A dive into the worldview of MAGA’s most likely heir. For JD Vance, America should be a Christian state, and American identity based on blood and on soil.
He also appears to be something of a paranoiac, an observation opponents may be able to leverage:
> In “Regime Change,” their new book about Trump’s second term, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times write that Vance was something of a “doomer,” as Vance himself joked in private, that he was “always latching onto the most negative possibilities.” He worried, early and presciently, that divides over Israel and the Epstein files would threaten the MAGA coalition, and his fears lurched toward the conspiratorial. After the assassination last year of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and the vice president’s close friend, Vance’s “instincts told him that there was a larger plot behind the murder,” Haberman and Swan write. “He went down countless online rabbit holes, becoming so consumed by the videos and the theories that his wife, Usha, told him she was worried about him.”
pseudoanon on
So…JD Vance: Brainrot or Bullshit?
Maybe there’s something on Kalshi I can put money on? I think I can take the author to the cleaners on this one.
Flat_Sail_7985 on
Just wanted to preface this I am still reading! And will update my comment periodically as I continue to read.
““The decline of Christianity has left us without a shared moral language,” Vance contends.” I guess something that has always bugged me on a a personal level is this type of broad “We share the same Christian values” paves over huge differences in denominations. There are fundamental theological teaching and moral guidance between the Catholic Church and the mainline protestant denominations (And they disagree heavily within themselves as well!). An even better and clearer example of this difference in moral/theological teachings is the difference between Evangelicalism and other branches. There are enter sections of core evangelical moral and theological teachings that are exceptionally different than Catholicism.
I guess TLDR its just bugged me how its always “we shared a united Christian worldview here in America” when it just could not be further from the truth. I still get called a traitor papist by conservatives. Like, there was never a “Shared moral language/framework/teachings”. Its just all nonsense pretending that “in some vague past” the country was entirely united under one political and one religious ideology.
Okay will keep reading now.
Edit v1: “People will not fight for abstraction, but they will fight for their home.”” I mean, countless millions have died in the fires of religious wars in Europe alone. People have been and are willing to fight and die over abstractions rather than tangible earthly items and possessions. Like there are literally Fundamentalist Islamic Groups in the middle east fighting and dying TODAY over “abstractions” rather than “their homeland”.
Edit v2: “In early 2020, as news emerged of a deadly virus spreading across China, “I drove to a sporting goods store and bought 1,000 rounds of ammunition,” Vance writes. “Then I went to Walmart and bought enormous bags of rice and flour, 20 pounds of ground beef, and excessive amounts of ketchup.” The cashier asked him if he owned a restaurant. “No. But the China virus is coming,” Vance replied.”
???????????????????????????????????????????????? This article is getting worse and worse (Not the authors fault but omg)
Final Edit: “The most pressing challenge that Europe faces, Vance argued, is mass migration, caused by politicians who counter the will of voters and “open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.” This is a good example of my earlier comment how there is no overall shared christian moral heritage. Vance believes that migration and “opening the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrations” is not only wrong, but broadly against this shared christian heritage since he and others in the admin (Rubio did this as well) justify strong borders with their faith.
This is a good example of my point because my understand of faith (I am also catholic) is the exact opposite of Vance’s conclusion; we have a moral obligation to help others and let them in, to support and welcome them. Hebrews 13:2 “2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Also, criticizing Western secular liberalism as being too abstract to base a nation on when your proposed alternative is something as abstract as Christianity generally and Roman Catholicism specifically is kind of weird? How is subservience to the Catholic hierarchy — a system developed in the literal times of the Roman Empire — less abstract than like… the idea that all people are deserving of equal dignity and respect before the law?
Someone commented that they were more willing to believe a “Bowling Alone” narrative rather than a “Clash of Civilizations” narrative when it comes to the breakdown of Western social relations, and I feel like I kind of agree. Is the problem that people aren’t praying specifically to Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Or is it that fewer and fewer people are having in-person interactions with their neighbors at least once a week?
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A dive into the worldview of MAGA’s most likely heir. For JD Vance, America should be a Christian state, and American identity based on blood and on soil.
He also appears to be something of a paranoiac, an observation opponents may be able to leverage:
> In “Regime Change,” their new book about Trump’s second term, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times write that Vance was something of a “doomer,” as Vance himself joked in private, that he was “always latching onto the most negative possibilities.” He worried, early and presciently, that divides over Israel and the Epstein files would threaten the MAGA coalition, and his fears lurched toward the conspiratorial. After the assassination last year of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and the vice president’s close friend, Vance’s “instincts told him that there was a larger plot behind the murder,” Haberman and Swan write. “He went down countless online rabbit holes, becoming so consumed by the videos and the theories that his wife, Usha, told him she was worried about him.”
So…JD Vance: Brainrot or Bullshit?
Maybe there’s something on Kalshi I can put money on? I think I can take the author to the cleaners on this one.
Just wanted to preface this I am still reading! And will update my comment periodically as I continue to read.
““The decline of Christianity has left us without a shared moral language,” Vance contends.” I guess something that has always bugged me on a a personal level is this type of broad “We share the same Christian values” paves over huge differences in denominations. There are fundamental theological teaching and moral guidance between the Catholic Church and the mainline protestant denominations (And they disagree heavily within themselves as well!). An even better and clearer example of this difference in moral/theological teachings is the difference between Evangelicalism and other branches. There are enter sections of core evangelical moral and theological teachings that are exceptionally different than Catholicism.
I guess TLDR its just bugged me how its always “we shared a united Christian worldview here in America” when it just could not be further from the truth. I still get called a traitor papist by conservatives. Like, there was never a “Shared moral language/framework/teachings”. Its just all nonsense pretending that “in some vague past” the country was entirely united under one political and one religious ideology.
Okay will keep reading now.
Edit v1: “People will not fight for abstraction, but they will fight for their home.”” I mean, countless millions have died in the fires of religious wars in Europe alone. People have been and are willing to fight and die over abstractions rather than tangible earthly items and possessions. Like there are literally Fundamentalist Islamic Groups in the middle east fighting and dying TODAY over “abstractions” rather than “their homeland”.
Edit v2: “In early 2020, as news emerged of a deadly virus spreading across China, “I drove to a sporting goods store and bought 1,000 rounds of ammunition,” Vance writes. “Then I went to Walmart and bought enormous bags of rice and flour, 20 pounds of ground beef, and excessive amounts of ketchup.” The cashier asked him if he owned a restaurant. “No. But the China virus is coming,” Vance replied.”
???????????????????????????????????????????????? This article is getting worse and worse (Not the authors fault but omg)
Final Edit: “The most pressing challenge that Europe faces, Vance argued, is mass migration, caused by politicians who counter the will of voters and “open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.” This is a good example of my earlier comment how there is no overall shared christian moral heritage. Vance believes that migration and “opening the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrations” is not only wrong, but broadly against this shared christian heritage since he and others in the admin (Rubio did this as well) justify strong borders with their faith.
This is a good example of my point because my understand of faith (I am also catholic) is the exact opposite of Vance’s conclusion; we have a moral obligation to help others and let them in, to support and welcome them. Hebrews 13:2 “2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
https://preview.redd.it/1dx20cvzeubh1.png?width=574&format=png&auto=webp&s=f341c30b9deb1f306a19e8c69f91d162f76b300f
brother
Also, criticizing Western secular liberalism as being too abstract to base a nation on when your proposed alternative is something as abstract as Christianity generally and Roman Catholicism specifically is kind of weird? How is subservience to the Catholic hierarchy — a system developed in the literal times of the Roman Empire — less abstract than like… the idea that all people are deserving of equal dignity and respect before the law?
Someone commented that they were more willing to believe a “Bowling Alone” narrative rather than a “Clash of Civilizations” narrative when it comes to the breakdown of Western social relations, and I feel like I kind of agree. Is the problem that people aren’t praying specifically to Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Or is it that fewer and fewer people are having in-person interactions with their neighbors at least once a week?