Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Five stupid things...
Steve Shives does a regular series of these, but I don't usually post them. Sometimes, though,... well, do you see why my confidence in America has been taking a beating lately?
I thought we reached rock bottom during the George W. Bush administration, but Republicans, at least, have plummeted past that level without even slowing down.
Here's a little more about #4, which I'll admit that I'm posting mostly for the great title: Planned Parenthood is Not Selling Baby Parts, You Fucking Idiots.
Sorry, but that's just the mood I'm in right now. How in the hell did we get here? How did my country end up like this?
When, oh, when will we finally kick the GOP into the trash-heap of history.
Mary, I grew up in a very conservative state, a solidly Republican state. I didn't know anyone who wasn't a Christian - as far as I knew, at least - all through high school.
And yes, that was back during the Cold War and the hysteria about 'godless Commies.' Right-wing politicians put "In God We Trust" on our money and "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.
But religion seemed harmless back then. Christians were the default, but no one seemed to take it too seriously. At college, the handful of right-wing religious nuts - "the God Squad," we called them - were just a joke.
So how did we become a country of religious fanatics? As a two-word explanation, "religious fanaticism" works as well as anything (I'd probably say "faith-based thinking," myself), but I'm not sure it really explains anything.
Indeed, as an explanation, "Southern strategy" might work better, because it was racism which gave the right-wing the political power to change our country. And it was actually racism which combined our religious fanatics into one political party.
The 'Moral Majority' and other right-wing Christian movements got their start trying to keep government-supported segregated schools. (Abortion came along later, a popular issue for public consumption, but the real concern, the initial concern, was race-based.)
By deliberately wooing white racists, the Republican Party was able to take the entire South from the Democrats and attract many Northern racists, too. Lee Atwater described how they put economic issues in racial terms and thus succeeded in attracting the so-called Reagan Democrats - working-class whites who voted against their own best interests because of racist arguments.
That Southern strategy put all of America's racists into one political party, but it also put America's religious fanatics into the same party. (Religious fanaticism and racism tend to go together, at least here in America.) Those people gave the Republican Party the political power to cut taxes on the rich and otherwise turn our country to the right.
But they also became the GOP base. Republican leaders thought to use them, but the inmates took control of the asylum. Really, I think that's how we got here - religious fanaticism, racism, and cynical, selfish attempts to gain political power no matter what the cost to our country, all mixed together.
It's a very toxic mix, isn't it? It's turned the entire Republican Party faith-based. Reality means nothing to them, because they've got their dogma and that's that. Ironically, this comes at a time when our only enemies are also religious fanatics. What a combination!
And isn't bottom line power and control...something twisted politics and religion do very well because most people do not do "critical thinking" and are so gullible. They don't have to think...it's all done for them. I agree absolutely about racism and religious conservatism. I live in the South and see it everyday. Same with the gay community, Jews, Catholics, non believers and any other foreign group. They have some sort of need to feel superior and show their arrogance towards others. The right wing politicians and church leaders know how to take advantage of this to their benefit.
Yes, absolutely. People who are willing to use racism for political advantage have already demonstrated that anything goes.
I suppose it's easy to justify, because even the leaders are faith-based. They don't just think they're right, they know they're right. And advancing their own wealth and political power is clearly for the greater good, isn't it? :)
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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4 comments:
I'll tell you in one word how we got here...RELIGIOUS FANATICISM.....ok two words
Mary, I grew up in a very conservative state, a solidly Republican state. I didn't know anyone who wasn't a Christian - as far as I knew, at least - all through high school.
And yes, that was back during the Cold War and the hysteria about 'godless Commies.' Right-wing politicians put "In God We Trust" on our money and "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.
But religion seemed harmless back then. Christians were the default, but no one seemed to take it too seriously. At college, the handful of right-wing religious nuts - "the God Squad," we called them - were just a joke.
So how did we become a country of religious fanatics? As a two-word explanation, "religious fanaticism" works as well as anything (I'd probably say "faith-based thinking," myself), but I'm not sure it really explains anything.
Indeed, as an explanation, "Southern strategy" might work better, because it was racism which gave the right-wing the political power to change our country. And it was actually racism which combined our religious fanatics into one political party.
The 'Moral Majority' and other right-wing Christian movements got their start trying to keep government-supported segregated schools. (Abortion came along later, a popular issue for public consumption, but the real concern, the initial concern, was race-based.)
By deliberately wooing white racists, the Republican Party was able to take the entire South from the Democrats and attract many Northern racists, too. Lee Atwater described how they put economic issues in racial terms and thus succeeded in attracting the so-called Reagan Democrats - working-class whites who voted against their own best interests because of racist arguments.
That Southern strategy put all of America's racists into one political party, but it also put America's religious fanatics into the same party. (Religious fanaticism and racism tend to go together, at least here in America.) Those people gave the Republican Party the political power to cut taxes on the rich and otherwise turn our country to the right.
But they also became the GOP base. Republican leaders thought to use them, but the inmates took control of the asylum. Really, I think that's how we got here - religious fanaticism, racism, and cynical, selfish attempts to gain political power no matter what the cost to our country, all mixed together.
It's a very toxic mix, isn't it? It's turned the entire Republican Party faith-based. Reality means nothing to them, because they've got their dogma and that's that. Ironically, this comes at a time when our only enemies are also religious fanatics. What a combination!
Thanks for the comment, Mary!
And isn't bottom line power and control...something twisted politics and religion do very well because most people do not do "critical thinking" and are so gullible. They don't have to think...it's all done for them. I agree absolutely about racism and religious conservatism. I live in the South and see it everyday. Same with the gay community, Jews, Catholics, non believers and any other foreign group. They have some sort of need to feel superior and show their arrogance towards others. The right wing politicians and church leaders know how to take advantage of this to their benefit.
Yes, absolutely. People who are willing to use racism for political advantage have already demonstrated that anything goes.
I suppose it's easy to justify, because even the leaders are faith-based. They don't just think they're right, they know they're right. And advancing their own wealth and political power is clearly for the greater good, isn't it? :)
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