Saved by Who?

Oh, and now I'm a "Zionist" as well as a transphobicnazifarrightTerfhag!

On July 13th 2024, President Trump dodged an assassin's bullet at his election rally in Pennsylvania. Most of his voters now believe he was saved by God, and probably a large chunk of his opposition voters too.

Yesterday I watched one of the most moving and important speeches I've ever seen, in this era which is so lacking in great political orators.

Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netenyahu (introduced as “His Excellency”) spoke for around 50 minutes, with no water, no breaks, no teleprompter, only his own written notes. It's the fourth time he has spoken to the US Congress.

His fluency in English reminds us that he was Israel's Ambassador to the United States for 4 years in the mid 1980s. At the end of the speech - punctuated every minute by another standing ovation - he asked God to bless Israel and America.

Here's the full speech:

For an Atheist like me, it's very strange to observe the overt religiosity of what is supposed to be the largest secular country on earth.

When I was growing up in the 1960s-70s we loved America for many things - their clothes, sports, movies, cars, comics, motorbikes, music.

And if we as teenagers back then thought about their politics at all, it was: they won the Vietnam war, and that's where the Hippies/flower-power people and Harley-Davidsons came from.

We might even have heard about their admirable Peace Corps, for their young people to do something useful in the world instead of being in the army.

But we never thought of Americans as a religious people. According to my friends who have visited there and hung out with Americans, you have to be there to witness it. Like, everyone disappearing on Sunday morning, because they've gone to church.

I’ve never had ANY English friends who think of Sunday morning as useful for anything other than a long lie-in, or recovering from Saturday night!

Since the attempt on Trump's life and the killing and wounding of other spectators at the rally, the very American belief in Divine Providence, that God directly intervenes in their lives, is upfront and centre, impossible to ignore.

I'm on GETTR because I like chatting with Americans, especially American Terfs.

I'm well aware that GETTR is thought of as right-wing. (It is run by a Chinese diaspora dissident, by the way). But there is a bubble of reality-believers of all politics and none on there, so it's a useful place to chat with them, even if the 12-hour time zone difference makes for disjointed conversations.

In the last 10 days since the bullet miraculously - and it's hard not to use their language - clipped The Donald's ear because he shifted his head slightly while talking to the crowd, GETTR has been awash with prayers and memes about God saving him for a greater purpose.

Here's an example - it's a meme, so unlikely to be a genuine photo.

Which God and whose God? - that varies. There are people in America who use the opposite language - that Trump and his followers are Satanic and he's the Antichrist.

Whichever God you think Netenyahu invoked at the end of his speech, I guess. Those of you who believe in Him.

So even though I'm a “Gold-star Atheist” (just like Kellie-Jay Keen), I'm told (by Feminists) that I'm a “Zionist” for condemning Hamas and the other Iranian proxies.

And for thinking Israel has a right to defend it's ancestral nation, and rescue it's hostages, (including 5 Americans) alive or dead.

Just like I think my own country has that right, which I guess makes me an “English-ist” or perhaps, to use religious language, a “Church-of-England-ist”?

"My bad”, as the Americans say! 😂

You can see my artwork at: radicalcartoons.com and follow me as @radicalcartoons on GETTR and spinster.xyz