Christian Nationalism Betrays American Values
In a July 4 op-ed for the Dallas Morning News, I pointed out that America's founding ethos was a rejection of Christian nationalism.
Our nation was born out of a disgust of the centuries of religious warfare and intolerance wrought by state-sponsored religion. Our founders intentionally designed a government that would embrace toleration and pluralism and wouldn’t show favoritism toward any particular religious group. Our religious freedom rests upon these beliefs today.
I pointed to three thinkers who influenced our founding, John Locke, William Penn, and James Burgh, as well as Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Their concerns were not only for good government, but good religion.
Keeping religion and state separate was not only to the benefit of personal liberty but to religion itself, our founders believed, because the mixing of the two would defile religion.
And these views were strongly supported by evangelicals, considered a strange minority sect at the time.
A nation of many religions, where no one religious sect had a majority, made our nation stronger, our founders believed.
... religious diversity was good for liberty because having many religious sects would serve as “checks and balances” against each others’ worst instincts.
Fake Twitter Account was 'Rage-Bait'
A Twitter account that amassed 130,000 followers in a short period of time was found to be fake. "Erica Marsh" falsely claimed to have worked for the Biden campaign and Obama Foundation. How did she (or in reality maybe he, or they) gain such a huge following? Here is WaPo:
Marsh’s account tended to post messages so polarizing and incendiary that readers couldn’t help but respond, boosting her public profile in the process — a tactic known as “rage baiting.”
We still don't know who was behind it. Some suspect a right-wing group used the account to make liberals look bad. Another theory is a foreign adversary used it to stir division, as we now know Russia did during the 2016 election.
But what does it say about us, that a Twitter profile like that can become so popular? A researcher who studies online disinformation told WaPo,
“You can go a long way with a reasonably consistent, one-dimensional identity online if it has certain features: smart strategies for posting content, an attractive profile picture, a degree of spice and sassiness,” Scott-Railton said. “Our online discourse is deeply vulnerable to this kind of character.”
Voting Machine Misinformation
Election officials across the country are prepping for more voting machine misinformation ahead of the 2024 election.
Election officials are not-so-quietly freaking out that this long-awaited technical overhaul of voting machine guidelines later this year will be weaponized against them. The officials, who are used to operating in relative obscurity, just endured two election cycles in which seemingly benign issues blew up in their face. Now they’re afraid it’s happening all over again.