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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   27702 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 23, 2023

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Welcome back to the United States House of Representatives quest to choose a Speaker. Now in week 4.

The current Republican Candidate is Mike Johnson (R-LA). There hasn't been much by way of public dissent from Republicans on Johnson (at least that I've seen) so he may be someone that has a real chance. Frankly I'd be a little surprised that Reps opposed to Jordan would be fine with Johnson given their similarities. There has been little public dissent and allegedly was not much dissent in the Republican Conference after he was selected. First vote expected to start shortly.

ETA:

By a vote of 220-209 Mike Johnson becomes the new Speaker of the House on the first ballot.

A literal young-earth creationist is now Speaker of the House. I'm surprised that we don't have more people upset about this on a rationalist forum. That he was elected should be a pretty damning indictment of the US Republican party---anyone here voting for them better have a really strong benefit in mind that is worth this crazy of a trade-off.

I guess I'll echo the chorus and say that at least it's not Intelligent Design. I almost respect the foolish honesty of Young-Earth Creationism.

EDIT: 2rafa put it better: this isn't 2005, this isn't a sound-the-alarms moment the way it would have been once upon a time.

Intelligent design covers a lot of stuff though, even the Catholic “God deliberately set off evolution” (also common in Islam and among Orthodox Jews) is arguably a form of ID.

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