Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowship-winning philosopher Elizabeth Anderson recently spoke with Joe Humphreys at the Irish Times about America's toxic obsession with by-your-bootstraps individualism, and specifically how it relates to poverty.

There are plenty of impactful quotes throughout the interview, but the parts that stuck out the most to me—as an agnostic born into an Irish Catholic family, whose mother worked for the church for a long time—were her observations about America's puritanical roots, and, later, the impacts of World War II. Anderson essentially proposes the idea that early America Puritans like the Pilgrims were determined to distance themselves from the institutional power of the Catholic church—which, for all its faults, has at least had a longstanding commitment to helping and empathizing with those suffering from poverty. In addition to Manifest Destiny, these Puritans believed that hard work was the only promise of salvation, which eventually evolved into the whole "rugged individualism" idea that consumes so many American conservatives and Evangelicals. While Anderson acknowledges that this ethic is rooted in a very pro-worker mindset, it's clearly been secularized over time into a highly partisan hatred of the poor, with a nod towards its religious roots:

There is a profound suspicion of anyone who is poor, and a consequent raising to the highest priority imposing incredibly humiliating, harsh conditions on access to welfare benefits on the assumption you’re some kind of grifter, or you’re trying to cheat the system. There is no appreciation for the existence of structural poverty, poverty that is not the fault of your own but because the economy maybe is in recession or, in a notorious Irish case, the potato crop fails.

Jerry Falwell, Sr founded the Moral Majority, brought evangelicals into the voting booth, elected Ronald Reagan, and changed the face of American politics forever; his son, Jerry Jr now commands the Falwell empire, including Liberty University, which now has $3b in assets. Read the rest

Donald Trump's “prosperity gospel” spiritual advisor Paula White, a pastor who is reported to reside in an 8,000 square foot house and travel on a $2.6 million private jet, is commanding her congregation to cough up their January salaries to her or else God is seriously going to punish them so hard. Read the rest

A Lamborghini here, a Lamborghini there, sooner or later it starts to add up. Read the rest

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni doesn't want people to use their mouths in ways he does not approve, so he trying to ban oral sex. This is the same gentleman who made it a crime not to report people suspected of being gay. "“Let me take this opportunity to warn our people publicly about the wrong practices indulged in and promoted by some of the outsiders. The mouth is for eating, not for sex. We know the address of sex; we know where sex is.

From The Week:

The remarks come as part of a broader crackdown on sexual freedoms by the socially conservative evangelical leader.

Sexual activity “against the order of nature” has been outlawed under Uganda’s penal code since the colonial era, but Museveni’s comments reflect a toughening of existing laws in recent years, mostly targeting the LGBT community.

Amid rising concern about the “spread” of homosexuality, partly stoked by US-backed evangelical Christian preachers, in 2009 one of Museveni’s ministers proposed legislation making same-sex activity punishable by death.

Museveni is enjoying his fifth term in office, and has run the corruption-plagued country for over 30 years. His estimated net worth is $4 billion and Forbes ranked him among The World's 10 Worst Dictators. Read the rest

That weird meeting between presidential candidate Donald Trump and a number of so-called Prosperity Gospel evangelists sounds weirder the more we learn about who was there, and what they actually say they believe. Read the rest