Those of you who read conservative/Christian news sources may know what my title is referencing. Within hours of the initial news reports of the Hamas attacks in Southern Israel, the good Christians were already out with “money is fungible” and therefore “Biden is responsible” claims. There were no “thoughts and prayers”, or “let us wait for the bodies to get cold before we do politics” this time. They went straight to “Biden to blame”.
For instance, here is the good Christian… Erick Ericson
He follows up with this tweet, suggesting that every single death is on Biden.
I want to explore this angle a little bit because I do agree that money is fungible, and I do think that our money (and the choices we make in how we spend that money) funds terrorism. But not in ways that Mr. Erickson thinks.
Have you noticed that all of the world's most autocratic regimes tend to have one thing in common: They all sit on a lot of oil/natural gas and have that as their primary export. This is true of Iran, of Saudi Arabia, and of Russia. And speaking generically, the key feature of oil is that it is a product that can be dug up from the ground for not that much cost and sold at a significant profit. You can put “blood diamonds” into the same category. And before oil and blood diamonds, there was slavery ~ you could capture people at a relatively low cost, and then sell them abroad where the demand was high.
These regimes use the money that they make from selling oil to suppress their own people; and one of the means of this suppression is the promotion of a hyper-nationalistic disinformation worldview amongst its own citizens that blames outsiders for having defiled their national honor. The national honor must be avenged, and therefore, they must also export that violence overseas.
As Mr Erickson says, the funding for Hamas comes from Iran. And where does Iran get its money? From its only export, which is crude oil. And what props up crude oil prices? Consumers who like to drive gasoline powered cars, even though most consumers have a better choice these days. I am referring specifically to the battery powered electric cars available to gasoline consumers in the US. The money that we spend on gasoline props up crude oil prices, which is how Iran (and Russia, and Saudi Arabia) can spread their tyrannical ideology. If we all stopped consuming gasoline, then those regimes would disappear entirely.
So what does Mr Erickson have to say about battery powered electric cars? He should be concerned about money being fungible, right? He should be applauding the Biden administrations push for electric cars, right ? Money is fungible, right?
Nope!
He responds with mockery.
He responds with disinformation.
As an aside, I don’t know the specific story he is referencing above, but there is a lot of fake news stories about electric cars are more expensive to drive than gasoline driven cars (TL;DR...they are not). I suspect all of these stories are funded by the oil industry, but there may be the occasional misinformed contrarian idiot as well.
Now, I don't mean to pick on Mr. Erickson. I do enjoy reading his tweets as a window into the worldview of the Christian conservative, and his approach to “money is fungible” except when it comes to money paid at the gas station is not unique.
Here is RNC research, for instance.
Now, I understand that the comparison I have made above, where I bracket slaves and oil in the same category would be offensive to some of you. I understand the difference between a human being sold as a slave, and gasoline being sold as a product. They are absolutely not the same thing. For instance, when I make my spending decisions, I will *consider* purchasing gasoline; but I will not ever consider purchasing a slave, or anything produced by slave labor.
But, in the spirit of the “money is fungible” slogan so popular with the Christian conservative crowd today, I hope you will all consider redirecting your spending decisions away from gasoline.