Big Business created a Religion Monster. Now they Don’t Like their Creation. Waaaah.

[riqster]

https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/big-business-created-a-religion-monster-now-they-dont-like-their-creation-waaaah/

Source info at the link.

It’s pretty much like Frankenstein, but with less humanity and pathos. As reported elsewhere, business interests pushed for “one nation under God” and manifold other Constitutional violations in the mid-to-late 1900’s so as to defeat government regulations, earn more profit, and screw their workers. And it worked: national prayer breakfasts, references to God all over our currency and other state and federal artifacts, and so on. “Establishment Clause? It’s just words on a piece of paper, amIrite Bros?” Lots of rights for corporate personhood, and fewer rights for human personhood. All with the Lord’s apparent sanction.

So the government wound up sponsoring, at the behest of the wealthy and powerful, the promulgation of Christianity. But not just ANY old sort of Christianity, oh my goodness gracious no. What we have been saddled with is a shadow theocracy composed of the most patriarchal, repressive, and authoritarian denominations: Catholicism, Baptists, CICU, Nazarenes and the like.

A perfect plan to undermine the Constitutional system, creating a neo-feudal structure in which users can be controlled and unknowingly transformed into modern-day serfs and villeins. And it has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its creators: look at how much steeper the sides of the economic pyramid have become over the past 50+ years, and how much sharper is its point. Look at how many Americans no longer think for themselves; instead, they blindly accept the sermons of their pastors and bleatings of their favorite pundits.

Success, indeed. The rich have gotten much richer, the government has been bought and sold to the rich, and everybody else fights over the few remaining scraps and crusts that fall from the high table down to where we can grasp them. But into every Eden there must slither a snake, and one has done so in this case: the peasantry and the less-intelligent members of the elite are taking their religious indoctrination and using it in ways that Big Biz does not like.

For example, the new “religious freedom restoration” laws that are being pushed around the country. They are not that much different than many other religious laws that have been passed over the years, but these are costing Big Biz money. So Big Biz wants the laws rolled back, and the rabble are resisting.

Dr. Frankenstein’s monster turned on him, just as the neo-feudal schemes of the 1% are turning around to bite them in their corpulent kazoos. It’s instructive, and weirdly satisfying, to see evil marring evil. But the glee one feels at the discomfiture of the corrupt is tempered with the knowledge that we are still in chains forged by decades of slow, steady undermining of our system of government. And the additional awareness that it is going to be far beyond difficult to undo what we have allowed to be done to us in the name of God.

The Religion Monster is running amok, and lots of we lowly types are being trampled thereby. Time to grab the torches and pitchforks, and deal once and for all with the monster and its mad creators. And that soon.

[Iliyah]

1. "Tea Baggers"

And they are gonna get their "own" presidential candidate. Should I care, no and yes.

These MFers are crazy with lots cash and the corporate media, hate radio and RW social media in their pockets. So while Dems are feuding among themselves, they plan to waltz into the WH.

[riqster]

4. Divide and conquer. Sadly effective.

[jeff47]

12. Yeah, the Republicans are so organized this election.

The problem Republicans created with Citizens United is now there is not one backroom selecting their nominee. There's 12. And they're all selecting different people.

[blm]

2. Been saying this since the 90s.

They used their grip on corporate media as they created and nourished this beast.

[riqster]

5. Yep. Theocracy R Us.

[Dirty Socialist]

3. It's gonna backfire in the elections

Less people are going to church. LGBT rights are more popular than ever. The religious right cult will be an albatros in 2016, and even more so in 2020.

[riqster]

6. Here's hoping.

Spreading the word makes it more likely.

[MindPilot]

7. Billy Graham made his bones being an anti-union shill for big business.

I'm reading Kevin Kruse's book, Under God. Fascinating history of how business leaders collaborated with religious leaders on a massive marketing campaign to excoriate the New Deal and bring everyone into the fold of free market capitalism, just as God intended.

Billy Graham got his start by preaching the anti-union message to the masses and telling workers that "ganging up" (Graham's euphemism for collective bargaining) on the people who were kind enough to allow you to work yourself to death for slave wages was a sin in the eyes of God. "You should submit to your employer as you submit to Christ" Graham would preach.

A very enlightening read about how we got where we are today and the backstory of prosperity evangelism.

[riqster]

8. Indeed. Great book, I reference it at the blog site.

Scary shit.

[raccoon]

9. thanks for posting that. I'll look into that book. nt

[jwirr]

16. Thank you - thank you. I have been searching for the so called theology of many churches in the

south against the unions. Old Billy obviously did not read Proverbs.

I agree with the OP - it is the rw churches & capitalism. Both working together. But I think people are beginning to wake up. At least I hope so.

[hifiguy]

29. That one is already on my reading list.

Sounds like a very insightful book.

[raouldukelives]

10. And it's that crazy prosperity gospel brand of Jesus. Those who preach prosperity, prosper.

A complete fabrication of the desires of the corporate elite coupled with the fear a pastor has of saying things that make them uncomfortable on Sunday mornings and cause them to leave the donation plate empty which fulfills the gospel.

[riqster]

13. Yep. A diabolical conflation.

[Arugula Latte]

11. They want a gullible, ignorant, anti-science population that believes in magic and supernatural

beings. A brainwashed populace is so much easier to manipulate. If you really think an invisible robed man in the sky takes prayer calls like a PBS telethon and a dead carpenter born of a sky god-raped virgin from the Judea of 2,000 years ago will be returning to Earth to suck believers up into the sky, you will swallow any rightwing bullshit propaganda -- the poor are greedy and lazy, capitalism is always right, women who want equal rights are strident feminazis, global warming isn't true, on and on ...

[riqster]

14. They want the dark ages type of peasantry.

Smart enough to work, but not smart enough to think.

[Arugula Latte]

26. Yes, that is the ideal for them.

And I'm cynical enough to believe that the public school system in this country has been defunded and shat upon in the past few decades to achieve this very aim.

[riqster]

28. Right there with ya.

[hifiguy]

30. As George Carlin said,

"Just smart enough to work the machines and fill out the forms but too dumb to ask questions."

[riqster]

31. Just so.

[safeinOhio]

15. I see my job as turning

The cry and fear of socialism into the cry of the real threat of fascism

[riqster]

19. A good job it is.

[jwirr]

17. Who are the CICU?

[riqster]

18. Church of Christ in Christian Union

They do altar calls at funerals. Cray-cray.

[jwirr]

21. Thank you. Have never heard of them.

[Initech]

20. And they would have got away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling liberals!

/Scooby Doo

[riqster]

25. To a large extent, they've gotten away with it.

[Tsiyu]

22. This is why the South will never 'rise again'

People here are told they're worthless, they don't deserve anything and they should live lives of misery and pain. And these suckers buy it.

I think a lot of the posturing by Southern males - that macho, gun-slinging, rugged individualist stance they adopt as if each one is the most fearsome warrior on earth - is to make up for the fact that the corporations and rich bossmen have them by the balls.

Oh yeah: Southern men are gonna take over the world - as soon as they screw up enough courage to ask their boss for a living wage.

But they'd rather let their kids go hungry than demand decent pay. While their governor here is worth $3 billion.

Because they've been led to believe they are worthless pieces of scum, workers here all argue AGAINST being paid more! They hate themselves, and it is extremely sad.

[Arugula Latte]

23. I think that is behind a lot of the racism and misogyny of some--not all--white working class men.

They feel powerless, but they think that they naturally deserve more than other people because they're white men. So looking down on women, gays, and non-whites gives them a sense of superiority and lets them stomp their own insecurities and sense of inferiority back down deep in their psyches. Fox News recognized that a long time ago and feeds that mentality endlessly.

[riqster]

24. Amazing what propaganda can accomplish.

[gordianot]

27. It worked well in the 1860's why not today?

Little more than indentured servants bought fully into the same arguments that Southern rights included human ownership and they never had to contend with the idea that corporations are people.

[hifiguy]

32. LBJ had this figured out 50 years ago

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[Tsiyu]

33. ^^THIS^^

they blame Obama for everything here.

It's as if they don't have a governor or a legislature in Tennessee. The poor idjits wouldn't know a piece of legislation from a Vienna sausage, but they feel qualified to exclaim that it's all Obama's fault that they aren't doing better.

Very strange people here, who like being shit on by Governor Haslam. Haven't heard a one complain about how he gives cash subsidies to huge corporations ( and it's illegal for him to tell us how much and to whom our Boy King Haslam bequeaths these entitlements ) or how he interferes in worker/employer relations ( VW factory, anyone? ) or how he sucks the dicks of the Koch brothers.

If the Koch Brothers tell Boy King Haslam to fuck over every citizen of the state, Billy Boy gets on his knees and fellates them first, just so they know how much he loves them.

So the people of Tennessee do not care that two rich fuckers from out West are deciding what bills get passed in their state. As long as there's a negro in the white house, it's all HIS fault, dontcha know.

Try to explain to them how laws work, and how Obama does not decide what happens in this state - the TN legislature and the Governor decide what happens here - and it's just too much fucking work for them to process that.

Everything wrong here is Obama's fault. He is the debbull who hates the Baby Jesus and makes their lives hard.

You just cannot fix stupid.

But message to TN: Play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

[Duppers]

34. $3 billion? You have to be referring to Haslam.

Wiki sez Haslem is worth only $2 billion. Still the richest politician in the whole U.S.

I know the state well enough to know everything you've stated is true. It's about misplaced anger and can be traced to down to their religions. Religions where children are brainwashed into being committed life-long non-thinkers. Dang sad and infuriating at the same time.

[Tsiyu]

35. Indeed. His family's Pilot Gas company has been

involved in plenty of shady business practices, but the people of TN act like they have no clue who the guy is.

I have never heard one single Tennessean ( in person ) even mention the guy. The ignoramuses around here seem to not believe they even have a governor.

Then we've got Scott DesJarlais, our "family values" teabagger who forced his wife to have abortions, slept with his patients and provided narcotics to them. HE loves Baby Jesus while Obama hates Baby Jesus.

When you are a Southern Christian, as long as you admit that you are a worthless piece of shit who deserves nothing, and you accept the Lard and Savior into your heart, you can get away with murder, rape, cheating on your spouse, etc. and you are "redeemed."

So the good Christian people here embrace the philandering, hypocritical, evil DesJarlais with open arms, as long as he CLAIMS to lurve the Bobble and he hates that Kenyan, Muslim, Marxist, Socialist, Fascist black guy who has usurped "their" Big House.

Fortunately, I have a few friends who see the light, and we can vent to each other about the pathetic, uneducated rubes who haven't the first clue about how their own state's gubbmint works, but who are certain that Obama is to blame for everything wrong in their lives.