You covered some ground there, sir!
The one factor you, and most people miss out when debating wokism against socialism is intelligence.
Some humans are thick. Simply put, its true and are thus more inclined to be followers.
Social safety nets should be a community responsibility. Of course, some take advantage but do you ignore the many to punish the few?
The problem with Mr Trump and his ilk is their beliefs are rooted in fundamental religious doctrine. You might think the new brainwashing is done by governments but its not, governments are simply extensions of the core religious systems so nothing has changed, only the smoke screen.
When people are not bright and need answers they now turn to government instead of directly to religion but what to do? The intelligent and often centre right think they're just socialist scroungers and instead of helping and teaching, simply push them aside and tell them to 'take responsibility'. Genuinely good advice if you're intelligent enough to act upon it. For 2000+ years, human progress has been dragged down by religion.
Lebanon. Like many authors making a point, you stick your stake into the timeliness where it best suits your narrative. I just did the same thing!
Read further back. Go back the Ottoman empire and the Druze. Definitive Christian majority appears to have arrived with the French.
Great writing as always, you always make me ask questions of myself. I just you'd do a full and indepth study on just one small area rather than a huge swathe of connected topics.
Best wishes to you and your loved ones and thank you :-)
Not everyone is intelligent. The education system is making it worse. It does not focus on teaching children the skills necessary for them to think for themselves. It focuses on what to learn rather than how to learn. The building blocks of critical thinking are in most people. Think of how young children learn to speak. Schools need to build on this natural instinct for learning.
It would take a lot of digging to understand the extent of Christianity during the time of the Ottoman Empire. We do know there was a strong Christian presence prior to the Ottoman Empire. The Maronite Church dates back to the fourth century. The main point of the example was how one dogma can spread and take over a country in a relatively short time.
Thanks for taking the time to write such an in-depth comment. Best wishes to you too.