• marighost@piefed.socialEnglish
    69·
    7 days ago

    Pledge of Allegiance (Wikipedia link)

    Republicans and the Christian fascists would lose their fucking minds to learn who wrote the original PoA. A Union officer, who did not include the line “Under God” (which was added as late as 1954!). Then, it was altered by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist:

    Bellamy was a Christian socialist,[1] who “championed ‘the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, which he believed was inherent in the teachings of Jesus.’”[6] In 1891, Bellamy was “forced from his Boston pulpit for preaching against the evils of capitalism”,[3] and eventually stopped attending church altogether after moving to Florida, reportedly because of the racism he witnessed there.[10] Francis’s career as a preacher ended because of his tendency to describe Jesus as a socialist. In the 21st century, Bellamy is considered an early American democratic socialist.[11]

    Pretty cool guy.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      It turns out socialism was a scare word even through the 19th century, then meaning government provided for the public good, such as roads, schools and libraries.

      Features like social safety nets and disaster relief came after the US went through a few ordeals and got traumatized by all the mass suffering and death.

      And from the cotton plantation owners to the industrialists to the tech bros, the owner class hated the notion, and continued to organize and plot against it.