#Christian democracy

[straynoahide]

this is my line of work and i live in spain where there is universal healthcare, whether the government national or autonomic is right-wing or left-wing at that time, this is a constitutional consensus born from a center-right european ideology called 'christian democracy'. it is not opposed to conservatism at all.

"giving the gov't complete control over medical care" is not what universal healthcare (i.e. no pay at the point of care, Beveridge system in this case) really means, but rather how to protect life and liberty you need not to be held back by disease, so the protection of health is a basic precondition of human political liberty and pro-life.

you still have options, private insurances, mixed financing but the core of the system is public hospitals and that makes a difference in the overall quality of life.

people still have options under universal healthcare. it's just that nobody gets left out, certainly not cancer patients or pediatric patients, just like we don't want to live in a society where you have to build your own bridges to cross, we don't want to live in a society where anyone's child receives subpar care on something universal and blameless like disease because of how much they (or their parents) earn and their socioeconomic status.

[hanban371213]

hello hannah nation, second to last book here

context in the first post, check the first tag, have fun!

Book 8 - Portugal and the world, from the Second World War to the start of the 80s - internal options and international context.

Part 1 - The birth and afirmation of a new geopolitic world.

By the end of the Second World War the Allied powers got together twice, in the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam. In Yalta the Soviet-Polish border was defined, the division of Germany was established, the date for the reunion to create the United Nations was chosen, and it was established that the USSR would oversee Eastern Europe. In Potsdam, the zones of occupation dividing Germany and Berlin were defined, the German war criminals were planned to be put on trial on an international tribunal(the Nuremberg trials), and the division and denazification of Austria was also defined.

Even after the complete failure of the League of Nations, the idea of an international organization that focused on maintaining peace and security still remained, and so the United Nations was created. Under the UN's founding Charter, it has as main goals maintaining the peace, develop friendly relations between countries, develop international cooperation, and function as a harmonizing center.

While the Yalta conference guaranteed that Eastern Europe would be granted freedom of self-determination, in practice there was nothing that could be done to stop the Soviets from imposing their rule, establishing multiple communist states. The new Soviet area of influence was described as an "iron curtain" by Winston Churchill. In response to the spread of Communism, the United States declares the Truman Doctrine, by which they would work to contain and prevent the spread of communism, by leading and suporting the free world. To support Europe in recuperating from the Second World War the Marshall Plan was launched, giving funds to any European country that asked for it (for a more efficient distribution of funds the OECE was created, its like the COMECON).

In response the USSR proclaims the Jadnov Doctrine and launches the Molotov Plan, put in practice through the COMECON, to help recuperate Eastern Europe from the Second World War.

With this, the Cold War has officialy started, split between the American Bloc(made up of NATO and other alliances established) and the Soviet Bloc(made up of the Warsaw Pact and other alliances established). Throughout the whole thing espionage was increased, sentiments of fear and hatred to the oposing side were spread, the arms race begun, and each bloc attempted to show off their superiority, in the olympics and, most notoriously, in the space race.

To the West, Germany stopped being seen as an enemy but as an important ally against communism, so the Allied zones of ocupation united and formed the Federal Republic of Germany. Considering this to be a violation of the established treaties, the USSR in response creates the German Democratic Republic in it's own zone of ocupation. In an attempt to kick the Allies out of West Berlin, Stalin attempted to block all ground pathways to the city, but the Allies responded by creating an aereal bridge, delivering supplies by plane, and soon enough Stalin gave up, but later on Nikita Kruschev will build the Berlin Wall.

The Western democracies were predominantly social-democracies or christian-democracies, with policies establishing welfare-states. The first 30 years post-war the West lived a period of economic prosperity, known as the "Thirty Glorious Years", characterized for having a consumerist society.

The Eastern soviet democracies followed the Soviet economic model with economic planification. With them they were able to quickly industrialize, and even reaching growth rates higher than capitalist countries. However, the big focus on heavy industry made it so that the quality of life did not improve. Economic planification also led to economic blocks, since theyd limit themselves to only reach the established goals, and never go further than that, stagnating the economy.

After the Second World War, many independence movements across the European colonial empires sprung into action due to a variety of reasons. The war was seen as a "fight for freedom", and many colonized peoples participated and did many sacrifices, and so believed that freedom should extend to them too. The war also exposed how fragile the European powers had become, unable to defend their colonies (such as France, who lost indochina to Japan). Besides that, there was pressure from the USSR, USA and the UN.

But even after they got their independence, third world countries still saw themselves dependent on their old overlords, with their natural resources exploited by foreign companies. This new system became known as neocolonialism.

[possil]

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY

During the recent break in posting we visited Budapest, and were left with some remarkable memories. A beautiful city with a terrible past, and not only from the dreadful Soviet days. Below the imposing Parliament building is a row of metal shoes commemorating the Jews who were lined up, forced to remove their shoes, and shot dead into the Danube by the fascist Arrow Cross militia in 1944. We…

[tonreihe]

(Requires an account to read—you can create one for free, though.)

[thenationview]

Battle for the new DC, dispute over name and symbol: "Rotondi must stop"

The war begins over the legacy of the Christian Democrats. Two days ago, in the columns of Il Tempo, it was deputy Gianfranco Rotondi, elected with the Brothers of Italy and president of Verde è Popolare, who launched the project for the rebirth of the White Whale. Rotondi started a dialogue with Lorenzo Cesa of the UDC and with Renato Grassi of “historical DC” to revive the party that belonged…

[beauty-funny-trippy]

The truth about Republicans and Christian Nationalism

[antidrumpfs]

This is at least the third pro-violence account Trump has elevated since August

Donald Trump keeps “retruthing” accounts that have called for killing his political opponents. 

The former president did it again recently, promoting a post by an account (“EdensVision”) that has previously suggested Vice President Kamala Harris should be hanged, journalists should be killed, and President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, among others, should “suffer death.”

[stopproject2025comic]

Project 2025 is a blueprint for enforcing Christian Nationalist ideas at the federal level. They have a plan and they mean to enact it, and we have to use every tool we have to fight it. That includes activism, spreading the word, and voting.

For people who use screen readers, we have full alt-text and image descriptions at the site. https://stopproject2025comic.org/comic/christian-nationalism/

[odinsblog]

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

HOW CHRISTIANITY SUPPORTS MULTIRACIAL, MULTICULTURAL DEMOCRACY

'The Bible doesn't mention abortion or gay marriage, but it goes on and on about forgiving debt, liberating the poor, and healing the sick' — This pastor perfectly explained how the values expressed in Christianity can support a multiracial, multicultural democracy instead of right-wing extremism (via jamestalarico on TikTok)

#christianity #religion #democracy

[thedepressedjuggalette]

Why Republicans and Christians want to Destroy "Save" America and What They Mean.

[mashounen1945]

Okay, time to explain this more thoroughly: I'm not sure if the last two ones could be applied to me, especially the "mostly LGBT friends" one.

Mostly LGBT friends:

I never had any queer classmates in high school, or perhaps I had but they didn't come out of the closet or didn't even realize they were LGBT. For the record: my neighbourhood isn't overtly religious or conservative, let alone to the same extent a lot of places in the USA are.

Leftist:

This one is... complicated.

As I mentioned in another post on this blog, my political ideas are sort of a bizarre mix of Christian Democracy [see the note for clarification] and Social Liberalism. This is seen as very much centrist where I live, and it's most likely seen like that in most countries of the world as well, but this would be dismissed as "leftist" in the USA anyway.

[Note: take what you'd expect to find in some European countries, add to it a hefty dose of stuff from the Priests for the 3rd World and other movements born in Latin America, and you'll see what I mean; also, I'm still pro-choice (yeah, figure that one out).]

-------------------------

Other than these two, everything else on that list checks out.

Transcription:

"[I'm] getting the impression that most of us fit this: - Former gifted kid. - Neurodivergent. - Burned out hard in adolescence. - Now riddled with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. - Libidinously polarized (either a horndog or uninterested in sex). - Mostly LGBT friends. - Leftist."

----------

Yeah, same.

(Well... mostly)

[imaginal-ai]

Thank you, President Biden!

US Flag stock photo by Ben Mater at Unsplash

[beauty-funny-trippy]

The vast majority of Republicans support Christianity in theory, but not in practice. They don't want to actually live by the teachings of Jesus. They believe that merely declaring themselves to be a Christian makes them a Christian. But by supporting Donald Trump, a man whose values are in close alignment with Putin and Pontius Pilate, Republicans have given us proof that they are only pretending to follow Jesus.

Trump has trampled on Jesus' virtues of being Kind, Honest and Humble. Instead, Trump has replaced them with Vengeance, Lies and Vanity. He rejects Jesus' philosophy of compassion. Instead, Trump prefers to greet immigrant neighbors with Razor Wire, and disgraces himself by ironically calling them inhuman "animals."

Trump's values are the complete opposite of Jesus' values. True Christians see Trump clearly and are appalled. But Fake Christians have covered their ears to the truth and closed their minds to reason — convinced, by the strength of their own gullibility, that they have found a new savior.

Republicans could have chosen any other GOP candidate. But instead, Fake Christians chose the most fake Christian they could find.

There are really only two possibilities as to why conservative "Christians" would support Trump over other GOP candidates:

• either, they are completely unaware of what Jesus actually taught, ...or...

• they are aware of His teachings, but choose to ignore Jesus anyway — preferring instead to embrace Trump's conceited self-worship and mean-spirited way of life. Thus, Republican "Christians" have, themselves, become the hypocrites and fake followers Jesus warned us about.

[antidrumpfs]

The big Christian family values champion MAGA Mike Johnson will be reading the tea leaves following the election results, and in typical right-wing spineless Republicon fashion, only do the right thing if it appears he won't be able to get away with cheating for his Orange master...