Thursday, December 20, 2018

Bitter Clingers

People cling to their guns and religion because they know that those are among the first things that dictators try to get rid of. (Venezuela and China are only individual examples.)

I give tyrants credit for knowing their business. They don't come to power by accident. They know where the threats against them lie.

6 comments:

james said...

Unlike tyrants in fiction

Korora said...

"I'm your church now. You understand -- you've got to do what I say!" -- Simon Legree, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

A good discussion of the factors leading to increased persecution of Christians in China. Avi's wife
https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/3-major-factors-crackdown-church-china/

james said...

Grim. I wonder what entices leaders to try to become god-kings. Even Henry VIII only wanted to be pope.

Korora said...

To reign in Hell rather than serve in Heaven?

Korora said...

It occurred to me we ought to pray for Xi's redemption. After all, the prayer would be to a God who can easily ram a camel through a needle's eye without damaging either.

BTW, a way to remember his surname is that it's a rising-tone version of "shchi", Russian cabbage soup (complete with the same softer version of "sh" at the beginning).