I am three episodes in and I have to so I am so glad this has been made.  For those that don't know, it's based on a dystopian fiction novel about a future America ruled by a fundamentalist Christian theocracy that is every bit as totalitarian as the Muslim world.  Women are basically sex slaves and gays, college professors, medical professionals, and any religious dissenters are put to death.  Sad thing is, I can really see our society moving in this direction under the right circumstances.  Hopefully shows like this raise awareness of the danger we really face.  Here is a trailer.

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I really wouldn't be that pessimistic yet. Too much of America has moved beyond the fundamentalist bull of the past, and even with a robust Alt-Right still existing, especially in places like where you live, it doesn't seem like Trumpian politics are really here to stay. Regardless of how much the President tries to corrupt the system, he only keeps growing more unpopular as time goes by. His administration already looks like a classic case of the politics of disjunction, in which radically idealist policies are clumsily executed against both a general public and federal government out of synch with it. If worst comes to worst, the more liberal states in the Union may secede from the country so they aren't forced to put up with so many crappy laws.

I really wouldn't be that pessimistic yet. Too much of America has moved beyond the fundamentalist bull of the past, and even with a robust Alt-Right still existing, especially in places like where you live, it doesn't seem like Trumpian politics are really here to stay. Regardless of how much the President tries to corrupt the system, he only keeps growing more unpopular as time goes by. His administration already looks like a classic case of the politics of disjunction, in which radically idealist policies are clumsily executed against both a general public and federal government out of synch with it. If worst comes to worst, the more liberal states in the Union may secede from the country so they aren't forced to put up with so many crappy laws.


I think what the show gets wrong is the idea that such a transformation could occur in the span of only five years.  This was needed for story purposes as they needed a protagonist that was old enough to remember free society as an adult but young enough to still bear children.  In reality, the transformation would occur over a couple of decades. A good example of this is Hitler.  When he came to power, he left the established culture and institutions in place at first.  A competent dictator knows that too much change too quickly will result in an uprising.  What would happen is slowly but surely the Constitution would be re-interpreted to only apply to people they want it to apply to.  You already hear this kind of language from radical Baptist theocrats like David Barton, Bryan Fischer, Kevin Swanson, etc.  They have literally said they believe the First Amendment only applies to conservative Christianity.  The "end game" would be an oppressive, totalitarian society where the fundamentalist Baptist church is the state and the laws of the church are the laws of the land.  Alabama recently passed a law that churches are allowed to have their own police departments.  This is very scary.

The idea of liberal states seceding is the scariest thing to me.  The only reason places like Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama are even still somewhat free is because of the political balance created by states like California, Oregon, and New York.  Where I live, if the Baptists had complete power, I think it wouldn't look too much different from Handmaid's Tale.  I don't think it would be quite that extreme (women wouldn't be sex slaves) but women would still be reduced to second class citizens and LGBT people would be marginalized at first and possibly executed as time went on.  Slowly but surely there would be crackdowns on religions considered heretical.  Atheists, Mormons, pagan faiths, and other non-orthodox forms of Christianity would be first.  Then they would come after liberal Mainline Protestants and after that Catholics and Jews.  Lastly, they would shut down "new evangelical" churches that wouldn't submit to the fire and brimstone doctrine of the fundamentalist Baptist state.

More than likely, any attempt to do this would result in a breakup of the United States, as you said.  The society afterwards would consist of a smaller United States that would resemble Canada more than the current US and a Bible Belt that would resemble Afghanistan, only with fundamentalist Baptists in control instead of radical Islam.

Oh, I read this book back when I was in high school! I watched the movie too. If you liked the TV show then I might have to check it out, but from what I remember the book was very boring.  :-X

Edit: Although, I read it back in 2010 when all those events looked far-out and unrealistic. Maybe with this Trump presidency, I might have a different perspective on it.  :o

More than likely, any attempt to do this would result in a breakup of the United States, as you said.  The society afterwards would consist of a smaller United States that would resemble Canada more than the current US and a Bible Belt that would resemble Afghanistan, only with fundamentalist Baptists in control instead of radical Islam.


And now you have an inkling of what Putin's agenda probably is: if he can't beat the United States militarily (back in the 80s, we didn't exactly want to take on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics head-to-head either), he'll beat it by breaking it up.  Just like, as in the 90s, we realized that some of those Republics weren't exactly thrilled with the Union they had with the Soviets, and we were able to chip away at them, break them off from the mothership, and we damn near took the mothership itself down.

Then he turned around and did the same to us.  We used forbidden rock and roll and Levi's jeans.  He used dank memes.  All's fair in love and war.  I'm still pretty bitter about losing the Second Cold War, but I gotta admit he won it without firing a shot at us, and it still beats the apocalypse I thought we'd have in the 80s.