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Satanists expose the GOP doublespeak on "free speech" and bigoted rhetoric (www.salon.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Five@slrpnk.net to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 119 points 7 months ago

stop trying to "expose the hypocrisy of the right". that only works if your opponent is beholden to reality and has shame. that's not been what matters to them for over a decade now. you "expose their hypocrisy", and they'll just say "okay" and kill you anyway. they're openly, nakedly terroristic christian ethnonationalists. they believe any evil they commit is good because god is on their side. if this was a chess match, the right has already flipped the board over and pulled out a gun and the left is trying to argue that bishops aren't allowed to move vertically.

[-] Whoresradish@lemmy.world 80 points 7 months ago

Pointing out the hypocrisy is extremely useful for convincing open minded individuals who are listening to the arguement. Specifically the next generation.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 40 points 7 months ago

The Satanic Temple actually takes action to challenge laws, like when they commissioned a statue of Baphomet to be displayed at the Oklahoma state capitol after a monument of the 10 commandments was installed there. After a court case the monument was removed.

[-] HWK_290@lemmy.world 89 points 7 months ago

From their website

No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions. Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things. Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 54 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I met a boomer guy who really thought the Satanic Temple believed in Satan. He wouldn't even hear it.

He was also in a cult for half of his life. Like the "I live in a isolated bunker farm and gave up my passport/social security card" cult.

Not saying they're related. but I am leaning towards anyone who has a negative opinion of the Satanic Temple also being a fucking moron.

[-] KredeSeraf@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

I don't remember where, but I saw a debate over the validity of the Satanic Temple. And one uber religious guy said something like "well if you don't believe in an actual Satan who does?"

To which the other guys just deadpan dropped "Christians".

Still don't quite understand what the first guy was going for there.

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

but I am leaning towards anyone who has a negative opinion of the Satanic Temple also being a fucking moron.

It's not that easy - I underwent the same kind of brainwashing when I was a kid (I grew up in Apartheid-South Africa) where everything from the peace-symbol to soccer to underwear that wasn't made from 100% cotton was hysterically painted as "satanic..." and I'm being quite literal.

It's difficult to undo all that - no matter how smart you happen to be.

[-] MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

All hail jesus and his angel bahamut

[-] some_guy 89 points 7 months ago

I donated to The Satanic Temple last month and encourage others to do the same. Given that my donation was used exactly as I’d intended (highlighting hypocrisy), I’ll be turning on recurring donations when I get home.

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

They genuinely do great work, I've always felt my donations are put to good use.

[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 60 points 7 months ago

Exposing the right's hypocrisy doesn't really do much. Many of them know but don't care. Many of them don't know but also don't care.

Sartre: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7870768-never-believe-that-anti-semites-are-completely-unaware-of-the-absurdity

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 22 points 7 months ago

Fool proof method for arguing with fascists: apply their logic to them.

They think their beliefs are universal. But the second you characterize them as the out-group of a violent in-group, they'll quickly qualify their statements. Be a rhetorical mirror to their misanthropic, suspicious, hateful worldview.

[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

There was a book about authoritarian personalities I was reading a while ago that was fascinating and depressing. It had a study that showed right wing authoritarians are also willing to hunt down themselves

From this book https://theauthoritarians.org/

Suppose the federal government, some time in the future, passed a law outlawing various religious cults. Government officials then stated that the law would only be effective if it were vigorously enforced at the local level and appealed to everyone to aid in the fight against these cults.

[...]

Who can ’em be? Nearly everybody, it turns out. I started with a proposition to outlaw Communists and found authoritarian followers would be relatively likely to join that posse. Ditto for persecuting homosexuals, and ditto for religious cults, “radicals” and journalists the government did not like. So I tried to organize a posse that liberals would join, to go after the Ku Klux Klan. But high RWAs crowded out everyone else for that job too. Then I offered as targets the very right-wing Canadian Social Credit Party, the Confederation of Regions Party, and the mainstream Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. These were the parties of choice for most authoritarian followers at the time, yet high RWAs proved more willing to persecute even the movements they liked than did others.

Finally, just to take this to its ludicrous extreme, I asked for reactions to a “law to eliminate right-wing authoritarians.” (I told the subjects that right-wing authoritarians are people who are so submissive to authority, so aggressive in the name of authority, and so conventional that they may pose a threat to democratic rule.) RWA scale scores did not connect as solidly with joining this posse as they had in the other cases. Surely some of the high RWAs realized that if they supported this law, they were being the very pople whom the law would persecute, and the posse should therefore put itself in jail. But not all of them realized this, for authoritarian followers still favored, more than others did, a law to persecute themselves. You can almost hear the circuits clanking shut in their brains: “If the government says these people are dangerous, then they’ve got to be stopped.”

So I wouldn't bank on their self awareness

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[-] CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

May I introduce you to The Alt-Right Playbook

TL;DR: they absolutely do not care.

There is only one party that cares about hypocrisy. And it ain't the conservatives.

[-] dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

The point isn't about getting them to stop, but to help more moderate people realize what they're doing.

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[-] tygerprints@kbin.social 56 points 7 months ago

That Baphomet statue is so amazingly cool and so lovely - I don't see why anyone would have an issue with it. Religious freedom is protected in this country, no matter what religion or who is practicing it. Satan is also known as the bright Day Star, there is a freedom even greater within the teachings of Satanism than you'll find in any modern "christian" practice; all are welcome. Come in children, come in.

[-] some_guy 16 points 7 months ago

I bought a Baphomet statue on Etsy because of that incident. Sadly, it doesn’t include the kids adoring Baphomet, buts it’s still cool as fuck on the top of my book case. Support an artist and let his loving gaze grace your home today!

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[-] farty@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Lol I was a Christian fundie when they first unveiled the statue. I found it genuinely terrifying

[-] tygerprints@kbin.social 24 points 7 months ago

I've seen many documentaries about this statue and from the first, I found it beautiful and engrossing. But then again, I've never been a christian - my family's pagan roots go back to the very beginning of time. And to honest, I sometimes find "christian" churches and cathedrals "terrifying" in their preservation of a dark-ages kind of sad reverence for spooky dieities and weird rituals. And paintings that are mystifying.

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[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 49 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It has been 12 days since I last posted this image

[-] bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago

Can you post it more frequently

[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ of course

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

It has been 12 days since I last posted this image

Thank you for your service!

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[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 40 points 7 months ago

This stunt used to work with the Bush-era (Jr. or Sr.) Republicans. They actually believed in the constitution, they didn't like thinking of themselves as hypocrites. They took pride in having a system of beliefs that was supported by logic. They believed in debates, and thought that their ideas would win.

The MAGA Republicans have clearly abandoned all of that. They don't care about logic. They don't care about the constitution. What matters is their fear. What matters is their interpretation of their religion. What matters is their strongman. It's a fascist movement.

Putting up a satan-inspired display only convinces them that they're right to be afraid, and that they truly are fighting against evil, and that they need their strongman to root out that evil. I still think it's important to push back, even if it only encourages the fascists. But, it's not helpful in the way it used to be when the other side was capable of being embarrassed by hypocrisy.

[-] Malek061@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

The bushes stoked fear as well. Remember when they went after the gays? Oh how about blacks getting free from prison? Willie Horton. That's all they know. Hit them as hard as you can with hypocrisy in their face over and over. Then they will learn when something similar happens to them.

[-] Seleni@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

But what it also does is force them to allow other religions into their ‘religion can do this-and-that’s bullshit, which they hate.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 28 points 7 months ago

The GOP is proud of it. Nobody's learned anything.

[-] HWK_290@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Hence my donations to the satanic temple. Doing ~~the Lord's~~ Baphomet's work!

[-] TheJims@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

Hail Satan

[-] vitamin@infosec.pub 21 points 7 months ago

That's how it's always been with conservatives. Free speech for me, but not for thee. They've been used to suppressing and outright banning anything that doesn't tick their particular boxes for so long that they are in a constant state of rage that they aren't the arbiters of public decency anymore.

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 29 points 7 months ago

Covid was the clear turning point for me.

Watching them protest.

Then beg for help at a hospital while on their death bed. If they survived, they'd only to then trash the hospital afterwards.

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[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago

Even a toddler could manage to do that. They don't even try to hide it anymore.

[-] mdd@lemm.ee 19 points 7 months ago

The Satanic Temple does not worship Satan so how are they satanists?

[-] natedog526@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

The same way members of the Church of Satan are Satanists. What your probably thinking of is Devil Worship which is different. You can actually go to either of these organizations websites and they should be able to give you a good overview.

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[-] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

The Satanic Temple really showing how stupid people really are.

[-] Zellith@kbin.social 12 points 7 months ago

Satanists expose the GOP doublespeak on "free speech" and bigoted rhetoric

Well. It's Tuesday.

[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

ive been hailing satan since it became cool in the 1980s

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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023

648 points (97.5% liked)

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