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The Minneapolis shooter is part of a sick trend. People put down and bully and make laws to prosecute transgenders, and now we see an attack on a church. While it is easy to interpret both parts of that in a partisan manner, I think we need to look deeper for causes.
For discussion here, I've reproduced an image of part of the shooter's "manifesto" (mostly complaining about bedbugs in English using Cyrillic letters) that was run in Daily Mail. What I want to call your attention to is the drawing at the bottom - directly underneath the only genuine Russian phrase in the text "до свидания" -- which means, "until we meet again". Directly before ending his or her own life, the shooter took time to make a drawing ... and despite the overall despondent suicidal tone of the rest of the writing, to say someone will meet with us again.
I think that this symbol is recognizably derivable from Pepe the Frog, one of the most-known "memes" in the world, which has been co-opted by "alt-right" white racism (mostly because people insist on giving that movement any symbol it ever touched, including the Buddhist swastika and the "OK" hand symbol). But here, it's not about racism, but a trans shooter preparing to attack a church.
"Memes" are the modern term for an intangible thing that leaps from person to person, changing their behavior. The older term was more accurate though, reflecting that anything with space inside your noggin is able to have thoughts and take action on its own. They used to call these things demons, and still should.
Now in this case, this is not some creative Daimon or a theatrical demon or a speed demon, but the kind of demon that stands outside your church shooting your kids, after first getting the killer to draw a votive image and a promise it will happen again. An actual, real world demon.
Now the shooter's rendition of this thing differs from Pepe the Frog, which was just a drawing to start with. We see it has teeth now. It is regressing toward its archetype. And one thing we know about demons is they're not making any more of them. Based on this data, is it possible for someone of faith here to actually identify this demon, and suggest a plan of action against it? Both to prevent further shootings and persecutions of Christians and to end the un-Christian viciousness we've seen expressed toward trans people, and to reveal something about the forces that are arrayed against our country.
For discussion here, I've reproduced an image of part of the shooter's "manifesto" (mostly complaining about bedbugs in English using Cyrillic letters) that was run in Daily Mail. What I want to call your attention to is the drawing at the bottom - directly underneath the only genuine Russian phrase in the text "до свидания" -- which means, "until we meet again". Directly before ending his or her own life, the shooter took time to make a drawing ... and despite the overall despondent suicidal tone of the rest of the writing, to say someone will meet with us again.
I think that this symbol is recognizably derivable from Pepe the Frog, one of the most-known "memes" in the world, which has been co-opted by "alt-right" white racism (mostly because people insist on giving that movement any symbol it ever touched, including the Buddhist swastika and the "OK" hand symbol). But here, it's not about racism, but a trans shooter preparing to attack a church.
"Memes" are the modern term for an intangible thing that leaps from person to person, changing their behavior. The older term was more accurate though, reflecting that anything with space inside your noggin is able to have thoughts and take action on its own. They used to call these things demons, and still should.
Now in this case, this is not some creative Daimon or a theatrical demon or a speed demon, but the kind of demon that stands outside your church shooting your kids, after first getting the killer to draw a votive image and a promise it will happen again. An actual, real world demon.
Now the shooter's rendition of this thing differs from Pepe the Frog, which was just a drawing to start with. We see it has teeth now. It is regressing toward its archetype. And one thing we know about demons is they're not making any more of them. Based on this data, is it possible for someone of faith here to actually identify this demon, and suggest a plan of action against it? Both to prevent further shootings and persecutions of Christians and to end the un-Christian viciousness we've seen expressed toward trans people, and to reveal something about the forces that are arrayed against our country.