Monday, January 31, 2022

Lebanon power cuts turn cafes into co-working spaces

Clara Guillard
Mon, 31 January 2022

Beirut's cafes now serve as substitute workplaces for people grappling with drastic electricity shortages and internet cuts (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

Cafes are among the few businesses to have largely bucked the wider meltdown driven by corruption, capital flight and would-be donors' reluctance to throw good money after bad (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

The power cuts, extending to 23 hours a day, have left many already deprived of an office by Covid restrictions with no option but to plant themselves in cafes all day (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

For many patrons filling Beirut's cafes these days, the most important things are good lighting and stable wi-fi (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

The music is often hushed and the atmosphere studious -- for the patrons filling Beirut's cafes these days, the most important things are good lighting and stable wi-fi.

That's because they now serve as substitute workplaces for people grappling with drastic electricity shortages and internet cuts stemming from Lebanon's unrelenting economic crisis.

Aaliya's Books, in the heart of the capital's once-fabled nightlife spot of Gemmayzeh, is one such sanctuary.

"Most of the time, if I come here, it's because I don't have electricity at home," said Maria Bou Raphael, nestled on a sofa.

The power cuts, extending to 23 hours a day, have left many already deprived of an office by Covid restrictions with no option but to plant themselves in cafes all day, especially as the quality of many internet connections has also plummeted.

Generators -- the only way to keep devices charged and connected -- are too expensive for many Lebanese, as they grapple with an economic crisis that has seen the local currency lose more than 90 percent of its black market value in recent years.

Cafes are therefore among the few businesses to have largely bucked the wider meltdown driven by corruption, capital flight and would-be donors' reluctance to throw good money after bad.

Aaliya's Books manager Niamh Flemming Farrell said that on weekdays her establishment feels more like a co-working space, with some customers staying for a full day.

The sense of community created by the service that she provides to the neighbourhood is reviving a cafe culture that had faded in recent years.

Doubling up as a bookshop, the cafe takes its name from Aaliya Saleh, the central character in "An Unnecessary Woman", a novel by acclaimed Lebanese-American author Rabih Alameddine.

The narrative focuses on a 72-year-old who lives secluded in her Beirut flat, in the sole company of her books while the 1975-1990 civil war rages outside.

- 'Relaxed spot' -

"We noticed that... our customers started working additional hours in our branches, fancying the locations that provide a higher level of comfort," said a spokesman for Cafe Younes, a roastery with 10 coffee shops mostly in the capital.

Cafe Younes opened a new large branch in Beirut's central Hamra district a year ago that includes a multi-purpose study room with large desks each equipped with power sockets.

Barzakh is another multi-purpose cafe that opened recently on the first floor of a busy building on the Hamra thoroughfare.

Hamra used to epitomise a Beirut cafe culture that had its heyday in the 1960s but was gradually wiped out by bars conducive to more boisterous socialising.

"I can see people running and yelling (outside) but I'm sitting here quietly in a relaxed spot," said fashion design student Mustafa al-Sous said, sitting beside a large window.

The young man sees Barzakh as a haven from the doom and gloom that has been so pervasive across Lebanon in recent years, but also as a place where he can work.

Notebooks and laptops clogged the tables in this cafe, while tangled charger cables strewn across the floor threatened to trip waiters.

"Originally we wanted to ban laptops," Mansour Aziz, the founder of the cafe-cum-library, which also hosts live shows in the evenings, recalls with a disbelieving smile.

Many here, dragged out of their homes by the electricity crisis, now rely on the cafes for their social life, especially those who can no longer afford to party in the evenings.

At Barzakh, patrons will often greet each other with a nod from across the room and come to know each other gradually.

"I'm a very sociable person," Mustafa said. "I like it when people walk over to ask me what I'm working on."

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One year on, justice on hold for slain Lebanese activist Lokman Slim

AFP -

A year after the murder of Lebanese intellectual and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim, his family is still searching for accountability in a country where crimes often go unpunished.

"We really need justice for Lokman," his widow Monika Borgmann told AFP from their home in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, days before the first anniversary of his killing.

If his murder goes unpunished, it would be like "giving the green light to the killers, whoever they are, to continue" their crimes, she said, amid stalled investigations into his murder.

Lebanese activists hold placards bearing the portrait of Lokman Slim with the slogan in Arabic "zero fear", days after his killing in February 2021

A secular activist from a Shiite family, 58-year-old Slim was found dead in his car on February 4 last year, a day after his family reported him missing.

His body was found in southern Lebanon -- a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement -- but the culprits have yet to be identified.

An outspoken activist and a researcher passionate about documenting the civil war that raged from 1975-1990 in Lebanon, Slim was a divisive figure. His sway over foreign diplomats in Lebanon often sparked the ire of Hezbollah and its loyalists.

Lokman Slim, seen here in an undated photograph, was found dead in his car on February 4, 2021

In several televised interviews, Slim accused the group of taking Lebanon hostage on behalf of its Iranian patrons.

In one of his last TV appearances, he accused the Syrian regime of having links to the ammonium nitrate shipment that caused the catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port in August 2020.

Slim's family has received no updates from the authorities since investigations into his murder started.

This is not unusual for a country where even investigations into the Beirut port blast have yet to identify a single culprit -- a year and a half after the explosion destroyed swathes of the city.

Gonika Borgmann, widow of slain Lebanese activist Lokman Slim, stands by his grave on January 26

- 'Information-gathering' -

The judiciary is still working on gathering evidence from security agencies over Slim's murder, said a judicial source, explaining that investigations are still at an "information-gathering phase".

They are yet to reach any key conclusions because not all security agencies have provided investigators with the necessary information, the same source added.

Borgmann, Slim's widow, said that the family has been left in the dark.

"We don't really know where we are going," she said, expressing doubts over whether any progress will ever be made.

Slim's family has called for an independent, international probe into his murder. It is a demand that Borgmann said is within reach after United Nations experts last year called for a credible and impartial investigation.

"The government should consider requesting international technical assistance to investigate the killing of Mr. Slim," UN human rights experts said in March.

Lebanese politicians and media personalities have suspected Hezbollah's involvement in his murder, but Slim's family has never publicly accused the party of his killing.

"Of course, I have my opinion who is behind (the murder)," said Borgmann, a film director, originally from Germany.

"But for me it's not really enough to point the finger at anybody and... stop there," she added.

"We need proof and we need accountability," she said, expressing hopes his killers will be jailed.

Borgmann said Hezbollah had threatened Slim several times, most notably in December 2019.

A group of people attacked his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut, plastering Hezbollah slogans and messages on the walls, calling him a traitor and warning that his "time will come".

At the time, Slim said he would lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movements should anything happen to him or his family.

"Lokman said it himself," Borgmann said.

- 'Believe in justice' -

There have been at least 220 assassinations and murder attempts since Lebanon's independence in 1943 until Slim's killing last year, according to Beirut-based consultancy firm Information International.

Investigations into these murders have rarely yielded results due to political interference or lack of evidence.

After he was killed, Slim's family launched a foundation in his name that is devoted to studying political assassinations in Lebanon and in the region.

"Political assassinations played a major role in controlling political life in Arab societies," said Hana Jaber, the foundation's director.

They create "imaginary barriers... that deter societies from thinking freely or producing alternative political, societal and cultural projects".

As a result, the foundation created in Slim's honour will work to counter the culture of impunity around political assassinations and "break the isolation of those who are under threat", Jaber said.

For Borgmann, the foundation will serve to preserve Slim's legacy.

"The fight against the culture of impunity has always been at the centre of our work," she said.

"Now we need to do it without him, but for him."

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Myanmar activists vow to defy junta with strike on coup anniversary

A Myanmar soldier looks on as he stands inside city hall after soldiers

occupied the building, in Yangon

Mon, January 31, 2022

(Reuters) - Myanmar's military rulers have threatened to jail anti-coup protesters who take part in a "silent strike" on Tuesday, a year since the generals seized power, as the United States, Britain and Canada imposed new sanctions.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other figures from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party were rounded up in raids, accused by the junta of rigging a 2020 election the NLD won.

The overthrow of Suu Kyi's government triggered huge street protests last year and the security forces killed hundreds in crackdowns that ensued leading to the formation of "people's defence forces" to take on the well-equipped army.

In recent days, activists have urged people to stay indoors and businesses to close on Tuesday.

"We might be arrested and spend our life in jail if we're lucky. We might be tortured and killed if we're unlucky," saidyouth activist Nan Lin, who hoped the strike would send a message to the junta.

A spokesman for the ruling military did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.

State media reported military ruler Min Aung Hlaing had on Monday extended a state of emergency for six months to facilitate promised elections.

"It was necessary to set the right track for the genuine, disciplined multi-party democracy," Min Aung Hlaing said in a report in the Global New Light of Myanmar, where he talked about the threat from "internal and external saboteurs" and "terrorist attacks and destruction".

The state-run newspaper said the military government would strive to hold new elections once the situation was "peaceful and stable", without giving a date.

In the northern city of Myitkyina, a photograph of a sign put up by the military warned residents not to join the silent protest or face jail terms of up to 20 years, though images of the city posted on social media on Tuesday showed largely deserted streets.

In the main city of Yangon, photographs on a social media page put up by strike organisers showed a small protest where people threw red paint on the ground.

The impact of the calls for a nationwide strike was not immediately clear. At least four people were arrested in the central town of Pathein for inciting silent protests on social media, the Ayarwaddy Times reported.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in comments ahead of the coup anniversary, urged the junta to allow greater humanitarian access.

The junta has accused the United Nations of bias and interference and is refusing to bow to international pressure, despite a corporate retreat from Myanmar and sanctions, the latest on Monday, when the United States, Britain and Canada blacklisted more individuals linked to the junta.

For ordinary Myanmar people, life since the coup has become a grind with the economy withering, regular power cuts and internet curbs and, for some, a constant fear of being detained.

Security forces cracking down on dissent have killed at least 1,500 people and arrested 11,838 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, an activist group cited by the United Nations. The junta disputes the death toll.

Suu Kyi, 76, is on trial in more than a dozen cases that carry a combined maximum sentence of more than 150 years in prison, charges that critics say are designed to ensure she can never return to politics.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of countries including Australia, Britain, South Korea, the United States, Canada as well as the European Union urged the international community to cease the flow of "arms, materiel, dual-use equipment, and technical assistance" to the Myanmar military.

An internationally backed diplomatic effort led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has faltered, with the junta's failure to honour its commitment to end hostilities and support dialogue frustrating members, including Singapore.

"Conditions in Myanmar for the people continue to deteriorate," its foreign ministry said in a statement marking the anniversary, which demanded Suu Kyi and all political prisoners be freed.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)

Activists launch ‘silent strike’ as Myanmar marks coup anniversary under new sanctions

The Bharat Express News

February 1, 2022

The military takeover ending the Southeast Asian country’s brief democratic interlude has sparked mass protests and a crackdown on dissent with more than 1,500 civilians killed, according to a local watchdog group.

The junta is struggling to contain the backlash unleashed by the coup, with daily clashes and large swathes of the country remaining beyond its control.

In comments published on Tuesday, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing repeated the army’s claim that it was forced to take power following fraud in the 2020 elections won by Aung’s party. San Suu Kyi, which international observers said were largely free and fair.

It would hold “free and fair” polls by August 2023 if stability in the country is restored, he told the official Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The streets of Yangon’s commercial center were bustling on Tuesday morning, TBEN correspondents said, as residents shopped and met friends ahead of a “silent strike” expected to begin around 10 a.m. local time.

A similar strike in December emptied the streets of cities and towns across the country.

On Tuesday morning, footage released by local media showed a dozen young protesters gathered in a flashmob in Yangon, unfurling a pro-democracy banner and setting off a flare.

Ahead of the anniversary, the junta threatened to seize businesses that close and warned that loud rallies or the sharing of anti-military “propaganda” could lead to charges of treason or terrorism.

Punishments

The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday unveiled coordinated sanctions against Myanmar officials, including officials involved in Suu Kyi’s trial.

Washington has sanctioned Attorney General Thida Oo, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo and Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Tin Oo, who it says were closely involved in the “politically motivated” prosecution of Suu Kyi .

“We are coordinating these actions with the UK and Canada…to further promote accountability for the coup and the violence perpetrated by the regime,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Citing “unspeakable violence against civilians”, damage to regional stability and “endemic” corruption, President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was working with allies to “hold accountable” those responsible.

Another trial for Suu Kyi

Suu Kyi has previously been sentenced to six years in prison for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, incitement against the military and breaching Covid-19 rules.

The Nobel laureate will face a new trial for influencing the country’s electoral commission in the 2020 election that saw her National League for Democracy (NLD) party defeat a military-aligned rival, a said a source familiar with the matter.

The case should be completed within six months. Former NLD chairman and stalwart Win Myint will face the same charge.

Burmese lawmakers ousted from a shadow “national unity government” spoke to the media in Paris on Monday.

Human rights spokesperson Aung Myo Min has urged the international community to implement an arms embargo and toughen economic sanctions to cut off all trade with the regime.

UN special envoy Noeleen Heyzer has called for a “humanitarian pause” in the violence to allow aid to get through, warning that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict.

Following Washington’s lead, Britain imposed sanctions on Thida Oo, Tin Oo and a third person, the chairman of the country’s electoral commission.

“Burma’s military is using increasingly brutal and desperate tactics to try to cling to power,” said Anna Roberts, head of Burma Campaign UK, welcoming the new sanctions.

“The UK government is doing exactly the right thing…however, they need to step up the pace of new sanctions. It is vital to maximize the pressure now when the military is more vulnerable.

(TBEN)

The message Activists launch ‘silent strike’ as Myanmar marks coup anniversary under new sanctions appeared first on TBEN.

Flunking Sainthood

‘Who Killed Joseph Smith?’ and other amateur-hour conspiracy theories

A new documentary recycles old conspiracies about the murder of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.

January 21, 2022

Jana Riess

(RNS) — The documentary “Who Killed Joseph Smith?” is now available for streaming for free on Vimeo. It’s an earnest but deeply misleading attempt to understand the assassinations of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844.

Claiming he has “new evidence” that disproves what prior historians have assumed about the murders, the documentary’s creator, Justin Griffin, puts forward what he claims is a groundbreaking new theory about who really killed the Mormon founder.

Hint: It wasn’t the mob. More on that particular piece of nuttiness in a moment.

The documentary is long on what it claims to be forensics investigations, challenging the Church’s traditional stories about which weapons were used and at what angle victims were standing when they were shot. There are some obligatory “let’s test out this theory by blowing the head off of a mannequin and splattering fake blood when it explodes!” shots. There is the recreated Carthage Jail set, in which actors portray the contested events and Griffin is filmed speaking ardently about his hypothesis.

Through all of this, Griffin wants to challenge the narrative that the Church has used “for hundreds of years” to describe the Smiths’ murders. No matter that we are talking about murders that happened almost 200 years ago.

Hey, what’s a few centuries, give or take? It’s only history.

Actual professional historians — by which I mean people who have formally studied historical methodology and published peer-reviewed research in academic journals and books by university presses — are conspicuously absent from the scene. The documentary does give us screen shots of articles by both professional and amateur historians, but only so Griffin can dissect their various arguments and find them wanting.

In other words, it’s amateur hour. (Or rather, it’s an hour and 38 minutes, unfortunately.) Griffin analyzes several theories from researchers, including one pair he alternately calls “the Lyon brothers” (correct) or “the Lyons brothers” (oops).

The documentary “Who Killed Joseph Smith?” finds several existing theories only partly true. Video screengrab

Nearly an hour into the documentary, Griffin remarks, “You can’t really call yourself a Carthage researcher until you come up with your own theory about what happened.” Which kind of tells us everything we need to know about his historical method. Actual historians do not demand that their interpretation of an event be unique or iconoclastic. Sometimes their views will support the conventional wisdom and sometimes they won’t. Much of their job is to present the primary sources and allow readers and viewers to draw their own conclusions — something Griffin seems loathe to do.

Griffin’s particular theory is that Willard Richards and John Taylor, two close associates who were with the Smiths in the jail and survived the attack, were actually — wait for it — the murderers. Even though Taylor was grievously injured himself. And even though members of the mob bragged about their responsibility in the attack.

The insiders’ motive for this? Well, Griffin doesn’t have much on that. A power grab, maybe. Some tensions in the Quorum of the Twelve. But … the ballistics! The bullet sizes! The angle of the shots!

Because the boring truth is never as much fun as a conspiracy theory, am I right?

That’s not to say the documentary doesn’t ask some good questions. He’s right to interrogate the faith-promoting, embroidered stories the Church has told for decades about the murders: like that Hyrum declared “I’m a dead man” after he was first shot, or that Willard Richards was miraculously saved from harm because he was the only one of the four to be wearing his temple garments.

Sigh. There are plenty of pieces of the Church’s conventional “martyrdom” narrative that do not pass the sniff test. Those pieces of the story, added over time, served a purpose, like all martyrdom narratives serve a purpose: to valorize the fallen and coalesce support and obedience among those left behind. It would be shocking if those stories had not been embellished.

Rather than investigating how such stories develop over years and decades, which is what professional historians would do, or trying to understand the historical context in Nauvoo that led to the mob descending on Carthage in the first place (see here for a terrific book about that), Griffin just serves up a conspiracy theory that it was an inside job.

Along the way he accepts all kinds of things at face value. For example, he does not seem to entertain the possibility that Willard Richards and John Taylor, writing their memories of the assassinations long after the event, just didn’t remember them correctly. Human memories are notoriously unreliable and faulty — even without bullets flying and lives on the line at the time of the event, and even without the sacred importance believers attached to every last detail in the years that followed.

Griffin also sometimes greatly overreaches his evidence. For example, he reveals at the end that Joseph and Hyrum’s sister Katharine had noted some hostility within the Quorum of the Twelve in Nauvoo. Fair enough. But from there he leaps to the conclusion that this means Taylor and Richards murdered Joseph and Hyrum. Um … what? There were plenty of reasons for a member of the Smith family to remark upon the strain present among Church leaders in Nauvoo — especially since Joseph’s death left a serious power vacuum, and the Smiths did not want Brigham Young to step into Joseph’s shoes.

After writing this review, I wondered if I was being too harsh. After all, this documentary is clearly a low-budget effort and a personal passion for the filmmaker, rather than a professional treatment. But then I went to the film’s Facebook page and found this post from yesterday:

A “Who Killed Joseph Smith?” Facebook post from Thursday, January 20, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/whokilledjosephsmith.

So what we seem to have here is that a friend speculates aloud about a far-fetched possibility for why Willard was still wearing his coat, and then suddenly Griffin says “whoa” and considers it “a very interesting detail” to add to his history.

Ironically, this is exactly what Griffin cautions his viewers not to do. “If you want to prove a certain narrative, then you’ll only see the evidence that proves that certain narrative,” he says near the end of this interminable documentary.

If only he had followed his own advice.

Religious founder Joseph Smith killed by mob - HISTORY

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mormon-leader-killed-by-mob

1844 June 27 Religious founder Joseph Smith killed by mob Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more commonly known as Mormonism), is murdered...

Why was Joseph Smith Murdered? | Book of Mormon Central

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/why-was-joseph-smith...

They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o’clock p.m., by an armed mob—painted black—of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly,

Instagram ‘smash and grab’ impostors peddle fake psychic and tarot readings

Metaphysical practitioners are becoming increasingly frustrated with social media outlets as impersonators thrive off their accounts.

December 20, 2021

Heather Greene

Fake accounts in the online tarot community are called out in posts by @ScammerAlertPage on Instagram. Screengrab

(RNS) — Mat Auryn had been hearing for months from clients who said they had responded to Instagram offers for psychic readings, paid for them and received nothing. Others said they were getting preemptory readings that made no sense.

At first the complaints came once every couple of months, then increased to weekly, and eventually to four to five times a month, Auryn told Religion News Service.

The biggest clue that his clients were being scammed, however, is that Auryn, an author, blogger and witch who lives in Northern California, does not offer psychic readings, much less on the internet.

He is one of a number of high-profile metaphysical practitioners who is becoming increasingly frustrated with social media outlets as impersonators thrive off their accounts.

Besides hurting his followers who look to his readings for introspection and solace, “it damages my reputation and my sales,” Auryn said.

Theresa Reed. Photo by Jessica Kaminski

Theresa Reed, best known online as The Tarot Lady, said that she discovers at least one new copycat account daily, predominantly on Instagram. Like Auryn, Reed doesn’t give readings online.

Scammers nonetheless typically clone her account by copying its content, her bio and photo and starting a new one, altering the account name slightly: @TheTarotLady instead of @The_TarotLady, for instance.

To accumulate followers, “the impersonators work with bot accounts,” Reed said. Then, they reach out to her own followers via messaging and offer a reading for cash. “The messages use lingo I would never use, like ‘Dear Beloved, I get energy from your picture …’ or ‘Thank you, love,’” she said.

The scammer typically deletes the account within a few days of receiving money. It is a “smash and grab” setup, said Reed.

Tarot readers, witches, mediums and psychics, including some who don’t offer services online, all told a similar story.

Auryn, who recently published a blog post to help clients spot “spiritual Impersonators,” said readers already have a “stigma of being frauds,” he said. “Things like this are so frustrating because they perpetuate this idea.”

Warranted or not, metaphysical services have long been connected to fraudulent activity, and many municipalities across the country still carry often antiquated legal codes on their books prohibiting fraudulent ‘fortune telling’ services outright, although they are often challenged under religious freedom laws.

A woman displays tarot cards. Photo by Petr Sidorov/Unsplash/Creative Commons

There are also reportedly online commerce sites that won’t do business with readers, whose work is classified as “high risk.”

“There have always been rogues in our industry, as with any industry,” said Reed. The social media scammers are just an online manifestation.

John Edward, a psychic medium and creator of the popular television show “Crossing Over,” has been plagued with online impersonators “for years,” he said. “We block all the time.”

To help cut down on scams, Edward took his accounts private.

“I had no choice,” he said. “If I can protect the energy of my clients then I will. Even if it’s at the deficit of an account growing.”

Other metaphysical practitioners have left social media platforms entirely. Paige Vanderbeck, host of the Fat Feminist Witch podcast, left a note on her Instagram page that reads “The Fat Feminist Witch Podcast is no longer on Instagram. Beware of Scammers.”

Many practitioners are trying to get their social media accounts “verified” — a designation that indicates that Instagram, Facebook or Twitter has identified the person behind the account to be who they say they are. The status, however, is not easily won.

Mat Auryn. Photo via Audible

“The requirements for verification on Instagram,” Auryn said, “are not realistic for many in our community,” since it requires a certain level of visibility in mainstream media, according to experts he’s talked to. Occult practitioners “are not going to get mainstream press like those within megachurches,” he said.

Neither Facebook nor Instagram responded to a request for comment.

Edward, who is verified, still struggles regularly with scammers, which suggests that the designation doesn’t necessarily curb scams.

Reed, though requesting multiple times to be verified by Instagram, has repeatedly appealed to Instagram to block impostors. Reporting through the app itself is the fastest route, she said, but only if the scammers haven’t blocked her before she can do it. In that case, she goes through the website, reporting copyright infringement for use of her photo.

“Sometimes (Instagram) removes the account,” she said. Sometimes it only removes her photo.

Her account was recently shut down during a livestream due to “suspicious activity,” she said, for filing “too many reports.”

The experience is similar on the other social media platforms.

Some practitioners have blocked entire regions after discovering scammers come from a particular part of the world, though this option is not available on all platforms.

Others are not waiting for Instagram.

Tarot reader Zai Nova was recently chosen by a group of 20 readers to create and run a collective Scammer Alert Page, an Instagram account warning people of fraudulent metaphysical accounts. “I started the Scammer Alert Page in an attempt to bring awareness to the scammers in the Tarot Community,” she said.

Fake accounts in the online tarot community are called out in a post by @scammeralertpage on Instagram. Screengrab

None of the practitioners have taken the problem off the internet and filed formal legal complaints. Healer Tess Whitehurst said she wouldn’t know where to begin, as most scammers are unidentifiable and are reportedly operating from outside the country.

As with so much of online culture, social media has proved to be a double-edged sword, expanding metaphysical practitioners’ reach while challenging the legitimacy of their craft.

“So many people have worked very hard to help clients and educate the public,” Reed said. “It feels like this is undoing everything we’ve worked for.”

Ahead of the Trend

The deadly dogmatism of Christian nationalism

Christian nationalism is the leading predictor that white Americans are more dogmatic.

People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

January 28, 2022

Samuel L. Perry

Shar

(RNS) — As the nation remembered the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 earlier this month, a deluge of articles highlighted the role of white Christian nationalism and its ongoing threat to democracy. This was absolutely necessary. Yet, white Christian nationalism has been tied to an even greater crisis over the past year, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread reluctance to get vaccinated.

Studies show that Americans who espouse Christian nationalist ideology are more likely to refuse vaccination, despite extensive evidence that the vaccines are safe and effective.

Why is Christian nationalism connected with both the Capitol riots and vaccine refusal?

One reason is that Christian nationalism is powerfully linked with white Americans affirming baseless conspiracies, including QAnon myths, antisemitic tropes, rampant voter fraud, Trump’s “Big Lie” and general vaccine misinformation. Another, no doubt, is that such Americans trust right-wing television, websites and radio for their news.

But there is something more fundamental going on — something that makes these Americans vulnerable to conspiracy theories and bad information. Multiple data points show such Americans have a greater tendency toward dogmatism — the tendency to insist one’s beliefs are true without regard for counter-evidence.

In a recent study, my co-authors and I tested how Americans who affirm Christian nationalist ideology scored on a quiz of scientific facts. Americans scoring higher on Christian nationalism didn’t score lower on science questions that asked about things like lasers, genes, molecules or viruses. But Christian nationalism was the strongest predictor that they would score lower on questions about religiously contested scientific facts such as the Big Bang or natural selection.

Christian nationalism, in other words, didn’t necessarily coincide with ignorance. Rather, it reflected a powerful dogmatism that rejected any facts that were inconsistent with cherished narratives.

In another co-authored study, we tested whether Christian nationalism predicted how Americans scored on a quiz about religion in American political history. Unsurprisingly, we found white Americans who scored higher on Christian nationalism criteria also held incorrect views about things like whether the Supreme Court actually banned people from praying in schools (no) or whether the First Amendment allows Congress to privilege Christianity (no).

But again, the scoring patterns were revealing. Not only were white Christian nationalists more likely to pick incorrect answers that stressed the supremacy and victimization of Christianity, they were also less likely to pick “don’t know” responses.

Not only were they wrong; they were confidently wrong — dogmatically wrong.

We observed this dogmatic tendency in a more direct way in a February 2021 survey in which psychologist Josh Grubbs and I asked Americans how much they agreed with six statements affirming that they could be wrong and would be willing to change their minds when confronted with new evidence.

I question my own opinions, positions, and viewpoints because they could be wrong.
I reconsider my opinions when presented with new evidence.
I recognize the value in opinions that are different from my own.
I accept that my beliefs and attitudes may be wrong.
In the face of conflicting evidence, I am open to changing my opinions.
I like finding out new information that differs from what I already think is true.

Americans who disagreed with these statements would be considered more dogmatic. We added up the questions to create a scale from 1 to 24, with higher scores indicating greater dogmatism.

Even after we account for political conservatism, religious commitment and other social characteristics, we find Christian nationalism is the leading predictor that white Americans are more dogmatic. That is to say, embracing the view that America has been and should always be distinctly “Christian” is the leading indicator that white Americans are unwilling to consider the possibility that they could be wrong, that they are unwilling to change their views even in the face of conflicting evidence (see Figure).

Courtesy graphic

Christian nationalism, then, correlates with dogmatism. But does one cause the other? And if so, which causes which?

Perhaps some of both. In fact, both nationalist feeling and dogmatic belief are likely influenced by a combination of personality and a cultural context that stresses holding onto certain beliefs “by faith” regardless of evidence. Our current levels of polarization are only worsening the problem. Both white Christian nationalism and the intense dogmatism that accompanies it are amplified by in-group and out-group dynamics.

White Christian nationalism ebbs and flows throughout American history as dominant majorities perceive threats to their cultural and political status. Experimental research affirms that white Christians who are exposed to messages about their impending minority status respond with greater Christian nationalism and xenophobia. And perceptions of past, present and future victimization already dominate white Christian nationalist narratives.

The same seems to be true of dogmatic commitment to misinformation. Committed partisans are guided by “motivated reasoning” to seek out and believe factually incorrect information about their political opponents, even when they are offered financial incentives for gathering correct information. The psychic rewards of tribal psychology and confirmation bias supersede financial gain.

This is obviously a tremendous challenge. But we are not powerless. All of us can take personal responsibility for toning down rhetoric, paying for responsible journalism, reposting only accurate information and reporting fake news.

But beyond this, several studies now confirm that deplatforming bad actors is actually effective. When politicians or provocateurs who repeatedly sow hatred and misinformation online are banned from mainstream social media platforms, their reach isn’t completely eliminated. But it is constrained.

A sizable minority of white Americans embrace the view that America has been and should always be for “Christians like us.” Even as their numbers diminish in the general population, bad actors are working to isolate and radicalize these Americans toward political goals. Along with striving to persuade our fellow citizens who are being manipulated, sidelining those bad actors wherever possible should be our top priority.

(Samuel L. Perry is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of two books on Christian nationalism, including the award-winning “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” (with Andrew L. Whitehead) and the forthcoming “The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy,” with Philip Gorski. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of ARDA or Religion News Service.)

Ahead of the Trend is a collaborative effort between Religion News Service and the Association of Religion Data Archives made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. See other Ahead of the Trend articles here.

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