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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023

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Yes, another top level comment about The Origins of Woke from me, in the same thread on the same week. But this is about something else. I had an epiphany while reading the book.

I've wondered for many years why Marxism is more socially acceptable than racism when it's responsible for even more deaths than the Holocaust. It's because companies are (de facto) legally required to fire racists, but they're not required to fire Marxists. In fact, firing a Marxist for merely being Marxist would be illegal in California.

California has a state law against firing people for their political beliefs, but it didn't protect James Damore, who was fired in compliance with the law against creating a hostile work environment for protected groups.

It all adds up.

I believe it's because Marxism better comports with Christian egalitarianism.

A flattering thought if you're a member of the atheism plus crowd but the sad truth is that there is nothing particularly Christian or egalitarian about Marxism, just the opposite in fact

Jesus telling you to love your neighbor and saying rich men won’t enter heaven isn’t at all similar to Marxism?

and saying rich men won’t enter heaven

I'm not that well read on the Bible but isn't the point of that verse to say that even the rich (seen as the most blessed) can't get into heaven without the grace of God? If the point is to say that material well-being wins you no points with God, placing so much weight on a materialist philosophy like Marxism seems to be making the same mistake in reverse.

Read Matthew 19:16 till the end of the chapter: Jesus sends some rich guy who wants to follow him away, and tells him to sell all his belongings and give it to the poor. Then he can follow him.

Material well-being doesn't only win you no points, it's an obstacle that needs to be discarded.

It was an obstacle for that rich man. It explicitly was not the same for at least one other rich man, in Luke 19:1-10.

Further, the entire idea that salvation comes down to some discrete act done or not done is antithetical to the entire message of the new testament. When Jesus talks about cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye if they cause you to sin, the point is that they don't cause you to sin. It's not your hand or eye, it's you. In the same way, it's not the money either. You can give every dime away and live the rest of your life penniless and still not find salvation.

It's about what you want. That's what Marxism gets wrong. It assumes that what people want is a product of a political system, rather than individual human will. Christianity does not assume that, and that is one of the many, many fundamental incompatibilities between the two.