One place to start is this article from the Stanford Encyclopaedia on Philosophy: Conservatism.

It’s a lengthy read, but enlightening.

One highlight from the summary:

Most commentators regard conservatism as a modern political philosophy, even though it exhibits the standpoint of paternalism or authority, rather than freedom. As John Gray writes, while liberalism is the dominant political theory of the modern age, conservatism, despite appealing to tradition, is also a response to the challenges of modernity. The roots of all three standpoints “may be traced back to the crises of seventeenth-century England, but [they] crystallised into definite traditions of thought and practice only [after] the French Revolution” (Gray 1995: 78)

I recommend reading the sources linked in that article, as well.

eta: It’s worth noting that societies worldwide often see a resurgence in conservatism in response to social change, crises, and civil rights movements, which are without fail a fear response to threats to the social hierarchy. We can see this in real time.

The King of Unforced Errors strikes again.

e: oh shit, it got me. Didn’t see the community, and this is so trump. Ha. I ate the onion.

Nanu nanu.

Every single word of this is horribly disappointing. Even words like ‘the’ and ‘an’ are ashamed to be associated with this story. Jesus wept.

By all rights, this kid should be in prison. Since we couldn’t do that, shunning him relentlessly will have to do.

Here’s another recent article (2022) that goes into more detail: Who are the Dominionists backing conservative candidates?.
And another: Dominionism Rising: A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight

Other notable dominionists:
Ron DeSantis
Ted Cruz
Kari Lake
Amy Coney-Barrett
Brett Kavanaugh
Mike Johnson
Mike Pence
Roger Stone
Tucker Carlson
Bill Barr
Pretty much everyone in Trump’s orbit.

There are hundreds more. This should scare the shit out of all of us.

Here’s the Wikipedia article on Christian Dominionism.

This is not fringe. It’s mainstream.

e: names

She’s close. Trump isn’t the disease, though, he’s a symptom. The disease is Christian nationalism, and it’s been festering far longer than Trump has been on the national scene.

The disease lies in the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and a few other groups hell-bent on turning the US into a theocracy. They’ve been working on this for a very long time, and have been testing the fences for decades, like velociraptors, only making their move now they’ve found all the weaknesses they need to succeed.

It worries me how focussed people are on the threat trump poses, because even if he dropped dead today, it would only be a temporary inconvenience to these dominionists who have infiltrated nearly every facet of the US government. They will not stop if trump disappears, or if Harris is elected.

Please, watch The Family documentary. You’ll be amazed and likely sick at how deeply they’ve embedded themselves.

This has been studied, and the ‘temporarily embarrassed millionaires’ idea is actually wrong.

The real reason is because some people (especially conservatives, because it’s a core part of conservative ideology) believe that in order for society to work, a hierarchy must be maintained wherein the ‘deserving’ are at the top, and everyone else is in their rightful place. Any threat to the natural hierarchy will undo the societal order and bring chaos and carnage.

This is why Obama becoming president was such an affront – because his presence outside his ‘rightful place’ was an existential threat to the natural order.

This belief has its roots way back when feudalism began to fail and the moneyed classes needed to find a new way to retain their power – both capitalism and conservatism were born at that time, with ideologies shifting from birthright to ‘earned’ status, which enshrined the haves and have-nots into literally sacred structures of meritocracy and social darwinism, and colonialists specifically fostered strict adherence to the social order. It became ingrained culturally that adhering to your station, whatever it is, is crucial for society to function. That there’s honour in being a cog in the machine, and that not accepting your lot in life is a danger to everyone. (eta: this is mostly subconscious, but you can see it if you ask ‘why’ enough times of someone who idolises Musk, for example. You’ll eventually whittle them down to these themes.)

That’s a nutshell view of a complicated topic, but these people don’t believe they’ll strike gold one day. They believe people who are rich deserve to be treated as kings, for the same reason monarchist peasants did.

Classy, as always.

Where’s Musk’s donation? Oh, right, empathy is for wokies.

A: they’re betting most people will accept it, and they’re right. The same thing happened in the early 80s when cable television advertised themselves as the pay-for-ad-free service, then started sneaking ads in. People complained, sure, but we all saw the outcome. They got away with it.

B: Greed, capitalism, and fuck you.

This is such obvious incitement, with obvious damage for which the local PD, city council, etc are clear witnesses with receipts. I hope they’re successful, but I’m sure this will be tied up in court so long, they likely won’t see justice.

Regardless, every action like this is a stick on the fire, and I hope more people impacted by Agent Orange keep filing charges against him. Maybe we can at least see him suffocated by an avalanche of legal filings. Death by a thousand cuts.

For most of my life, I was pretty quiet about being an atheist, and literally all of my friends were Christian; *they assumed I was too, and it was easier to let them. Eventually I stopped caring who knew, and finally told a few of my friends that I’m atheist. In every case, the response was ‘you can’t be atheist – you’re too nice’.

A couple of them flat-out refused to believe I’m atheist, telling me that I’m actually Christian, I just don’t go to church or pray, and that’s okay. Utterly refusing to accept I don’t believe in their god, and trying to convince me of all the reasons I’m acktuaaly a believer, even if I don’t think I am. It’s been confusing and maddening. Some of these conversations have gone on for more than a decade.

Many people will straight-up refuse to see anything that doesn’t conform to their worldview, and there’s not a thing you can say to break through it.

e: *

https://fairvoteaction.org/

e: FairVote Action, a non-partisan group working towards election reform.

Join to help them grow and give this issue a larger voice, and don’t wait until autumn 2027 (which is often what happens and which is too late). This needs a sustained and noisy effort so those in charge are made to start listening.

I’ve started name checking them in threads such as this one for visibility. I’d like to see this problem addressed as soon as possible, and it ain’t fixing itself.

I’m so tired of hearing about this woman.

Previous First Ladies have become champions for some cause (whether it’s a cause I agree with or not – looking at you Nancy), but Melania is MiA until she’s hawking a book, and now she’s all over my feeds.

Just kindly fuck off to obscurity until your sugar daddy gives you the payout for being his side piece. Nobody cares.

Oh no. Now we’ll never hear from FlyingSquid again. RIP, fiend, we’ll mis

Not to mention doxxing, swatting, brigading, trolling, ban evasion.

Pence rummaged in the law’s panty drawers looking for a loophole, and when he couldn’t find one, he called Dan Quayle to ask if there was any way at all he could violate his duty and support trump. Only after Quayle told him no multiple times did he finally, begrudgingly decide he had to certify it.

Let’s not give Pence more credit than he deserves.

It shouldn’t be a hard sell, either, because the president specifically doesn’t have any official duties surrounding the election. This would defeat the entire purpose.

The vice president doesn’t either, as was made clear by that conversation between Pence and Dan Quayle:

Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do.

"‘Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,’ Quayle told him.

"Pence pressed again.

"‘You don’t know the position I’m in,’ he said, according to the authors.

“‘I do know the position you’re in,’ Quayle responded. ‘I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.’”

source: How Dan Quayle saved democracy. Yes, really.