@johnballenger.bsky.social
e(x)vangelical minister in a protest/ing/ant tradition; invested in honesty, truth and religious liberty; intrigued by careful thoughtfulness and the personal experience of the holy; inspired by creativity, wonder, and love
Gaslighting 101. Talk efficiency, cost-cutting, and living within our means. Start by cutting money to the most vulnerable, to research, and the arts. Keep tax cuts for the obscene wealthy (oh, did I forget to turn an adjective into an adverb?) at multiples of what you squeeze from other programs.
February 23, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Gaslighting 101. Talk efficiency, cost-cutting, and living within our means. Start by cutting money to the most vulnerable, to research, and the arts. Keep tax cuts for the obscene wealthy (oh, did I forget to turn an adjective into an adverb?) at multiples of what you squeeze from other programs.
Theory 101. You will never gain the respect or trust of artists. Some, maybe. But not the good—certainly not the great ones. So they’re the ones whose respect you will most want. Not happening. They see what is. You’ll have better luck with preachers who, like you, see what they want that isn’t.
February 22, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Theory 101. You will never gain the respect or trust of artists. Some, maybe. But not the good—certainly not the great ones. So they’re the ones whose respect you will most want. Not happening. They see what is. You’ll have better luck with preachers who, like you, see what they want that isn’t.
Tactics 101. Overwhelm people with nonsense and garbage. There are always those who take volume, persistence, and apparent conviction as truth. So attach yourself as a fire hydrant to a sewage line and let it spew. You don’t really believe any of your garbage, do you? Oh. Well. Just keep it coming.
February 21, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Tactics 101. Overwhelm people with nonsense and garbage. There are always those who take volume, persistence, and apparent conviction as truth. So attach yourself as a fire hydrant to a sewage line and let it spew. You don’t really believe any of your garbage, do you? Oh. Well. Just keep it coming.
Gaslighting 101.
Name the elected leader a dictator, and the dictator a good leader. Declare democracy’s bureaucracy anti-democratic, and profiteering democracy’s principles reclaimed. Claim competency, brilliance, commitment, integrity, and faithfulness. Undermine the reliability of truth.
Name the elected leader a dictator, and the dictator a good leader. Declare democracy’s bureaucracy anti-democratic, and profiteering democracy’s principles reclaimed. Claim competency, brilliance, commitment, integrity, and faithfulness. Undermine the reliability of truth.
February 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Gaslighting 101.
Name the elected leader a dictator, and the dictator a good leader. Declare democracy’s bureaucracy anti-democratic, and profiteering democracy’s principles reclaimed. Claim competency, brilliance, commitment, integrity, and faithfulness. Undermine the reliability of truth.
Name the elected leader a dictator, and the dictator a good leader. Declare democracy’s bureaucracy anti-democratic, and profiteering democracy’s principles reclaimed. Claim competency, brilliance, commitment, integrity, and faithfulness. Undermine the reliability of truth.
Theory 101.
Lean into your fear about anyone who does not check the same boxes as you (male, white, cis, straight, english-speaking [sort of]). Lean into that fear expressed as anger, rejection, condemnation. You’re obviously not comfortable with yourself. Deny the possibility of anyone different.
Lean into your fear about anyone who does not check the same boxes as you (male, white, cis, straight, english-speaking [sort of]). Lean into that fear expressed as anger, rejection, condemnation. You’re obviously not comfortable with yourself. Deny the possibility of anyone different.
February 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Theory 101.
Lean into your fear about anyone who does not check the same boxes as you (male, white, cis, straight, english-speaking [sort of]). Lean into that fear expressed as anger, rejection, condemnation. You’re obviously not comfortable with yourself. Deny the possibility of anyone different.
Lean into your fear about anyone who does not check the same boxes as you (male, white, cis, straight, english-speaking [sort of]). Lean into that fear expressed as anger, rejection, condemnation. You’re obviously not comfortable with yourself. Deny the possibility of anyone different.
Tactics 101
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” “Long live the King!” “I speak for what is the law.” Y’all literally fought a war to create and become a nation in which such posts are completely untrue and totally inappropriate. Way to undo identity!
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” “Long live the King!” “I speak for what is the law.” Y’all literally fought a war to create and become a nation in which such posts are completely untrue and totally inappropriate. Way to undo identity!
February 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Tactics 101
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” “Long live the King!” “I speak for what is the law.” Y’all literally fought a war to create and become a nation in which such posts are completely untrue and totally inappropriate. Way to undo identity!
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” “Long live the King!” “I speak for what is the law.” Y’all literally fought a war to create and become a nation in which such posts are completely untrue and totally inappropriate. Way to undo identity!
Gaslighting 101.
Tell the victims of war, they started the war. Ignore evidence to the contrary. Tell the victims to give in to their aggressor/oppressor. Validate the aggressor/oppressor (thereby validating aggression, oppression, injustice, violence). Exclude victims from talks about their future.
Tell the victims of war, they started the war. Ignore evidence to the contrary. Tell the victims to give in to their aggressor/oppressor. Validate the aggressor/oppressor (thereby validating aggression, oppression, injustice, violence). Exclude victims from talks about their future.
February 20, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Gaslighting 101.
Tell the victims of war, they started the war. Ignore evidence to the contrary. Tell the victims to give in to their aggressor/oppressor. Validate the aggressor/oppressor (thereby validating aggression, oppression, injustice, violence). Exclude victims from talks about their future.
Tell the victims of war, they started the war. Ignore evidence to the contrary. Tell the victims to give in to their aggressor/oppressor. Validate the aggressor/oppressor (thereby validating aggression, oppression, injustice, violence). Exclude victims from talks about their future.
Theory 101. Invert the ravings of elitist academician Timothy Snyder and keep promoting freedom “from” instead of freedom “to” or “for." All freedom “from” requires of anyone is loud (ideally self-righteous) outrage—and no real commitment. So many will love that—drawn to loud, angry nothingness.
February 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Theory 101. Invert the ravings of elitist academician Timothy Snyder and keep promoting freedom “from” instead of freedom “to” or “for." All freedom “from” requires of anyone is loud (ideally self-righteous) outrage—and no real commitment. So many will love that—drawn to loud, angry nothingness.
Tactics 101. Call people derogatory names. Mock (the more cruelly and crassly the better.) Blame vociferously. Appeal to immaturity. Everyone knows its appeal—even those that resist it. And some won’t resist it. And the more who don’t, the more who won’t. Undermine maturity. You’re so good at it.
February 18, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Tactics 101. Call people derogatory names. Mock (the more cruelly and crassly the better.) Blame vociferously. Appeal to immaturity. Everyone knows its appeal—even those that resist it. And some won’t resist it. And the more who don’t, the more who won’t. Undermine maturity. You’re so good at it.
Gaslighting 101. You wonderfully odious, rapacious, avaricious tool—offering to help a country in its fight to protect its citizens and its democracy in exchange for giving up its land to one tyrant and its mineral rights to another. The greed you model in the name of cost effectiveness is superb.
February 17, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Gaslighting 101. You wonderfully odious, rapacious, avaricious tool—offering to help a country in its fight to protect its citizens and its democracy in exchange for giving up its land to one tyrant and its mineral rights to another. The greed you model in the name of cost effectiveness is superb.
Theory 101. That unholy collection called the Bible was inspired precisely to keep people from becoming like you—to remind them of the value and priority of love, to invest them in justice, community, respect, responsibility. To have people support you in the name of the Incarnate Fool … delicious!
February 16, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Theory 101. That unholy collection called the Bible was inspired precisely to keep people from becoming like you—to remind them of the value and priority of love, to invest them in justice, community, respect, responsibility. To have people support you in the name of the Incarnate Fool … delicious!
Reposted
This is probably the most accurate take.
February 15, 2025 at 11:46 PM
This is probably the most accurate take.
Tactics 101. Elevate church leaders who don’t trust the Self-Righteousness and so believe in control, imposing on others, a privatized faith totally unconnected to “the fruit of someone’s living,” and blessed prosperity. I mean if you can pervert the Above and the followers (Great Glory Below!).
February 15, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Tactics 101. Elevate church leaders who don’t trust the Self-Righteousness and so believe in control, imposing on others, a privatized faith totally unconnected to “the fruit of someone’s living,” and blessed prosperity. I mean if you can pervert the Above and the followers (Great Glory Below!).
Gaslighting 101. Use your mouth at the Pentagon to go after the general you despise for resisting you. Go after FBI agents who investigated you and lawyers who worked against you—Attorney Generals, Inspector Generals, governors you don’t like. In each case accuse others of weaponizing government.
February 14, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Gaslighting 101. Use your mouth at the Pentagon to go after the general you despise for resisting you. Go after FBI agents who investigated you and lawyers who worked against you—Attorney Generals, Inspector Generals, governors you don’t like. In each case accuse others of weaponizing government.
Theory 101. It is good for you for everything to be bad. That way something else has to be good. So even if (especially if) it’s good, name it awful. Promise an alternative. That way some will begin to want an alternative and are primed to accept the truly awful as alternative to the named awful.
February 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Theory 101. It is good for you for everything to be bad. That way something else has to be good. So even if (especially if) it’s good, name it awful. Promise an alternative. That way some will begin to want an alternative and are primed to accept the truly awful as alternative to the named awful.
Tactics 101. Repeat after me: “God is in control. God imposes God’s will on reality. Go and do likewise.” That’s actually what the Great Fool intentionally is not and does not do. Thus you both misrepresent and undermine who God is (and so also what it means to “follow” God). Love that so much!
February 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Tactics 101. Repeat after me: “God is in control. God imposes God’s will on reality. Go and do likewise.” That’s actually what the Great Fool intentionally is not and does not do. Thus you both misrepresent and undermine who God is (and so also what it means to “follow” God). Love that so much!
Gaslighting 101. Kick reputable news sources out of their Pentagon offices and give that space to peddlers of conspiracy-source driven drivel (ie/ your supporters). Talk about it in terms of equal access, not propaganda. Call it news, not advertising. Claim it’s about fairness, not obedience.
February 11, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Gaslighting 101. Kick reputable news sources out of their Pentagon offices and give that space to peddlers of conspiracy-source driven drivel (ie/ your supporters). Talk about it in terms of equal access, not propaganda. Call it news, not advertising. Claim it’s about fairness, not obedience.
Theory 101. The Irrelevance Made Flesh said you would know him in the least of these. So when you target the least of these—when you make life hell for them (in the vernacular of the Above), you undermine everything The Most High Irreverence is! Working with you, I might just get a raise!
February 10, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Theory 101. The Irrelevance Made Flesh said you would know him in the least of these. So when you target the least of these—when you make life hell for them (in the vernacular of the Above), you undermine everything The Most High Irreverence is! Working with you, I might just get a raise!
Gaslighting 101. Get lots of pictures of POLICE and ICE vests and coats (and best of all POLICE ICE) manhandling people in handcuffs whom you name violent criminals from abroad. Maybe folks won’t remember the real violent criminals you released into the country. Good on you for that, by the way.
February 9, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Gaslighting 101. Get lots of pictures of POLICE and ICE vests and coats (and best of all POLICE ICE) manhandling people in handcuffs whom you name violent criminals from abroad. Maybe folks won’t remember the real violent criminals you released into the country. Good on you for that, by the way.
Tactics 101. Keep changing baseline contexts. During the campaign promise that day one, prices will go down. Immediately after the inauguration say, “You’d pay more for a cup of coffee to patriotically scapegoat others, wouldn’t you?” “You hate them more than you need to hold me accountable.”
February 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Tactics 101. Keep changing baseline contexts. During the campaign promise that day one, prices will go down. Immediately after the inauguration say, “You’d pay more for a cup of coffee to patriotically scapegoat others, wouldn’t you?” “You hate them more than you need to hold me accountable.”
Reposted
NEW: Kash Patel was paid $25,000 by a Kremlin-linked filmmaker to promote anti-western propaganda. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Kash Patel was paid by Russian filmmaker with Kremlin ties, documents show
Patel, Trump’s nominee to be FBI director, was paid $25,000 last year by a film company that has promoted anti-Western views advanced by the Kremlin, documents show.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 7, 2025 at 11:46 PM
NEW: Kash Patel was paid $25,000 by a Kremlin-linked filmmaker to promote anti-western propaganda. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Reposted
Representation without taxation for a handful of billionaires, taxation without representation for the rest of us.
February 7, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Representation without taxation for a handful of billionaires, taxation without representation for the rest of us.
Tactics 101. Go for benevolence—anyone giving money away to the poor and sick. If that’s not a sin, what is? You know not to say that … right? Don’t say that. Talk about “Grossly incompetent mismanagement!” Accuse them of “Fraud!” Many will know your words to be self-revelatory, but it won’t matter.
February 7, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Tactics 101. Go for benevolence—anyone giving money away to the poor and sick. If that’s not a sin, what is? You know not to say that … right? Don’t say that. Talk about “Grossly incompetent mismanagement!” Accuse them of “Fraud!” Many will know your words to be self-revelatory, but it won’t matter.
the president also said he’s creating a new commission to protect religious liberty—which has somehow been allowed to morph from the freedom to worship in the tradition of your faith to the freedom to impose consequences of your faith on others
February 6, 2025 at 4:42 PM
the president also said he’s creating a new commission to protect religious liberty—which has somehow been allowed to morph from the freedom to worship in the tradition of your faith to the freedom to impose consequences of your faith on others
the president said today he will sign an executive order directing his attorney general to target anti-Christian bias .… if he and his are defining “Christian” now, please target me as anti-“Christian”. I’ll be right over here trying to stand with those standing with Jesus
February 6, 2025 at 4:38 PM
the president said today he will sign an executive order directing his attorney general to target anti-Christian bias .… if he and his are defining “Christian” now, please target me as anti-“Christian”. I’ll be right over here trying to stand with those standing with Jesus