Meanwhile, Carrol wasn't making any point. He was belittling the useful and interesting post Kelley made, and calling it "evidence of nothing."
Fundamentalist Christianity doesn't explain itself, but neither is it a mere spurious phenomenon. It is one of the main competitors of leftist democracy.
And, as a materialist, you can't be really serious in wondering which is the chicken and which the egg, can you? Conservatism and the lack of a left and a serious welfare state, all of which are reflections of the enormous power of our overclass, gave rise to the fundie movement, not the other way around.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of T Fast
> Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:03 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Christians from Hell
>
>
> I don't know when a valid form of argumentation became, X usually says
> shit
> so anything X says must be shit and therefor we dont have to engage with
> the
> substance of the argument put forward by X.
>
> I think Carrol asks an important question: is christian fundemenatlism an
> ideological resource ready to hand that conservatives gravitate towards to
> legitimate their conservatism or populist reactions? Or rather, is
> christian
> fundementalism that which produces conservatism and populist reaction?
> The
> former makes one want to ask the further question about why people come to
> hold conservative values and employ reactionary populism. The latter
> terminates the conversation.
>
> It seems the Repub strategists took the latter path to the former as did
> fundementalist preachers. Who new materialism would be taken seriously by
> the right and derrided by the left.
>
> Travis
>
>
> Carrol wrote:
> > Does their xtianity flow from their conservatism or their conservatism
> > from the xtianity, or do both flow from some X not covered in the exit
> > polls?
> >
> > What evidence is there that their religious belief is an independent
> > variable?
>
> To which M. Dawson replied:
>
> Everybody who's Carrol Cox or properly worships Carrol Cox knows that
> fundamentalist Christianity has no independent impact on American
> politics!
> Duh. Obvious!
>
>
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