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hogtowner's avatar

I appreciate your writing and hope to see more people respond to it.

There is an interesting line of thought that characterizes today's right-wing populism as post-Christian. Thus, the discrediting of Christianity and religion in general has not led to John Lennon's "Imagine" anthem, but to a recasting of the culture war. The culture war now pits a secular left against a pagan, vitalistic, ethno-tribal right.

See for example, https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/07/89591/?fbclid=IwAR3x4-uQMkMgdYO_fBo3RCKv9HQJyafY3tfgEfuEQyG-JUGAh4g2xNvU3no

I think Ross Douthat may also have mentioned this in the past few years.

The situation in the United States may be slightly different, in that Trump's movement used a fair amount of Christian symbolism, and captured many members of the formerly Catholic conservative subculture as you describe. But note that one of the most prominent icons of the January 6 debacle was a New Age "QAnon shaman", complete with buffalo garb. Furthermore, many of the traditionalists who hew to the TLM (or protestant equivalents) are just as alienated from the hierarchy and organized religion as any lefty woke hedonist.

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