I don't want to come off as pedantic, but what we're dealing with in the US is a very strange and successful breed of "Christian Nationalism."

Essentially, it's a belief that ultra-conservative Christianity is the only legitimate religion and that the USA is a Christian nation.

It probably comes as no surprise that these people heavily influenced the Confederacy, is strongly white-supremecist, anti-vice, etc, and has been an anathema in this country since before the states actually formed.

Christians themselves are... A problem, but not the problem. It's these Christian nationalists. They're loud. They want you to think all Christians believe what they do too. They also tend to drown out opposing Christian speakers by being louder than them too.

It's one of the reasons why MLK Jr was hated so much by Hoover, by the south, etc. He was a Christian pastor, and stood against everything they did.

It's important that we don't group Christians in with Christian Nationalists. It's very difficult but necessary.

Mostly because of all the stupid.

The bullshit going on in the USA under the christian name is short sighted, stupid and lacks empathy. Christianity isn't USA fundamentalism tho.

Painting with such a broad brush is how these people got to where they are now, don't make the same mistakes they did.

There's a distinctive difference between american evangelists and other christian groups, for starters that the evangelists have been integrated in the state-religion the USA has been running at least since the cold war., and they are actively utilized by the Republicans. This also means that those evangelists believe that in the US white nationalists should be in power.

Please note that the "christian" part in this has gone pretty far from any christian roots - it's for the most part just utilized to identify the in-group and to radicalize members. The quip "Y'all qaeda" comes pretty close to the truth - they are just as radical and socially regressive as any other islamic sect that would use terror to achieve their goals.

Its Republicans. Don’t blame the religion. Republicans want fascism and they want to control everyone's thoughts and behaviors because they're wired to be subservient to authoritarians. They hate that so many of us have a mind of our own.

This comment was reported as homophobic.

I believe the meaning of the comment to be

Republicans projecting - again

Leaving it up for @Korkki@lemmy.ml to clarify.

This is quite literally the crux of the post: Who is actually making these decisions? Because there is, in fact, a zero percent chance that any number of Australian wokescolds would have leverage to force MASTERCARD AND VISA, the two global monopoly payment processors to change their practices just because the australians dont agree with the content of games.

This is a top down decision coming from the owners of visa. Any attempt to backpedal this into the hands of some activist group is the most disrespectful patronizing I've seen in my entire life. I'm glad you and others are calling this shit out for the farce that it is.

You mean to tell me the most successful activist movement in the last 50 years has been a single week protest lobbied at the most powerful capitalist institutions in the world, and the payment processors were bent over backwards for it? As if thats definitely not a giant, flaming red flag in itself?? It feels like the most obvious scapegoating of all time: a faceless Australian group nobody ever heard of before suddenly wrenched the arm of an economic lynchpin? No.

Visa and Mastercard are doing this because this is what they want to do. No amount of protest would achieve this outcome save the literal socialist revolution at their doorstep. I dont care what any report says, this is top down. Visa is not exposed to any risk by any protest, it is laughable to suggest otherwise.

With that out of the way, we can discuss the real matters of import: why are payment processors taking on the role of decency enforcement in global markets? What are their goals, who is making these decisions, and why is any government allowing these processors to dictate commerce within their borders unilaterally? Really and truly I dont even care about the games. I want names and faces of the people in charge of visa and Mastercard who are making these decisions, and I want them brought into a court room to clearly explain to everyone in the world what their exact reasoning is for caving to a historically insignificant protest. Stop killing games has been going simultaneously to this and, with millions of signatures, the response has been slander from the companies targeted. This collective shout bs is an absolute sham.