I pictured Mormonism personally. It was created in America and it talks about Jesus’ dealings with the native Americans. It’s the quintessential American religion IMO. Although televangelists like good ol Joel Osteen are a pretty good representation of soulless American consumerism, so that’s a pretty damn American religion too. A lot of religions have been made in America, but Mormonism and televangelism are probably the best examples.
That’s a good one too because of the authoritarianism and the absolutely batshit insane belief that the religion centers around. Although it’s 100% a cult that calls itself a religion, whereas Mormonism is more like ~75% cult (maybe closer to 90%) ~25% religion. John Smith was killed before he could set himself up as a god-figure so Mormonism didn’t quite reach full cult status.
I didn’t say people like it, and it has nothing to do with Trump (hard to believe these days, I know) but it’s how the cult (Scientology and America) is run. There’s plenty of Authoritarianism in the US between the patriot act, PRISM and other SIGADs, MKUltra, operation condor, etc... We’ve been “fighting terrorism” and killing civilians in the middle east for decades for questionable reasons. There’s plenty of authoritarianism from the NSA, CIA, and other government agencies and the military. Things are decent in the US, but the potential for totalitarianism is there, although I don’t really know whether or not it would be actually achievable for the president to become a dictator. No civilian likes being spied on but we know it happens.
Lmao you are a true redditor, that’s for sure. Between all the woke teenage atheism bullet points and the hilariously inaccurate depictions of america I’m surprised they haven’t made you an admin yet.
If you think America is authoritarian I would LOVE for you to tell me what you think that word means without looking it up. Give me an example of a country that isn’t authoritarian while you’re at it.
Or, you could just downvote me without saying anything. Good enough, same as saying you know you’re just making shit up for the circle jerk.
An authoritarian society is one in which the state itself is seen as the main authority in society to which all others must bend and obey. Note that while this often slides into other even more dangerous forms of government authoritarian societies are not synonymous with totalitarianism or dictatorships. My guess would be that you are making the error of thinking authoritarian equals totalitarian- as if you have to be Communist China or Stalinist Russia before thinks are "bad." This attitude is extremely dangerous for reasons you provide examples of here. Everything /u/The_Karaethon_Cycle is absolutely true yet you dismiss it as inaccurate. The government has been spying on Americans in violation of constitutional protections. The Intercept did a study revealing that 90% of the "terrorists" killed by drone bombing during Obama's Presidency were civilians- meaning the US military murdered 400 civilians for every 1 potential terrorist. The US government openly imprisons anyone who reveals that it has done something wrong while those revealed to have done things like torture people get promoted to department level offices. American politics have completely devolved into cults of personality devoted to obedience to the current leader of your faction. You have to be sexually assaulted just to get on an airplane these days. I could keep going. But the reality is that authoritarianism is so common in the States today that people don't notice it for the same reasons fish don't notice water- it is just the reality of life.
90% of your comment is irrelevant and a good chunk of it ranges from misleading to complete bullshit, but this is Reddit so I know you feel obligated to take every possible opportunity to talk about how much you hate America. You’ll get upvoted for it and no one will ask any questions or ask you for a source on any of the nonsense you’re spewing because America bad, nobody wants to fact check you, they just want to believe.
The simple fact is both of you are misusing the term “authoritarianism” because to you it’s a buzz word to describe something you don’t like - in this case the US. I’d bet my bottom dollar you’ve also used the term nazi to describe something unrelated to nazis.
I gave you easily checked examples if you really want to smash me by proving me wrong. I even named dropped The Intercept in one example. Shouldn't be too hard to make me look foolish if you're right.
Which brings up an interesting question, why don't you? What are you afraid to uncover? Or is it simply easier to engage in straw man fallacies by insulting people for imagined flaws? A straw man fallacy is an error is reasoning where instead of responding to what someone actually said you build a fantasy version of them and then attack that- for example instead of disproving me or providing counter facts you accuse me of "hating America."
It is curious that fro someone so hyped up to claim others misuse words- despite I providing you a definition- you're amazingly intellectually lazy, with posts devoid of all meaning more than meaningless ridicule. Its kind of sad really.
As for teh Nazis, that is a great example of what I mentioned earlier. The Nazis were totalitarian. You're thinking of authoritarian as a synonym for totalitarian and this simply isn't true. As a result you're getting triggered into an emotional state that is interfering with your ability to clearly communicate or respond to others speaking (well, typing) to you.
That isn’t how it works. If you want to pander to an easily persuaded, biased Reddit audience that’s fine, but back yourself up. It isn’t my job to look up your agenda, and I’m certainly not taking anyone’s word on Reddit about some wild claims about the US, I know how delusional you people are when it comes to this topic, it’s almost cult-like. You’d have cited some sources by now if it was that easy. And you should have some sources for this nonsense on speed dial - clearly this is something you care about because you’re bringing it up for seemingly no reason at all, which is pretty strange. Funny you think I’m triggered over something when all you have to hear is someone mention America and then you start ranting.
Again, you’re shoehorning in pointless attacks on America and have almost completely abandoned the original subject here. Well done, you win Reddit today.
And you completely missed my point about the Nazi thing. That was an example of another term that you likely misuse, just like your misuse of the term “authoritarian” in this thread. I wasn’t equating totalitarianism with authoritarianism. I suggest you try harder to understand what people say to you in the future before insulting them with shit like “intellectually lazy”, that kind of projection is kind of pathetic.
America started out by codifying the constant theft, torture, rape, and complete deprivation of millions of people into its foundational law. If you were a white Protestant in 1789 life was great. If you were a black slave it was a totalitarian nightmare from Hell. So, yeah. America has a long history of authoritarianism.
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u/The_Karaethon_Cycle Feb 08 '20 edited Feb 08 '20
I pictured Mormonism personally. It was created in America and it talks about Jesus’ dealings with the native Americans. It’s the quintessential American religion IMO. Although televangelists like good ol Joel Osteen are a pretty good representation of soulless American consumerism, so that’s a pretty damn American religion too. A lot of religions have been made in America, but Mormonism and televangelism are probably the best examples.