Apparently on even the most stalwart supposed right wingers.
Having spent most of my adult life associating with professing Christians, of which I am one, most of the people I’m acquainted with are of that stripe. Not a bad thing. Almost everyone I know is trustworthy, dependable, and generous. It’s been mostly a pleasure to be associated with a group that for the most part displays those attributes. Of course none of us are perfect……
So what I’m about to say is difficult, but it is the truth.
I’m not a fan of social media. In fact, I wouldn’t even have a Facebook or Twitter account except in the world of business and website search engine optimization, they are essential tools in driving traffic to your site and therefore your business. So I reluctantly use them and log on somewhat frequently to upload new content and check requests, likes and posts.
I accepted friend requests early on (I don’t anymore), and because of my nature, I haven’t been able to bring myself to defriend them. Don’t want them to feel bad, you know. Must be my Norwegian heritage. I hope I didn’t commit a micro-aggression there.
So when I log on to my account (you can’t have merely a business account, you must have it under your personal account), I indulge my guilty pleasure by scrolling down through the posts. All the while muttering that I have better things to do. Recipes, cute pictures of kids, feel-good slogans, heart warming stories and the like. You know what I’m talking about. I’m not sure why, but there are posts from people I don’t know, but assume are friends of my friends. But there’s one thing that really bugs me.
If you’ve been following my blog, you know where I stand on the US government and their military interventionism around the world. No secret there. What I have difficulty with on Facebook is the seemingly universal adulation for all things military. Hardly a day goes by where there is not some post usually accompanied by a graphic on how I should thank the troops for their “service”. Or how I wouldn’t have my freedoms if it weren’t for the troops. Or how they fight “over there” to keep us safe “over here”. There’s a lot of praise for Law Enforcement putting their lives on the line on Facebook as well (a job that is safer than being a truck driver, a logger, a fisherman, construction worker among many others. Police don’t make the top ten) but I’ll save that for another post.
Last time I checked we had an all volunteer military. (Cops too) So why the fawning over someone doing a job that they’re paid for (very well I might add) and they willingly accepted? It takes about ten seconds to completely think that concept through and come up with the same conclusion I have. So why do professing Christians apparently subscribe to what is clearly propaganda?
There’s only one explanation I can come up with. Nationalism. It’s a powerful devotion and our leaders know it. It is drilled into us from kindergarten on in the government schools. Malleable children pledge allegiance to a government that from its inception began to veer away from its founding principles. They will buy into the official narrative almost every time. It comes from all directions. Textbooks, media, even the popular culture. It is ingrained in the societal fabric. These children become adults. Could that be the problem?
The Bellamy Salute used for the pledge of allegiance up until 1942.
As a group, the Evangelical Right largely believes the U.S. is exceptional. This is an arrogant, elitist position to hold. The interesting thing is that Jesus eschewed the government narrative and policies whether it was the Jewish leadership (whom He referred to. as hypocrites) or the Roman government, an empire with surprisingly parallel attributes to the U.S. government. Why do Evangelical Christians widely accept the government message that we need to always be at war? The only answer I can come up with is that they have been propagandized. What other answer is there?
Answer these questions and they’ll tell you if you’ve bought into the official government narrative:
1. Did Lincoln want to see slavery abolished?
Answer: No. In fact the emancipation proclamation was a war strategy aimed at building an insurrection among the blacks in the rebel states. Lincoln was actively planning to recolonize all the blacks because he didn’t believe they should live along side the “superior race”.
Most people believe Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator”. Nothing could be further from the truth. However that is what most are taught as children.
Lincoln was not unlike the neocons of today. The war was not about slavery, but protecting the tariffs that flowed disproportionately to the north aiding the Northern crony capitalists of the day that had Lincoln in their back pocket. Up to 750,000 men died for the enrichment of a few wealthy men. Sound familiar?
This is established, accepted and recorded history. You just won’t hear it from the government.
2. Who shot JFK?
Answer: Clearly not Oswald. It only takes one viewing of the Zapruder film to rule that out. If you believe the Warren Commission then you’re way off. But if you don’t accept the official government story, you’re branded a conspiracy theorist. (A termed coined by the CIA to discredit people who disagreed with them. This is a fact, look it up.)
3. Was Osama Bin Laden behind 9/11?
Answer: Unlikely. If you believe the 9/11 Commission report, you’d better keep reading. Again, there is no shortage of verifiable contradictions to the official story.
4. Were there WMD’s in Iraq?
Answer: No. But you knew that one. George “Dubya” Bush said there was though. I even bought that whopper. Iraq was a sham perpetuated by Dick Cheney and company to pacify their Oligarch masters. Halliburton made $40 billion during the Iraq war. Again, this is not some theory, all verifiable fact. War is a profitable business.
5. Who created ISIS and how are they funded?
Answer: The U.S. Government. This is now clear. The U.S. armed and trained this group through indirect means no doubt, but without the U.S. there would be no ISIS. Now Turkey, a NATO ally, is shooting down Russian airplanes, apparently in an effort to protect ISIS? Why would that be? It is now coming out Turkey has been buying oil from ISIS. This whole thing is some sort of a sick joke foisted on us by the same people you give almost half your money to. Stay tuned. World War Three is a distinct possibility. Do you still want to continue to send our young men to fight these needless interventions?
The U.S. military is an arm of the banksters and the industrialists who buy politicians like the prostitutes they are. It tantalizes impressionable young men with phrases like “Be all you can be”, “Army of One” and “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure”. Then when they’re all used up, they send many of them home missing limbs and most with minds seared with horrible scenes they’ll never forget. The suicide rate among veterans is astounding. Young male veterans commit suicide at a rate three times higher than the civilian population. That’s a very telling statistic. Think about that the next time you see a slogan praising the military.