Danm, DL. I'm going to be up all night trying to figure out how to share this on my feed in a way to get the trump voters to read it. Because, damn.
Do you think it's realistic to say that the Red Scare was a distraction from facisim? Something that twiggles in my brain is that WWII was faught against Facisim and we allied with Communists to win it; but then the PR campaign was the Red Scare, not a fascism scare. 🤔🤔
Have you read Fever in the Heartland? It covers a lot of history of the KKK in the Midwest and explains how they recruited via family values. (Also, the first chapter focuses on my mom's hometown and now I have legit concerns about my great grandparents possibly having been members 😬😬)
The red scare was definitely put forth by authoritarians. I can't figure out a way to shoehorn all my research into STRONGWILLED but the book The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover does a great job of laying out how Hoover and the FBI systematically partnered with Christianity Today and Billy Graham to put forth their anti-communist agenda on a mass scale to Christians (which was really aimed at cracking down on anyone who dared to protest the United States military and white patriarchal authoritarianism).
The second season of Rachel Maddow's podcast "Ultra" focuses heavily on McCarthy and connects the dots between American Nazis/fascists and the Red Scare. Both seasons are very good!
because of your work, I've already been making these connections, and it's really helped clarify a lot of things for me as well about dynamics on the political left and the ways in which we still employ methods of punishment (which makes me concerned and wary and also wanting more for our movements forward).
Yes once you notice the patterns of punishment it is hard to unsee them. I see a lot of traumatized people on the political left who are probably still processing their own painful childhoods (not to discount/discredit, I just see some of the same issues come up there over and over again)
This is far afield of the actual topic, but one thing I've been shocked by in studying to convert to Judaism is how much (Conservative/Reform/Reconstructionist) Jews just do not care about punishment. It's not a thing that's important in their worldview. Coming from an evangelical childhood, this is shocking and refreshing and amazing, and it's made me see how the particularly Protestant, Calvinist-rooted obsession with punishment saturates US culture. We looooove to punish. It doesn't even occur to us that we shouldn't center it in everything from child-rearing to dealing with crime.
I so, so appreciate the work that you and others like Talia Lavin are doing to draw the lines between authoritarian parenting and authoritarian political impulses. It's not something I ever thought about, and yet when it's pointed out, and it's SO obvious that of course that kind of childhood would lead to that kind of adult political posture. This is fascinating and horrifying and I wish it was more widely known.
I'm so sorry. It truly is such a triggering and revealing time politically, which is making so many people think about their childhoods in painful and devastating ways. Much love to you.
This is sinking in for me. We’re watching Candid Camera episodes from the early 1960s. It was a show where they set up odd situations and secretly filmed people’s reactions. How they treat children is right there caught on film. My parents were in their twenties at this time, starting their family. It’s eye-opening and fascinating to get a little window into that time period. (And I quite like a lot of the changes we’ve seen since then. Watching the show is making me grateful for today’s world.)
D.L., thank you for writing this chapter! I do believe that this scholarship is a significant step forward in understanding why we are the way that we are in this country. From a personal perspective, it helps me to understand how Dobson and the Authoritarian Parenting Industrial Complex influenced my mother in the direction of TFG despite his racism, which I believe she (used to) find appalling.
I also appreciate all of the research that clearly went into this chapter and that you cited so many sources. I’m curious if you came across information about these topics: (1) If / to what extent German parenting advice / practices differed from other European countries (France, UK, Scandinavian countries) that did not widely embrace fascism. (2) Is there evidence for the extent that German immigrants brought to the US these parenting philosophies and their endurance over the generations. S@
Read/listened to this last week and have been alternating between rage and fear and numbness since Tuesday night, sometimes all at once. I was raised in a FOTF spanking household and have been slowly unpacking the baggage for years in and outside of therapy. This post/episode shook some more things loose and the election threw a grenade into what remained. (Background: My parents are deep in the MAGA cult of Christian nationalism and run a ministry in my hometown in a southern state; I've been gay and closeted since forever, went to a Jesus college, and deconstructed while teaching in a Christian school before escaping to the northwest). I knew they were going to vote for that monster again no matter what, and for the past year I have withdrawn most contact as a result, but him winning and the thought of them celebrating and praising God for the coming pain and misery they helped unleash sent me over the edge. I'm done with them. Deleted and blocked. They've done enough harm for one lifetime and I don't "owe it to them" to stick around for more just because of a biological relation I had no choice in.
I hate it. I got bad chills the whole time. You're doing great work.
This chapter is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.
Danm, DL. I'm going to be up all night trying to figure out how to share this on my feed in a way to get the trump voters to read it. Because, damn.
Do you think it's realistic to say that the Red Scare was a distraction from facisim? Something that twiggles in my brain is that WWII was faught against Facisim and we allied with Communists to win it; but then the PR campaign was the Red Scare, not a fascism scare. 🤔🤔
Have you read Fever in the Heartland? It covers a lot of history of the KKK in the Midwest and explains how they recruited via family values. (Also, the first chapter focuses on my mom's hometown and now I have legit concerns about my great grandparents possibly having been members 😬😬)
The red scare was definitely put forth by authoritarians. I can't figure out a way to shoehorn all my research into STRONGWILLED but the book The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover does a great job of laying out how Hoover and the FBI systematically partnered with Christianity Today and Billy Graham to put forth their anti-communist agenda on a mass scale to Christians (which was really aimed at cracking down on anyone who dared to protest the United States military and white patriarchal authoritarianism).
The second season of Rachel Maddow's podcast "Ultra" focuses heavily on McCarthy and connects the dots between American Nazis/fascists and the Red Scare. Both seasons are very good!
because of your work, I've already been making these connections, and it's really helped clarify a lot of things for me as well about dynamics on the political left and the ways in which we still employ methods of punishment (which makes me concerned and wary and also wanting more for our movements forward).
Yes once you notice the patterns of punishment it is hard to unsee them. I see a lot of traumatized people on the political left who are probably still processing their own painful childhoods (not to discount/discredit, I just see some of the same issues come up there over and over again)
This is far afield of the actual topic, but one thing I've been shocked by in studying to convert to Judaism is how much (Conservative/Reform/Reconstructionist) Jews just do not care about punishment. It's not a thing that's important in their worldview. Coming from an evangelical childhood, this is shocking and refreshing and amazing, and it's made me see how the particularly Protestant, Calvinist-rooted obsession with punishment saturates US culture. We looooove to punish. It doesn't even occur to us that we shouldn't center it in everything from child-rearing to dealing with crime.
thank you all for this important work 🙏🏻
I so, so appreciate the work that you and others like Talia Lavin are doing to draw the lines between authoritarian parenting and authoritarian political impulses. It's not something I ever thought about, and yet when it's pointed out, and it's SO obvious that of course that kind of childhood would lead to that kind of adult political posture. This is fascinating and horrifying and I wish it was more widely known.
That TC clip last week broke something wide open for me. The way he said it...yeah, what I went through was SA too.
Goddamnit.
I'm so sorry. It truly is such a triggering and revealing time politically, which is making so many people think about their childhoods in painful and devastating ways. Much love to you.
This is sinking in for me. We’re watching Candid Camera episodes from the early 1960s. It was a show where they set up odd situations and secretly filmed people’s reactions. How they treat children is right there caught on film. My parents were in their twenties at this time, starting their family. It’s eye-opening and fascinating to get a little window into that time period. (And I quite like a lot of the changes we’ve seen since then. Watching the show is making me grateful for today’s world.)
Thank you for making these connections and sharing them with us. I have a lot to think about.
D.L., thank you for writing this chapter! I do believe that this scholarship is a significant step forward in understanding why we are the way that we are in this country. From a personal perspective, it helps me to understand how Dobson and the Authoritarian Parenting Industrial Complex influenced my mother in the direction of TFG despite his racism, which I believe she (used to) find appalling.
I also appreciate all of the research that clearly went into this chapter and that you cited so many sources. I’m curious if you came across information about these topics: (1) If / to what extent German parenting advice / practices differed from other European countries (France, UK, Scandinavian countries) that did not widely embrace fascism. (2) Is there evidence for the extent that German immigrants brought to the US these parenting philosophies and their endurance over the generations. S@
Read/listened to this last week and have been alternating between rage and fear and numbness since Tuesday night, sometimes all at once. I was raised in a FOTF spanking household and have been slowly unpacking the baggage for years in and outside of therapy. This post/episode shook some more things loose and the election threw a grenade into what remained. (Background: My parents are deep in the MAGA cult of Christian nationalism and run a ministry in my hometown in a southern state; I've been gay and closeted since forever, went to a Jesus college, and deconstructed while teaching in a Christian school before escaping to the northwest). I knew they were going to vote for that monster again no matter what, and for the past year I have withdrawn most contact as a result, but him winning and the thought of them celebrating and praising God for the coming pain and misery they helped unleash sent me over the edge. I'm done with them. Deleted and blocked. They've done enough harm for one lifetime and I don't "owe it to them" to stick around for more just because of a biological relation I had no choice in.
deeply appreciate your work on this, DL.