Reply To: Roe v Wade

[Gurnelista]

IA, what we see among the so-called Christians on here, and elsewhere on social media, is an utter denial of observable reality; complete, blind subservience to belief and belief alone. I hear it from the Jehovah’s Witnesses on the doorstep. I hear it too, from fans of Farage and Trump. The followers aren’t interested in facts, evidence and argument. No, for them it’s about belief in an omnipotent authority figure, a cult leader, or an idea, no matter how stupid, bad or mad.

For the likes of BPG and JI, rational, evidence based argument is not the currency of debate. Instead, you get ‘whataboutery’, i.e. attempts to shift the discussion onto another topic, as we see in posts above. Classic cultist behaviour.

Take the current discussions about the importance of standards, integrity, honesty, probity decency and fairness in politics. It means going against pretty much everything the Tory right wing (and many Republicans) currently stand for. This means that no matter how egregious the abuse of power, no matter how serious the corruption, the cultists will still believe, because they see their leaders as infallible. Just like the Pope is for many Catholics, in fact.

Of course, there are many ‘normal’ Republicans, Tories and Catholics, who dislike their leaders and their policies as much as the rest of us. But they don’t take to social media with the burning sense of injustice which we see from the cultists, who defend them unquestioningly. To admit they might be wrong brings their whole psychological edifice crashing down.

Really, what anyone rational wants to see is a defence of decent political standards for all our sakes, whatever the political colours. But we should not expect the cultists to express an objective or reasonable viewpoint – because they can’t. They are destined to continue soiling themselves on social media as long as they can work a mouse.