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The USA in 2030 - what will fundies have done to us?


Daenerys

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In a generation, we have seen the entire fundy movement that we all love to snark on be 'born' and go through a whole generation. The first children to be raised under this system are now in their twenties, and starting families of their own. Simultaneously the country as a whole has experienced a swing towards conservatism, with rights concerning homosexuality, abortion and freedom of religion coming under serious attack.

Ideals and beliefs are certainly changing, but how do you guys think this will have affected the US (and hence the rest of the world) in thirty years' time? Will the entire movement have died and been replaced by fourth-wave feminism, gay marriage as the norm and abortion being available to all women? Or do you see it that by this time, fundies will have taken hold and we will see a complete lack of sex education, illegal abortion, fewer rights for women and general intolerance of homosexuality?

There are times when I wonder what kind of a world I will bring my children into...

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In a generation, we have seen the entire fundy movement that we all love to snark on be 'born' and go through a whole generation. The first children to be raised under this system are now in their twenties, and starting families of their own. Simultaneously the country as a whole has experienced a swing towards conservatism, with rights concerning homosexuality, abortion and freedom of religion coming under serious attack.

Ideals and beliefs are certainly changing, but how do you guys think this will have affected the US (and hence the rest of the world) in thirty years' time? Will the entire movement have died and been replaced by fourth-wave feminism, gay marriage as the norm and abortion being available to all women? Or do you see it that by this time, fundies will have taken hold and we will see a complete lack of sex education, illegal abortion, fewer rights for women and general intolerance of homosexuality?

There are times when I wonder what kind of a world I will bring my children into...

That's impossible to predict. I'm hoping people will swing back and knock the religious influence down. Church and state are to never meet, but Evangelicals are trying their damn hardest to push in. The fact that some of the crazy bills have passed their state houses does bother me. I never would have thought it would ever be an issues, but I was wrong and I never thought it'd pass, but it has. All I know is if someone like Santorum becomes President and any of the bills actually are made into law, I'm out of here. Canada is looking better these days (and I hate the cold). ;)

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I think that states may grow increasingly divided on these issues, with some areas allowing abortion and gay marriage and others vehemently opposing it. Eventually, of course, I hope that the supreme court declares all kinds of discrimination to be unlawful and that states will have to change their laws to reflect that.

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Whatever the world is like otherwise in the year 2030, there are going to be a hell of a lot of uneducated, mind fucked young adults walking around with no ability to support themselves or their families, only partially literate, full of falsified, altered facts about the past, present and future and so arrogant they won't even know how stupid they are.

The more ignorant the masses are, the easier they are to control.

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I'm not sure. There have always been religious revivals, some with lasting results, but not always. Conservatism isolates - when most Western countries are making progress with say, lgbtq rights, the US will seem very far behind. The cultural influence of the US has declined. I'm not sure how that could last 30 years. In any case, for every state restricting abortion rights, you've got a state bringing in equal marriage - and certainly the popularity of tv, film etc with distinctly non-fundie characters and themes means that what the public think is much more diverse than politicians on the right would want to believe.

And uh DairyFreeLife, Canada ain't so liberal anymore.

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I think that states may grow increasingly divided on these issues, with some areas allowing abortion and gay marriage and others vehemently opposing it. Eventually, of course, I hope that the supreme court declares all kinds of discrimination to be unlawful and that states will have to change their laws to reflect that.

I see a division happening if it keeps up. In the extreme, maybe another civil war on state's rights. Probably Texas wanting to be its own state, maybe some Plains states like OK and KS and other southern states following suit and joining. When they lose again and are forced to let women have claim to their reproduction again, they will be bitter over the loss of owning someone else. First people with darker skin tones and then women. 150 years later in the year 2180, some will still be bitter and wave sexist flags in the name of history and call the second civil war the War of Liberal Aggression.

And uh DairyFreeLife, Canada ain't so liberal anymore.

Okay then, maybe the UK. ;)

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I do not think that most Quiverfull children will follow their parents. Many of them will leave, and many more just drift away. For the few that remain, there will be tons of infighting over minor doctrinal disagreements, especially after their Patriarch dies and you end up with 10 power-hungry brothers (often with political aspirations) in one small town. The movement will also lose a lot of influence when Bill Gothard dies. I guess 2030 isn't too far away, but I think Gothard is already in his 70s and he won't be around forever.

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I see a division happening if it keeps up. In the extreme, maybe another civil war on state's rights. Probably Texas wanting to be its own state, maybe some Plains states like OK and KS and other southern states following suit and joining. When they lose again and are forced to let women have claim to their reproduction again, they will be bitter over the loss of owning someone else. First people with darker skin tones and then women. 150 years later in the year 2180, some will still be bitter and wave sexist flags in the name of history and call the second civil war the War of Liberal Aggression.

Okay then, maybe the UK. ;)

That's pretty much how I see it. Personally I wouldn't mind a split. Go ahead and form your own country, and when everything goes to shit, you can sit in it.

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^This. Totally.

I've always thought that America's name is ironic considering it's about as united as Israel, just with less blowing up people and more blowing up human rights.

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The religious right was marginalized for years because it did not have a great deal of political power. Now they are beginning to attain more. If we consider what is going on in state houses all over the country, with all of the attacks on women, minorities, organized labor, and the LBGT community, there is no doubt they are flexing their political muscle now that they actually have some.

Now is the time to strike back. If we let these extremist elected officials put down roots in the governorships and state houses, we will get exactly the government we deserve. We must readjust and vote reasonable republicans and democrats into these offices and kick these teavengelicals out on their keisters.

The problem with republicans is that the moderate republican has become an endangered species, and anyone who doesn't align themselves with the far right extreme of the party is accused of being a RINO, so reasonable republican has become an oxymoron in many parts of the country.

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I'm torn about this. I fear for our future, but I know I tend to be a "glass is half empty" person. Some people I speak to think that the rise in extremism with ultimately galvanize people with more moderate values, and we will see a swing back to sanity. I am not so sure.

Most studies I've seen suggest that the population of red states is going to explode in the next 15-25 years, while the population of blue states will grow much more slowly. I don't want to be simplistic and equate blue/liberal with good things and red/conservative with bad, but I think we know that a lot of red states are red due to evangelical populations, and those are the part of the red demographic that is likely to explode. I think moderates (on both sides) are going to be out-numbered.

I am prepared to move to Canada, and I mean that in all seriousness. My husband is working on his Phd, but he's doing it part time, so it will be another 4 years or so. We are going to re-evaluate at that time, and he will look for jobs at Canadian universities, if we decide that is necessary.

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I think that in terms of politics, their influence will be non-existent. I think they know this and that is why all these polciies that they are trying to make into law reek of desperation. They know that this will be their last chance to do it. 70 percent of young adults are in favor of gay marriage. Even a slight majority of young evangelicals support gay marriage.

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I'm torn about this. I fear for our future, but I know I tend to be a "glass is half empty" person. Some people I speak to think that the rise in extremism with ultimately galvanize people with more moderate values, and we will see a swing back to sanity. I am not so sure.

Most studies I've seen suggest that the population of red states is going to explode in the next 15-25 years, while the population of blue states will grow much more slowly. I don't want to be simplistic and equate blue/liberal with good things and red/conservative with bad, but I think we know that a lot of red states are red due to evangelical populations, and those are the part of the red demographic that is likely to explode. I think moderates (on both sides) are going to be out-numbered.

I am prepared to move to Canada, and I mean that in all seriousness. My husband is working on his Phd, but he's doing it part time, so it will be another 4 years or so. We are going to re-evaluate at that time, and he will look for jobs at Canadian universities, if we decide that is necessary.

A lot of the population expolosion in red states has to do with people from blue states moving there. And those people are bringing those politics with them. They are not leaving more progressive views behind them. That's why you are seeing more and more purple areas showing up on the electoral map.

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That's pretty much how I see it. Personally I wouldn't mind a split. Go ahead and form your own country, and when everything goes to shit, you can sit in it.

I was mostly joking, but if they do split and a civil war does happen, I get dibs on calling it. ;) I'm not too worried. I'mnot sure that will happen. TX has talked for years about breaking away, but hasn't done it yet. Of course, I've assumed lots of things would never happen and they are all over again.

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I think lack of education will keep them poor and marginalized. you can't earn much on a dugger education.

True, but doesn't PHC function entirely on taking right-wing, home-educated young fundies and turning them into politicians, lawmakers or knowledgeable wives of such men? They have plenty of links to the White House and the higher echelons of the GOP so I wouldn't write them off...

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True, but doesn't PHC function entirely on taking right-wing, home-educated young fundies and turning them into politicians, lawmakers or knowledgeable wives of such men? They have plenty of links to the White House and the higher echelons of the GOP so I wouldn't write them off...

Exactly. There are plenty of them who are educated enough. . .

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Well, the evangelics don't have to make anything of themselves to vote for a-holes like Santorum. If a charismatic right wing nut-bar becomes president and packs the Supreme Court with a few more conservatives, then a right-wing Congress could go hog wild. The stuff that comes out of Santorum's mouth should be causing an uproar, but people are remarkably tolerant of it, in general.

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The Republican party sold their soul to the religious fundies around 1978 as a way to take back the South from Democratic control. I believe that what we're seeing (the ultraconservative rumblings of Santorum) will be their Waterloo and will bring the party down. It will come back again (as it did after Watergate), but it will return to its fiscal, instead of moral, conservative roots, leaving the fundies with no political clout. These people are hugely in the minority...it's just that they are united behind two big issues: pro-life and anti-gay. Young people are less concerned about abortion and gay marriage than older ones; I think that, a generation from now, bias on the basis of sexual orientation will be as foreign to us as bias on the basis of race is today.

The very worst thing that threatens this country is political punditry, on TV, podcasts and Internet, as entertainment. This is causing the divisiness that truly frightens me. I remember a time when network news was sacrosanct, and while you might differ from your neighbor about politics, you never argued about what the facts were. The facts were as they were stated. Now we can't even agree on them.

No, the fundies don't worry me. We have much bigger issues to be concerned about.

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It's been said that change happens one funeral at a time. I think the younger generation is more liberal and less religious, and that is the direction the country will move in. I think eventually there might even be a backlash against the religious right.

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It's been said that change happens one funeral at a time. I think the younger generation is more liberal and less religious, and that is the direction the country will move in. I think eventually there might even be a backlash against the religious right.

I'm not so sure on that. I know plenty of people my age who buy into the whole Creationism should be taught in equal with Evolution and who think abortion is wrong and want to fight it. I grew up in the Bible Belt though. Before it was crazy talk, but now such things are actually going into law. That has to be scary part of it all. People can say whatever crazy stuff they want, but when they can actually pass bills, it's beyond crazy talk. Don't underestimate the amount of young Evangelicals who want power in politics.

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Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic. I just don't see this sort of extremism as sustainable. Other posters have mentioned the damage fundies are doing to themselves never mind the rest of society. They are isolated and for the most part poorly educated. Yes, they are having some successes at present, but I think there's already a backlash building.

More and more people are unaffiliated with any religion. I recently saw 32% unaffiliated - apologies, can't remember where I read it. Unaffiliated doesn't necessarily mean atheist - could be spiritual but not religious. The point is the non-religious demographic is growing rapidly.

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The religious right was marginalized for years because it did not have a great deal of political power. Now they are beginning to attain more. If we consider what is going on in state houses all over the country, with all of the attacks on women, minorities, organized labor, and the LBGT community, there is no doubt they are flexing their political muscle now that they actually have some.

Now is the time to strike back. If we let these extremist elected officials put down roots in the governorships and state houses, we will get exactly the government we deserve. We must readjust and vote reasonable republicans and democrats into these offices and kick these teavengelicals out on their keisters.

The problem with republicans is that the moderate republican has become an endangered species, and anyone who doesn't align themselves with the far right extreme of the party is accused of being a RINO, so reasonable republican has become an oxymoron in many parts of the country.

I actually make a point of trying to identify and vote for moderate politicians. You are right, they are hard to find. Our district is very fortunate to be represented by a moderate republican in the house.

The teapartiers are awful - a bunch of do-nothings.

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