02459cam a2200289 i 4500 678810493 TxAuBib 20230509120000.0 230301s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781324006497 HRD 28.95 1324006498 HRD 28.95 TxAuBib rda Sharlet, Jeff, author. The undertow [BOOK] : scenes from a slow civil war / Jeff Sharlet. First edition. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2023] xii, 337 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies―sometimes realities―of violence. Across the country, men “of God” glorify materialism, a gluttony of the soul, while citing Scripture and preparing for civil war―a firestorm they long for as an absolution and exaltation. Lies, greed, and glorification of war boom through microphones at hipster megachurches that once upon a time might have preached peace and understanding. Political rallies are as aflame with need and giddy expectation as religious revivals. At a conference for incels, lonely single men come together to rage against women. On the Far Right, everything is heightened―love into adulation, fear into vengeance, anger into white-hot rage. Here, in the undertow, our forty-fifth president, a vessel of conspiratorial fears and fantasies, continues to rise to sainthood, and the insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, killed on January 6 at the Capitol, is beatified as a martyr of white womanhood. Framing this dangerous vision, Sharlet remembers and celebrates the courage of those who sing a different song of community, and of an America long dreamt of and yet to be fully born, dedicated to justice and freedom for all. Provided by publisher. 20230509. Religion and politics United States History 21st century. Polarization (Social sciences) United States Religious aspects. United States Politics and government 21st century. United States Religion 1960-