There are a LOT of young, white leftists who canonize John Brown without internalizing a shred of what he fought & died for
Some of them are atheists or agnostics, others may be religious
I don't think it particularly matters though
Just today I saw a "John Brown stan account" on Bluesky condemning nonviolent usamerican protestors for "supporting Hamas"
When all number of people attacked him for his display of deeply ironic hypocrisy, he invoked Brown's name as a shield in a way that reminded me of how neoliberals invoke MLK Jr to argue against black power (which is no less absurd)
It's not the first time I've seen Brown's name abused this way, and it likely won't be the last
I believe that for many, John Brown serves as their non-problematic white saviour, an idol to project themselves onto
We must oppose this juvenile power fantasy, but even that is not enough
We must also recognize that even as we discard the rubbish of Great Man theory, John Brown still has an important place in our historical memory
I'm at the point today where I tend to invoke his name alongside the names of Helen Keller, Naim Ateek, Des Wilson, Malcolm X etc, all notable figures in liberation theology
We must seek not to canonize him into some secular sainthood, but rather understand and analyze his place in the extensive, often overlooked history of liberation theology
IDK I think it's pretty important not to read too much into somebody making a dumb post on a site that has mechanisms built in to psychologically reward people for bad posts. I'm really not sure what this has to do with John Brown, that person is just dumb and it sounds like from the replies you witnessed basically everybody agrees.
Yeah, we know about that shit account and regularly make fun of it. Uphold
thought.
radical aesthetics with no ideological prescriptions or uncomfortable history and propaganda to defend against.