On three years since the Jan. 6th Insurrection
Between the rise of hate crimes nationwide and the public reveal of former sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's contacts, we're moving closer to fascism, and you'd better be paying attention.
If you’re not worried about our country and democracy yet, your head is in the sand.
We know the extremist White Christian Nationalist ideology was on full display during Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6th, 2021. (I wrote about it last year.)
This extremist ideology — which is a socio-religious cover for Neo-Nazi/White Nationalist beliefs — has resulted in:
the most fascist Republican Party platform to date
Getting a pathological narcissist, Donald Trump, elected to the highest office in the Executive Branch, the U.S. Presidency. (Narcissism exists on a spectrum, and according to the previous article I’ve linked in this bullet-pointed section, narcissism can range “from arrogance and entitlement to gratuitous need for attention to Machiavellian exploitation of and willful aggression towards others reminiscent of psychopathy.” Clinical Psychologist and narcissism expert, Dr. Ramani Durvasula, says the further along the spectrum a person is, the more damage he, she, they bring(s) due to lack of empathy or remorse. Trump is further along the spectrum, which in my opinion, is a public health crisis because this is the territory where sociopathy and psychopathy reside.)
An insurrection that took place in one of the most vital parts of our democracy’s checks and balances system — the U.S. Capitol or the legislative branch — an act that resulted in seven people dying
Legislation that peels away from fair and honest election practices
Rises in hate crimes against minorities
510 anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation
Pauses in advances in women’s healthcare (which is already fraught with issues)
Threats to our Bill of Rights, including the Freedom of Religion clause in the First Amendment
Censorship of higher education and education in general (which has only worsened since the start of the Israel-Hamas War)
A mostly majority Conservative U.S. Supreme Court (that Trump himself — not the American people — put into place)
The U.S. House of Representatives electing Mike Johnson, a newbie politician with an obnoxiously small public following, but hey, Trump told people they’d better vote for him or else. Oh! They also elected Mike Johnson after ousting Kevin McCarthy simply because McCarthy wanted to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. (Seriously - that is what happened. Also, McCarthy has a much more significant public following than Johnson…)
Are you noticing a pattern here?
As it currently stands, this pattern of the Republican Party of 2024 is “a commitment to minority rule,” to quote Historian Kristin du Mez.
In other words, the Republican Party of 2024 isn’t interested in what any one of us thinks, desires, or needs. Rather, its most vocal and destructive players, MAGA Republicans with the blessing of Trump and under the pretense of White Christian Nationalism, seek to tear down the historical institutions that allow our democracy to thrive. (How is that respectful to the Founding Fathers they espouse?)
All of this, and Trump is still the leading Republican presidential candidate among the present list of Republican presidential nominees.
Remember that 8 out of 10 White Evangelicals voted for Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. American Christianity and its institutions have a sizable role in all of this, including evangelical Christian schools that are teaching children how to infiltrate government through the Generation Joshua curriculum.
Please tell me you’re concerned now.
On top of this, the Israel-Hamas War isn’t helping. I’d argue it has further fanned the flames of division in our country, giving MAGA Republicans, who are antisemitic themselves, a license to take down individuals through the thinly veiled guise of antisemitism efforts in the aftermath of pro-Palestine protests on campuses.
The recent resignation of former Harvard President Claudine Gay is a prime example.
Researchers like myself are tracking social media for White Nationalist activity because this is effectively how these individuals and organizations recruit.
See an example of this motivation here:
The new “X” (formerly the Twitter social media platform, now under the leadership of Elon Musk) has transformed White Nationalists’ access to online discourse that goes without community standards and monitoring. See how that is manifesting itself in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Unfortunately, the Substack platform to which I use to share this newsletter also monetizes Neo-Nazis. I, and others, have confronted Subtack’s founders on this because they are ultimately profiting off of their efforts, as well as providing Neo-Nazis with money and traction to share their extremist beliefs. These extremist beliefs — if given the right steam to grow — always end in death and crimes punishable by law. Just look at the rise of Identity Evropa and its involvement in the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. Identity Evropa, a white nationalist hate group, used online chatrooms like 4chan to talk about killing dissenters by running them over with cars, and it actually happened: an innocent woman, Heather Heyer, lost her life when James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into a group of protesters. This is what happens when social media platforms do not have stringent community standards that hold Neo-Nazis and their hate speech accountable. Yes, we have the Freedom of Speech clause in the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights, but when private property holders — not the “public” courthouse steps, for example — are concerned, founders of its business structures have a unique obligation to censor pre-meditated murder schemes and the like. If you’d like to perpetuate such beliefs by using the Freedom of Speech clause, do so on public property.)
As a digital media expert (I’m also a Brand Strategist who helps businesses figure out optimal — and ethical — ways to reach their fans or customers), I’m consistently conducting “social listening.”
Social listening is a standard practice in the digital space, especially as it pertains to marketing strategies and measuring outcomes. This practice encompasses taking in online discussions to gauge how communities are discussing a brand, product, or service — all of this to discern public reputation and feedback for better service, more resonant social content, and ideas for new products that benefit target audiences and customers. “Social listening” is also another way journalists gather story ideas.
Through posts on “X” (formerly Twitter and now owned by Elon Musk), Christopher F. Rufo, an educator at the Conservative Christian Hillsdale College and Conservative moral panic maker around Critical Race Theory, revealed his architecture behind the move to take down former Harvard President Claudine Gay, which was strategic and pre-meditated.
See here:
Please note Claudine Gay resigned from Harvard on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 over plagiarism charges, efforts Rufo put into place when claims of antisemitism didn’t work. The red circle in the above screenshot is the date when Rufo shared his strategy on X.
As a note, Gay is Harvard’s first black president. She only held the position for seven months (since July 2023).
Authoritarians like Rufo enjoy taking down academics. Let me explain the precedent.
Did you ever learn about the coordinated efforts of the former Soviet Union, an authoritarian regime, to take down “intellectuals” in the pursuit of evening out its society so that no one could question the regime’s motives? A friend of mine lost both of her great-grandparents to these purges. Her grandmother became an orphan overnight when the authorities indiscriminately came into her home and took her parents. She (the grandmother of my friend) and her brother then had to find safety and survival on their own.
Oh, but organizations that call themselves “Christian” are always so much better! We have to protect the children from critical thinking. *Seriously? The sarcasm here is purposeful.*
I’ll also remind you that Russia right now under Vladamir Putin has direct ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia uses it as its proxy to “control and dominate” through shame and fear. Can we now agree that this is not about advancing the universal themes of the Gospels’ message or supporting Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings? Wake up!
Also, an even more recognizable example is Nazi Germany and the various ways the regime targeted “intellectuals” as well. This strategy encompassed eliminating academics first, even before Jews, Roma (Gypsies), “Asiatic” people, disabled individuals, and LGBT+-identifying people (including transgender folks. Yes, Germans supported transgender rights before the Nazis took power).
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Among the earliest victims of discrimination and persecution in Nazi Germany were political opponents—primarily Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, and trade union leaders. The Nazis also persecuted authors and artists whose works they considered subversive or who were Jewish. In 1933–34, the German central government and various local governments as well as local battalions of the Nazi SA (Sturmabteilungen; Assault Detachments) and SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squads) established concentration camps throughout Germany to detain political prisoners. The SS, which centralized and took control of the concentration camp system in 1934, had established its first concentration camp, Dachau, in March 1933.
I argue that Rupo, and other self-described “Conservative activists,” are currently applying this in their strategy to tarnish the reputation of the Ivy League, key institutions of academic rigor and discipline in the U.S.
Rupo and crew have simply replaced “intellectuals” with “elite.”
Because they’re gaining mainstream recognition for the Claudine Gay strategy, Rufo sees this as an opportunity to spread the method of “takedown” — i.e., plagiarism — while also raising funds to further target academics and educators who oppose them.
Okay — now I hope you’re as equally outraged as I am. No more excuses, friends.
On this third anniversary of the Jan. 6th Insurrection and as we enter a presidential election year, this is the decisive moment where we can choose to save our current “freedoms” under centuries-old democratic institutions and a checks and balance system or if we’ll continue to allow bigotry to form under the threat of White Christian Nationalism. (I would also like to inform you that “the Rapture” does not exist in the Biblical texts. In the U.S., we have a Freedom of Religion clause for a reason. Also, the original writer of Revelation was steeped in the apocalyptic literary techniques and disciplines of the Hebrews/Israelites from Judea/Palestine. The writings in Revelation are therefore metaphorical, not literal, and are intended to encourage the reader to think about its themes in the moment the reader is living.)
Ultimately, you have a choice, and for some of you, a sacred one.
Regardless, I will be voting for Biden in 2024 because voting for president isn’t about voting for “one person.” Rather, voting for president brings with it key cabinet members of our democratic institutions who will decide how the future of our country looks for Americans who come after us. (There’s also the U.S. Supreme Court issue to consider.)
Also, I will be proudly taking the pledge of Christians Against Christian Nationalism because the only way we’ll be able to peel back the power of greedy evangelicals fueling Trump’s narcissistic supply is to take a stand against them.
I am also choosing the position of hope. -Meghan
Some housekeeping items I want to address as we move into 2024:
I will be starting to pay-wall some of my future articles. This means you will need to have a paid subscription to read those articles. You can purchase a subscription for as little as $5 a month, or heck, just send whatever you feel my writing has been worth to you through Venmo (@Meghan-Farnsworth).
To do the most justice to my work, I want to begin interviewing experts in the field, which will cost me time and resources to do. I would also like to put funds toward organizations like Vote Common Good and the Albert Einstein Institute, two great organizations that are bringing people together regardless of their differences.
I am not retired nor at a point in my life where I can do this work on borrowed time and energy. I am still paying back student loans for the very precious education that I’ve invested in to be able to provide the reporting and work I do through Faith is Feminist. I also spend funds on news resources that allow me to do this work.
Also as a note, I will be changing my approach to discussing and challenging the extremist ideologies we’re witnessing transform nationally and internationally (White Christian Nationalism being one of them).
Along with history and theology, I will be bringing in psychology and topics like coercive control, which both cults and dysfunctional family systems use to psychologically ensure members fit in and never deviate from the system’s script.
I was raised in what mental health professionals call a closed family system, where individuation is stifled and attachment to others is conditional. Appreciation for authenticity and individuality doesn’t grow in such environments because these traits are threats to the system itself, creating a toxic space for abuse to form. (I don’t need to disclose my entire experience for you to believe me.)
This is the ultimate fallacy of narcissism and closed family systems — that safety, self-esteem, and confidence are threats to the survival of others.
It’s not, and I’m a proud survivor who’s doing the hard work of healing and sharing so others may discover wholeness from an authentic place of “I am.”
This is my life and lived experience, and I’m the only one who can share it, of course. These revelations will then — I believe — help inform others as to why extremist ideologies (which are just religious cults by another name) are destructive and pervasive because I have lived in one, too.
We all seek authentic places of love and belonging as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theorizes, but it is a literal death to the self when this sense of love and belonging is predicated on allegiance to a closed system.
From now on after this newsletter goes out to you, I will be taking the stance of critical thinkers everywhere, who stand in the face of all-or-nothing mindsets or thinking. This stance also believes that binary thinking (“good” versus “bad”) is the toxic ingredient that leads to chaos and destruction. (Psychological splitting, that is “good” versus “bad” narratives, is one of the key mechanisms that drive people to support White Christian Nationalism. Adherents and sympathizers of WCN see what is happening in the U.S. as spiritual warfare, a “good versus bad” distorted reality that gives them a maladaptive sense of love and belonging.)
We see nuance and individuation throughout nature. It’s a biological need that allows humans and all other creatures around us to thrive and survive if need be.
I don’t care if you’re a Christian, just as long as your intentions are for the greater good, and you see how extremist ideologies like White Christian Nationalism are destroying a healthy quality of life for vulnerable individuals. A healthy quality of life for everyone — not just the righteous — as you know, is all over the New Testament texts, along with non-violent approaches to lasting change.
The Jesus of the New Testament texts also said you will “know them by their fruits” — that is, the actions of these individuals who follow another way, a non-violent one by way of love — to uplift others out of systems of violence, destruction, and oppression.
The New Testament Jesus also never called his followers “Christians.” Rather, it was outsiders looking in on the movement who did this to identify them, not the Biblical Jesus.
According to this theology, the Christian label is moot so if you’re looking for me to evangelize to others, this is not the space for it. In fact, for some of us, Church leadership has created the same toxic space as closed family systems for abuse to thrive so please understand why we may be “deconstructing” and choosing to take individual stances outside of prescribed Church narratives like the Roman Catholic Church or much looser evangelical institutions, like Heights Church in Northern Arizona. For some of us, this deconstruction process has been a literal issue of life or death, so please be mindful and therefore respectful.
When any one of us can rise above the toxic systems that keep us down, I see this as feminism because this is an opportunity to see how all of us can grow beyond the dysfunction of authoritarianism.
Additionally, even if you seek some semblance of faith after abuse — whether you choose to embrace spiritual practices indigenous to your ancestors alongside the Gospels or something else — I see that as a sign of bravery and faith in a power greater than ourselves because you’ve found purpose and meaning beyond the dysfunctional conditioning that says you have to support the system to belong.