It’s Called Rationalization
November 20, 2024 4:30 PM Subscribe
Last week, bible scholar, author, vlogger (and owner of one of the finest t-shirt collections in town) Dan McClellan posted a video asking the question Did God choose an adulterous man to rule his nation?
Apparently some viewers took issue with Dan’s message, so he immediately posted a followup video, On the intersection of some of my research & politics making abundantly clear what he meant.
Why do I never hear any Christians wondering if maybe God chose an infamously awful fuckup for president as a punishment for our sins?
posted by Western Infidels at 5:25 PM on November 20 [33 favorites]
posted by Western Infidels at 5:25 PM on November 20 [33 favorites]
Why do I never hear any Christians wondering if maybe God chose an infamously awful fuckup for president as a punishment for our sins?
While this was probably a rhetorical question, I can believe there might be some who think this while what they consider to be "our sins" is a few light years different from mine.
posted by polecat at 5:36 PM on November 20 [15 favorites]
While this was probably a rhetorical question, I can believe there might be some who think this while what they consider to be "our sins" is a few light years different from mine.
posted by polecat at 5:36 PM on November 20 [15 favorites]
Dan McClellan previously on Mefi
I thoroughly appreciated the way he consistently referred to the act of voting for TFG as "electing a serial sexual predator to the White House" instead of using his thrice-accursed name, and also how many times he repeated that exact phrasing word for word. That's a man who clearly understands the power of suggestion even if the slogan he chose was longer than the three-word optimum.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 PM on November 20 [14 favorites]
I thoroughly appreciated the way he consistently referred to the act of voting for TFG as "electing a serial sexual predator to the White House" instead of using his thrice-accursed name, and also how many times he repeated that exact phrasing word for word. That's a man who clearly understands the power of suggestion even if the slogan he chose was longer than the three-word optimum.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 PM on November 20 [14 favorites]
A subtext of using "electing a serial sexual predator to the White House" without a name is the fact that Trump is not the first, second, or even third serial sexual predator to be elected to the White House. I don't know history well enough, but I would guess he is at least in the late teens or 20s.
That ties in nicely to the point of rationalization, that people ignore things that are inconvenient to their politics.
The sad conclusion is that for the vast majority of Americans, being a serial sexual predator is not a deal breaker at all.
posted by being_quiet at 8:47 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
That ties in nicely to the point of rationalization, that people ignore things that are inconvenient to their politics.
The sad conclusion is that for the vast majority of Americans, being a serial sexual predator is not a deal breaker at all.
posted by being_quiet at 8:47 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
Margaret Dumont: I believe Trump was sent by God.
Groucho: Why? Did He run out of locusts?
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:56 AM on November 21 [35 favorites]
Groucho: Why? Did He run out of locusts?
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:56 AM on November 21 [35 favorites]
I dunno being_quiet, in the U.S. history I remember there aren’t any presidents found civilly liable for rape, and ordered to pay millions for it, that were then elected president after that.
posted by teece303 at 4:07 AM on November 21 [10 favorites]
posted by teece303 at 4:07 AM on November 21 [10 favorites]
~Trump is not the first, second, or even third serial sexual predator to be elected to the White House...but I would guess he is at least in the late teens or 20s.
~ The sad conclusion is that for the vast majority of Americans, being a serial sexual predator is not a deal breaker at all.
That’s some serious FoxNews-level making-shit-up, there, being_quiet, and, somewhat ironically, seems to illustrate McClellan’s point re: intuitive cognition.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:14 AM on November 21 [6 favorites]
~ The sad conclusion is that for the vast majority of Americans, being a serial sexual predator is not a deal breaker at all.
That’s some serious FoxNews-level making-shit-up, there, being_quiet, and, somewhat ironically, seems to illustrate McClellan’s point re: intuitive cognition.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:14 AM on November 21 [6 favorites]
Is it weird that I've watched a lot of Dan Bennett videos since all this shit for comfort food? (quote the children: if you know, you know)
posted by es_de_bah at 5:37 AM on November 21 [2 favorites]
posted by es_de_bah at 5:37 AM on November 21 [2 favorites]
Even though I'd much rather have Bill Clinton in the White House than Donald Trump, I think Bill Clinton has been established to serially act in ways sexually predatory ways.
I'd also be comfortable labelling Thomas Jefferson a serial sexual predator for the way he preyed on his slaves. I suspect there have been more than a few other presidents in between Jefferson and Trump that can be described that way too.
posted by Dalekdad at 6:58 AM on November 21 [12 favorites]
I'd also be comfortable labelling Thomas Jefferson a serial sexual predator for the way he preyed on his slaves. I suspect there have been more than a few other presidents in between Jefferson and Trump that can be described that way too.
posted by Dalekdad at 6:58 AM on November 21 [12 favorites]
Some if you seem to be missing the point/intent if Dan’s videos here. He’s very specifically addressing christians misusing/misinterpreting the bible to justify their support of trump. He’s a bible scholar calling-out christians misusing the bible. That’s all.
This has nothing to do with American history or what previous presidents may have done. Please stop the whataboutism. It only serves to normalize trump’s actions.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:23 AM on November 21 [17 favorites]
This has nothing to do with American history or what previous presidents may have done. Please stop the whataboutism. It only serves to normalize trump’s actions.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:23 AM on November 21 [17 favorites]
Dalekdad: I don’t find those comparisons useful at all. Presidents that lived by standards of 200+ years ago, or Clinton who was publicly outed as a philanderer after his last election, etc.
There has never been a president like Trump: a judge and a jury found him civilly liable for raping a woman. We knew he was a pussy grabber by his own words before he was elected.
That’s very a different thing.
posted by teece303 at 8:10 AM on November 21 [13 favorites]
There has never been a president like Trump: a judge and a jury found him civilly liable for raping a woman. We knew he was a pussy grabber by his own words before he was elected.
That’s very a different thing.
posted by teece303 at 8:10 AM on November 21 [13 favorites]
What I want is Evangelical Christians to confront an unfortunate fact: they have no influence over Trump, but Trump has influenced them. All the evangelicals I know from my youth and who are on Facebook have changed, and not for the better. It's like a classic Catholic morality tale from the Middle Ages. They thought they could use him for their purposes and stay pious, but that is just not the case.
posted by ocschwar at 4:28 PM on November 21 [14 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 4:28 PM on November 21 [14 favorites]
Yesterday he weighed in on Mike Johnson's anti-trans position. Spoiler: it's not Christian.
posted by Horselover Fat at 11:56 AM on November 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Horselover Fat at 11:56 AM on November 22 [1 favorite]
What I want is Evangelical Christians to confront an unfortunate fact: they have no influence over Trump, but Trump has influenced them.
Ehhh...Given that today’s particularly-odious flavor of the conservative evangelical movement has its roots way back in the 70s and the rise of Falwell’s “moral majority” and the coupling of evangelicalism with republican politics via the anti-abortion movement, I’d say the evangelicals had far more to do with bringing us Trump than the other way around.
Evangelicals have quite successfully entwined themselves into local and state politics over the years to where politicians like Trump have to suck-up to them in order to curry their votes. Trump doesn’t give one shit about issues like abortion, but the evangelicals sure as hell do, and Trump wants their votes, so he adopts their anti-abortion rhetoric, then gives them a SCOTUS designed to overturn Roe (and quite possibly overturn many more culture-war bugaboos evangelicals are hot on i.e. gay marriage, anti-trans legislation, etc.) in order to keep those votes (and donations - his true interest) coming.
I’d say Trump is more a result of evangelical influence on politics and the republican party than he is on evangelicals. He wouldn’t be president without them, while they’s still hold enormous sway over the party without him.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:24 AM on November 23 [5 favorites]
Ehhh...Given that today’s particularly-odious flavor of the conservative evangelical movement has its roots way back in the 70s and the rise of Falwell’s “moral majority” and the coupling of evangelicalism with republican politics via the anti-abortion movement, I’d say the evangelicals had far more to do with bringing us Trump than the other way around.
Evangelicals have quite successfully entwined themselves into local and state politics over the years to where politicians like Trump have to suck-up to them in order to curry their votes. Trump doesn’t give one shit about issues like abortion, but the evangelicals sure as hell do, and Trump wants their votes, so he adopts their anti-abortion rhetoric, then gives them a SCOTUS designed to overturn Roe (and quite possibly overturn many more culture-war bugaboos evangelicals are hot on i.e. gay marriage, anti-trans legislation, etc.) in order to keep those votes (and donations - his true interest) coming.
I’d say Trump is more a result of evangelical influence on politics and the republican party than he is on evangelicals. He wouldn’t be president without them, while they’s still hold enormous sway over the party without him.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:24 AM on November 23 [5 favorites]
McClellan has made at least one video critical of a Jordan Peterson lecture that contained bad Bible information, labeling Peterson an evangelical who is spreading evangelical dogma, while most just think Peterson is spouting his professional expertise as a conservative psychologist.
posted by Brian B. at 7:21 AM on November 23
posted by Brian B. at 7:21 AM on November 23
So much Evangelical discourse is basically Christ-therapy. And as Hank Hill would put it, it doesn't make psychology better. It makes Christianity worse. Peterson fits right in.
posted by ocschwar at 11:03 AM on November 23 [3 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 11:03 AM on November 23 [3 favorites]
Ehhh...Given that today’s particularly-odious flavor of the conservative evangelical movement has its roots way back in the 70s
I am talking about the day-to-day behavior of middle class Evangelicals who went to high school with me and are connected to me by social media and other means. Not about the political agenda et cetera.
They've changed. And it's been pretty harrowing to witness.
posted by ocschwar at 6:29 PM on November 23 [4 favorites]
I am talking about the day-to-day behavior of middle class Evangelicals who went to high school with me and are connected to me by social media and other means. Not about the political agenda et cetera.
They've changed. And it's been pretty harrowing to witness.
posted by ocschwar at 6:29 PM on November 23 [4 favorites]
If I want to generate Trump, an eagle and a burger. (via r/aifails)
posted by jeffburdges at 12:04 PM on November 27
posted by jeffburdges at 12:04 PM on November 27
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posted by hearthpig at 5:07 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]