In addition to the personal Trump loyalists, the admin currently has 2 major factions: 1) conservative Christian nationalists like Russell Vought. 2) The tech folks like Elon Musk and his close allies, who are close to the SF rationalist/effective altruism movement and are very hostile to religion. - ThreadSky

jonmladd.bsky.social • 31 days ago

In addition to the personal Trump loyalists, the admin currently has 2 major factions: 1) conservative Christian nationalists like Russell Vought. 2) The tech folks like Elon Musk and his close allies, who are close to the SF rationalist/effective altruism movement and are very hostile to religion.

Reposted from Kevin M. Kruse

Trump also got outraged that an Episcopal bishop cited basic Christian values in a church service, while Musk slashed funds for a Lutheran social services program.

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tarheel08.bsky.social•30 days ago

Going to note here that white evangelicals do not necessarily view Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians as Christian. It's going to depend on the denomination (ELCA v. Wisconsin Synod).

kindler.bsky.social•31 days ago

I’m impatient to get to the scene in the gangster movie where they’re all wildly shooting at each other…

kidcourageous.bsky.social•30 days ago

The "Christo-Nihilist" coalition. Both want to force us to the end of the yellow brick road, with polar opposite visions of what's behind the curtain.

cataroan.bsky.social•30 days ago

The tech bros are the palantir crew: musk, Peter thiel, Alex karp, jd Vance, those post pubescent kids, etc. Their names constantly come up again and again and they get their ideology from Calvin Yarvin, who tells them they deserve to be dictators bc they know a little code and are billionaires

cataroan.bsky.social•30 days ago

It’s techno fascism

sekkuto.bsky.social•30 days ago

I don’t think this is conflicting: the Christian nationalists *hate* Christians that espouse values that conflict with the nationalists, radical things like loving your neighbor, treating the least of people with compassion, that deadly sin of empathy. Musk targeting Lutherans do them just fine.

marsyd.bsky.social•30 days ago

I suppose they will need to come together over their common values of fear and hate.

paulblumenthal.bsky.social•31 days ago

Aren't they more aligned with e/acc now? They would advocate for promoting Christian nationalism if it helped bring on the singularity. The bigger divide is musk and bannonites who hate AI and tech.

spookybutkind.bsky.social•30 days ago

I think we can anticipate some real fireworks, but ultimately one of those two sides is going to win out and I'm not sure which is worse.

johnhatchard.bsky.social•31 days ago

Call it what it is. It's a cult.

jonmladd.bsky.social•31 days ago

A lot of Musk's disregard for human institutions and democracy. And his obsession with space travel and going to Mars, in his head is connected to "longtermism" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longtermism)

jonmladd.bsky.social•31 days ago

The fact that Musk's attempts at payment shutdowns are hitting religious charities is a feature not a bug for him. The question is whether it eventually creates tension with other Republican factions.

timefornow.bsky.social•30 days ago

I ask, less than half in jest, what might be Elmo's reaction if, instead of mostly Christian (but also a few Jewish, Muslim, and other) charities, there was a Nordic-Aryan organization which had prayers to Odin, Loki, Thor, and the Hakenkreuz. There's a lot to suggest he'd be fine with that.

franksterwas.bsky.social•31 days ago

Is he that guy from Don’t Look Up

trolleyjoe.bsky.social•31 days ago

i feel like the factions see eye to eye on mosy policy issues

ghoststryder.bsky.social•30 days ago

Both are just fig leafs for white supremacy

suzerain.bsky.social•31 days ago

Indeed. Effective response should focus on identifying the divisions between these three factions and exploiting them:

- Trump loyalists (the grifter class)
- Christian nationalists
- Tech

rasmo420.bsky.social•30 days ago

I don't think you can use Musk and altruism in the same sentence.

kylelmorgan.bsky.social•29 days ago

My brain hurts trying to understand his mental gymnastics.

jonp214.bsky.social•31 days ago

What exactly is Vought meant to even do considering Elon is doing absolutely everything himself instead and I’ll safely assume doesn’t care what some stuffy establishment suit wants.

cables617.bsky.social•30 days ago

Is Vance able to bridge these two factions? For all the awful things that guy wants to do to America and the world, I have to believe that his #1 priority is waiting for the right moment to stick the knife in and take over.

justsomeguy007.bsky.social•30 days ago

In Hitler's Germany, opposing ideas like these were all part of the Nazi party and rarely conflicted with each other.

Their hatred for shared enemies was enough.

Each believes there will be plenty of time to dispose of the other when their shared goals are complete.

jenvegasinny.bsky.social•30 days ago

Yes, and I was really hoping these two factions would have nuked each other by now. But the month is young. There's still hope. (?)

kylora2112.bsky.social•30 days ago

The Christian Nationalists only use religion as a means of control (especially for controlling women). 100% guarantee you can get the tech bros on board with that via simple and overt misogyny.

leahkblack.bsky.social•31 days ago

Those are two scary factions! So basically they are using Trump, and he is using them. And no one is truly thinking about the American people.

monkeyes2.bsky.social•30 days ago

The technobro class want us as biolfuel or breeders of white babies. The Christian nationalists want us as hard labor or as breeders for white babies. So there is some overlap in their concern for the “citizens”

monkeyes2.bsky.social•30 days ago

FYI: https://bsky.app/profile/monkeyes2.bsky.social/post/3lheithiwas2k

diffdrum1.bsky.social•30 days ago

Bingo

wubbles.bsky.social•31 days ago

Musk close to EA? PEPFAR wouldn't be shut down if so

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