The American Taliban

Last night's season finale of "The Newsroom" made some very important points that I think should be reiterated.  Jeff Damiels character, Will McAvoy, listed the similarities between the Taliban in Afghanistan and their goals and the Tea Party, along with some Republicans.  A few of the similarities I can recall from memory are:

• A need to control women's bodies
• Ideological purity
• Compromise as weakness
• Fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism
• Denying science
• Unmoved by facts
• Demonization of education
• Severe xenophobia
• Tribal mentality
• Intolerance of dissent
• Pathological hatred of the U.S. government

 Although Jeff's character did editorialize quite a bit in this segment, I think he made great points that are worth serious consideration.  What has always seemed profoundly important to me are these similarities between radical Muslims and radical Christians.  Both groups espouse fundamentalist views that are a threat to civilization and peace and both are fascist organizations.  Personally, my view is that we need more rational thought and discussion about problems that are real and imminent and less faith-based sophism that only promotes one's own agenda as a religious person.  I would like to think that we can solve problems in this country, not by attacking each other but by realizing that we can only improve our country by AGREEING with each other.