Psalm 32, the first of the great penitential psalms, reads in part:
I will instruct you and teach you
the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
else it will not keep with you.
Many are the pangs of the wicked;
but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the LORD.
Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Ps 32:8–11)
I think of that as I read stuff like this:
and this:
and this:
For years, the MAGA antichrist cult declared themselves the Party of Personal Responsibility. But this, like everything they say, was a lie. Every single time this Cult has to face their responsibility for anything, they blame somebody else. So when Trump busies himself blowing up the economy with a stupid trade war, he naturally does this when the Inevitable results:
Because nothing says “Lent” like blaming everybody else for your stupidity and evil.
And when the victims of your raging incompetence and stupidity complain, nothing says “Lent” like “‘Shut up!’, he explained.”
And yet, the Cult continue to support him. Why?
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
So said Lyndon B. Johnson, explaining why the MAGA cult will stick with their orange messiah while he destroys their lives. As long as Trump can convince them that the people they hate are suffering more than they are, their hatred will keep them content with their own lot. Only when the pain becomes so intense that they start to have doubts that those they hate are suffering more than themselves might the Cult begin to wonder if they made a mistake. Having forsaken wisdom, they can, like the horse and mule, only learn from self-inflicted pain. And some do:
But such repentance is still, understand, a Best Case Scenario. It depends on the Cultist having sufficient reserves of humility that they can, at long last, admit they were wrong under sufficient levels of excruciating self-inflicted pain. However, even then, the psychic and spiritual pain of having to swallow their immense sin of pride and say, “I was wrong” can still keep many of them from repenting the evil they have done.
Since the defining psychological trait of conservatives in the Age of MAGA is a radical lack of empathy for everyone but the conservative and that tiny circle of people who are extensions of his ego, all other human suffering of any kind will remain non-existent, contemptible, funny, and/or guilt manipulation until Trump’s cruelty directly affects the Cultist or that tiny circle. And should that cruelty be felt, but the Cultist be too invested in their pride, many will find a way, not to take responsibility and repent, but to blame Liberals or the Transgenders or the Browns or the Jews for their entirely self-inflicted troubles rather than face the mirror and say “Mea maxima culpa.”
Still others, ruling by the MAGA code, will inevitably turn to scapegoating some designated outgroup to divert the Stupids’ rage away from their catastrophic incompetence and on to somebody weaker than themselves.
It is a strategy as old as the slavery of Israel in Egypt and it has worked again and again throughout history because human beings take forever to learn and grow. Rene Girard documented this scapegoating mechanism as a constant feature of human political and religious systems. He was struck by the fact that in Jesus Christ, we saw God, not demanding the scapegoating of somebody else, but offering himself as the scapegoat and taking upon himself all our freakish and savage dysfunction and cruelty (which we were and are only too happy to inflict). That sacrificial self-offering is eternally offered to us in the Eucharist and we can, if we will, accept it and find in it the power to stop doing this to each other. But we have to want it. And all too often we ignore the offer of the Grace and prefer to find some victim we can blame. This time around, the preferred scapegoats are trans people and the scapegoaters are primarily Good Christians choosing to spit on Jesus Christ, present in them. But the truth remains: Inasmuch as we do it to the least of these his brethren, we do it to him.
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One Response
MAGA loves to hate and blame various groups for all of our problems. It’s OK to hate immigrants, non Christians, transgenders, etc. take away their rights and blame them for anything that is wrong.
It’s curious how people who consider themselves to be “good Christians” are in favor of cutting funding for food and healthcare for poor children, and want to cut taxes for billionaires. I don’t recall seeing anything in the Gospels advocating throwing the poor under the bus and enriching the very wealthy. Oh, this is the “Prosperity Gospel. Remember, Jesus wants you to have that new Mercedes Benz. I think that might be in Luke or John?