The important part of this article is not what Marge Greene says about Alex Jones. It is what her intern says about trashing the Bill of Rights and getting rid of the 1st amendment to create a theocracy. He wants only Christians to be able to hold office, to have guns, and to be able to publish online. Hugs
Milo Yiannopoulos (l)/Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Photo: ScreenshotsRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is defending Infowars host Alex Jones in the wake of the nearly one billion dollar civil judgment against him for defamatory claims he made on his radio show about the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, arguing that he is facing “political persecution.”
But while she argues that “freedom of speech” should allow Jones to avoid the consequences of defaming those kids’ parents – even as it inspired his followers to harass them and allegedly pee on the child victims’ graves – her most famous intern, Milo Yiannopoulos, is telling his followers on Telegram that the U.S. should ban blasphemy and “institute meaningful penalties for insulting, irreverent or contemptuous language about Our Lord.”
Yesterday a jury in Connecticut awarded $965 million to the parents of some of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after Jones repeatedly claimed that the shooting was a hoax staged by actors.
One father of a six-year-old boy who was killed in the shooting said that Jones made his life a “living hell,” that his fans harassed him in the street, shot at his home and car, and made threats against him for years.
“As time went on, I truly realized how dangerous it was,” the father said during the civil trial. “My life has been threatened. I fear for my life, I fear for my safety.”
Greene was enraged that the jury would order Jones to pay damages in the defamation case.
“No matter what you think of Alex Jones all he did was speak words,” she tweeted yesterday after the verdict was announced. “He was not the one who pulled the trigger. Were his words wrong and did he apologize? Yes. That’s what freedom of speech is. Freedom to speak words. Political persecution must end.”
“I legitimately thought it might have been staged, and I stand by that, and I don’t apologize for it,” Jones said during the trial.
While Greene was arguing for such an expansive definition of free speech that includes immunity for deliberate defamation, someone from her office was saying that the U.S. should ban free speech when it comes to criticism of religion and God.
“Christian nationalism will succeed only if we are honest about the profound structural failures in the American system, and are prepared to do something about them,” Greene’s intern, Yiannopoulos – who identifies as ex-gay – wrote on the rightwing social media platform Telegram. “This will involve the commission of some pretty gigantic offenses against ‘American conservatism.’ For a start, we must be prepared to say that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are hopelessly broken, because of course they are.”
“You will know America is serious about saving itself, and that it has absorbed the scale of the undertaking, when you see a president adding his signature to revivified blasphemy laws, which will prevent the open promotion of sedition, institute meaningful penalties for insulting, irreverent or contemptuous language about Our Lord, and moreover restore to general society an understanding that words matter, they carry consequences, and they may not be capriciously and arbitrarily redefined by mentally unstable graffiti artists with PhDs,” he wrote.
“The wide disputational berth granted by the First Amendment and the destructive potentialities of the Second are privileges that can only be granted to Christians…. No other belief system produces individuals capable of responsibly wielding such daunting, awesome freedoms.”
“You cannot grant these powers to the citizenry without also requiring that every elected official and federal employee is a churchgoing Christian and that the nation explicitly identifies itself with Jesus Christ and governs in a manner informed by the Church,” he wrote.
“I ruined my knees in my 20s. Not through prayer, as if you had to ask. I think about this every day when I pray now, and I am disgusted by it.”
While Greene has not made such an extreme statement against freedom of speech for non-Christians, she, like Yiannopoulos, has vocally defended Christian nationalism, the idea that the U.S. should be a Christian nation and that the government should give Christianity a privileged position in politics.
“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” Greene said last month.
Scottie, of all the Republicans, the one who may be the poster child for what is wrong with the party may be, of course, Donald Trump, but also Marjorie Taylor Greene. Other Republicans need to step up and say neither of these deceitful and bullying acting folks speak for Republicans anymore. If they continue to look the other way, they taint the whole bunch. Keith
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The thing is, Keith, a large segment of those “other Republicans” AGREE with these two idiots!
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Hello Nan. Yes that is the problem. But the bigger problem in my mind is figuring out how big that segment is. I read several reports that the part of republicans that support trump is shrinking like distilled substances to his really fanatic base. The articles said that the majority of republicans are moving on, but to win primaries they have to pander to this concentrated base, then try to pivot hard to a more acceptable middle. As Beau says “You can not win a republican party primary without trump, but you may not be able to win the general election with him”. That seems to be true. I found it funny that one person that sucked up to trump big time then tried to move away from him then trump called them out so they went back to full in supporting trump. That person dropped in polling almost immediately. Hugs
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Trump’s vindictiveness plays a VERY big role in why people bow to and support his wants and needs.
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Hello Nan. Very true. He is loud and a bully. He has no problem with getting his cult like followers to viciously attack someone no matter how violent they get. They say he was really happy with what he saw on Jan 6th. He has no empathy, and I don’t know what it is called medically but he enjoys the humiliation of others, seeing people debase themselves to him. He knows he is a worthless piece of shit and making others bow to him makes him feel better. The thing is the very people that want to claim to be alpha males and are scared of him and show that they are beta and will do whatever it takes to make him happy. Even after he sent his mob after them these still defend him and praise him. None of them are fit to be in congress. Hugs
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Hello Keith. As you know in a new post I made Greene says that she is demanding full and complete power to troll democrats and the Biden administration. What she plans to do with that is make the over the top Benghazi investigations which were a ginned-up outrage at H. Clinton over something that the republicans themselves had a hand in doing. Mccarthy bragged about how it was all political to drive her poll numbers down. This will be so much worse if the republicans get control of the house. It will be the US government being downgraded to the lowest reality program, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Marge Greene, and the rest being let off any restraint to just throw the wildest fits to please their Q base. Keith as Ron and I talked about today Greene and her ilk do not think their position is to guide the country or make laws that improve the country as a whole, instead they want to troll, they want to do internet bombs, they want the constant attention from Fox and other right wing news. They feel they made theirs, and they want more of that attention, but they don’t care about the people or how anything affects them. It is amazing how fast Greene was able to gain big money right wing donations. Their drive is to give the big money donors what they want. A totally business run for profit country, and the people are simply the labor force kept in poverty begging for scraps. Hugs
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One of the BIGGEST lies that has come out of MTG’s mouth is when she says “I’m a Christian.” If she’s a “Christian,” then she certainly hasn’t paid attention to her hero’s admonitions throughout the “Good Book” because everything she says or does is the total opposite.
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Hello Nan. Christianity is changing again as it has all its history. That is one reason the Catholic church is having such troubles. For years they could insist on their way of faith due to their majority and lack of news being reported about them. Religions are slow to change but unless they accept the society as it is to moderate their message such as the anti-gay churches are losing members while the pro-gay churches are gaining members should be a warning shot across the bow of all religions. The newest Pope understands this (religions are about money and control. Moving the money from the base to the church / its upper ranks. The more money, the more people in the membership the more political power they have. Look at the Vatican, how do you think they paid for all of that? Look at your local church, do you think if they can no longer give enough to float the costs of the building and the preacher it will still be there?)
My point is that religions change and evolve to keep relevant and keep the money / power coming in. That has happened all across the US and other parts of the world with LGBTQ+ accepting churches. If you look across history you see the changes of church values that match the changing the society. It is weird this time that it has taken so long for the main churches to understand this and change. I think this is due to the powerfully entrenched authorities in these religious denominations. Again going back to the Catholic Pope he has been at war with his own leadership that simply do not believe he is the infallible representative of their god because he wants changes that the entrenched powerful leaders do not agree with. They love their positions of power that let them hurt and harm at will and they want it to continue. That should tell you that they really don’t believe the mystical supernatural stuff they preach and promote.
My point is that Christianity is about to either change or split again into another sect. The Fundies / evangelicals / far right religious leaders / whatever they call themselves religious extremists are now morphing into Christian Nationalists who want to create a theocracy. If you think it cannot happen I suggest you look into history with the 1979 takeover of Iran . The people there were a happy open society and within a few weeks a religious military took over with the help of a very small minority. They still rule that country today despite the majority of the country not wanting that. The religion has morality police that have the power to do anything they feel is necessary to protect the religion. I hope the attempted revolution happens there but the current theocratic regime has shown they are willing to kill everyone, all the people to retain power and control. Hugs
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Scottie, I’m not sure why you wrote a dissertation on Christianity. All I said was MTG’s “Christianity” doesn’t, in any way, go by the “Good Book,” i.e., she doesn’t follow the teachings of Jesus. While all the changes and adjustments you mentioned may be happening within the “religious world,” this is far different than what it means (to most people) to be a “Christian.”
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Hello Nan. Because her intern was talking about Christian nationalism and making the country a theocracy. You said her Christianity doesn’t go by the good book, but the interpretations of the good book change with the times and the sect doing it. That was my point, just expanded. So for now she and the people like her do think they are following the good book and they way they think their god wants things. She may never have even read the bible, and she is not well versed in facts, but she knows what she has heard from different preachers that she likes, and she takes the parts she likes and combines that with the hates she has and that is her version of Christianity. What it means to be Christian has changed a lot since I was a kid and in the last two decades very rapidly. There is a lot more evangelical hate preachers than ever. The NIFB (New Independent Fundamental Baptist) is one of the fastest growing sects of Christianity, and it is driven by pure hate. Signs of the times I guess. Hugs
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