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   Joseph Meyer (josephmeyer@c.im)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 02:13:21 JST Joseph Meyer

   Life in a Pseudo-Religious Oligarchy

   I may be the only one dense enough to just arrive at a realization about the state of the U.S. government today. The Citizens United (2010) ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that made corporations into people, without limits to their political cash contributions, once seemed in the not distant past like a legal abstraction to me. And, the description of the U.S. government as an oligarchy by none other than Jimmy Carter in 2015 sounded like hyperbole. It’s like the consequences of Citizens United and subsequent related events snuck up on me while I was too busy making a living and supporting my family to pay much attention, which might have been part of the plan. (1/3)

   #Ethics #USPol #Money #Christianity #Religion #Oligarchy #Sunday

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     Joseph Meyer (josephmeyer@c.im)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 02:13:58 JST Joseph Meyer

     in reply to

     It was not until this morning, when I thought of where we are in simple and concrete terms (i.e., money has put billionaires in control of our government) that I realized a major threshold has been crossed. The takeover of U.S. government by billionaires has been so fully and quietly accepted by a large segment of the U.S. population that no attempt is even made by the wealthy to disguise it or make excuses for it like they would have done in the past. In the past, they knew it was not right and used subterfuge to justify themselves. Our billionaire leaders of today don’t seem to know their behavior is wrong and neither do their supporters, like some evangelical Christians. A prosperity gospel that only requires a childish acceptance of an abstract Jesus Christ as one’s personal savior, with few concomitant behavioral expectations, has redefined U.S. Christianity in the image of its followers like oligarchs have redefined democracy and what it means to be a responsible member of society into whatever serves their own interests. (2/3)

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     Joseph Meyer (josephmeyer@c.im)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 02:14:05 JST Joseph Meyer

     in reply to

     Most people I know seem to be in an almost zombie-like state of quiet acquiescence about the situation in which we find ourselves today. Even academics have nothing to say. Is it because people are too busy to complain, or perhaps too afraid? Regardless of the reasons, I am shocked and confused why more people, myself included, are not making a huge fuss. Karl Marx once wrote, “religion is the opium of the people,” and perhaps he was largely correct. But consumerism and the hectic schedule of daily life in an oligarchy may also be today’s opiates (3/3)