of our military home from ALL foreign bases… etc. It’s now or never!
It’s happened before, they called it the crusades, and Inquisitions.
What Mass sensibilities? How many brownshirts did Hitler initially have? I’m Hedging my bets, with Chris!
Thank you for the warning.your article is one every rational person should read and take to heart.I have been preaching for years now that our Christian Fundamentalist are more dangerous to America then the moslem Fundamentalist because they are right here taking advantage of our Democracy to destroy our Democracy.At a critical time in our history when we needed a strong prsident to fight the Fundamentalist we instead elected a man who goes along with most of their demands like charter schools,the supreme power of the corporations,lack of respect for the constitution.,government supported church organizations to provide aid.We are well on the road to doom and there is nobody to lead us out of it.
vaya con dios, muchacho! 🙂
They are an extreme minority. Proposing a conspiracy theory of this magnitude subrogates the sensibilities of the masses.
They are more than an extreme minority. They have a foothold in the Air Force Academy; the Sojourners Movement in the armed forces aims at bringing people back to Christ; Hitler’s merry men were also an extreme minority who were able to get what they wanted through the complete breakdown of parliamentary government thanks to deadlock.
We are halfway there. People in this country view congress as an ineffective, corrupt tool of corporate dominance. Jobs in any sector except the government are non-existent. The economy is headed for a double-dip recession, if not an outright depression. The coming year will determine whether a charismatic leader can surface to unite the disenchanted masses and get himself elected. Sorry to sound sexist, but it won’t be a woman.
You show me people who believe they are doing the will of God, and I will show you people who are willing to commit the most vile atrocities on others who don’t look like them, or sound like them, or believe like them.