Thanks for the in-depth info- ie-Hypatia…etc. Extreme dogma seems the problem, not just Christianity and religion. —It seems early Christian bishops appealed to the have-nots and riled them up to commit atrocities. —It’s a fake sort of rebelliousness. —Mao did that also, inciting peasants to destroy supposed bourgeoisie art and murder supposed class enemies. School teachers were murdered because of supposed counter-revolutionary thoughts and there were many other atrocities under Mao. —-Manipulating people and misdirecting their anger and exploiting their fears happens within religions and political ideologies, left and right.—As you know, it isn’t just Christianity or right wing demagogues. —But Trump’s incitements have at least a hint of this pattern of misdirecting popular anger and fear.
An alternative to demagoguery is a government that has institutions thru which the popular will can be exercised in a way that promotes the common good. —In that vein, it seems establishment Democrats and mainstream liberals have unintentionally helped set the stage for Trump.—–Many liberals I speak to don’t see the connection.—-But a book related to that connection is Ralph Nader’s “To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency, and Why It Isn’t Too Late to Reverse Course.”
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