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hekataiosamerikos

Renee Good is the New Hypatia

It was March, 415 CE. Egypt, once the crown jewel of learning, the arts, and science, was a waning culture. Strife and dissent were everywhere.

This did not happen overnight. Egypt had become part of the seemingly ever-expanding Roman Empire some time ago. Although this had taken place by force, Egypt prospered for a long time under Roman rule. But, as the rest of the Roman Empire gradually moved toward decline, so had Egypt.

The divisions in Egypt were more acute than in most other regions of the Empire. Jews and Christians constantly bickered over just about any little thing, intentionally provoking each other, causing riots in the streets and damage to ancient structures everywhere.

Hypatia herself was of Greek ancestry, just as those who still ruled were. This had been the case since the time of Alexander the Great. She was a follower of the philosophy we call “Neoplatonism”. What little survives of her writings indicates that she held no particularly strong religious views (although she was a Pagan) other than that espoused by her philosophy. And she was neither Christian nor Jewish religiously, so that both religious groups held her in suspicion. Because she delved into mathematics and the sciences, especially astronomy, she was seen by many as being a witch. For many in that day in time, there was really no difference between astronomy and astrology. That she also taught these subjects to others made her even more of a target of contempt among those who could not understand any of it.

This is not to say that all Christians and Jews hated her or saw her as suspect. She had such students, who apparently loved her. And even prominent leaders in her city of Alexandria accepted her.

But this was not to continue. A series of popular uprisings and massacres somehow caused Hypatia to become the focus of those with hatred in their hearts. Perhaps it was partly because she would lecture openly in the streets at times, drawing crowds.

Regardless of the circumstances, on a sad day in March of 415, a mob of Christian zealots came upon her carriage as she was on her way home, and drug her from it. Either she got away and ran into a building, or they drug her into it – the sources are not certain. The building had formerly been a Pagan temple, since converted to a Christian Church. There, in front of the Christian altar, they stripped her and cut her flesh with seashells! She was dismembered by the mob, taken outside of the city walls, and burned along with as many of her writings as the mob could get ahold of!

Martyrs often become symbols for future generations. Hypatia did this in her death, just as others had done before her. Many Neoplatonists afterward saw her as a symbol of opposition to Christianity. During the Enlightenment she became a symbol of opposition to Catholicism. But, of course, she was also co-opted by Christians too, as in so many other cases, as part of the basis for the legend of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

It still took a few hundred years for the Roman Empire to completely decline and fall. But the trajectory never improved in the meantime. As they say, it was “all downhill” from here. Today, we in the USA face a stark reality that many refuse to acknowledge. We are an empire in decline. All of the signs are there. The leadership of this country claim that they are making us “great again”. They seem set upon expansion, like the ancient empires. But expansion is not really equivalent to greatness. Not while society is falling apart within. Not while military-style thugs function in a rampant manner in our streets as the mobs did in ancient Alexandria, killing innocent people. Not while our government will openly – immediately – vilify the victim of such military-style mobs in an effort to save face. Not while educational institutions are threatened in every possible way because they don’t teach subjects in a Christian enough manner. Not while the news media is forced to become little more than subservient to the regime!

When a person is murdered by a mob in the name of the regime and its objectives, it is a turning-point. That person becomes a martyr for a greater cause whether the regime likes it or not.

Renee Good is the new Hypatia.

hekataiosamerikos

Christian Extremism on Full Display in the US: “Wag the Dog”

Anyone who has paid attention, studied, and/or at least read my latest book, “Because They LIE” (pseudonym Celsus Porphyry) should have seen just about everything that is currently taking place in our nation coming long before it got here. It would be fruitless to go into detail about every situation, from certain segments of law enforcement acting in potentially illegal ways, arresting those who have committed no infraction whatsoever other than simply being here from another country, or arrests of even political figures simply conducting oversight or asking uncomfortable questions – something right out of Stalin’s playbook. It may not be long until we witness political opponents to the new American regime “disappearing” just the way they still do in Russia and the way many undocumented immigrants are in this nation today. If you think that statement is alarmist, I think you need to consider things a little more deeply. I have read a lot of history, and this is how it begins. We have entered the era of Christian fascism in America, something that I repeatedly warned about.

Perhaps the most obvious incident related to this, however, is not any of those things mentioned above. No, instead it was an incident that took place barely over a week ago which, it would seem, the news media has generally already forgotten about and moved on from. This incident, in which Vance Boelter allegedly killed one important Minnesota political figure along with her husband, and wounded two others, is actually a prime example of what I have warned about for some time. Not only did Boelter allegedly perpetrate these heinous acts, but allegedly planned even more, having a supposed list of other targets, all Democrats who, apparently in his mind, stood as “pro-abortion”. And this, in a nutshell, is exactly the problem – a person who can hate abortion so much that he is willing (again, allegedly in this case) to murder those he sees as supporting it. Some would have a difficult time rationalizing how murder can be a remedy for supporting abortion rights. But I submit, this is not difficult for those like Boelter.

You see, people of this sort are what we might generally term, “religious extremists”. They fully believe that they have some God-given right to rule over everyone else to keep them in-line religiously, socially, and politically. It’s really the standard Christian playbook from as far back as Constantine. But few know this simply because they have not studied that part of history. This is the reason that many of this persuasion can refer to President Trump as a “Cyrus ruler”. And why they can also refer to former Senator Hillary Clinton as a “Jezebel”. Not to mention those who regularly insist that everyone should prepare for Armageddon! Yes, preppers are included in all of this too.

Most people who might hear their preaching and rhetoric would simply dismiss these people as at least sort of “unhinged” and pay them no further mind. The problem, however, is with those who do actually listen to them and take in their pronouncements as “gospel”. Such are people like Vance Boelter.

Sadly, I am not making this up. His close associates have referred to him as an ardent Christian and Trump supporter. They have also referred to him as “anti-abortion”. They have stated that he recently returned from a mission trip to Africa and was changed somehow from that experience. But not just that. See, he also appears to have been part of a growing movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. This is a movement that I, in fact, referred to in my latest book, “Because they LIE”. The very reason I did this is because it is a danger to our democratic way of life. And he was a prepper.

Put even some of these things together into one person, not to mention all of them, and you have a domestic Christian terrorist. Put Christian extremism of this nature together with political discontent and the prepper movement, and the natural result is the type of incident that we witnessed when Vance Boelter allegedly committed the above-mentioned atrocities. But if anyone should think that this is some kind of aberration, they should consider the fact that it was only a couple of years ago when such extremists allegedly plotted to kidnap and torture Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for similar reasons. And we don’t yet know what was really in the mind of Trenton Abston, who allegedly attempted to kidnap Memphis Mayor Paul Young. But I submit that we may find out his thoughts were actually similar too.

Regardless, the basic similarity between all of these is political kidnappings and violence in the name of religion (except, perhaps, for the last one). And this is what the rhetoric of religious groups such as the New Apostolic Reformation movement can easily lead to. And what we are witnessing is the reality that home-grown terrorism is a much bigger problem than the Trump regime is willing to admit. The real truth is that our investigative forces do tend to catch foreign terrorist elements before they have a chance to strike. But those that are home-grown are obviously much more difficult to catch beforehand. We can see this just by recalling the multiple incidents that have taken place in this country this year alone.

Of course, extremism and violent behavior of this type is not relegated only to those who hate Democrats or hate abortion. We can also recall more than one attempt to assassinate Trump himself during the campaign, not to mention the veteran who blew himself, and a Tesla, up in front of Trump Tower earlier this year. But these latter incidents, heinous as they are, were clearly not motivated by any level of religious ideology. No, that is reserved only to the conservative-minded side. You know, the type of people who want the Ten Commandments plastered everywhere you look.

Vance Boelter is exactly the type of individual who has been created by domestic movements such as, but not limited to, the New Apostolic Reformation movement, and the very type of individual whom I have been warning about. But he is also exactly the type of individual that those on the other side of things – those who support such movements and who support Trump – do NOT want you to focus on or really even think about.

Remember back in the 1990s when then President Bill Clinton struck Somalia militarily? The conservatives were all up in arms about it, claiming that he only did that in order to take attention off of his political troubles. They insisted that Clinton had no other good reason for that military strike. And, thus, the phrase, “wag the dog” was coined – a method of distracting people from the real issue by causing another issue to emerge.

Frankly, militarily striking Iran was already in the Trump playbook. I doubt that anyone will easily forget the little tune, based on a song by the Beachboys, “Bomb, Bomb Iran” that the Trump campaign used from the very beginning. Please don’t try to tell me that they weren’t just waiting for the opportunity. But many did ask, “why now”? They asked, “what was the emergency if Iran didn’t yet have a nuclear weapon”? Some are still asking that, and rightly so.

I submit that this military operation was carried out at this particular time exactly in order to distract everyone from the fact that a home-grown religious extremist allegedly perpetrated as political assassination. They don’t want you to dwell too much on that. They want you to focus elsewhere, almost anywhere else. They don’t want people to recognize the fact that the person who allegedly perpetrated this horrible act is not only someone who ardently supported Trump, but who is just like so many others who also do for exactly one reason – religion.

Wag the dog.