Kansas Crimson

Feral wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:44 am Move over JFK Jr., there's another crazy person who'd like some attention:

(At least it's not a cult.)

Sparko wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 11:54 am

Feral wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:44 am Move over JFK Jr., there's another crazy person who'd like some attention:

(At least it's not a cult.)

Terrorist threats. That is not protected speech. Allowing it to go on endangers us all. The DoJ must become more aggressive policing these guys.

Sparko wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 9:26 pm Boebert should be sued for slander there. They pop off constantly lying and defaming people.

twocoach wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 6:46 am

Sparko wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 9:26 pm Boebert should be sued for slander there. They pop off constantly lying and defaming people.

Boebert should be voted out and go back to running a bar as that is probably the pinnacle of her actual abilities.

Mjl wrote: ↑Sat Jun 24, 2023 12:16 am

twocoach wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 6:46 am

Sparko wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 9:26 pm Boebert should be sued for slander there. They pop off constantly lying and defaming people.

Boebert should be voted out and go back to running a bar as that is probably the pinnacle of her actual abilities.

Would you be saying that if she was a man?

It's the house of representatives. It's not supposed to be the elite. I'm glad people like her are in it. Idiots deserve representation too.

The January 6th crowd was operating on a false premise. Because of that, their actions were wrong. Had their underlying belief about the facts of the situation been correct, the whole thing would have come much closer to being justified. They were deranged, but not confused. If you want to address the root cause of the bubbling right wing extremism that is distressing the political establishment so much, you need to stop obsessing about tactics and decorum and focus on the ideas. The derangement is the thing. And if we are being intellectually honest, we must admit that there is a much bigger locus of derangement than QAnon forums or Trump speeches.

It’s politely referred to as “faith.” Faith! The belief in something just because you decide to believe it. Mainstream discourse has spent years now deriding the absurd lies of QAnon and Stop the Steal and all the lesser conspiracy theories that have enjoyed rising profiles in the Trump and post-Trump era. But all of these things, even the “Big Lie,” are babies compared to King Kong of American faith: religion. It is absurd for the same media that as a matter of course countenances prayer breakfasts and politicians proclaiming their love for Jesus to then denigrate the newer currents of faith that thousands of people followed directly to the Capitol on January 6. The “QAnon Shaman” in his face paint and head dress is no more ridiculous in substance or style than a Catholic priest in his robe and pendant proclaiming the holy liturgy. It’s little wonder that our nation’s press—the institution that everyone expects to shoot down lies of public importance—was unable to fact check our way out of Trumpism, after treating the pervasive mythology of Christianity with hushed respect for the last couple of centuries.

Religious freedom—great. Love it. Very important element of a society that is not riven by constant bloody religious crusades. Everyone has the right to their own personal faith. But when that faith is used as the rationale for public policies, it becomes fair game for brutal scrutiny. Indeed, it is the responsibility of the press to ensure that powerful people and institutions are forced to show the work behind the decisions they make. Public policies and decisions of broad social importance can be reasonably justified in many ways, and all of those ways should consist of some sort of plausible, logical argument that leads to “increasing the public good.” Faith will always fail to be a coherent reason for public policy, because it will always at some point dead end at a wall of pure belief. This is where logic stops. At this point, there is no meaningful difference between Christianity or QAnon or Mind-poisoned conviction that the 2016 election was stolen. All of those things are matters of faith. None of them hold up to real scrutiny. Yet all of these mythologies do not get treated equally. The Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, causing widespread abortion restrictions that have been damaging the lives of women for a full year now, was the outcome of a determined, decades-long assault on reproductive rights, rooted in right wing religious beliefs. There is no arguing with those who believe that abortion is murder; it is a matter of faith. And, if you buy that premise, their extremism becomes easy to understand: abortion becomes the equivalent of an annual holocaust, and drastic action becomes justified in the context of such an assault on human rights. They are, in other words, deranged, but not confused. There is no magic wand to wave to rid religious fundamentalists of their faith. But I cannot help thinking that had the press spent the past half century holding Christianity up to the same standard of scrutiny that it holds other political philosophies up to, the creep of fundamentalism up to its control of the Supreme Court could have been arrested.

We have given religion far too much respect in the public sphere. We have allowed a belief in private religious liberty to be weaponized into a long-term campaign to make America a religious state. We’ve let faith become an acceptable answer to questions that it has no logical claim to answering. When, over decades and decades, the public square is not scrupulously tended to, it becomes choked with the weeds of superstition. If we welcome religion into politics as an equal, and never force the religious world to confront its own contradictions, we can hardly be surprised when its adherents sink so deeply into their bizarro beliefs that they act on them. They may be deranged. But they are not confused.

Feral wrote: ↑Mon Jun 26, 2023 11:49 am Thanks for posting that fish, I agree with every word.

"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” Robert A.Heinlein

"The truth is that male religious leaders have had — and still have — an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women," Carter said. "They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.” Jimmy Carter

"My favorite part of the Bible is where God could have condemned slavery but chose to ban shellfish instead."
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What I mean is that religion has to be challenged, not respectfully welcomed, whenever it sticks its head into politics. Why is every presidential candidate able to proclaim their belief in Jesus with no subsequent pushback? Why do you believe in him? Do you believe in virgin birth? Do you believe in resurrection after death? Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in science? You can’t believe in both. Whenever a politician nods to the Bible as their inspiration, they should be interrogated. What’s so great about the Bible? Lots of shit in there that seems clearly impossible. Why do you believe it? What else do you believe that could not possibly be true? How do we know you can assess information properly? Why should non-Christians have any confidence that you can serve them when you operate according to a book they do not embrace? Why should any of us have confidence in you as a rational adult if you abandon your reason to this Book of Myths?