Conspiracy theorists seem to be obsessed with scenarios that are farfetched at best, and for the most part downright laughable. A couple weeks ago it was Alex Jones revealing "the truth" that Democrats would start a civil war on July 4th. Obviously, that never came to pass, because no Democrats were actually planning such a thing. On the other hand, Jones' stupidity did launch a bunch of funny tweets claiming to be dispatches from the "second civil war." So at least some good came of it.
The latest bit of conservative conspiracy-mongering comes from evangelical broadcaster Rick Wiles, a seeming endless font of ridiculous assertions that appear to be entirely disconnected from reality. According to Wiles, we are only "72 hours away" from a coup in which Donald Trump and his family will be beheaded on the White House Lawn. Does anybody else agree with me that somebody has watched too many of those Christian-produced films in which the only real answer to all the world's problems is feckless melodrama? I mean, come on. Sometimes politicians do get removed from office, but we've never beheaded one.
I know I maybe shouldn't be, but I still am surprised by the level of vehemence Christians reserve for the LGBT community. Jesus didn't say one word about homosexuality. And if you're talking about Rachel Maddow, remember that the prohibition in Leviticus is only talking about men. So there's that. Then there's the bit about America no longer being a Christian nation, when America never was a Christian nation. You can use the word "God" without being Christian - Masons like many of the founding fathers do so as a matter of course. Any reasonable person should understand that remove from the White House refers to impeachment-and-removal, not execution. Especially not for his family members.
Now let's get down to business. The linked article was posted at 11:30 yesterday and reports that Wiles made these remarks "last night." The Rachel Maddow Show airs at 9 PM Eastern, so we'll say he put up his little rant at maybe 10 PM on July 17th. It's now around 6 PM Eastern (5 PM local) on July 19th. So we're already 44 hours in. Coup this weekend! Either that or this doofus is another false prophet. The Christians who like him need to get with the program - if you follow a false prophet, you're a sinner. Same goes for a liar, by the way, because of that whole "bearing false witness" thing.
And I'm going to ask another question. Let's say Trump gets removed from office. Isn't that a good thing for these nutballs? They love Mike Pence, who would become president. He's the theocrat who could never get elected by regular means and only got to where he is on Trump's coattails. He's actually one of them! And I have to say, at this point it's hard to argue that he would be worse than Trump. He may be a religious extremist, but Trump is signing the bills and appointing the judges that the religious right wants anyway. Pence at least has some comprehension of how to govern and how the political system works.
So no, liberals are not going to behead anyone on the White House Lawn. They'll push for impeachment if they can, sure, and mobilize for the midterms. But that has much in common with beheadings as people yelling on the Internet does with a civil war. It makes no sense, and it sure will not be happening in 28 hours from now. That clock is ticking!
The latest bit of conservative conspiracy-mongering comes from evangelical broadcaster Rick Wiles, a seeming endless font of ridiculous assertions that appear to be entirely disconnected from reality. According to Wiles, we are only "72 hours away" from a coup in which Donald Trump and his family will be beheaded on the White House Lawn. Does anybody else agree with me that somebody has watched too many of those Christian-produced films in which the only real answer to all the world's problems is feckless melodrama? I mean, come on. Sometimes politicians do get removed from office, but we've never beheaded one.
After ranting that the prominence of people like Maddow and CNN’s Anderson Cooper on television is evidence that America has been “homosexualized” and is “no longer a Christian nation,” Wiles declared that a recent segment in which Maddow argued that this nation must begin to prepare for “the worst case scenario that Trump is compromised by Russia” was really a signal that a leftist revolution is imminent. “She was spewing out, last night, calls for revolution,” Wiles said. “She was telling the left, ‘Take a deep breath, we’re at the moment, it’s coming, we’re almost there, we’re going to remove him from the White House.'”
“We’re about 72 hours—possibly 72 hours—from a coup,” Wiles warned. “Be prepared that you’re going to turn on the television and see helicopters hovering over the roof of the White House with men clad in black repelling down ropes, entering into the White House. Be prepared for a shootout in the White House as Secret Service agents shoot commandos coming in to arrest President Trump. That is how close we are to a revolution. Be prepared for a mob — a leftist mob — to tear down the gates, the fence at the White House and to go into the White House and to drag him out with his family and decapitate them on the lawn of the White House.”
I know I maybe shouldn't be, but I still am surprised by the level of vehemence Christians reserve for the LGBT community. Jesus didn't say one word about homosexuality. And if you're talking about Rachel Maddow, remember that the prohibition in Leviticus is only talking about men. So there's that. Then there's the bit about America no longer being a Christian nation, when America never was a Christian nation. You can use the word "God" without being Christian - Masons like many of the founding fathers do so as a matter of course. Any reasonable person should understand that remove from the White House refers to impeachment-and-removal, not execution. Especially not for his family members.
Now let's get down to business. The linked article was posted at 11:30 yesterday and reports that Wiles made these remarks "last night." The Rachel Maddow Show airs at 9 PM Eastern, so we'll say he put up his little rant at maybe 10 PM on July 17th. It's now around 6 PM Eastern (5 PM local) on July 19th. So we're already 44 hours in. Coup this weekend! Either that or this doofus is another false prophet. The Christians who like him need to get with the program - if you follow a false prophet, you're a sinner. Same goes for a liar, by the way, because of that whole "bearing false witness" thing.
And I'm going to ask another question. Let's say Trump gets removed from office. Isn't that a good thing for these nutballs? They love Mike Pence, who would become president. He's the theocrat who could never get elected by regular means and only got to where he is on Trump's coattails. He's actually one of them! And I have to say, at this point it's hard to argue that he would be worse than Trump. He may be a religious extremist, but Trump is signing the bills and appointing the judges that the religious right wants anyway. Pence at least has some comprehension of how to govern and how the political system works.
So no, liberals are not going to behead anyone on the White House Lawn. They'll push for impeachment if they can, sure, and mobilize for the midterms. But that has much in common with beheadings as people yelling on the Internet does with a civil war. It makes no sense, and it sure will not be happening in 28 hours from now. That clock is ticking!
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