“I Like and Respect This Guy”: An Atheist’s Take on Jesus

The following was written and first shared in 2021 by actor Wil Wheaton in response to the AI generated image of Jesus at right.

My sharing today of Wheaton’s words is part of my ongoing effort to counter the rise in the U.S. of the idolotrous political movement known as Christian nationalism.

_______________

This is, apparently, what the actual Jesus of Nazareth looked like, according to an artist and an algorithm and actual, historical, data (as opposed to a story that white people tell each other).

I am an atheist. I do not believe in god, or the devil, or heaven, or hell. But I like and respect this guy. He was a rebel, he was an anti-authoritarian, he dedicated his life to helping the poor, the sick, the indigent, the people who were discarded and rejected by society. He hung out with sex workers and lepers, and gave comfort to the sick and suffering, and he loudly and relentlessly called out the hypocrisy of the church and its leaders. As I understand it, he was like, “Hey, you’re a sinner. That’s a bummer. Let me help you be a better person. No, I don’t expect anything from you for that. I just want to be as loving as I can be.” He was a really cool guy.

This guy, in this picture, is not the Jesus I was introduced to in parochial school. The Jesus I was introduced to was soooooo white, like super super super white, and he was keeping an eye on you so he could snitch on you to his dad, who was SUPER PISSED AT EVERYTHING YOU DID all the time for some reason. The Jesus I knew was, like, maybe going to be okay with you, as long as you knew what a giant fuck-up you were. And he was absolutely not accepting of anyone who didn’t do exactly what the authority figures at school told us we had to do. And Reagan was essentially his avatar sent to Earth. If we didn’t worship Reagan the same way we were supposed to worship white Jesus, we were going to have a REALLY bad time. Did I mention that I was, like, 8 when all of this was drilled into me?

I deeply resent the way that American “Evangelical” Christianity turned this guy in this picture, who was reportedly a cool, loving, gentle, dude, who was a legit rebel, into someone who hates all the same things they hate, and who LOVES authoritarians the same way they do. I despise the people who do all sorts of cruel, hurtful, hateful things in this guy’s name. And they are EVERYWHERE in America.

I don’t know what it’s like in the rest of the world. What I do know is that, in America, this person has been perverted into a weapon, a cudgel, to be used against the same people the actual Jesus loved and stood up for. It’s disgusting.

And, look, if someone professes to follow the teachings of this dude, whose WHOLE FUCKING THING was “love everyone. Period. No exceptions,” and they don’t, like, do that? They are as bad as the money changers in the temple. I know that this dude loves them, because that’s his whole thing, but I suspect that, if this dude exists, he is disappointed and maybe a little embarrassed by them.

As an afterthought: I can’t stop thinking about how this dude was an immigrant, and poor. I keep thinking that, if he showed up in . . . let’s say Texas, today, how badly he would be treated by the very same people who use his name and pervert his teachings to exert control over the very same people Jesus spent his entire life looking after.

And, honestly, none of this would even matter if the American Christian extremists would keep their white Jesus out of our laws and government.

– Wil Wheaton

Related Off-site Links:
The Gospel and the Specter of Christian Nationalism – Stewart Clem (Covenant, September 16, 2025).
The Shameful Christian Idolatry and Fraudulent Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, September 12, 2025).
Critics Warn Trump’s “Religious Liberty” Panel Wants to Impose “Christian Nationalist Agenda” Nationwide – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, September 29, 2025).
Christian Nationalism Vs. Progressive Christianity: An Interview with Theologian Brandan Robertson – Marianne Williamson (Transform, September 30, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
• Bowing to an Idol
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Memes of the Times – September 2025

JESUS
• Why Jesus Is My Man
• Jesus: Mystic and Prophet
• The Mystic Jesus: “A Name for the Unalterable Love That All of Us Share”
• The King of Love My Shepherd Is
• Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
• Jesus and Social Revolution – Part 1 | 2 | 3
• Mysticism and Revolution
• Jesus: Our Guide to Mystical Love in Action – Part 1 | 2 | 3
• Jesus and the Art of Letting Go
• Palm Sunday: A Sacred Paradox
• Jesus: The Upside-down Messiah
• Time to Grow Up
• The Model of Leadership Offered by Jesus: “More Like the Gardener Than the Owner of the Garden”
• Something to Think About – November 27, 2018
• Prayer of the Week – October 19, 2015
• The Lesson of Jesus
• Good News on the Road to Emmaus
• Jesus: The Revelation of Oneness
• What Part of Jesus’ Invitation to “Be Not Afraid” Don’t the Bishops Get?
• Something to Think About – December 14, 2011
• Something to Think About – October 29, 2011
• To Believe in Jesus
• Jesus Was a Sissy
• The “Moral Gaiety” of Jesus’ Teaching
• Jesus Lives!

Remembering the Wisdom and Compassion of Jane Goodall

It’s the feast of Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the ecology. A perfect time to remember and celebrate the wisdom and compassion of English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, who died this past Monday at the age of 91.

About Jane Goodall’s religious and spiritual beliefs, Wikipedia notes the following.

Goodall was raised in a Christian congregationalist family. As a young woman, she took night classes in Theosophy. Her family were occasional churchgoers, but Goodall began attending more regularly as a teenager when the church appointed a new minister, Trevor Davies. “He was highly intelligent and his sermons were powerful and thought-provoking. . . . I could have listened to his voice for hours. . . . I fell madly in love with him. . . . Suddenly, no one had to encourage me to go to church. Indeed, there were never enough services for my liking.”

Of her later discovery of the atheism and agnosticism of many of her scientific colleagues, Goodall wrote that “fortunately, by the time I got to Cambridge I was twenty-seven years old and my beliefs had already moulded so that I was not influenced by these opinions.”

In her 1999 book Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey, Goodall described the implications of a mystical experience she had at Notre Dame Cathedral in 1977: “Since I cannot believe that this was the result of chance, I have to admit anti-chance. And so I must believe in a guiding power in the universe – in other words, I must believe in God.”

When asked if she believes in God, Goodall said in September 2010: “I don’t have any idea of who or what God is. But I do believe in some great spiritual power. I feel it particularly when I’m out in nature. It’s just something that’s bigger and stronger than what I am or what anybody is. I feel it. And it’s enough for me.” When asked in the same year if she still considers herself a Christian, Goodall told The Guardian: “I suppose so; I was raised as a Christian.” She stated further that she saw no contradiction between evolution and belief in God.

In her foreword to the 2017 book The Intelligence of the Cosmos by Ervin Laszlo, a philosopher of science who advocates quantum consciousness theory, Goodall wrote: “We must accept that there is an Intelligence driving the process [of evolution], that the Universe and life on Earth are inspired and in-formed by an unknown and unknowable Creator, a Supreme Being, a Great Spiritual Power.”

Related Off-site Links:
Jane Goodall, Ambassador for Wildlife, Dies at 91 – Cathy Newman (National Geographic, October 1, 2025).
Jane Goodall Helped Humans Understand Their Place in the World – Scott Simon (NPR News, October 4, 2025).
In an Exclusive Interview, Dr. Jane Goodall Leaves Behind Her Last Words – Tudum (October 3, 2025).

See also the following Wild Reed posts:
• Let Us Be “Energized by the Beauty That Is All Around Us”: Jane Goodall’s New Year Message (2018)
• Francis and the Wolf
• St. Francis of Assisi: Dancer, Rebel, Archetype

James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”

James B. Greenberg is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, the Founding Editor of the Journal of Political Ecology, and the past president of the Political Ecology Society.

Earlier today Greenberg published the following commentary on his substack. I find it to be a very insightful though sobering piece. Perhaps you will too.

_______________

I am in mourning for America. The grief feels heavy, like losing someone I loved. The country I grew up with – flawed yet still striving – feels almost alien now. The values that shaped me, liberty, equality, the freedom to dissent, no longer seem to have a place.

The reason for that grief was on display at Quantico, where Trump and Hegseth outlined what looked less like a campaign and more like a new order. They never used the word dictatorship, yet the intent was unmistakable. The “enemy within,” they warned, would now fall to the armed forces to confront. Opposition was no longer disagreement among citizens; it was insurgency.

In anthropology, words do not simply describe reality – they remake it. To call opponents “enemies within” is to push them out of the category of rival and into the category of threat. Once that shift takes hold, repression no longer appears a violation but a duty.

This is why the rhetoric matters. Trump’s call to repurpose cities as training grounds, Hegseth’s vow to instill “warrior culture,” the proposal to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War – none of these are stray lines. They are signals that the military is being reshaped from external defense toward domestic enforcement. This is not drift but a deliberate reshaping of the military’s purpose.

The ambiguity is calculated. They never said, “We are declaring a dictatorship.” Instead, they spoke in terms elastic enough to give cover. Defenders can dismiss it as metaphor. But for those in the room – military officers being told their real battle lies at home – the meaning was unmistakable.

History shows where this path leads. When Roman generals crossed the Rubicon, they redefined loyalty to the republic as loyalty to a man. In 20th-century Latin America, juntas seized power in the name of defending against “internal enemies.” Pinochet in Chile and Franco in Spain both used the rhetoric of national salvation to justify the silencing of opposition. And even here at home, the Red Scare and COINTELPRO blurred dissent and danger, branding citizens as subversives for the ideas they held. Each case began not with a decree, but with speeches and signals that invited the military and security services to turn inward. Democracies survive only when a clear boundary separates civilian politics from the armed forces; once that wall is breached, the garrison overtakes the government.

From an anthropological lens, the Quantico speeches worked as ritual. They staged a performance that bound insiders together through repetition of threat and loyalty. Civic space was turned into a symbolic battlefield; dissent cast as heresy. The words did cultural work: producing a shared understanding that domestic opposition is no longer subjects for debate, but targets to be subdued.

The danger is not abstract. Once opponents are named enemies, the shift cascades. Police departments remake themselves in the image of an army. Protesters are policed as insurgents. Communities already marked as suspect – immigrants, students, organizers – become targets of surveillance and force. Everyday civic life contracts until obedience feels like the only form of safety.

Was this a declaration of military dictatorship? Legally, nothing was signed into law. Culturally and politically, the declaration had already been made. It was a declaration without the name – a soft launch of a governing order where citizens are sorted into loyalists and enemies, where institutions are bent toward war footing, and where the armed forces are invited to cross the line from defending the republic to enforcing the executive.

Democracy doesn’t turn into dictatorship overnight; it seeps in through the steady drip of speeches, symbols, and directives that recast rivals as threats until repression feels inevitable. Quantico was one of those moments. And it is why I mourn: because the vocabulary of war is being welded onto everyday politics, and the country I loved drifts further from itself.

I grieve because the America I knew is slipping away – a flawed republic, yes, but one that still aspired to liberty, equality, and dissent. What remains is something harder, colder, and less familiar: a nation teaching its citizens to see neighbors as enemies, and its soldiers to turn inward. That is the loss I feel most deeply: not only of a country, but of the promise it once carried.

– James Greenberg
“Mourning America:
Quantico and the Drift Toward Military Rule”
James’s Substack
October 3, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Questions After Quantico – Mark Hertling (The Bulwark, October 3, 2025).
A “Green Light” for War Crimes? What Trump and Hegseth’s Lecture to Generals Really Means: An Interview with Eugene Fidell – Democracy Now! (October 1, 2025).
Furious Navy Commander Bobby Jones Speaks Out After Trump Military Stunt – MeidasTouch (October 1, 2025).
The “Department of War” Is Designed to Fight American Citizens – Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark, October 1, 2025).
“Hitleresque”: Retired Major General William Enyart Links Trump Speech to Nazi Propaganda – MSNBC (September 30, 2025).
Is This the Beginning of the End for U.S. Democracy? – Amy La Porte (Common Dreams, September 30, 2025)
Trump and Hegseth Want to Turn the Military Into a Tool of Personal Loyalty – Eugene Fidell, William D. Baumgartner and Steven J. Lepper (The Hill, September 4, 2025).

UPDATES: Now That Fascism Is Here – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, October 4, 2025)
White House Responds with “Authoritarian Propaganda” as Judge Blocks National Guard in Portland – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 5, 2025).
Governors Warn of “Martial Law” and Trump “Invasion” as U.S. Judge Halts Troop Order – for Now – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, October 6, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Bowing to an Idol
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Memes of the Times – September 2025
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”
• Marianne Williamson: We Need an “Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”

See also:
• Phil Wilson Remembers “American Fascism’s First Casualty” and Warns That Donald Trump’s “MAGA Death Cult Is Coming for Us All”
• Marianne Williamson on America’s “Cults of Madness”
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Jeff Sharlet on the Fascist Ideology of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Robert Reich: Quote of the Day – April 11, 2023
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy

An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”

A shocking incident unfolded in Chicago [in the early hours of September 30] when about 300 ICE agents descended from Blackhawk helicopters onto an apartment building, rounding up everyone living there. Many residents, according to witnesses, were pulled outside in zip ties, wearing little or no clothing, and children were among those caught up in this mass operation. With President Trump reportedly obtaining direct authority to deploy armed federal agents in Chicago, the move feels like an extension of what he has described as a war on blue states and cities, making the event feel as if it were ripped from a dystopian novel.

Across the country, these federal raids are being viewed as part of an escalating campaign to assert central power over communities that do not support the administration. The use of military tactics in domestic spaces looks less like a law enforcement effort and more like an outright attack on places that tend to vote Democratic. For many, the message is clear: cities that disagree with the current administration are being singled out for intimidation and collective punishment.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect is the deafening silence from major national media outlets. Instead of launching investigations or demanding accountability, mainstream networks have focused their energy on profit driven mergers and tax schemes to benefit their wealthy CEOS. That leaves local communities bearing the full weight of unchecked federal power and everyday people more vulnerable, as the role of the media as the public’s watchdog is abandoned.

– The Other 98%
October 2, 2025

Below is a 13-minute video by The Guardian, introduced as followed: “In the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk killing, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to Chicago, where Donald Trump’s ICE deployment, codename Operation Midway Blitz, has been met by a defiant wave of sustained protests at the Broadview ICE facility.”





Related Off-site Links:
Massive Immigration Raid on Chicago Apartment Building Leaves Residents Reeling: “I Feel Defeated” – Cindy Hernandez (Chicago Sun Times, October 1, 2025).
“Surreal Moment for America”: ICE Agents in Chicago Drag Children Out of Their Homes, Ransack Building – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, October 2, 2025).
Federal Agents Conduct “Targeted Immigration Operation” in South Shore – NBC Chicago (September 30, 2025).
ICE Agents Raid South Shore Apartment Building: “They Just Treated Us Like We Were Nothing” – ABC 7 Chicago (September 30, 2025).
The “Department of War” Is Designed to Fight American Citizens – Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark, October 1, 2025).
When Trump’s ICE Invades Your City: An Interview with Jordan Chariton – Thom Hartmann Program (October 1, 2025).
The “Moral Monsters” Among Us – Adrian Carrasquillo (The Bulwark, October 1, 2025).
“F*ck Them Kids”: ICE Agents Drag Children Out of Bed, Ransack Chicago Building – Chris Hayes (MSNBC, October 2, 2025).
ICE Is Terrorizing Chicago. We Can Stand Up To Them – Kat Abughazaleh (via YouTube, October 1, 2025).
Chicago Activist on Organizing Community ICE Patrols as Trump Escalates Immigration Crackdown – Democracy Now! (September 30, 2025).
ICE Violence Is Out of Control – The Majority Report (September 27, 2025).

UPDATES: Protesters Clash with Federal Agents in Chicago as ICE Raids Continue – ABC News (October 3, 2025).
When ICE Deports Every Immigrant, Will Trump Aim Their Crosshairs at You? – Thom Hartmann Program (October 3, 2025).
Is ICE in Chicago Targeting Black Americans for Deportation? This Is What We Know – Wayne Washington (The Root, October 4, 2025).
Now That Fascism Is Here – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, October 4, 2025)
White House Responds with “Authoritarian Propaganda” as Judge Blocks National Guard in Portland – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 5, 2025).
Governors Warn of “Martial Law” and Trump “Invasion” as U.S. Judge Halts Troop Order – for Now – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, October 6, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Bowing to an Idol
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Memes of the Times – September 2025
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Marianne Williamson: We Need an “Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”


Image: Federal law enforcement agents confront demonstrators protesting outside of an immigrant processing center on September 27, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. The demonstrators were protesting a recent surge in ICE apprehensions in the Chicago area, part of a push by the Trump administration dubbed Operation Midway Blitz. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Marianne Williamson: We Need an “Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”

In this time of rising fascism in the U.S., I can’t think of a better way to start the new month than with the deep wisdom and compassion of author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

Following is how she introduces her recent 6-minute video commentary shared below.

Old thinking will not solve new problems. Our greatest tool for rising to this moment is an expanded version of what it means to be political. Politics comes from a latin root “of the people.” It is the people – each and every one of us – who must now become the conduits through which our country can overcome.

The question is not just what we are supposed to do now, but at least as importantly, who we need to be. Psychological, emotional, and spiritual dynamics are as important as traditional political activism in turning us into the people who can handle this moment.

Never underestimate your own contribution. Every thought, every word, every action contributes to a collective field of energy. Make yours a powerful expression of love for democracy and love for humanity. Every life and every moment matters. Step by step, we’re on our way to higher ground.

Related Off-site Link:
You Are Not Alone – Marianne Williamson (Transform, October 1, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Cultivating Stillness
• Going Deeper to Change Everything
• Marianne Williamson: “Repairing Our Hearts Is Essential to Repairing Our Country”
• The Choice Before Us
• Being the Light
• When We Choose Love
• Clarity, Hope, and Courage
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Wendy Benning Swanson
• Why “Revolutionary Love” Gives Michelle Alexander Hope
• This Is the Time
• Discerning and Embodying Sacred Presence in Times of Violence and Strife
• “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living in Very Serious Times and We Need to Be Very Serious People”
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• Marianne Williamson on the Kind Mind Podcast– 12/2/24
• Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love: The Rich Roll Interview (2022)
• Marianne Williamson: “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy (2020)
• Marianne Williamson on What It Will Take to Defeat Donald Trump (2019)
• Saying “No” to Trump and His Fascist Agenda (2016)
• Marianne Williamson and the Power of Politicized Love
• Yes, Just Imagine

September Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Late Summer Blooms
• Omar Fateh: “We Need to Meet the Needs of Working People”
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Wendy Benning Swanson
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• A Poem That Remains Painfully Relevant
• Protesting Israel’s “Starvation Campaign” in Gaza
• Israel’s Actions in Gaza: “A Clear and Present Moral Collapse”
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• The Goal of Spiritual Practice
• Photo of the Day – September 19, 2025
• Memes of the Times
• Something to Think About – September 22, 2025
• “Hopeful and Grounded”: Omar Fateh’s Vision of Democratic Socialism
• Yes, Just Imagine
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Photo of the Day – September 27, 2025
• Silver Lining

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Quote of the Day

[Puerto Rican rapper] Bad Bunny [right] is an international superstar, the second most-streamed artist of all time, with 100 billion streamed songs. . . . He does millions of dollars in philanthropic work through his Good Bunny Foundation (Fundación el Buen Conejo), which he started in 2018. He is the literal embodiment of the American Dream that Republicans have spent decades waving in our faces. So, [why are they so upset that the NFL has announced that Bad Bunny will be performing at the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show?] What’s the problem?

Let’s just say it’s a pigmentation issue, with a side order of MAGA cultism and a dash of homophobia thrown in. . . . Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico, which a terrifying number of MAGAs don’t seem to know is an American territory, as they’ve fallen all over themselves to decry the supposed insult of a “non-American” artist playing the Super Bowl. . . . I fully reject the intellectually-fetal, knuckle-dragging, morally-inverted white supremacy that is fueling this MAGA Super Bowl outrage – and the violence against people of color it perpetuates every day here away from the spotlight, in our streets and schools and workplaces and government buildings.

This isn’t about Bad Bunny. This isn’t about a halftime show. It’s about who we collectively want to be, the kind of nation we dream of living in, and the future we want those who follow us to inherit. It’s about the cost of standing up to the bullies, of rejecting racism, of being intolerant of intolerance. This is about what we will demand and what we will not accept when it comes to the rights and voices of people of color.

In these days, we are in a brutal battle for an America where everyone will find opportunity, safety, and welcome.

It’s time we all got in the game.

– John Pavlovitz
Excerpted from “Bad Bunny and
MAGA’s Super Bowl of Racism”
The Beautiful Mess
September 30, 2025

Following is a 13-minute video by Clout Case on “how Bad Bunny took over the music industry in three years.”





Related Off-site Links:
NFL Announces Bad Bunny to Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show – Democracy Now! (September 29, 2025).
Bad Bunny’s Gender-bending Style Isn’t Just Fashion. It’s a Protest – Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ Nation, September 30, 2025).
Bad Bunny’s Latest Album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Explained: The Album Fighting for Puerto Rico – Afrodizjha (via YouTube, January 20, 2025).
Bad Bunny Performs at Rally for Puerto Rico’s Center-Left, Third-Party Coalition Alianza – Democracy Now! (November 4, 2024).
Bad Bunny’s Superpower Is Mixing Latinx Bangers with Queer Political Flair – Christopher Stahl (LGBTQ Nation, October 15, 2023).
Bad Bunny Carpool Karaoke – The Late Late Show with James Corden (March 14, 2023).

UPDATES: ICE Agents to Patrol Super Bowl Over Bad Bunny Halftime Show? – Lindsey Granger (Rising, October 2, 2025).
Let’s Talk About the Bad Bunny Situation – The Hasan Abi Podcast (October 3, 2025).
Bad Bunny Really Triggered the Trump Administration – The Young Turks (October 3, 2025).
MAGA’s Bad Bunny Meltdown: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Vows to Send ICE Agents to Super Bowl – MSNBC (October 4, 2025).

The “Creeping Fascism of Trump’s America”: A View from Australia

Australian writer Michael Taylor has a cogent piece published today at both the Daily Kos and the website of the Australian Independent Media Network.

As an Australian living in the U.S., I found this piece (and Taylor’s follow-up remarks) to be both insightful and heartening. I share both in their entirety below.

The Distant Thunder
How Trump’s America Echoes
in Our Own Backyard

By Michael Taylor

Australian Independent Media Network
September 29, 2025

From the sun-bleached beaches of Surfers Paradise to the quiet verandahs of the suburbs, we Australians have long viewed American politics with a mixture of fascination and detachment. It was a dramatic, often chaotic, television drama unfolding an ocean away. But in the era of Donald Trump, that detachment has curdled into profound anxiety. What we are witnessing is not just another chapter in American political turmoil; from our vantage point, it resembles a step-by-step guide to authoritarianism, and the consequences are lapping at our own shores.

Let’s be blunt. A good majority of Australians see President Trump as the single greatest threat to world peace and economic stability. This isn’t a casual dislike; it’s a rational conclusion based on observable fact. We see an assault on the very pillars that uphold a democracy: the relentless attacks on a free press as “the enemy of the people,” the refusal to accept certified election results, the weaponisation of the justice system against political rivals, and the language of vengeance and retribution. These are not the actions of a robust democracy; they are the hallmarks of a creeping fascism, a playbook we’ve seen enacted in dark chapters of history.

The instability this creates is not contained within U.S. borders. A world where America’s commitment to NATO is transactional, where long-standing alliances are undermined by caprice, is a more dangerous and volatile world. Economically, the spectre of tariff wars and a rejection of global cooperation threatens the intricate supply chains and markets upon which our own prosperity depends. The “America First” mantra, in practice, feels like “Global Stability Last.”

But perhaps what is most concerning, and most visceral for us here, is how Trump has enabled the racists and bigots in our own country. He didn’t create them, but he gave them a megaphone and a permission slip. The toxic rhetoric that vilifies migrants, Muslims, and minorities – once confined to the dark corners of the internet – has been validated by the most powerful office in the world. We see it in the emboldened bravado of our own fringe groups, in the coarsening of our public discourse, and in the feeling that it’s now more acceptable to voice prejudice. He has, in effect, exported a licence for hatred.

To dismiss this as mere American political theatre is a dangerous folly. The fight for the soul of America is also a fight for the norms and values that underpin the free world, values Australia has long shared. It is a battle between pluralism and prejudice, between truth and “alternative facts,” between the rule of law and the cult of personality.

As Australians we cannot afford to be passive spectators. We must loudly reaffirm our commitment to our own democratic principles: a respectful multicultural society, an independent judiciary, and a press that holds power to account. We must call out the imported bigotry for what it is and reject the politics of division. The distant thunder from Trump’s America is a warning. We must ensure the storm does not reach our shores.

____________________

At the Daily Kos, one comment noted that:

According to this recent poll, 29% of Australians would vote for Donald Trump if given the chance, and 36% hold a favorable opinion of him. These numbers are striking – not just for what they say about Trump’s global appeal, but for how they exceed the traditional ceiling of Australia’s hard-right base [which] suggests all this isn’t just about ideology. It’s about identity, spectacle, and a kind of political tribalism that transcends traditional party lines – even in countries like Australia, where the political landscape is markedly different from the United States.

In response, Michael Taylor shared the following:

Down here in Australia, most opinion polls are churned out by the mainstream media, and – fun fact – Murdoch’s got his mitts on 70% of the print game, all leaning hard to the right. Not exactly a balanced chorus.

The real gut-punch poll, though, was the May federal election. Opposition leader Peter Dutton went full mini-Trump, mirroring Trump’s playbook and banking on his party’s deep-pocketed backers to seal the deal. The outcome? A walloping for the ages – biggest conservative smackdown in 60 years. Even Dutton got the boot from his own seat. It was such a wipeout, it’ll take the right wing opposition a few election cycles to even think about crawling back. The loud and clear message? Aussies gave Trump’s style a resounding “nah, thanks.”

Still, the Murdoch machine keeps belting out Trump’s tune, amplifying the extreme-right voices in the party like they’re the only act in town.

Related Off-site Links:
Trump’s War on America – Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report, September 28, 2025).
“This Is What Fascists Do”: Trump Labels Antifa a Terrorist Organization in His War on Dissent – Democracy Now! (September 24, 2025).

UPDATES: “Deeply Un-American”: Trump Tells Generals to Use U.S. Cities as Military “Training Grounds” – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 30, 2025).
Now That Fascism Is Here – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, October 4, 2025)
White House Responds with “Authoritarian Propaganda” as Judge Blocks National Guard in Portland – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 5, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Bowing to an Idol
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Memes of the Times – September 2025
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”

See also:
• The Neoliberal Economic Doctrine: A View from Australia
• When Neutrality Is an Inhumane Choice
• Marianne Williamson on America’s “Cults of Madness”
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Jeff Sharlet on the Fascist Ideology of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Robert Reich: Quote of the Day – April 11, 2023
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• St. Michael the Archangel: Perspectives and Portraits
• The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
• Michaelmas
• St. Michael: Archangel, Spiritual Warrior, Icon of Homoerotic Love
• St. Michael, “Wave Maker”
• Archangel Michael

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Silver Lining

A marathon of a drive
beyond mni wak’áŋ
across Dakota plains

The prize?
Your face
behind scratched plexiglass
And your voice
edged with static
close to my ear

Awkward at first
No privacy permitted
No touch
No breathing-in
the scent of sandalwood
on your body

But I will be satisfied, my love
with your face
and your voice

And hearing you impart
that in the bleakness
of all you’re enduring
I am your
silver lining

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 20, 2024
• Adnan and the Winged Heart
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 13, 2024
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 12, 2024
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 8, 2024
• Summer’s End
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ September 21, 2024
• Ghosts
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 27, 2024
• Undeniably Real
• Sweet Surrender
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ March 1, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 21, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 7, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 16, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ December 3, 2023
• Aglow
• October Afternoon
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 1, 2023
• September Garden
• Like a Lotus Flower
• In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 4, 2023
• The Paradise We’ll Make
• Undone
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 14, 2023
• Allow Everything to Rest Right Now
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 16, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 4, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ August 25, 2022
• When Sorrow Comes
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ November 25, 2021
• Just One Wish
• Blue Yonder
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 29, 2021
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
• What We Crave
• Where You Take Me
• Skylight
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 30, 2021
• November Musings
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ November 18, 2020
• Out and About ~ Spring 2020
• The Landscape Is a Mirror
• Adnan in Morning Light
• It’s You
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland
• Somalia Bound
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ July 14, 2019
• Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green
• Adnan . . . with Sunset Reflections and Jet Trail
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ April 16, 2019
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ March 29, 2019

Words and images: Michael J. Bayly.