Just wondering: do Americans actually realize that the shittiest people in their country are actively spreading their ideas across the world? And I’m not just talking about the political interference or the mega-corporations. I’m talking lobbyists, articles, bloggers, think tanks, street missionaries.
Do y’all even realize there are Americans in the Netherlands who came here in groups specifically to do ‘mission work’ against abortion? And American-funded groups that vilify autism and tell people not to vaccinate their kids?
A lot of Dutch people don’t notice that they’re here either because these groups strategically underplay their American roots but they’re here and when a country that previously didn’t have an anti-vax movement suddenly needs to deal with that shit… yeah.. that happened.
And that’s just the Netherlands, far more money and energy goes into ‘missionary’ work in countries recovering from a history of colonization, countries recovering from wars and disasters, countries with a weakened education system. Republican Americans rush to those places to spread conservative Christianity with all the bigotry, anti-science and absolutely ridiculous politics that go with it.
Like, you should probably be aware of this shit, ‘cause it leaves a smell.
A lot of the people spreading transphobic narratives in the uk currently have connections to US evangelical groups
Yup, there’s been a sharp rise in groups that present themselves as British TERFs but seem to be funded by American conservatives. As highlighter in this set of tweets: http://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/178973728438/tranarchist-how-did-a-grassroots-feminist
Like those piece of shit evangelicals who went to those African countries with the deliberate intention of spreading homophobia and their abstinence only shit, and in the process worsened an already-severe HIV and AIDS crisis…
trust me, we realize but there’s not much we can do to fight against it. we can protest but short of the church like, getting shut down, we just kinda gotta watch in horror.
Actually, if you live around these people and as a result you happen to know which groups and individuals are going where, that information is valuable.
It would be good if information about missionary work was mapped, especially when it is trying to hide itself. In quite a few cases missionaries present themselves as locals or work behind the scenes training locals.
Revealing the missionaries behind the facade can be a tool of resistance.
Honestly you’re right, but you also need to take a count of how many churches we have in our country with an active community of more than twenty. The number of churches to count becomes absolutely absurd, not to mention, there are many “missionaries” who, before leaving, don’t actually know what they are going to be doing. Almost all are told they are going to third world countries to basically do charity work for an established church of their faith in the area (wonder how those got there). I’ve only heard of one coming back and turning back on that story saying they were sent somewhere first world almost strictly to prostelitize.
Yes it’s fucky, but this is one of those times where the sheer absurd size of our country plays against our ability to manage information properly
Well, all you’d need was a few people willing to set up something like a ‘report missionary activity’ website where people can input information, and a lot of people willing to contribute the bits and pieces they hear about. It’d be a significant amount of work but I wouldn’t call it impossible. I can still see a lot of ‘but’ and ‘ifs’ and I’m not expecting anyone here to actualy do it, I’m just saying that this kind of stuff is possible.
QueerAnarchism 