Owen Smith

It would speak to alignment with the values of the group represented. In like manner to any interest group.

It's quite a different thing to say "this is a candidate who happens to be a Christian" and "this is *the* Christian candidate".

It sounds like we're using "respectability" in quite different ways.

I'm referring to churches endorsing ideas or people, whereas you seem to be referring to general "aura" or association.

You'd disagree that an endorsement conveys a form of "respectability" to those aligned?

This would remove the false respectability of the far-right project, apply significant pressure to those who are actual Christians to turn back, and it would fracture their supporter base.

That Christian leaders lined up behind Trump has given false credibility to his project. (Likewise with TPUSA)

The responsibility of conservative Christian leaders is to *come out* from amongst them. To deny Trump, Vance, Levitt, et. al. fellowship. To denounce the project as anti-Christian.

Let me plant a different thought.

You suggested that the failure to acknowledge bad Christians as Christians was giving Trump et al a faux credibility.

I see a bigger issue at play. They are not just doing evil while claiming to be Christian. They are claiming the evil things *are* Christian.

I refer as an analogy - if you agree there can be cynical leaders in other areas - then I would put to you the same is true here.

I'd also suggest that at some point the definition of Christianity becomes so vague that it ceases to be useful - ticking Christian on a census does not make one such.

I'm not sure what you're arguing for here.

You'd disagree that there are cynical leaders who outwardly present ideas to manipulate others into destroying the very idea they claimed to support?

(Eg. The Nazi use of democratic tools and words to destroy democracy in Germany)

That seems like a fairly sweeping and subjectivised generalisation?

^ you're reading in to my position here. *All Christians* are bad Christians. It's in the definition. "If we say we have no sin, we lie".

Moralism is not Christianity.
Which is why Jesus ripped into the faux-religious elite of his day, and one reason why MAGA is a different cult.

But your second comment I agree with - their (mis)use of Christian iconography and themes does reveal *alot* about them - Just as Trump's misuse of the constitution reveals far more about him than the constitution.

We'll have to disagree on that point. "Their interpretation is just as Christian". All words cease to have meaning at that point.

Far more important than what we make of God is what God makes of us.. and his communication is not empty on this.

Highly recommend having a read through Bonhoeffer's biography. He had to navigate a similar ideological moment during the rise of the Nazis.

The modern far right nationalists will add "did we not cast out immigrants, shoot assault rifles and smack down libtards in your name?"

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

Jesus would disagree:
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

In the last 12 months America has had a resurrected messiah (Trump), a martyr (Kirk), and various prophets (eg. Levitt).

The iconography is deeply cynical, and entirely deliberate.

(There are deeper roots here I can unpick if that interests you?)

It's not about having a narrow definition of Christianity, but about having a meaningful definition of Christianity at all.

Bonhoeffer had to wrestle with this - Hitler used Christian iconography in the same way he used Democratic iconography. When does it cease to be either?

That Christian *iconography* pervades American culture, no one would argue.

But I'd put to you that Nationalism is a cult to itself, regardless of the iconography. As it is in Russia, as it was in Germany.

It really isn't. It's a whole other ideology drapped in Christian drag.

The officers had effectively boxed the car in by their positioning, placing the civilian in a position of duress.

Tech Billionaires Threaten To Flee California Over Proposed Vest Tax SAN FRANCISCO—Citing a right to keep their torsos sheathed in windproof synthetic fabrics, tech billionaires were reportedly threatening to flee California on Monday over a proposed statewide vest tax...

Tech Billionaires Threaten To Flee California Over Proposed Vest Tax

sometimes you just get a really stupid shitpost idea and you have to execute it, even if it means 10 takes and juggling 5 off-camera windows

a statue of a man with a long tail is standing on top of a mountain . Alt: Freeza, a man with a long tail, is standing on top of a mountain saying "this isn't even my final form"

"This isn't even my final form!"

"You should have seen the other guy!"

I, for one, welcome the idea of airdropping Stephen Miller into the forests of Venezuela... with just his copy of Mein Kampf and a water flask filled with crude oil.

Nixon was pardoned. Bush and Blair did not even smell the threat of jail time. Unless there are arrests, trials, criminal convictions, actual jail time and significant *individual* fines, these flagrant violations of domestic and international law will not only continue, they will escalate.

The thing about toxic personalities is that they get a kick from crossing your red lines.

Where are your lines, and how will you enforce them?

Don't chuck a feckless Schumer. Draw the line and then enforce it.

Otherwise Trump'll keep walking up your back in golf cleats.

But, even this comes with a trade off. You can't guarantee the bot's response, which add risks - particularly in customer facing or compliance scenarios.

So, there is a specific use case where this can be argued - but the grifters generalise this beyond due bounds.

With LLMs, there's a significant unlock in providing more human and flexible conversation design.

For some use cases, we leverage LLMs to responsively adapt to unseen user queries.

Rather than a strict script, we can provide guidelines and tools to be dynamically adapted.

Playing the devil's advocate here, we do see this in a very specific use case - conversational interfaces.

With the previous generation of chatbots (NLU) you had to roll all the logic and hard code responses.

You would then spend alot of time observing and tweaking a flow so that it seemed human.