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I'm going to knock out that white supremacy & abortion discourse thread for you today, but before I can get to that, we've got to talk about the 'religion' issue.
Some people are reacting to the Capitol and Christianity in the worst possible way - ethically and strategically.
Several people responded to Christian Identity / white supremacist theology thread with calls to eradicate religion.
Let's just get one thing out of the way:
1) that won't ever happen
2) you're assuming religion is the problem (spoiler; it's
Not only do non-religious ideologies prove equally lethal, but in many cases, religious observance - like regular attendance of mosques, for example - is inversely correlated with political violence.
Also: generalizations are always a very bad idea; they lack analytic depth.
I also had people read the Christian Identity thread, and then write to me to ask:
"I heard a politician open his/her remarks with the name of God / Jesus, and it worried me. Is he/she a Nazi?"
Okay, let me stop you RIGHT there.
The answer here is not “every Christian politician is a Christian identity Nazi, and every mention of ‘the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ is the ‘Christian Taliban’” (or whatever Islamophobic term is in current use).
That ain't it.
For a couple of reasons.
Some people are reacting to the Capitol and Christianity in the worst possible way - ethically and strategically.
Several people responded to Christian Identity / white supremacist theology thread with calls to eradicate religion.
Let's just get one thing out of the way:
1) that won't ever happen
2) you're assuming religion is the problem (spoiler; it's
Brief thread on the white supremacist Christian Identity theology you asked in response to this thread.
— The Provost / \u0633\u064a\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u062a\u0646\u0629 (@MsEntropy) January 15, 2021
Incoming. https://t.co/TM4pDI3jcC
Not only do non-religious ideologies prove equally lethal, but in many cases, religious observance - like regular attendance of mosques, for example - is inversely correlated with political violence.
Also: generalizations are always a very bad idea; they lack analytic depth.
I also had people read the Christian Identity thread, and then write to me to ask:
"I heard a politician open his/her remarks with the name of God / Jesus, and it worried me. Is he/she a Nazi?"
Okay, let me stop you RIGHT there.
The answer here is not “every Christian politician is a Christian identity Nazi, and every mention of ‘the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ is the ‘Christian Taliban’” (or whatever Islamophobic term is in current use).
That ain't it.
For a couple of reasons.
Here we go
"On Dec. 29, after receiving the budget, Wren instructed Chafian... to hold off on printing event-related slogans “until we decide what the messaging is and we have no clue on timing because it all depends on the votes that day so we won’t know timing for a few more days.”
"The “timing” appears to be a reference to Congress’ Jan. 6 vote to certify the election results." Well that's going to get some attention by law enforcement
"Chafian told ProPublica that she herself had been directed by [Alex] Jones to Wren, who, she was told, had ties to a wealthy donor who wanted to support the January affair. Chafian said the donor is a woman but wouldn’t disclose her name, citing a confidentiality agreement."
"A guidance memo provided to VIP attendees of the Jan. 6 rally further establishes Wren’s centrality to the event. She is listed, along with three other people, as one of the primary points of contact for the demonstration."
We got texts between the organizers of the Jan. 6, which the Trump campaign says they definitely, absolutely didn\u2019t organize.
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) January 30, 2021
\u201cGet the budget and vendors breakdown to me,\u201d wrote a long-time Trump fundraising officialhttps://t.co/ScyGTGz8Mp
By @mikespiesnyc @JakePearsonProP
"On Dec. 29, after receiving the budget, Wren instructed Chafian... to hold off on printing event-related slogans “until we decide what the messaging is and we have no clue on timing because it all depends on the votes that day so we won’t know timing for a few more days.”
"The “timing” appears to be a reference to Congress’ Jan. 6 vote to certify the election results." Well that's going to get some attention by law enforcement
"Chafian told ProPublica that she herself had been directed by [Alex] Jones to Wren, who, she was told, had ties to a wealthy donor who wanted to support the January affair. Chafian said the donor is a woman but wouldn’t disclose her name, citing a confidentiality agreement."
"A guidance memo provided to VIP attendees of the Jan. 6 rally further establishes Wren’s centrality to the event. She is listed, along with three other people, as one of the primary points of contact for the demonstration."
When are we going to start talking about the fact that this pandemic was caused by eating animals? If it’s not this zoonotic disease, it will be the next one. Maybe we should start talking about stopping factory farming, wet markets, ⬇️ animal consumption & prevent the next one.
A great read from @derekberes — who is not biased (like me!) because he is not
Top experts in nutrition, health policy, environmental policy, infectious diseases, global economics contributed to the amazing work at EAT Lancet Commission and stated the following:
https://t.co/iIpQtI0Mmv
“We see clear signs of dangerous vicious cycles, threatening social stability, with food as part of the cause and as an effect multiplier. The pandemic thereby exposes a fundamental fact: Resilient recovery from Covid-19 can only be achieved by radically transforming our food
systems. Infectious disease outbreaks due to virus spill-overs from animals to humans have increased over the past 20 years, from SARS, to Ebola and MERS, and now Covid-19. That increase has followed the pace of our continued expansion of food production into natural wildlife
A great read from @derekberes — who is not biased (like me!) because he is not
Top experts in nutrition, health policy, environmental policy, infectious diseases, global economics contributed to the amazing work at EAT Lancet Commission and stated the following:
https://t.co/iIpQtI0Mmv

“We see clear signs of dangerous vicious cycles, threatening social stability, with food as part of the cause and as an effect multiplier. The pandemic thereby exposes a fundamental fact: Resilient recovery from Covid-19 can only be achieved by radically transforming our food
systems. Infectious disease outbreaks due to virus spill-overs from animals to humans have increased over the past 20 years, from SARS, to Ebola and MERS, and now Covid-19. That increase has followed the pace of our continued expansion of food production into natural wildlife
Dear @theSNP,
If you are serious about tackling transphobia within your party, perhaps you should begin by talking to actual trans people, and the organisations who represent them.
Your own NEC is really not the place to start, it's part of the problem.
I mean your Conduct Committee is a joke. Here is a small sample of tweets from Neale Hanvey's campaign guy. This is what is going on in the name of the SNP.
https://t.co/RRuwNAAeUB
Hanvey appears to have deleted his own tweets equating trans people with paedophiles, but the damage is already done.
You will never regain trust, members, or member subs, until you tackle this effectively.
Hanvey deleted his tweet, but here's a quote of the tweet, where he conflated paedophilia with GRA reform, and perpetuates the far-right conspiracy theory about paedophiles "adding letters" to the LGBTQ+ grouping.
If you are serious about tackling transphobia within your party, perhaps you should begin by talking to actual trans people, and the organisations who represent them.
Your own NEC is really not the place to start, it's part of the problem.
I mean your Conduct Committee is a joke. Here is a small sample of tweets from Neale Hanvey's campaign guy. This is what is going on in the name of the SNP.
https://t.co/RRuwNAAeUB

Hanvey appears to have deleted his own tweets equating trans people with paedophiles, but the damage is already done.
You will never regain trust, members, or member subs, until you tackle this effectively.
Hanvey deleted his tweet, but here's a quote of the tweet, where he conflated paedophilia with GRA reform, and perpetuates the far-right conspiracy theory about paedophiles "adding letters" to the LGBTQ+ grouping.

Amazing news. Our team @JennerInstitute are so pleased to see this!
A few quick responses to some pointing out it could be even better (more/cheaper/single-dose) 1/
The Ox/AZ/SerumInst deal is incredibly radical- Ox opted out of £££ to make a brand new product available around the world not-for-profit. Please judge imperfections by comparison to Pfizer/Moderna, not vs an imaginary ideal or a company which hasn’t yet delivered any doses.
Quibble #1: ‘It needs 2 doses’. Ox/AZ haven’t done as good a PR job on this as J&J, but the vaccines are similar. Published Ox data shows substantial single dose efficacy if you read tables carefully. Further analysis will be done soon. 2/
And I think all vaccines incl J&J will need boost for optimal long-term effect. 3/
Quibble #2: ‘But Serum Inst are charging more to SA than AZ are charging others’. Firstly, the product remains cheaper, I think, than anything else in market, or many older vaccines which haven’t had the recent R&D costs. 4/
A few quick responses to some pointing out it could be even better (more/cheaper/single-dose) 1/
The first shipment of 1 million doses of the #OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine from the @SerumInstIndia is on the way to @ortambo_int
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) January 31, 2021
The shipment left the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai today and will arrive in South Africa on 1 February 2021.#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/lTw1EtGi0d
The Ox/AZ/SerumInst deal is incredibly radical- Ox opted out of £££ to make a brand new product available around the world not-for-profit. Please judge imperfections by comparison to Pfizer/Moderna, not vs an imaginary ideal or a company which hasn’t yet delivered any doses.
Quibble #1: ‘It needs 2 doses’. Ox/AZ haven’t done as good a PR job on this as J&J, but the vaccines are similar. Published Ox data shows substantial single dose efficacy if you read tables carefully. Further analysis will be done soon. 2/
And I think all vaccines incl J&J will need boost for optimal long-term effect. 3/
Quibble #2: ‘But Serum Inst are charging more to SA than AZ are charging others’. Firstly, the product remains cheaper, I think, than anything else in market, or many older vaccines which haven’t had the recent R&D costs. 4/