spaceghoti @ spaceghoti @lemmy.one

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I was fortunate that my father was still agnostic at the time and wouldn't allow my mother to force me to church after I decided I wasn't going. He later converted after he was diagnosed with cancer, so had that happened earlier, I probably would have been shit out of luck.

As it was, my mother still harassed me for years after, until I finally cut contact.

They know. I stopped attending church in my teens, and my mother never stopped looking for opportunities to re-convert me. I no longer take her calls.

I want to add, this observation really stood out to me:

People feel drawn to religious communities because of that word, "community." People want fellowship, to have other people who will love and support you. But I was struck by how lonely you seemed when you were in this lifestyle and when you were married. It seems a lot of people feel alone in this community.

People hail religion as a ready-made source of community. But I think this forgets how easily that community can isolate you and create a lonely environment. Just because you're surrounded by people yelling about how they're looking after your best interests doesn't make it true.

I don't see how they aren't both rotten at the core. They both spring from the same Abrahamic religion. They both cite extremely fallible and frequently inaccurate texts as scriptures. They both cherry-pick what they want from scripture and knowledge. Neither is better than the other. The only reason that Christianity isn't just as violent as Islam today is because most of the Christian world is leashed by secularism, which the Islamic world rejected a thousand years ago.

In fact, Jesus was very pro-war/conflict and anti-immigrant. Shall I quote the gospel verses demonstrating it?

Well, yes and no. Yes, during the Islamic Golden Age they successfully introduced a lot of valuable knowledge. There's a reason our numbers are called "Arabic" and most of the stars we can see have Arabic names. However, the idea that they've been strictly defensive is not accurate. After the fall of the Golden Age, when clerics took back their power and declared mathematics to be satanic they began their campaign to establish a global caliphate. They're brutal with anyone they consider sexually deviant or violate gender norms, and they're not above attempting to invade a neighbor if they think they can get away with it in the name of Allah.

Just like Christianity throughout history.

The difference is that they have a lot of catching up to do before they can equal the atrocities of Christianity. And from the look of it, this lag isn't from lack of trying. They just haven't had as much time as Christians to commit all of the atrocities.

"Rules for thee but not for me." Which brings us around to Wilhoit's observation:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

Have you sought help for this problem? It's not too late.

Koch's reason.com. One of the most ironic site names in the history of the Internet.

Who wants to voluntarily move into a slum?

I wish he had.

It's not like new culture wars won't be started and fought just the same. But there was a time when slavery was the topic of a fierce culture war in the US, and it wasn't resolved until it broke out into a literal war. Now, nearly two hundred years later, it's still unacceptable to suggest that people who look different are better off as property rather than people. Even Florida's attempts to whitewash Southern slavery doesn't go so far as to blame the slaves weren't people.

They've lost this culture war, just as they lost the fight for slavery and later to keep the population segregated. They'll try again in time, but for the moment, the question of abortion and homosexual rights is largely settled at a cultural level. The conservatives lost, and that's why they've largely moved on to nitpicking the definition of gender and trying (unsuccessfully) to defend their legal victories on women's reproductive rights.

This is a perfect example of how liberalism enables fascism

Today I learned that being inclusive and working toward the betterment of all people instead of a privileged elite is fascism.

That still doesn't make this a black and white situation. Would Israel be able to get away with selling their atrocities to the Israeli people if Hamas weren't dedicated to doing the same to Israel? If the Palestinian government had been willing to accept compromise forty to fifty years ago, would Israel have been able to do what they've done?

The answer, of course, is no. No one's hands are clean. And there's really no easy solution that doesn't violate ethics because we're on the outside looking to force solutions on them. Just like they're doing to each other. If we abandon Israel, then they'll suffer what they've done to the Palestinians, and the Israeli people don't deserve that any more than the Palestinians. You can't tell me you have a better solution because you don't.

So you know exactly what details give you the moral probity to make these confident statements? I'm glad we have authorities like you to give us moral clarity. I had no idea you were in possession of state level secrets.

Genocide is bad. Both Hamas and the Israeli government are guilty. But the Israeli people and the Palestinian people are not their governments. We can't abandon either of them and keep the moral high ground. So how do we accomplish all of those goals and get their governments to accept it.

You can't force your black and white perspective on this no matter how satisfying you might find it.

Yup. UFOs are definitely a major concern. Certainly more important than fascists taking over our government.

It would be nice if the world was so easily divided into black and white, but it isn't. Politics is complicated, and the actions of the Israeli government are not the actions or even the will of the Israeli people. Israel deserves to exist, and so does Palestine. Acknowledging the rights of both people doesn't negate condemnation of what either government has done in violation of human rights.

Trying to walk that middle line between their right to exist and disavowing their actions is harder than you think. You think it ought to be easy, except for the people who think differently from you and insist that the opposite solution you want is the only acceptable path.

We don't have the privilege of knowing everything about the situation. Trying to drive from the back seat isn't helpful.

These aren't his plans. These are the plans of smarter, more capable men. Organizations like the Heritage Foundation don't go away easily.

From a fundamentalist standpoint, the vast majority of scientists who ever lived will be going to hell because they don't believe. With an endless supply of heat to provide energy, you better believe they already installed air conditioning.