Well, he was quoting right-wing pseudo-intellectual Buckley non-ironically, so yeah, creepy AF.
I don’t think savvy moves are the driving force in Trump’s staffing decisions.
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Or at least suspicion. In fact, isn’t there some suspicion about Trump being involved with money laundering? That should be enough for him to forfeit all his U.S. assets.
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But then ya went and done it anyway.
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I saw the comment as more about pointing out that;
A) The statement in question was totally off topic.
B) No one here actually gives a damn what that person finds attractive; this is the BBS, not Tinder.
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Firing him would be fantastic. But I actually think he’s completely right about the eschaton bit.
I think the author of that article is fundamentally misunderstanding what it means and what the context was. Sessions mentioned immenentizing the eschaton in the context of the state staying out of religion. Which I agree with. I’d rather the US not take its foreign policy based on making the last chapter of a religious book come true.
I fail to see how it is creepy? I’d find it a lot creepier if the government actively worked towards bringing about the end times. I’d really rather avoid nuclear holocaust. or any kind of Utopian religious schemes. I actually find her position to be creepy- if the phrase is about making things better for the poor, shouldn’t we be attempting to immenentize the eschaton?
“Drugs” is one of the hardcode root passwords to the Constitution. Despite the vulnerability being publicly known, no patch has been released.
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The phrase “it’s not the government’s job to immanentize the eschaton” is way deeper than only the sentiment that government should “stay out of religion.” Way more to it.
Consider what the eschaton means to extreme Christians. Eschaton means the end times, and now imagine all that that encompasses from a Christian standpoint: gay freedom, same-sex marriage, an upending of traditional male and female roles, loosening of the social order so much that socialism (as they conceive it) is mainstream. Not only that, but the eschaton is also synonymous with disorder, chaos, crime and prurient disregard for sexual and social norms.
In other words, these kooks view the eschaton as a liberal conspiracy. And therefore, they desire with every fiber of their being to marginalize and destroy all liberal thinking, all liberalized institutions (read: universities), and by extension anything they deem to be socialist in nature, and remake all of it according to their idealized Christian vision. Why? Because they have conflated liberalism, the end times, disorder and chaos.
So, “immanentizing the eschaton” is far deeper than a fancy way of saying government should “stay out of religion.” No. It means the government should be IN THE BUSINESS of DISMANTLING progressive thought and progressive institutions, what little of it exists here. Because they have this warped notion that anything liberal is equal to evil. This is their twisted justification and it explains the root of their hatred towards liberals.
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In simpler terms, though, it’s also a catch-all excuse for “we have no responsibility to care about injustice, poverty and oppression”.
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Yes. It is a way to encapsulate an approach to hegemony that allows selective attention to pet issues and complete dismissal of other things they deem to be part of the liberal conspiracy, no matter how urgent. It allows them to justify trillions for airplanes (to defend against the looming chaos) and to not spend a few billion on social programs with known benefits for all (socialism!). All cloaked in the white robes of Jesus.
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Possibly, but it would be weird to ignore how many right-wing talking points obsess about local power being more legitimate and less naturally corrupt. Perhaps it’s just for the purposes of keeping the tent big, but the “big” in “big government” is regularly explicitly expressed as literal size of government authority. From "drown it in the bathtub to "state’s rights to the belief in the supremacy of county sheriffs this is a running theme that regularly trots out the “obvious” illegitimacy of federal power. Well, for many Rs, up until they hold it, I guess…but many republicans voted Trump so that he would weaken federal power.
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Absolutely, won’t disagree with you there.
I guess this is a timely reminder that no fucks giving is actually not often an admirable thing, despite what pop culture might tell us.
Hmm…I’ve been exposed to that phrase since the late '60s, so maybe I’m toting excess contextual baggage…but I think you’re missing the meaning.
(Among other uses, it was a slogan/catchphrase of the horrible Young Americans for Freedom group, brought home but my older step-sister.)
The “eschaton” is post-history; the period of heaven-on-earth following Yahweh’s judgment. Trying to make the eschaton happen in this immanent world is Voegelin/Buckley-speak for utopian socialists usurping the power of god and disrupting the natural order.
At various times the Russian commies, Nazis, Transhumanists, and garden variety pinkos (wups – almost forgot the Gnostics, who started the whole thing!) have been accused of immanentizing the eschaton. These days, everyone from Ralph Nader to Cory to BLM to most regular BB posters could be considered an immanentizer.
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How could I have missed the point if you just reworded it and spit it all back to me?
I was thrown by, for instance, “but the eschaton is also synonymous with disorder, chaos, crime and prurient disregard for sexual and social norms.”
Typically these characteristics are the meat of eschatology, whereas the eschaton is the state of perfection that follows.
That’s worthy of discussion, now. Eschaton literally means the end (time). But, some people use it to refer only to the perfect heaven on earth that occurs after the second coming of Christ and all have been judged. Which, from their perspective is a good thing.
But you cannot have the eschaton in that sense without first having the stuff that happens right before it: the disorder that is so well described throughout the Bible, also as the end times.
So which is it? I say it’s both. They, the conservatives throwing down this phrase, are using it in the catholic sense to dismiss what they view as utopian attempts to bring about peace and social justice on earth prior to Jesus’ arrival. They view these human attempts at making the world a better place as part of the chaos and discord described as each of seven seals that are to be broken, in Revelation.
That’s why I say they’ve conflated liberalism, chaos, discord, social justice and the end times, so that they can dismiss it conveniently, because they are waiting for Jesus to come and make it all better. It’s twisted, and takes some time to get there, but do you see what I mean, now?
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That’s one hell of a malignant memeplex / mental virus / fucking idiotic thing to think.
It’s like this shit was dreamt up by some sort of, oh I don’t know… supreme trickster.
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