Increasingly, mainstream Democrats have sought to carve out a space for “acceptable” Zionism by saying that they support Israel but oppose Bibi Netanyahu. But the horrors of Gaza are a result of processes far more vast than one right-wing leader.
They aren’t saying “religion bad”, that’s a strawman. The sentiment is that theocracies are bad, which seems pretty obvious. In much the same way police states are bad; there has never been a theocratic regime that hasn’t used their power to oppress other religions.
Theocracies oppress religious minorities in much the way ethnostates oppress ethnic minorities, and patriarchies oppress women and gender minorities. We don’t need to structure the state around religion like that, it’s a recipe for disaster.
But then they claim that “The whole region is so engrained with violence, oppression and exploitation. All of it stems from religious control.” If the sentiment is that theocracies are bad, then that would imply that the whole region is governed by either de jure or de facto theocracies. That’s factually untrue, so we’re back where we started.
I would clarify my point. It’s not that religion needs to be in control, it’s that religion’s power over society is used by whomever is in power to control people.
They aren’t saying “religion bad”, that’s a strawman. The sentiment is that theocracies are bad, which seems pretty obvious. In much the same way police states are bad; there has never been a theocratic regime that hasn’t used their power to oppress other religions.
Theocracies oppress religious minorities in much the way ethnostates oppress ethnic minorities, and patriarchies oppress women and gender minorities. We don’t need to structure the state around religion like that, it’s a recipe for disaster.
But then they claim that “The whole region is so engrained with violence, oppression and exploitation. All of it stems from religious control.” If the sentiment is that theocracies are bad, then that would imply that the whole region is governed by either de jure or de facto theocracies. That’s factually untrue, so we’re back where we started.
I would clarify my point. It’s not that religion needs to be in control, it’s that religion’s power over society is used by whomever is in power to control people.