#christofascism

[theconcealedweapon]

Parents think it's a sin for their children to disobey them. Parents think it's okay to assault their children in order to instill the fear of God in them.

Those parents are prime examples of using the lord's name in vain. But they don't want their children to know that. So they instead invent some bullshit definition.

[charlesoberonn]

Charlie Kirk wasn't interested in conversation and debate and dialog. And his final words illustrate that perfectly.

After he talked about trans mass shooters, he was asked how many trans mass shooters there were in the last 10 years, and he answered with the inane "too many".

Not only did he not know, despite it being an issue he himself raised, he didn't care to know either. That's not somebody who's interested in dialog, that's somebody who's interested in zingers and catchy soundbites.

Charlie Kirk wasn't a debater engaged in dialog. He was a performer and pundit serving content to entertain and further radicalize a right-wing audience. He just chose debates as the vehicle for him to deliver his talking points, which he didn't care to examine or refine.

[liberalsarecool]

Christian killers are the biggest threat.

Christian extremism is the biggest hate group.

[mommahoney]

@miaganga.bsky.social

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Naomi Kritzer’s “Obstetrix”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/09/deliver-us/#kritzer

Naomi Kritzer's Obstetrix is a new, tense thriller in the mode of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale and Alderman's The Power; it's a beautifully turned, claustrophobic horror novel about an obstetrician who's been kidnapped by a Christian cult obsessed with fertility:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250423375/obstetrix/

Kritzer is a master of building scenarios that require her characters to express and resolve a wide variety of complex and contradictory emotions. Her breakout novel, Catfishing on CatNet is a charming and deceptively goofy story about an AI trained on the impeccable vibes in a really solid groupchat becoming sentient and demanding…cat pictures. This is the setup for a warm (but intense) novel of internet-mediated friendship and IRL mutual aid:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/11/19/naomi-kritzers-catfishing-on-the-catnet-an-ai-caper-about-the-true-nature-of-online-friendship/

Then there's her incredibly prescient 2015 story "So Much Cooking," about people in lockdown during a pandemic. For obvious reasons, it enjoyed an revival in 2020, with Kritzer penning an excellent essay reflecting on what it means to have thought through the implications of a disaster that is now upon us:

https://reactormag.com/didnt-i-write-this-story-already-when-your-fictional-pandemic-becomes-reality/

In 2023, Kritzer published one of the most memorable YA novels I've read, Liberty's Daughter, which is set on a libertarian seastead and told from the point of view of the daughter of the cult's founder:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/21/podkaynes-dad-was-a-dick/#age-of-consent

Liberty's Daughter is basically what you'd get if you rewrote a Heinlein YA novel from the perspective of one of the kids, who had to live with a Heinlein-type dad (Heinlein was childless and had some of the most batshit child-rearing ideas, which he managed to make sound bizarrely plausible). There's a lot of sf that is "in dialogue" with Heinlein (including some of mine), but no one nailed RAH like Kritzer.

Then there's Obstetrix; it's got one of those admirably propulsive setups. Doctor Elizabeth Gwynn is an obstetrician who performed an abortion to save her patient's life, only to be dragged into the culture wars by North Dakota's crusading attorney general, who charged her with felony murder and offered to let her plead out if she would admit that she was wrong to do it, as an example to other OBs who might be tempted. Now, Dr Liz lives in Minneapolis, where her savings are running out and no one wants to hire an obstetrician who's done time.

Then, Dr Liz gets a cold-call from a midwifing service that wants to hire her as an on-call doc. It's a weird offer from out of the blue, but Dr Liz can't afford to pass up a chance at steady work. She finds herself in a residence that the midwives work out of, and the nice woman there offers her a cup of tea. That's when the world fades to black, as the drugs in the tea take hold.

Liz sporadically regains consciousness in a van during a multi-day drive, and already she is thinking about her escape – even as she is becoming increasingly aware of how truly terrible her situation is. When she finally arrives at the cult's remote compound, frozen and isolated, she learns that she has been kidnapped because the fertility-obsessed cult needs an OB, especially since the daughter of the cult's founder, the "pastor," is carrying a high-risk pregnancy.

All that is in the first few pages, which leaves plenty of room for an expertly spun second act in which we get Kritzer's trademark interpersonal work, where carefully chosen and smartly wrought small details flesh out a picture of the complex dynamics of life inside a "high-demand" cult, from the way that members are manipulated into policing each other's compliance to the internal processes that keep members cowed even when they're unobserved by others. It's a brilliant work of sociological speculation and the engine that drives it is a series of maneuvers and gambits whereby Dr Liz hopes to make her way to safety.

I won't spoil the end, except to say that it is exciting, satisfying, and has a sweet denouement that does real justice to the whole book. All told, this is a read-in-one-sitting thriller that does as much to illuminate the workings and dynamics of patriarchy and religion as any gender studies class. It's peak Kritzer (so far), and that's saying something.

[creature-wizard]

We gotta be able to talk about how dangerous it is that Republican leaders think they're following God's "voice" without throwing people with actual psychotic disorders under the bus.

These people are not psychotic. They are not delusional. They have been taught how to focus on and listen to a particular part of their own minds that hold certain ideas and values, and to obey it whenever it "speaks." And I think pretty much anyone can train themselves to focus on and listen to some part of their mind or other. (This is what a lot of spirit channelers are doing, by the way.)

This kind of ableism has been a problem among critics of far right Christianity for a long time now, and it simply does not help. It fails to address and criticize what's actually happening which leaves people unaware of what the real problem is, which can leave them vulnerable to falling into it themselves. It also contributes to shame and stigma around those who suffer from actual psychotic disorders, which isn't just wrong for its own sake, but also benefits the far right by making it easier for them to pathologize anything they don't like or don't understand.

[victusinveritas]

[theconcealedweapon]

I have a sister who's transgender.

My grandmother and uncle have the typical religious "I don't like it but it's going to happen whether I like it or not" response to it. They don't agree with her being transgender but they mostly stay out of her way.

I have another sister who's a fascist. Fascist sister has been harassing transgender sister by telling her that she's going to hell and reading Bible verses at her.

Take a wild guess which sister my grandmother and uncle side with.

That's why you can't accept mild forms of bigotry like "love the sinner, hate the sin" or "I disagree with the lifestyle but they can do what they want". When shit hits the fan and they have to choose between acceptance and fascism, they'll choose fascism.