"Are you sure these (right-wing Christian) people are not being manipulated by political forces?" I doubt if it ever occurred to Joe, if to anyone else here, that these people weren't being manipulated. It's one big tangle of manipulation. You start with people with limited education and religious backgrounds which often explicitly foster narrow mindedness. The only social change they could possibly be comfortable with would be seeing more of the world becoming just like themselves. Then bring on a wave of mass media evangelists who are just charismatic specimens of that population or, all too often, totally unscrupulous predators who recognize a substantial financial resource. Some of those evangelists, and a significant number of unscrupulous politicos, also recognize and nurture a hefty potential voting block. It takes little more than a few standard catch phrases for a politician to endear himself to that faction. And...Sarah Palin may be the first American woman to reach the magnitude she did as a poster child for the whole mess.
|