#american hegemony and holidays

[drdemonprince]

american christian hegemony and chauvinism are so strong that a person can celebrate every major christian holiday every single year of their life and arrange all their social and professional calendars and homes around those holidays and still say that they're like, totally not christian at all, they literally see themselves as somehow a "neutral" type of nonreligious person, that's how much cultural christianity is seen by them as the default

[max1461]

>Have you seen religion discourse on this website?

I think so, I've lurked here for a while, but none of it included the Idea that the Japanese are especially religious (!?), which would seem to be contradicted by surveys, my anecdotal experience, and their general anglosphere stereotype(s).

Anyways, when Japanese people say "westerners" they usually mean Americans, and "Americans be unusually religious " is like, a super common and basically correct stereotype.

The opinion that you commonly see is that atheism or general irreligiosity are Western in origin, imposed on other parts of the world through either direct colonialism or general Western hegemony. This is not true, and our lovely memecucker has been doing the lord's work (ahem) in dispelling this idea from every angle, but people still cling to it.

Anyway, it's often pointed out that viewing irreligiosity as inherently Western is kind of weird, in light of the fact that many of the world's least religious countries are in Asia, and indeed (as far as I know) the only countries that continue to maintain an official state policy of atheism are in Asia. People try to rebuke this by saying something to the effect of "well, religiousness means something different over there, people only say they're not religious because the survey questions are Christian-centric" or something to that effect. Now, this rebuttal seems to be... sort of a misremembered version of an actually true fact, but the way it's used is total nonsense.

The true fact that I think it comes from is that religious identity in the Abrahamic faiths is centered around belief (usually) and is exclusive (if you're Christian you're not Muslim, and vice-versa), whereas in many other religious traditions, religious identity is centered around practice and is non-exclusive. So, for instance, in Japan people have historically engaged in a mix of Shinto and Buddhist practices, because there is nothing about the doctrines of either Shinto or Buddhism which says you have to believe one or the other, it doesn't work like that. And Shinto in particular does not consist of any one set of canonical doctrines or beliefs, it's more like a loose collection of different stories and practices that have existed in a huge array of variations across Japan and across its history.

I don't know much about Chinese folk religion, but I take it that it is in this regard similar.

In the present day, a lot of people in Japan still celebrate Shinto-Buddhist holidays and practice Shinto-Buddhist rituals, despite describing themselves as atheists or non-religious. And because Shinto has always had huge variation in doctrine and has always been defined more centrally by practices than beliefs, there's a case to be made that such people "are Shinto"—they fall well within the variation that Shinto has had in the past.

Except, no, that's fucking stupid! Because people will tell you that they're not religious, that they don't believe in the supernatural, and that they practice Shinto-Buddhist rituals mostly because it's part of their culture—the same way plenty of American atheists celebrate Christmas or, I don't know, knock on wood to avoid bad luck or whatever. Yes, religious identity outside of the Abrahamic faiths doesn't work the same way as it does in Christianity, Islam, and most forms of Judaism. And that's worth remembering. But does that mean that people who tell you they aren't religious actually are? No that's fucking dumb.

Anyway...

[arbitrarygreay]

Witches all over the world respect what Beltane means to us. Even with our boldest enemies in foreign parts, there has always been a cease fire during the holiday. Beltane is sacred.

Sarah Alder, 1x4

I wonder, is there reciprocation for other witch cultures? Does the US military respect what non-pagan witch holidays mean to other witch militaries? Is there a ceasefire during days sacred to other nations?

And how is the sacred-ness of holidays established? Can new holidays be created with sufficient community participation and repetition? Is this an aspect of Hague Canon regulations?

And what of nations where the witches' base religion was never marginalized and is still the country and peoples' mainstream, like in parts of Asia? Which is erased for the Asians in the US military, on top of the former slaves having never reconnected with their African heritage. How do those soldiers feel when deployed and perhaps have to observe ceasefires for enemies sharing their ethnicity having their own holidays?

Not to mention where Islam falls here. In the Middle East, where you have Muslim Hegemony, is pre-Islam Persian culture the equivalent of European pagan witch practice? And if we reaaaaally want to get real thorny, how does Judaism play into this world?

Does the US witch military still respect Freedom of Religion (and if the Independence War happened 50 years earlier so James Madison wasn't a Founding Father, does this US even still have a Bill of Rights), and so allow witches to practice traditions from outside of European pagan culture?

It's still eyebrow-raising that the Marshal set them up to celebrate Yule, and obviously not as a one-off thing, but as something he himself observes, with the same for Adil. Am I to really believe that Native Americans/Tarim Basin didn't have their own winter solstice practice, or are the Marshal's actions proof that cultural authenticity has no bearing on the energies that can be drawn from a holiday? That is, is doing a cultural-mishmash swirl of traditions into a more inclusive sythesis actually more effective, as it increases the community-participation multiplier? Is that "COEXIST" sticker witch military goals?

[omegawizardposting]

Non-Christians should never be forced to participate in Christmas, but also, we live in a majority Christian country. You are going to see people celebrating Christmas. You are going to see Christmas decorations and hear Christmas music.

I wouldn't go to India and complain about Diwali being celebrated openly. I wouldn't go to Mexico and get mad about Dia de los Meurtos decorations.

I'm a lucky agnostic in that I enjoy all of the lights and the music. I wish I could put up colorful decorations year-round that weren't associated with Christmas. Christmas is still an uncomfortable time for me, though, because of how Christianity has been used to hurt me and many of the people I love. It's also the time of year when Christians become the most intolerable and intolerant of non-Christians.

So I get it, I do, but when you live in a country with a religious majority, you cannot expect them not to celebrate their holidays for your individual comfort. All we can do is demand the respect we and our beliefs are owed.

(This, of course, isn't about Christian hegemony. The fact that Christian holidays and beliefs are given preferential treatment by the American government is another can of worms. This is about getting up in arms when Christians celebrate Christian holidays at an individual level. You should not be frothing at the mouth because your neighbor put a wreath on their door.)

[curly-fried]

I kinda hate it when people in my country try to celebrate halloween. We have our own holiday that is related to halloween in november but because of the hegemony of American media people think that they should live like Americans. I hate it and think its pathetic that nobody tries to resist

[arunima]

pumpkins, the type americans have, are so ugly also. and you built a holiday around that. and now i have to suffer because your culture has global hegemony. whatever...

[themainspoon]

Goddamnit, I hate when I create stupid fucking rules and traditions for myself that I feel the need to follow.

The reason I’m complaining about this is because of one rule I have which is temporal in nature, it dictates that there is a certain thing I can only partake in at certain times.

So, growing up in Australia my parents never let me celebrate Halloween, because it is an American holiday and ‘we don’t celebrate it here’ (we actually do now, and we did back when I was little, not to the same extent, but the fun horror holiday is probably the only non-negative thing that the US’s attempts to expand its cultural hegemony ever gave us).

So, as a kid I never went trick or treating, never got to dress up, and as an awkward teen I didn’t get invited to any Halloween parties either, despite the fact I knew they were happening.

October always used to be a bit of a downer of a month for me, and I spent my entire childhood feeling like I missed out. So, now that I’m an adult I decided that in order to make it up to little kid me in a way he would probably think was a great idea, October would be “Emulate retro horror games” month. Emulating and playing through old horror games is what I do now during October, and only in October.

Last year I sat down and played Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2, and it was a great time, I genuinely fell in love with the franchise. But now we get to my issue: After last year I planned to play through Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room this year.

But I’m growing increasingly impatient.

Like Goddamn, I just really have that old school survival horror itch atm, and I am honour bound to not scratch it. It’s not even fucking September yet, could October hurry the fuck up please?!?!

There is also another issue I face, what do I play next year after I beat Silent Hill 3 and 4? Those are the last of the Silent Hill games that are actually worth playing. After that what do I do? Honestly the 2002 remake of the OG Resident Evil seems like it could be interesting, and maybe the first Fatal Frame could also be fun. But what do I play after that? How many good PS1 to PS2 era horror games actually are there? When does the tradition have to die?

Also, just while I’m talking about this I want to shout out SilentHillMemories.net, a Silent Hill fansite that contains a whole treasure trove of information on all the games, including detailed walkthroughs available in English and Russian (at the moment). It isn’t a wiki, but it’s still a pretty cool site, and it is really nice to be able to access all this stuff on a site that isn’t fandom or some dumbass gaming journalism website trying to projectile vomit ads and other stupid bullshit directly into your eyeballs. So huge shoutout to them:

[space-mouse]

i pointed out that it would be Consistent With Company Values to add some chanukah songs to the holiday playlist and my coworkers leapt on the opportunity to suggest greater cultural variety in the christmas music too. fingers crossed for management response. maybe this one retail store can become less aggressive about american christian hegemony this december.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, January 4, 2023

2024 brings wave of elections with global democracy on the ballot (Washington Post) More than 60 countries, with some 4 billion people, are set to stage national elections in 2024. That means roughly half the planet could go to the polls in what could be the greatest rolling spectacle of democracy in human history. We might not see this number of elections matched until 2048, when the world’s political landscape could look considerably different. In society after society, illiberal values and politicians who embrace them are gaining ground. Numerous elected governments seem bent on undermining core tenets of the democratic project, from the freedom of the press to the independence of institutions such as the judiciary to the ability of opposition parties to fairly compete against the ruling establishment. According to Freedom House, a Washington think tank that monitors the health of democracies, global freedom declined for the 17th consecutive year in 2023. The organization’s annual report cites a wave of coups that ousted elected leaders in Africa. Separately, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance said in its annual report that “across every region of the world, democracy has continued to contract.”

Nibbling at the edges of empire (Foreign Affairs/The Atlantic) The year 2023 saw the greatest global resurgence of armed conflict since 1945: 2024 will be worse. We are living, if not through a World War, then a world at war, the great post- globalisation jostling to divide up the spoils of what was once America’s unipolar imperium. This will be as epoch-defining a period as the late Forties were for Britain, or 1991 for Russia. Unlike the two World Wars, the rival great powers are not challenging the superpower directly—at least, not yet. Instead, American hegemony is being challenged obliquely, as its rivals nibble at the edges of empire, targeting weaker client states in the confidence that the United States now possesses neither the logistical capacity nor the domestic political stability necessary to impose its order on the world. In the Nineties and 2000s, at the height of its unipolar moment, the United States made almost all the world its client state, writing cheques for their security it now struggles to cash: like bankruptcy, decline comes slowly at first, then all at once.

Only half of Americans believe they can pay off their December credit card bill (USA Today) Only half (51%) of America’s credit card customers believe they can pay off their December balance in full, according to an industry index, signaling a low ebb in “credit card confidence” as the nation emerges from the holidays. The national credit card balance stands at $1.08 trillion, a record high. The average interest rate has reached 21%, the highest point recorded by the Federal Reserve in nearly three decades of tracking. Some retail cards now charge upwards of 30%. The average card customer holds $6,088 in debt, according to a TransUnion report for the third quarter of 2023, up from $5,474 at the same time in 2022.

Missing Chinese student was victim of ‘cyber kidnapping’ scam, Utah police say (Washington Post) A 17-year-old Chinese student who went missing in Utah last week has been found unharmed, police said, adding that he appeared to be the victim of an elaborate “cyber kidnapping” scheme, a “disturbing criminal trend” in which scammers put people under duress and convince their families that they are being held for ransom. Kai Zhuang, who was living in Riverdale, was discovered “alive but very cold and scared” inside a tent in remote mountains near Brigham City, Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said in a statement Sunday. The teen was probably instructed by those conducting the scam to isolate himself, he said. According to the FBI, while the crime can take on myriad forms, it is “always an extortion scheme” in which families are tricked into believing that a loved one has been abducted and are coerced into paying a ransom, though the person claimed to be missing has not actually been taken. Families are often sent voice recordings and photos by the perpetrators in a bid to convince them that the crime is taking place.

Thousands of doctors in Britain walk off the job in their longest-ever strike (AP) Thousands of doctors walked off the job in Britain on Wednesday, the start of a six-day strike that was set to be the longest in the history of the state-funded National Health Service. Managers said tens of thousands scheduled appointments and operations will be canceled during the walkout across England and Wales by junior doctors, those in the first years of their careers. The doctors, who form the backbone of hospital and clinic care, plan to stay off the job until 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Senior doctors and other medics have had to be drafted in to cover for emergency services, critical care and maternity services. Britain has endured a year of rolling strikes across the health sector as staff sought pay rises to offset the soaring cost of living.

Cold spell in Finland and Sweden sends temperature below minus 40 (AP) Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region. Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway in the south was closed due to the weather and ferry lines suspended operations. Swedish train operators said the cold snap caused substantial problems for rail traffic in the Arctic north.

Ukraine trains its sights on Russian border region, seeking to stir up discontent (AP) The Russian military said Wednesday it shot down 12 Ukrainian missiles over Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces seek to embarrass Russian President Vladimir Putin and puncture his argument that life in Russia is going on as normal despite the 22-month war. Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation in the regional capital, also called Belgorod, “remains tense.” The city came under two rounds of shelling Wednesday morning, Gladkov wrote on Telegram. The Russian side of the border with Ukraine has come under frequent attack in recent days. During the war, Russian border villages have sporadically been targeted by Ukrainian artillery fire, rockets, mortar shells and drones launched from thick forests where they are hard to detect. Belgorod, which has a population of around 340,000 people, is the biggest Russian city close to the Ukrainian border. It can be reached by relatively simple and movable weapons such as multiple rocket launchers.

Iran says at least 103 were killed in blasts at a ceremony honoring slain general (AP) Two bombs exploded Wednesday at a commemoration for a prominent Iranian general slain in a U.S. drone strike in 2020, Iranian officials said, killing at least 103 people as the Middle East remains on edge over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. No one immediately claimed responsibility for what appeared to be the deadliest militant attack to target Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 211 people were wounded. The blasts minutes apart shook the city of Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran, and sprayed shrapnel into a screaming crowd fleeing the first explosion. The gathering marked the fourth anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The explosions occurred near his grave site as long lines of people gathered for the event.

Turkey Roots Out the Moles (BBC) Turkey’s government says it’s detained 34 people who it claims were Israeli spies. Turkish officials said that a total of 57 residences were raided as part of “Operation Mole,” and 12 suspects are still at large. Istanbul claims that the individuals were all working with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and that they were involved in spying and planning abductions. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya claimed that Mossad was seeking to execute “tactical tasks such as reconnaissance, pursuit, assault, and kidnapping against foreign nationals residing in our country,” but Israel has yet to comment on the arrests. As part of Israel’s war with Hamas, the country has stated that it will target Hamas leaders wherever they are located.

Death Toll Rises to at Least 55 After Powerful Earthquake in Japan (NYT) At least 55 people were killed in the powerful earthquake that struck western Japan on Monday, the authorities said a day after the disaster, as they continued to comb through the rubble of collapsed and burned buildings. A large fire broke out in Wajima after the quake, which registered 7.6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. About 33,000 homes in Ishikawa and neighboring Niigata Prefecture were without power on Tuesday morning, said Yoshimasa Hayashi, chief cabinet secretary. Close to 20,000 homes across four prefectures lacked running water. Mr. Hayashi said that 57,360 people had fled their homes and gone to nearly 1,000 different evacuation facilities across the affected prefectures.

Top Hamas Official Is Killed in Lebanon as Fears Grow of a Wider War (NYT) Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of the group, along with two commanders from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Mr. al-Arouri is the senior-most Hamas figure to be killed since Israel vowed to destroy the organization and eliminate its leadership after a deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. Mr. al-Arouri was assassinated in an explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, marking the first such assassination of a top Hamas official outside the West Bank and Gaza in recent years. Israeli officials would not comment on whether their forces had targeted Mr. al-Arouri, but officials from Lebanon and the United States ascribed the attack to Israel. A senior U.S. official said it was most likely the first of many strikes that Israel would carry out against Hamas operatives connected to the Oct. 7 assault. Israel did not warn the United States about the attack beforehand, but briefed senior American officials when it was underway, a U.S. official said.

[msclaritea]

Young people might own a house now if they hadn’t watched so many Star Wars spin-offs – The Irish Times

Young people might own a house now if they hadn’t watched so many Star Wars spin-offs

Patrick Freyne: A year doesn’t pass without a Star War being beamed to our eyeballs. This week, with Ahsoka, it’s Rosario Dawson’s turn

Patrick Freyne

Fri Aug 25 2023 - 05:00

“War, huh, yeah, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing,” Edwin Starr sang back in 1970, as a retort to those who believed war was good for the creation of worldwide American hegemony. (I believe Henry Kissinger produced a pop single with this as the hook line.) Listening to Edwin on the radio in 1970 was the little-known film-maker and beard aficionado George Lucas. “This ‘war’ of which Mr ‘Starr’ sings intrigues me!” he cried. “It seems to be some sort of a ‘Starr War’, and what is it good for? Franchise potential, spin-offs and merchandising, a hubba-hubba, arooga, ka-ching etc.”

It is now 2023, and a year doesn’t pass without a Star War being beamed to our eyeballs via our personalised digital brain soothers. This week it’s Rosario Dawson’s turn. She dons the prosthetic tentacles and face paint of Ahsoka Tano, a moody space wizard with a glowy sword. “Ahsoka Tano” is the kind of fancy name Star Wars characters get in the 21st century. If this character had existed in the first Star Wars film, in 1977, she’d have been called something like Tentacle Face, and she would have been played not by an actor of Rosario Dawson’s stature but by a middle-aged bit player whose dreams were dead.

Say what you like about Emperor Palpatine, but he made sound infrastructural investments (employment-creating Death Star projects) and knew how to balance the books (blowing up costly planets)

Decades have passed since Lucas was first inspired by Edwin Starr’s melodic musings. Reboots of old comic books, cartoons, sci-fi properties and toy franchises created for 20th-century children have taken over mainstream entertainment for 21st-century adults. It has sucked in the best actors of the era. These days when a talented actor says they aspire to “play the Dane” they are most likely referring to Scooby-Doo rather than Hamlet. And this is why Rosario Dawson plays Tentacle Face.

Not everything created in this postmodern system of endless cultural churn is terrible. Andor, Tony Gilroy’s Star Wars project, managed to be a pretty incisive exploration of ordinary life under a totalitarian space government (Ken Loach’s Star Wars, essentially). It genuinely piqued my interest in space politics, and if I lived in space I would probably vote now. Ahsoka, on the other hand, is a story about a nice space wizard battling evil space wizards with very little attention paid to policy detail. Watching this show, I have no idea what my bin charges would be like under the Jedis. That’s relevant because this show is set in the period after Return of the Jedi, when the “goodies” have successfully defeated the “evil” regime of Emperor Palpatine. So you’d expect some improvement in public services.

There’s a lot of familiar stuff in the first two episodes of Ahsoka (streaming on Disney+). Our heroine is accompanied by an effete robot with an English accent. She has a friend who is in the army, and that friend has an R2D2-style sidekick who utters impenetrable gibberish that the army person then repeats in English. (Everyone knows a couple from the midlands who communicate like this.)

Stare at the Met Éireann app saying ‘ochón’: How to survive a wet Irish bank holiday weekend

There’s also a rebellious apprentice named Sabine. We know she’s a rebel because when we meet her she’s listening to space punk and driving a space motorbike on a weirdly empty space highway. Given that her space bike floats, this highway is a good example of the sort of feckless spending that probably typifies the Jedis’ space socialism. Say what you like about Emperor Palpatine, but he made sound infrastructural investments (employment-creating Death Star projects) and knew how to balance the books (blowing up costly planets).

The postrevolutionary Jedi belief system is vague and light on detail. This is possibly because many of these characters already exist in a vast, extended Star Wars universe of tie-in novels, animated TV series, video games, cheese dreams and fan fiction. The first episodes of Ahsoka don’t even try to stand alone. You’re required to do a pile of homework to fully appreciate the references in franchise material these days. And this is why everything is going to the dogs. Yes, young people may know Ahsoka’s backstory in painful detail, but if they hadn’t watched all seven seasons of StarWars: The Clone Wars they might own a house now. (This piece was originally written for The Irish Times’ opinion pages, so we’re keeping this as the headline.)

This said, there are a few clues as to where the Jedis sit on the political compass. When Ahsoka visits a shipyard in the second episode, we learn that when the empire fell “all imperial assets were dissolved and redistributed”. Another character, a nefarious businessman who has secretly been working with the Empire, mentions that his “loyalty is to my investors”. This makes the Jedi economic position pretty clear. For all of Darth Vader’s telekinetic choking of his underlings, the true invisible hand of the Empire was that of the market rather than the Force. (This was another potential headline.)

These characters like nothing better than to stroll and stare meaningfully at one another, presumably contemplating all of the backstory I am unfamiliar with.

Meanwhile, the Jedis seem to want us all to live in a van (a space van) and share our stuff. Now, Lucasfilm is hardly an anarchosyndicalist collective and Walt Disney wasn’t a big fan of redistribution. If he knew any Jedis in real life he would definitely have named them at the House of Representatives’ un-American activities committee. On the other hand, he was a fan of merchandising, and if there were a market for Karl Marx dolls, the Disney corporation would make them.

So the story so far: after a prelude involving some murderous lightsabre-wielding baddies, we meet Ahsoka/Tentacle Face as she’s antiquing in the ruins of an old planet. She finds a mysterious brass sphere that is actually a map to another galaxy, and then she is attacked by a band of violent robot ninjas who end up blowing everything up. Ahsoka escapes and seems fine with this destruction. Then the episode slows down considerably. This is because these characters like nothing better than to stroll and stare meaningfully at one another, presumably contemplating all of the backstory I am unfamiliar with.

In Ahsoka, everything – the sets, the ships, the planetscapes, the action – feels weightless, consequence-free and photocopied from other parts of the franchise. At the end of the first episode a baddie sticks a flaming lightsabre through the torso of a core character, but by the next episode that character is in a hospital feeling much better. And now your children probably have unrealistic expectations of what being skewered through the torso involves.

Our heroes then start digging about in the explody severed head of one of the ninja robots. They do so in the space hospital despite the fact that this might destroy the whole place. (Eat your heart out, Oppenheimer.) One of the things I liked about Andor was that actions had consequences and everyone looked worried all the time. These space wizards, on the other hand, don’t worry half enough. They’re living in a CGI daydream. And that’s why I continue to back Senator Sheev Palpatine for emperor. He gets things done."

Somebody is bitter. Poor, petty Patrick. He seems to have overshot a bit and completely missed the nonstop parade of the British-led franchise, Star Trek and its many, many, many iterations. To whit:

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek: Picard

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Short Treks

Star Trek Continues

Here are the ones that were planned:

Then there are the ones that failed:

Phase II

Ceti Alpha V

Section 31

Twelve shows, eleven spin-offs, three animated series and I'm pretty sure there are toys, though none will ever top my Tribble keychain and copy of Brent Spiner belting out show tunes.

But perhaps I should have just saved my money. I certainly will now.

[ciswomenofficial]

A few disparate thoughts on this subject:

Personally, I think there might very well be a bigger “shell” of religion left over than just aesthetics, there’s also some interesting bits of philosophy, and I think that once the material conditions for religion are abolished, while cultural groups will likely blend together that will probably be over a protracted amount of time, various generations—maybe even hundreds—in between might hold onto a sense of cultural identity based off of certain holidays and practices.

Regardless, It’s definitely ridiculous to assume that any any withering away of religion is necessarily “culturally Christian,” as I’d say that a necessary prerequisite of the withering away of religion (at least in Countries with an entrenchedly Christian culture) would be the abolition of Christian hegemony.

Lastly, if cultural change weren’t possible, if there were some sort of metaphysically existing Judaism that didn’t change over time from both internal and external pressures, than wouldn’t it be more properly Jewish to be treating queer people as we were treated in actual history within Jewish cultural groups a couple of thousand years ago? Do any of these individuals take such a blatantly reactionary stand? My bigger point is that, while I can see why there is reason to resist acculturation to the oppressive Christian status quo of, for instance, American politics, that it’s still fundamentally conservative to act like one’s own cultural group could use no more remolding, as if that culture has reached the metaphysically defined peak of its existence. This might not be as blatant as the people who want to set us back to yesterday, but it’s still backwards, as even if it were desirable, the universe and all within it is still constantly changing without cessation. It’s impossible to stay here forever, we can only go to the future where things are necessarily a bit different.

I understand if you want to stay out of it but I’m curious as to you’re thoughts on this discourse

https://www.tumblr.com/dappercat123/737173649266737152/your-arguments-sum-to-in-my-perfect-world-there

Anon, I'm going to be entirely honest with you. I have been waiting for an excuse to put my thoughts about this down. Forewarning that this is going to be long and take a dim view of organized religion.

TL;DR: I think everyone in that thread is maliciously misinterpreting evilsoup's point, which is basically that they think Gene Roddenberry was right about what a post-utopian society would look like re: religion. And you can agree or disagree about whether a post-religious utopia is likely or desirable, but to say that anyone who thinks it is is actively calling for and encouraging genocide is a gross misuse of the term (especially coming from at least one person that I'm pretty sure is currently denying an actively ongoing actual fucking genocide).

@evilsoup can correct me if I'm misinterpreting their points, but as far as I see it there are two main points being made:

A) In a perfect utopia with absolutely no source of oppression, marginalization, or disparity, religion would naturally whither away with no outside pressure being applied.

B) This would be a good or at least a neutral thing.

As far as A) goes - a lot of the responses evilsoup got were basically "well *I* would never choose to be nonreligious, so therefore the only way to create that world would be by force, and therefore you are calling for literal genocide". But aside from the fact that evilsoup was very, very clear that they thought this would be a *natural* event and that trying to force people to be nonreligious would be evil - we're not talking about (general) you. You can be as religious as you want but you don't get to make that choice for your grandkids, or your great-great-great grandkids, or your great-great-great-great-great-etc. grandkids. Just because religion is an integral part of your identity doesn't mean it's something you can pass down, and if you're not comfortable with the idea that your kids might choose to leave your religion, you shouldn't have kids.

I personally don't foresee religion disappearing entirely, but it is pretty consistent that as a country becomes happier, healthier, and wealthier, it also becomes less religious. Religiosity is inversely correlated with progressive values. And the more democratic and secular a nation is, the less powerful religious authorities become - In the 1600s blasphemy and atheism were punishable by death* in Massachusetts and today I can call the Pope a cunt to his face** on Twitter with no repercussions whatsoever. Political secularism is an absolute necessity for true democracy and it necessitates removing power from religious authorities, which has and will likely continue to lead to a decline in religiosity - not just a decline in how many people identify as religious, but also a decline in how religious the remaining people are.

*Blasphemy laws and death penalties for blasphemers/apostates are still VERY much a thing in many places. It's hard to see a path where those places become more democratic but don't become more secular and repeal those laws.

**Well, to the face of whoever runs his Twitter account, but the point remains.

I also believe that many religious communities have been held together for so long via coercion - either internal coercion like blasphemy and apostasy laws, shunning, and threats of hell or other supernatural punishment, or external coercion like oppression from the majority religious group or ethnic cleansings. In a perfect utopia, neither form of coercion would exist and I don't think it's crazy to think that religiosity would drop severely and become a much less important part of people's identities, in the way I think the queer community would not exist in a world where queerphobia didn't exist.

ANYWAY, all this is actually kind of moot. It could happen, it could not, nobody is calling for it to be forced so we'll just have to wait and see. The real point of disagreement is on B).

I'm gonna be honest - I think a lot of the responders are rank hypocrites and are really hung up on the idea of cultural purity, which is something I'm wildly uncomfortable with.

First of all, the idea that a deeply-held religious belief could be diluted until it's just a cultural thing that nobody really remembers the origins of isn't some evil mastermind plot evilsoup is trying to concoct, it's just how cultures work. There's tons of stuff about American culture that are vaguely rooted in what were once deeply-held beliefs and are now entertainment. Halloween is rooted in sacred tradition and now it's a day to dress up and get candy. Christmas is one of the most sacred holidays in Christianity but nobody bats an eye if a non-Christian puts up some lights or decorates a tree just because it's fun. I have no doubt that every culture on Earth has traditions that used to be deeply sacred but are now just fun family traditions. People in Japan use Christian symbology as an "exotic, mythical" aesthetic the exact same way people in the West use Eastern symbology. And if you're okay with it happening to Christianity, why wouldn't you be okay with it happening to any other religion in the absence of oppression?

And there's the idea that if a culture fails to get passed down *exactly* as it is now, it's a terrible loss and the result of malicious outside influence. But . . . cultures change over time. No culture is the same now as it was two or five or eight hundred years ago and I don't believe that change is inherently loss. The things that are sacred to you may or may not be sacred to the people of your culture in the future. That's just the way things work, and I don't think it's inherently good or bad.

And finally, people keep accusing evilsoup of "just wanting everyone to assimilate to your culture", but it absolutely does not follow that a lack of religion means a lack of diversity. Different nonreligious cultures are every bit as capable of being diverse as different religious cultures, so it's weird to insist that evilsoup wants there to only be one culture when they never said anything to indicate that.

[butchviking]

besides the nazis I do also have a MUCH LESSER beef with the Norse-larping/identifying white people who really do give me the “thinks they suffer the same way indigenous people suffer from the Christian white hegemony” and “thinks this opts them out of being realllly settler colonists… if you think about it…. They have an indigenous white(tm) set of beliefs” that are super true and extra spiritual and in harmony and then they pretend they can even know that. When I’m sorry — I truly am sorry — some ancient people in Europe did experience conquest by (also pagan, then Christian, Rome) and shit and they can empathize with that… but it doesn’t mean that “really” “if we think about it” any rando modern white nonindigenous (eg not Samí) person anywhere has comparable heritage or trauma or persecution around it. You can just feel they want to claim that. Sometimes they do word for word.

And i swear it’s niche. It’s not even the main motive most people have. but it’s around. I classify it as more of a whites irritating me shit than a big issue but that doesn’t mean I don’t see it for what it is.

man people have forgotten what the acronym LARP means. norse larpers are very cool & fun in my experience ✌️ i love larp i love silly little outfits i love people being so passionate abt smthn they immerse themselves in a whole world of it i love that they always have smthn cool to teach. everyone stop misusing larp its gotten weird and confusing

this is so wild tho i think ive like. never come across this type of person. i guess it must be niche cause i don't even know if u mean like. europeans or americans or scandinavians or the english or what. i mean i guess ive come across plenty of pagans (& non-pagans tbh) of all sorts who bang on about how christians 'stole' this holiday or that holiday from 'the pagans' which comes from some basis of truth and the christians did fucked up shit to a lot of different cultures.. but i kind of roll my eyes at it bc it doesnt usually come from much actual knowledge or persecution & more just, like u say, wanting to claim an experience. so im with u as far as that. but u gotta be crazy to think being of viking descent would somehow mean u have no history of invading or settling places that didn't want u like... our word for them literally comes from the word specifically for those who would travel overseas to raid & settle there. like im from the uk so i can't imagine how that would work bc anyone here of viking descent (i Will be that guy nd say its technically in my past somewhere too lol ✌️ according to my grandmother & also according the the family surname. but thats really common where im from we got decent viking history) is obviously not indigenous (we dont like. have indigenous ppl here anymore really except perhaps the cornish) nd any white americans have settler/coloniser history much more recently anyway. ive never known any scandinavians who try n make out like their history is one of particular repression (i have not known very many scandinavians) but tbh like. yeah they were severely fucked over by the christians that did happen. as far as im aware most scandinavians are indigenous as i understand the word (their ancestors didnt move in any time recently & have pretty much always lived there) but aren't like. oppressed for that. & the christians did genuinely oppress ppl in their act of christianisation but that was... a long time ago so most ppl don't exactly have any claim to 'trauma' from it. but then, there probably are a lot of modern ásatrúar who are probably still somewhat religiously repressed in their home country which is definitely a bad thing & is clearly a hang-over from that time & from that christian mindset that everyone must be like them & worship the same god as them. but its very very different to struggles of ppl like the sámi.

sry for just kind of thinking aloud here but as i say i don't think ive come across the ppl ur talking abt, so much so that i dont know. who u are talking about. other than the generic annoying 'pagan' types but i havent rly known any actual heathens who do that. other than the nazis.

[betterbemeta]

The Obligatory Seasonal “I’m a USA citizen recap” post

I know yesterday was kind of an awkward US Independence Day for us all, but the context of this nationalist holiday and even jokes about it kind of point out to me a weird inconsistency in it.

We are living through a political administration that got in on the slogan, ‘make america great again’ by which was meant like, make america ‘american’ again, make it white-normative again, which is wild because it’s never really *not* been that. But our whole oft-ribbed-on tradition of like, hot dog cook out, fireworks displays, no markers of any culture but white culture still is that thing that lots of racist people unironically yearned for. That ‘American Dream’ style image that they feel is at risk by... brown people and economic instability they attribute to the people they’re already biased against I guess.

Not really as a protest, but just as per their principles my family decided to host a lawn party/cook-out thing where they didn’t serve any hot dogs, hamburgers-- maybe the most ‘americana’ thing they did was serve beer and wine for those who wanted it. On some level, yeah, it’s my dad being Extra(tm) but on another level, my family is mixed race and mixed cultures, and mixed religion and it’s just chafing for the 4th to be that day where everyone comes together to default on a white norm. They cracked out all the cook books and ethnic recipes friends had taught, etc. and yeah. probably not perfect or as good as if we’d gone to someone else’s house and had been served their family’s ancestral foods. But you just can’t stand to participate in the iconography sometimes, of what is expected of an ‘american’ gathering.

Celebrating the USA sucks and is difficult because while like, the ‘best’ version of this country certainly could be a land of opportunity and equality, it’s not there yet by any means. One would think that if celebrating our Independence Day means celebrating freedom from an Empire’s expectations, we might want to hush it down with the nationalist and kinda imperialist overtones ourselves. If we’re celebrating the birth of a country where people are free to worship and express culture how they wish, you’d think that there’d be tons of cultural exchange, brotherhood stuff, festivals of diverse traditional foods and art, around the 4th of July.

But there’s really not, at least not where I live. It’s just one day off from work where it’s expected that we entrench further into the ‘melting pot’ idea where diverse people merely have access to celebrate a holiday of norms. It seems like such a tone-deaf way to handle a tricky holiday, especially when the trappings of ‘american-ness’ were certainly not invented until later in our history, slavery was a major motivator in the independence of our country, and that the American Dream has not been accessible to a vast swath of our population since its inception. 

If there are forces that want Americans to “be more American” that threaten american citizens, we certainly shouldn’t do anything that they like to see. We should actively avoid doing those things, make it visible that we’re avoiding those things, and actively try new things or even things that actively piss those evil people off. That that’s the ‘freedom’ we ought to celebrate and promote in the future. Not the freedom to say and do shit things to minority demographics who ought to benefit the most from ideals of liberty.

[schraubd]

The Judeo-Christian's Junior Partner

It's hardly a revelation at this point to observe how the "anti-CRT" style bills have quickly become tools to censor Jewish and Holocaust education. A recent story out of Florida, where a school district cited Florida's "don't say gay" bill to block a parent from giving an educational (but non-theological) presentation to teach students what Channukah is, wouldn't even be especially noteworthy (the district did eventually reverse itself). But there were some details in the story that I thought were illustrative about the location Jews are perceived to occupy in religious pluralism discourse versus the position we actually occupy.

The first thing to note about this district is that it is not some sentinel of secularism. The schools reportedly are replete with "holiday" decorations that are very much tied to Christmas. Nonetheless, when the parent tried to schedule her yearly Channukah presentation, the district demurred on the grounds that if the school allowed such an event, "“they would have to teach Kwanza and Diwali."

To which the Jewish parent replied: "I think that would be awesome!"

What we see here is how "Judeo-Christian" renders Judaism the (very, very) junior partner. Christians won't actually give Jews equal standing with Christians in terms of holiday exposure; as the "junior" they're not entitled to such largesse. But Christians assume nonetheless that Jews remain partners in the desire to maintain "Judeo-Christian" hegemony against upstart interlopers like Hindus or African-Americans. The idea that Jews would not be horrified by, but would in fact welcome, greater inclusion for other minority faiths and creeds -- that Jews actually identify more with other minority faiths and creeds than they do with hegemonic Christianity -- is incomprehensible.

The reality is that this unequal partnership is a creature of the Christian, not Jewish, imagination. Even if "Judeo-Christian" ever actually were a relationship of equals -- and I scarcely imagine it -- the fact is Jews do not see ourselves as part of this "Judeo-Christian" collective with a shared interest in standing against other minorities. That religious outsiders might be included is for us a feature, not a bug.

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/R4ISo1k

[faintly-macabre-the-which]

I think this post provides a really good opportunity to talk about the different facets of cultural christianity. Like you said, this term can be applied both to individuals and to the wider culture of wherever someone lives.

However, the meaning of this term is different depending on how it's applied. When applied to a culture, like America, cultural Christianity means the systemic hegemony of Christianity in secular life. Schools and workplaces give off for Christian holidays. Not only do we use the Christian calendar, but even scientists talk in "before Christ" and "after christ" (or now "before common era" and "common era," although these new terms still use Jesus's death as the split). Christmas, a 1 day holiday, becomes an entire holiday break.

When applied to people, cultural Christianity means the ways that the hegemony we just discussed effects the people who live in that society - and while that is mostly about Christian and fully secular people, it can also apply to people of minority religions. For example, because the Christian calendar is the one we use, many Jews don't know the Hebrew calendar anymore (I don't even know when my birthday is!!!). Because Christmas is such a big deal, people see it as secular. There was a reddit post going around a little while ago about a family that didn't want to teach their kids that Santa was real, and all of the comments accused them of taking away their kids' childhood or ruining the magic. People see Christmas music as non-religious and play it in public spaces. Secular choirs sing songs about Jesus.

But cultural Christianity is more insidious and subtle than just that. Many of the morals of Christianity permeate secular life. For example, let's say we have a rich man who gave to charity to distract from a PR mess.

A lot of people would say that's not "true charity," and thats because the American conception of charity is culturally Christian. Miriam Webster has the following definitions for charity (excluding the ones about a charity, like a food drive):

generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering

benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity

a gift for public benevolent purposes

All of these definitions talk about being generous or benevolent. The idea that charity must be given from goodwill or benevolence is a Christian idea. Other religions look at it differently.

Judaism, for example, says that giving charity (or "tzedekah") is an obligation. If you see someone in need, it is your duty to help them, whether you want to or not. In this way, that rich man would be correct to give charity, even if it was for PR purposes. But the idea of charity as a kindness permeates secular life.

Another example are the ideas of redemption and forgiveness, which you see talked about a lot on Tumblr because of all the fandom stuff. People argue about whether a villain has suffered enough or apologized enough to be redeemed and get "rewarded" by joining the good side. I'm sure you've seen this one talked about before because it's all over the place, but I'll just say that that's not how most religions outside of Christianity view redemption and forgiveness.

Hopefully I've been able to show that cultural Christianity has 2 facets - one applying to the ways that Christianity permeates secular culture, and one applying to the ways that christian-secular culture effects the people who live within it.

I hope that this also shows why this term is not something someone can choose to use for themselves. Your first point is about the "non-consensual application of it to individuals," but this is not a label that someone chooses. Cultural Christianity is not a religion, it is a term for a specific phenomenon. It is a description.

In your fourth point, you imply that cultural Christianity is about people who are Christian without believing in Christianity, and I hope I've also disproven that. Cultural Christianity is less something that someone intrinsically is with no control over it and more something that effects people. When calling someone a "cultural christian," we mean that they have been affected by the cultural phenomenon of cultural Christianity in the ways described above.

Finally, while it is a huge issue that people have said atheists are not discriminated against (which they definitely are) and that they should not have their own spaces to talk, that seems like a separate issue from the term "cultural christianity." Maybe some people have been using the word as a tool against atheists, which is horrible, but people using a term incorrectly is not an excuse to get rid of the term entirely (as we've seen with terms like gaslighting). By separating these two issues, we would probably be able to reach a better understanding between minority religions and atheists so that we could work together as natural allies, like you say in your post. I think this whole conversation has gotten out of hand (I keep seeing posts about this that end with blogs basically just cursing each other out) and by trying to understand each other, we might be able to get past this rift and destroy Christian hegemony once and for all! Or something like that.

I cannot stress enough that

My beef with the term "culturally Christian" is specifically the application of it to individuals (and more specifically the non-consensual application of it to individuals).

I understand that "cultural Christianity"- as in the cultural phenomena- is a real thing. I have known this since I was very young. I have felt like an outsider, constantly, because of Christian hegemony; I can't imagine how much more severe that experience is for folks of minority religions.

I think it might reduce confusion to use alternative terms like "Christian hegemony" to refer to the broad cultural issue, rather than a term that originates as an individual label, but I don't take serious issue with the term in that broad, cultural application.

The idea that there exists a way to be a Christian without believing in Christianity as a religion is… definitely a conversation worth having, I think.

I understand that it would be useful to have a term to refer to people who aren't Christian, but who still act like they are.

I don't really have an elegant solution here; obviously using "culturally Christian" to refer to a specific subset of people has been tried and has, instead, meaningfully shifted the entire conversation to where people essentially believe that you can either think:

Christian hegemony exists and therefore everyone deemed "default" (christian, ex-christian, or just atheist/agnostic and not closely associated with a minority religion) is a non-practicing Christian, or

Not everyone deemed "default" is actually a non-practicing Christian, therefore there is no such thing as Christian hegemony.

And like. Obviously I am not a fan of the whole "this word is bad, pick another one before we let you talk about this Very Real Problem we don't believe you have"-style discourse. That's kinda my whole Thing.

So 🤷‍♂️

The thing is that the problem remains, and by "the problem" I mean the flattening of this issue and the lived experiences being discussed here into, like, "if you're not a minority theist you're functionally Christian".

And the exclusion of any voices that exist outside of this strict binary.

And the treatment of atheism as such a non-entity that otherwise sensible people are insisting that atheism has never been and cannot be marginalized in any way, and that no atheists ever have had reason, or should have space, to discuss our own fucked up treatment by Christianity on the basis of our beliefs.

And I just think that this also feels a lot like some "your experiences aren't important enough for us to consider hearing you out, making space for you, and including you as our natural allies" stuff I feel pretty strongly about.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Even though I’m gathering with some family in an inadvertent commemoration of this “holiday”, I’m going to try to use it - as I did last year - as an opportunity to encourage donations to our local tribes. This year I’m also going to discuss gathering for Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah instead, and I’m going to try and make a list for any friends & family who want it of BIPOC-owned businesses and causes to support.

#Repost @decolonizemyself with @use.repost

#Repost @itsmirastern — Links in bio for more ideas! 'another year and another opportunity to switch it all up and work for repair. ⚡️ if we’re committed to rewriting narratives, we have to take bold moves to do so. when my wifey and i began to boycott the holiday, it felt lonely, i longed for community and gathering. i mourned giving up the childhood memories i kept trying to create as an adult. but what nourishes me much more is knowing i have a hundred other opportunities to center into gratitude, land reverence, and community beyond the last thursday in november. ⚡️ especially for us white folks and other non-white settlers…divesting from the american regime of colonial whitewashing is our only salvation- physical, mental and spiritual. we’ve all been dragged into the lies of american amnesia and hegemony, but our power lies in our commitment to reshaping. ⚡️ here are some alternatives to commemorating thursday’s holiday. message me if you want handles or links to any of the suggestions here! ⚡️ what other practices or reimaginations allow you to resist thankstaking? what movements or individuals do you want to support this season? please share below!