So, I was reading this enjoyable thread and a common statement, one that I myself have used many times before, is that jokesters used to hate Christians who tried to enforce public morality, and have since turned their sights on the authoritarian left instead.
But political Christianity never went away. They, most notably, continue to make up the largest single portion of the Iowa primary electorate for Republicans and are an organized and highly participatory, if quiet, part of the electorate. Its just that everyone else has moved away from them, and moved away on everything. I think that Donald Trump views these people as rubes, there's no way he couldn't. The Democratic base has felt that way since before I was born, though it took longer to trickle up to their leadership. Politics is a meat grinder and the longer you are in power, the more often you have to deviate from what it is that the Bible supposedly says, even people who first enter political discourse as Christians often leave as something else (and the reverse almost never occurs.)
On this site specifically, though, Christians are finding it a bit easier than they would have in days past. Mister Metokur states, and I will take his word as I would never waste an hour of my time listening to such a debate, that atheists have been losing more often recently due to all of the fedora memes. And I do know of the memes of which he speaks, he is right that atheists are more than ever victims of mockery now. And yet we do, ultimately, almost all agree with them. Or, at least, agree with them that Jesus Christ is not our own personal savior and lord who died upon the cross, was resurrected and ascended to heaven several days later.
So is the average shit-lord no longer against the ideals espoused in standard American Christian politics? No, I do not think we are. Its just that it is irrelevant and irrelevancy is hard to hate. The Prohibition Party exists, it is probably full of mockable people, but they do not have any affect on the general population and no one here cares to talk about them. Increasingly, I feel that we treat religious politicians the same way (hell, there is a ton of overlap.) And what is it that makes a cow a cow instead of just a random crazy person? It is about power, hypocrisy, an incongruity with reality and desire to force other people to go along with it. ADF is, (well, was,) allowed to run a charity with blue check mark backing despite being clearly inept and a scam artist. Brianna Wu is cited as an expert on harassment despite faking his college degree, having restraining orders taken out against him, being kicked off an airplane for acting insane and... everything else. EvaXephon and Onision get massive threads despite one being a dime a dozen indie weeb developer and the other basically being a social media commentator. SJW journalists get the facts wrong time and time again, with media outlets being more willing to re-write history than admit their own biases. Its the following, power and "respectability" that these dis-respectable people have, which gives them their threads here.
Society gives no respect to political Christianity, and thus there is little to hate. But that does not mean that we, ourselves respect it. We do not make fun of autists and tug boaters in a Christian manner, we do it in a religiously neutral way--at best. And if we speak of someone in a morally superior tone it is not because we are going to heaven while they are going to hell. The presence of religion has left the zeitgeist of our little society, it is a non-factor. :islamic::islamic::islamic:It is a joke. :islamic::islamic::islamic: And not a joke about religious beliefs either.
And our "little society," in my opinion, is actually pretty closely tied to general American youth culture. In regards to those primaries, the ones where Christians still hold sway, they can win Iowa... but won't come close in New Hampshire and nowadays even South Carolina is more likely to follow NH's lead over IA's. The religious busy-body aspect of the Democratic Party, which was an equal participant in hearings about comic books, rock and roll and video games in times past.... no longer exists. This happened in most of Europe half a century or more ago, and while Christianity does continue to have dedicated and political populations of true believers there, sometimes even as the official state religion, religious life does not have affect on general culture in most of their nations. Is that America's future.... or are we there already?
Yes, in present times, that voting block is still there, and still large. And yet, do people listen to them? Abortion is the one issue where they perhaps hold sway, but its one that is not inherently out of step with either party's values. Two people, in theory, share a body, one has full control over it but the other, which is only a temporary visitor, does not take up as much maintenance and will die without it. Once upon a time, it was an issue that split between parties, with differing votes on both sides. But it is not now, few Democrats will come out in favor of more restrictions and thus Republicans get the religious vote by default. Having gained that vote, they pull strings behind the scenes on a host of other little interest issues that benefit the church- tax exemptions, allowance for politics from the pulpit, religious monuments on public grounds, etc. When a mainstream Republican defends these party policies before a mainstream audience, its from a non-religious perspective. Tradition, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the beauty of churches and bell chimes. But they are not argued from a religious perspective. Over 70 percent of the country claims to be religious, "your God says so," should carry a lot of weight.... but it doesn't. Not even for Republicans, and certainly not for the Kiwifarms version of them.
Why is that so? Yes, the religious argument is not effective, but lots of parties have ineffective arguments, made for ideological consistency. I feel as though those arguments are not just un-persuasive, they are actual turn-offs. "The Bible tells me so" is a lazy argument on the face of it and in most places, even ones with a moderate Republican/conservative edge, it is worse than saying nothing. So its ideologically inconsistent, then? Yes, in the era not only of Trump but of the past decade's Republican congress, the mantra of the Republican party has not been towards control from above. And the mantra of Democrats, while it might be that, is definitely not for control from heaven above. Neither side is on their side and neither side will be any time soon. And yet, they will still be on "our" side, as the scraps we give, small though they be, are more than the Democrats have to offer.
But political Christianity never went away. They, most notably, continue to make up the largest single portion of the Iowa primary electorate for Republicans and are an organized and highly participatory, if quiet, part of the electorate. Its just that everyone else has moved away from them, and moved away on everything. I think that Donald Trump views these people as rubes, there's no way he couldn't. The Democratic base has felt that way since before I was born, though it took longer to trickle up to their leadership. Politics is a meat grinder and the longer you are in power, the more often you have to deviate from what it is that the Bible supposedly says, even people who first enter political discourse as Christians often leave as something else (and the reverse almost never occurs.)
On this site specifically, though, Christians are finding it a bit easier than they would have in days past. Mister Metokur states, and I will take his word as I would never waste an hour of my time listening to such a debate, that atheists have been losing more often recently due to all of the fedora memes. And I do know of the memes of which he speaks, he is right that atheists are more than ever victims of mockery now. And yet we do, ultimately, almost all agree with them. Or, at least, agree with them that Jesus Christ is not our own personal savior and lord who died upon the cross, was resurrected and ascended to heaven several days later.
So is the average shit-lord no longer against the ideals espoused in standard American Christian politics? No, I do not think we are. Its just that it is irrelevant and irrelevancy is hard to hate. The Prohibition Party exists, it is probably full of mockable people, but they do not have any affect on the general population and no one here cares to talk about them. Increasingly, I feel that we treat religious politicians the same way (hell, there is a ton of overlap.) And what is it that makes a cow a cow instead of just a random crazy person? It is about power, hypocrisy, an incongruity with reality and desire to force other people to go along with it. ADF is, (well, was,) allowed to run a charity with blue check mark backing despite being clearly inept and a scam artist. Brianna Wu is cited as an expert on harassment despite faking his college degree, having restraining orders taken out against him, being kicked off an airplane for acting insane and... everything else. EvaXephon and Onision get massive threads despite one being a dime a dozen indie weeb developer and the other basically being a social media commentator. SJW journalists get the facts wrong time and time again, with media outlets being more willing to re-write history than admit their own biases. Its the following, power and "respectability" that these dis-respectable people have, which gives them their threads here.
Society gives no respect to political Christianity, and thus there is little to hate. But that does not mean that we, ourselves respect it. We do not make fun of autists and tug boaters in a Christian manner, we do it in a religiously neutral way--at best. And if we speak of someone in a morally superior tone it is not because we are going to heaven while they are going to hell. The presence of religion has left the zeitgeist of our little society, it is a non-factor. :islamic::islamic::islamic:It is a joke. :islamic::islamic::islamic: And not a joke about religious beliefs either.
And our "little society," in my opinion, is actually pretty closely tied to general American youth culture. In regards to those primaries, the ones where Christians still hold sway, they can win Iowa... but won't come close in New Hampshire and nowadays even South Carolina is more likely to follow NH's lead over IA's. The religious busy-body aspect of the Democratic Party, which was an equal participant in hearings about comic books, rock and roll and video games in times past.... no longer exists. This happened in most of Europe half a century or more ago, and while Christianity does continue to have dedicated and political populations of true believers there, sometimes even as the official state religion, religious life does not have affect on general culture in most of their nations. Is that America's future.... or are we there already?
Yes, in present times, that voting block is still there, and still large. And yet, do people listen to them? Abortion is the one issue where they perhaps hold sway, but its one that is not inherently out of step with either party's values. Two people, in theory, share a body, one has full control over it but the other, which is only a temporary visitor, does not take up as much maintenance and will die without it. Once upon a time, it was an issue that split between parties, with differing votes on both sides. But it is not now, few Democrats will come out in favor of more restrictions and thus Republicans get the religious vote by default. Having gained that vote, they pull strings behind the scenes on a host of other little interest issues that benefit the church- tax exemptions, allowance for politics from the pulpit, religious monuments on public grounds, etc. When a mainstream Republican defends these party policies before a mainstream audience, its from a non-religious perspective. Tradition, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the beauty of churches and bell chimes. But they are not argued from a religious perspective. Over 70 percent of the country claims to be religious, "your God says so," should carry a lot of weight.... but it doesn't. Not even for Republicans, and certainly not for the Kiwifarms version of them.
Why is that so? Yes, the religious argument is not effective, but lots of parties have ineffective arguments, made for ideological consistency. I feel as though those arguments are not just un-persuasive, they are actual turn-offs. "The Bible tells me so" is a lazy argument on the face of it and in most places, even ones with a moderate Republican/conservative edge, it is worse than saying nothing. So its ideologically inconsistent, then? Yes, in the era not only of Trump but of the past decade's Republican congress, the mantra of the Republican party has not been towards control from above. And the mantra of Democrats, while it might be that, is definitely not for control from heaven above. Neither side is on their side and neither side will be any time soon. And yet, they will still be on "our" side, as the scraps we give, small though they be, are more than the Democrats have to offer.
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