J. Pharoah Doss: Right-wing simpletons, self-immolators, and flame fanners

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST OWEI LAKEMFA Constance Garnett translated the majority of Russian literature into English in the first half of the twentieth century. After translating Dostoevsky’s novel Demons, Garnett changed the title to The Possessed. Decades after Garnett’s death, translators changed the title back to Demons to remain true to Dostoevsky’s theme.& A Russian literary critic explained, “For Dostoevsky, ideas are living cultural forces that have the capacity to seduce and subordinate the individual consciousness, and the individual who has become alienated from his own concrete national traditions is particularly susceptible.” Dostoevsky’s characters displayed what is now known as ideological possession. The ideology itself isn’t necessarily the problem; it’s the way people believe it, which can be harmful. Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, by Vasily Perov (1872).& Vasily Perov/Wikimedia Commons In 2015, the Advocate, a popular LGBT news outlet, reported that antigay Texas pastor Rick Scarbrough, who had promised to go to jail to defend traditional marriage, was now threatening to put himself on fire to prevent marriage equality. The US Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriage shortly after Scarbrough’s threat. Scarbrough informed the reporters that he never intended to set himself on fire, but his ideological enemies encouraged him to do...