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Rachel Wagner

@drrachelwagner.bsky.social

1.6K followers 3.5K following 2.5K posts

Author, Cowboy Apocalypse (2025) and Godwired (2012). Prof of Religious Studies @ Ithaca College, mom & caregiver, disgruntled idealist, loud introvert. Religion, gaming, politics, media, film. #cowboyapocalypse https://tinyurl.com/CowboyApocalypse

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · Apr 4

Out now! I’m up for writing short pieces for outlets, interviews, whatever helps people get the info. There’s a whole chapter on guns (13 ways of looking at a gun).

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · Jan 15

Here's a code for 30% off my book, releasing in February. Want to understand more about the relationship between guns, media, and apocalypticism in America? I spent 10 years thinking about it. Review for a journal or a podcast or a news outlet? Let me know and I can probably get you a free copy.

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 6h

If the Epstein files are a witch hunt, why hasn’t anyone yet thrown Trump in a pond to see if he floats? 🧙‍♀️ 🧹

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 13h

Is the ball inside the goal or outside the goal?

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 16h

I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 19h

I don’t know, maybe a government shut down is the best we can hope for to stop Trump from more deadly chicanery. If the government isn’t going to function morally anyway, stopping it completely seems like the best plan.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 21h

An admin clamped down hard on a deadline I thought was soft & it was going to hurt other faculty in my charge. I fell apart bc it felt like a moral wound & a breach in community, bc moral wounds happen every day—every hour—in this country & we need spaces where care matters & perfection doesn’t.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 22h

ICE is trying to preemptively scare Americans so when Trump’s government posts officers outside voting areas brown Americans won’t even show up to vote, afraid they’ll be sent God knows where.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

It makes me think about why trans people are so unsettling for MAGA: uncanniness of NOT being able to anchor ANYONE into man or woman, bc anybody could be trans, bc gender has always been performative & surgery/hormones WORK. They act out this discomfort by hyperrealizing their own gender act. 3/3

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

So they are performing gender, but as a way of insisting upon the gender binary that they believe is "in the Bible." So by making themselves hyper-feminized, they perform the insistence of distinction between men and women. This is a way of trying to act out authentication of the Bible... 2/3

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

I was talking to my partner this morning about how cultures imprint on bodies, and so we can read the MAGA women's look (what some call Mar-a-lago face) as the imprint of a rigid gender binary onto their faces and bodies. 1/3

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

One of the ways I should have known I wouldn’t be a great chair of my department is I can’t just run into campus whenever something needs to be done bc I have 2 kids with disabilities. And my evenings are booked by default. Can’t let myself be eaten alive, so I’m always behind with pointless tasks.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you so much. I spent ten years on this study, trying to understand the mechanisms at work.

Reposted by Rachel Wagner

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 1d

ICE getting tailed like it’s a heist movie. Chicago is turning the tables.

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Oh my God. So guns for them are demon hunters. Tear gas is purity juice. Busting car windows is like playing Buffy. These are apocalyptic rituals, very serious play acting of an apocalyptic action movie based on real belief. Holy hell (literally).

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

I hear that. I walk around with running commentary in my head all the time. Then I get overwhelmed too with the thought of trying to write it all down, in some coherent and probably needfully brief form.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

This looks good:

Convocation Unscripted+LIVE Webinar today at 5 EST

The Convocation Unscripted team (Robert P. Jones, Jemar Tisby, Diana Butler Bass, and Kristin Du Mez) offer their October monthly LIVE webinar, where they will discuss the ongoing [religious] threats to democracy...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Convocation Unscripted - Live Recording. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

You’re invited to join us for a live discussion. Welcome to "The Convocation Unscripted," a free-wheeling conversation between Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby. We ...

us02web.zoom.us

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Yep. It's shockingly amoral while claiming to be holy.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Apparently feminism is demonic. Not getting married, not having babies, is evil. (So say some Christians)

Feminism Is Demonic | Holy Disruption with Heather Schott

YouTube video by Mercy Culture

www.youtube.com

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Fixed an intolerable typo!

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

The either/or calculation is simple bc they’re simple people. Good vs evil, period. So if ISIS is evil & Hamas is evil then Antifa is evil because they don’t see the “good” in Trump’s Christian nationalist regime. Enemies are “terrorists” ie “demonic” in an end times battle. Expect “holy” violence.

Kristi Noem compares antifa to MS-13, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State

Homeland security secretary calls loosely affiliated network of anti-fascist street activists ‘just as dangerous’

www.theguardian.com

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Yep. And I feel like I don’t have enough time to write these things out in proper essay form because every day it’s some new “oh shit—I see what they’re doing now.”

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

Arguments that people have constitutional rights are meaningless if those people aren’t seen as people but as demons.

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 1d

If “Antifa” is code for “anyone who doesn’t support Christian nationalism” then it is also code for “demonic forces.” Because they literally see this as an apocalyptic battle of good versus evil. That’s why violence, murder, and arrest of children is AOK for them. And they won’t stop.

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Reposted by Rachel Wagner

Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 2d

The fascism will continue until every woman in America buys and wears a horse sweater.

A brown sweater with a white horse rearing (Abercrombie)

Brown sweater with a brown horse head (Altar’d State)

Pale brown sweatshirt with two red and gold horses rearing (Free people)

Green fair isle sweater with brown horse heads and red apples (KJP)

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Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 2d

Leaving spiritual petit fours under pillows on public benches.

Rachel Wagner @drrachelwagner.bsky.social · 2d