Mineapolis Witchcraft?

It is no big secret that I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, that Minneapolis, Minnesota, the site of the administration's big "Metro Surge" ICE operation. For anyone wondering, my family and I are fine despite the operation going completely off the rails. I live in South Minneapolis, where both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by ICE and Border Patrol agents respectively. Demonstrations are ongoing, including one just up the street from my house.

There are legitimate debates that we can have about border security and enforcement, but let me tell you as someone who lives here, this is not it. Even if ICE and the Border Patrol were not out there murdering citizens, Minnesota's percentage of undocumented immigrants is tiny. The "Feeding Our Future" fraud case, which the administration claims justifies the operation, is over. The founder of the organization was convicted back in March - and by the way, in case you were wondering, she's not an immigrant.

If that all wasn't bad enough, there are the Poor Oppressed Christians out there who refuse to shut up about it. The linked video is about Michael Knowles, who is out there accusing the residents of Minneapolis of witchcraft. Not because spells are being cast to keep people safe up here, which they most definitely are, but because Native Americans performed a ceremony at the site where Renee Good was killed. It should be clear to any reasonable person that there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's not like these folks are ever reasonable.

I particularly find the statement that "Libs will do anything but worship the One True God!" amusing. I guess Knowles thinks all Democrats are Pagans or something. But given that Pagans (in general, including all Pagan and Neo-Pagan religions) represent less than one percent of the population and a little over 48% of voters went for Harris over Trump, that math doesn't add up. Most Americans are Christian and so are most Democrats. I will say, though, that among the Poor Oppressed Christians you won't find many "libs."

As I see it Knowles' point is that only the Poor Oppressed are real Christians, making everybody but toxic Evangelicals "Pagan." Not only is that silly, it's more dangerous than a lot of Christians who lean politically conservative realize. The Christian Nationalists who also most of the Poor Oppressed are eliminationists. They don't just want to get rid of Wiccans, Thelemites, Magicians, and Neo-Pagans. They want to get rid of anybody who is the wrong kind of Christian too, and for them that transcends political leanings.

Knowles is very serious about his position, so silly though it may be, I unfortunately can't just sit back and be amused by his nonsense. I've made this point many times, and I'll make it again. America was founded on religious freedom, which means any form of theocracy is fundamentally un-American. Any attempt to establish an official state religion violates the constitution. Your right to practice your religion ends the moment that it infringes on mine. It's no surprise that those who think otherwise support masked goons in the street shooting innocent people.

A word about that support, though. Polls show that the vast majority of Americans don't support ICE and Border Patrol tactics. But you might not realize that if you spend a lot of time online. Bots are everywhere dropping comments in support of this fascistic crap. Rebecca Watson, one of the few skeptics that I actually like, posted a video about this two weeks ago, identifying bot comments showing up on her videos.

Prompt injection attacks are also real and I know of people who have personally gotten them to work on bots claiming to support Trump and his policies. I suppose you could call these programs "botlickers," a bad pun that I am prouder of than I probably should be. Bots like the ones Rebecca is talking about are less sophisticated than this, but clearly there are folks out there using AI to sow dissention throughout comments sections everywhere.

So be careful not to get too riled up when you see comments that seem inhuman. That's exactly what some of these commenters are. I'm not going to say all of them are bots, which would be silly of me, but look at the polling numbers for Trump and his administration. Statistically those positions are highly overrepresented online, and as I also have previously said many times, if you don't understand statistics you don't understand life.

One more point that I came across recently is the the editors of The Nation magazine are nominating Minneapolis and its residents for the Nobel Peace Prize due to our mass peaceful opposition to "Metro Surge." Many nominees don't win, of course, but if we do I will happily add "Nobel Peace Prize Recipient" to my bio just to piss off the remaining Trumpers.

One more point for Augoeides readers in particular. I have no idea why any magician would support Christian Nationalism. There are lots of reasons that a person might be liberal or conservative, and lots of different opinions about the economy, immigration, social services, and many other political issues. But voting for people who literally want to make practicing our religious beliefs illegal is completely beyond me. And that was long before their minions started murdering my neighbors.

Their whole ideology is toxic and it needs to be stopped. I hope with all my heart that we can stop it right here, in the city that I love. With or without witchcarft.