WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A Warner Robins teacher is accused of threatening to behead a student after she made a comment about his Israeli flag, according to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office.

  • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    Religious nationalist is not a synonym for fascist. We need to stop diluting the meaning of the word fascist.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      11 months ago

      Religious nationalist

      “Religious nationalist” is an oxymoron - especially when it comes to Abrahamic religions. Saluting a piece of colored fabric and treating it with any kind of reverential significance literally breaks the very first commandment.

      They are neither religious - they literally act in direct contravention of the teachings they (supposedly) “follow” - nor nationalist - they literally (and overtly) place the interests of a small wealthy elite above the interests of the people in the nation.

      No, Clyde - they are fascists.

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        11 months ago

        Nations aren’t considered gods, and flags aren’t idols of those non-gods. You don’t sacrifice goats to the flag, or burn incense for it.

        Judaism has historically looked at Christian beliefs and practices with way, way more suspicion of polytheism and idolatry than it’s ever looked at national flags.

        The teacher here is unhinged, but you clearly don’t really know very much about the ten commandments, especially from a Jewish context.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          11 months ago

          Nations aren’t considered gods

          Oh really? Children aren’t brainwashed into worshipping the classical liberal nation-states they are born into with religious-like reverance?

          Really?

          You don’t sacrifice goats to the flag,

          No, we sacrifice people to them. Do tell, Clyde - how many USians have sacrificed themselves to “defend America” in the past couple of decades?

          Judaism has historically looked at Christian beliefs

          Oh, I see Jewish people everywhere being very suspicious of your precious nationalist religion… and it’s not a new thing, either.

          • Pipoca@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            Yes. Children do not literally worship their nation-state with literal religious reverence. No rabbi would tell you that the ten commandments are about prohibiting metaphorical sacrifices to metaphorical religions.

            No rabbi would say that saying that someone “worships money” turns their wallet into an alter and their job into idol worship. Religiously, it’s just a metaphorical turn of phrase.

            Maimonides, probably the most influential rabbi of the middle ages, explicitly called Christians idolaters. The trinity isn’t precisely considered polytheistic; the Hebrew term is shituf.

            Can you find a single rabbi who would call volunteering to join a military and dying at war halachically prohibited human sacrifice to the nation-as-god or flag-as-idol?

            And where exactly did I call myself a religious nationalist? I’m just saying that your argument that the term is an oxymoron is idiotic and betrays a deep ignorance of the religion. I mean, you couldn’t even quote the right commandment - in Judaism, the first item on the ten commandants is “I am the lord your God”, which makes your argument a complete non sequitur.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              11 months ago

              Children do not literally worship their nation-state with literal religious reverence.

              Of course not! Performing weird little rituals in regards to it’s symbols and sacrificing themselves and others to it’s (alleged) grandeur cannot possibly be compared with anything religious!

              I mean… at least the older religions offers you the fantasy of an afterlife to cling to, right? That must be enough of a difference, right?

              No rabbi would say that saying that someone “worships money”

              Capitalist bootlickers have always attempted to pretend that religious figures “didn’t mean what they say” when they condemned the wealthy elites… I guess that hasn’t changed at all, huh?

              I’m just saying that your argument that the term is an oxymoron

              I can’t wait for you to actually come up with something that isn’t just bottom-of-the-barrel apologetics - will this be taking you long?

              • Pipoca@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                11 months ago

                Let me make sure I understand you: your argument is that any self-consistent Jew cannot make an image of anything that can be compared to religion? So anything grand that people find meaning in that requires sacrifices with weird superstitions and rituals.

                So no flags because of the religion of nationalism, no money because of the religion of money, no On Food And Cooking because of the religion of French cuisine, and no pictures of Rossini because of the religion of opera?

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  11 months ago

                  because of the religion of French cuisine, and no pictures of Rossini because of the religion of opera?

                  I’m sure you’re going to provide me with plenty of evidence that lists the millions that laid down their lives or were murdered for French cuisine and/or Italian opera.

                  Come now… don’t keep me in suspense.