There is a new idiocy from the rabid Republican christofascist* gun nuts in the United States to try to counter the calls for gun control after the Uvalde school massacre. This massacre led to the deaths of 19, mostly ten-year-old children, and two of their teachers1.
This fresh idiocy is along the lines of “The problem isn’t guns, it is hearts without Jesus” or something similar. This idiocy is of course another furphy, presumably from the minds of people who have never been out of the US, or those know their target ‘market’ have never owned a passport in their lives. The reason I say that is because almost all western countries have fewer adherents to the bizarre form of Christianity common in the US (the US is ever the laggard)2, yet these other countries do not have such devastatingly common school shootings or other mass shootings. The people from these other countries have far less ‘Jesus in their hearts’3 than your average American yet children don’t get killed anywhere nearly as often, and certainly are not killed by gunfire from military grade weapons.
This idiocy follows on from the usual excuses used by US gun nuts and their gutless purchased politicians: ‘We have a mental health problem in the US’4, or, believe it or not, ‘The problem is doors’5. I suspect it is the geographic ignorance of so many Americans which assists these appalling politicians in getting away with such drivel. What are normal people to make of a country who values the desire to have a metal penis-enhancement more than the lives of children. It has now reached a state where gun violence is THE leading cause of death among children in the US. That this is so and the politicians do nothing about it, is incomprehensible.
*Christofascism: Evangelical, semi-theocratical movement of Americans who stand against abortion, sex education, homosexuality, science, anti-Zionism, gun control, the separation of church and state, and anything else vaguely progressive6. The term was coined by liberation theologian Dorothee Sölle in 19707. In the mid-2000s, the Bush administration refined its broadly titled “War on Terror” campaign to the ‘Fight Against Islamofascism’. This transferred the stigma of the 9/11 attacks from terrorists and their tactics to their religion and their policies (e.g., a Muslim caliphate). Since politically-active evangelicals seem to wish to theocratise the US6, the term “Christofascism” seems appropriate.
Sources
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-30/timeline-texas-school-shooting-in-uvalde-unfolded/101109316
- https://blotreport.com/2021/12/15/a-less-christian-nation/
- https://blotreport.com/2019/07/29/decline-of-religion-in-the-anglophone-world/
- https://abcnews.go.com/Health/blaming-mass-shootings-nations-mental-health-crisis-harmful/story?id=84973562
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/06/02/texas-gov-abbott-orders-schools-to-check-doors-weekly-following-uvalde-shooting/?sh=16ac37904cdd
- https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Christofascism
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_fascism
Looking for stupidity in the USA is like looking for a haystack in a needle.
Further to my previous comment, and in light of the recent decisions made by the US supreme court, it is impossible to regard the USA as a democratic nation. Tne christofascists are in charge.
Mark,
The irony is they have spent decades fighting islamic fundamentalism (called Islamofascism by Bush, I think) and now they have let Christofascism in.
I have never set foot inside the USA, although it has interesting hitorical aspects and scenic attractions that no doubt I would be grateful to have viewed. Naturally I do not mean the suburbs of Phoenix and the garish Venice canals or laughable Eiffel Tower replica of Las Vegas!
For years I had the idea of still visiting Uncle Sam, but the invasion of Iraq-Afghanistan made me so angry I delayed any trip. Were I to actually go there, I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t end up in a verbal stoush after having truck (-not an error thankyou!) with a grossly overweight, vociferous Republican-voting person of sub-standard education and lacking all verbal felicity. In truth, the awful knowledge desert residing in too many Yankee minds would have had me oft laughing and weeping at the same time. Their rampant nationalism, blind to a mass of grave faults of foreign policy would be galling no doubt. And finally, with almost every household containing a rifle or pistol ready to fire any time, I am now actually scared I might not survive my American trip in the downtown zones. Isn’t that silly? Or is it? To even moot the unlikelihood of one’s being injured or killed by a US male on a random rampage, is a measure of how seriously I take the US gun-toter statistics. Call it paranoia, but anywhere in Europe I have never feared that the person next to me in the metro might be an AK-47 wielding psycho with far-right, twisted politics or fundamentalist Christian hogwash infecting his mind.
Russell,
Like you, I have no desire to go to the US either. While I know numerous Americans, they tend to be people in my game, so usually have higher degrees and are definitely not named Cletus or Bubba, and probably don’t own an AR15. I have been to Russia (decades ago) on an exchange, and was in St Petersburg when another Australian on exchange was mugged and murdered. I had to be very careful. I expect I’d find it hard to keep my gob shut in the US.
It’s just a new word, coined by moi-meme! And it has a nice bitterish sound. Or else i am a realy badd speler.
Russell,
I corrected it (I think).
Dear Admin, i was in a foment of fear and in torpid trepidation that one of the several frequent contributors to thy blog might castigate me for gross lacunae in primary level education. I cannot, given the admirable surfeit of my politesse, reveal that this certain bumptious (oops, a slip) figure shares something in common with a lauded myth of British provenance, and which may have some historical fact behind.
No, no, it’s not “Gawain”. (I now desist in my oddity, to your maximal relief kind sir).
Russell,
Have you been taking your tablets?
Yes, I take a tab called “Jolly Erudite am I and a damn sight more than some chaps”. One tiny, round thing with water each 70 yrs . Hi ho, there you go!
Russell,
Sounds like something I could use, in case I start dribbling down my shirt.