Christian Nationalism is Here & People Can Now Communicate in Dreams (Really!)
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Napoleon on the importance of religion in keeping the status quo.
A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture: It’s shocking to me that Christian nationalists don’t realize that their movement rejects the Constitution. The arrogance alone is stunning.
Thousands rally at Christian nationalist event in DC to ‘turn hearts back to God’: The power of self-deception is alive and well as people gather to contradict the teachings of Jesus—without realizing it.
BLIND POLL: Kamala Harris’s economic policy slate more popular than Trump’s: When people are blindly offered economic plans, they mostly pick Harris’ economic plan. Rationalize your way out of that, Trumpites.
Kareem’s Video Break: If I had a friend like this, I’d never move from my window.
Florida threatens news stations over ad in favor of abortion rights measure: Under the dictator-like rule of DeSantis, Florida has become a model of possible dystopian life in the U.S. Florida is now “The Warning State.”
Breakthrough from REMspace: First Ever Communication Between People in Dreams: Yeah, this one is a little scary but also intriguing. Proceed with caution.
What I’m Watching on TV: The rom-com Nobody Wants This is a delight. The second seasons of The Old Man and Tulsa King were huge letdowns after strong first seasons.
Ezra Collective Plays “God Gave Me Feet For Dancing”: Jazz designed to get you off the couch and dance the night away. Now, if someone would just help me up.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
As I have mentioned before, what I like about the concept of religion is the basic desire that people have to figure out how to live cooperatively with others. For many, it’s about the struggle to overcome their greed, envy, and pettiness to become good people who do good things. It’s a wondrous thing that people care so deeply about this. Abraham Lincoln put it nicely when he said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.”
Unfortunately, once the concept of an afterlife was introduced, we altered the motivation from being a good person as its own reward to being someone worthy of a glorious hereafter. That concept raises the stakes astronomically and now religion can become something those in power use to manipulate people. Do what we say or not only risk eternal reward but face eternal punishment.
When the stakes are that high, the original inclination to just be a good person gets lost and now it’s about reward and punishment. Religious leaders now have a product to sell, and as we have seen throughout history, that product makes those in charge rich. That’s why politicians and religious leaders often conspire to use people’s faith as a means to manipulate them for wealth and power. It’s also how they distract people from judging and punishing them for their lies and corruption. Napoleon knew the importance of using religion to control the masses. He knew that if people put aside their fears and rationally assessed those in power, they would soon get rid of them.
We want to feel good about ourselves, about the person we’ve become. That comes about either by being a person who does good or by being a person who convinces themselves they are good despite all evidence to the contrary. The latter definitely don’t want to fact-check themselves. They prefer the fantasy of their own legend.
I prefer the idea of people gathering—whether in a church, at home, or on social media—to discuss their ethical questions and work together to help each other do good, without hope for a reward beyond the act itself. Something along the lines of what the Dalai Lama said, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”