I seriously doubt that hypocritical Christians are driving people away from the religion as a whole. Yes, the evangelicals may be slightly more fanatical and hateful than they’ve ever been in the past, but this whole phenomenon has been around for 1500+ years, and it really hasn’t changed too much over that period of time.
I heard a captivating radio interview today with journalist Victoria St. Martin reporting for Inside Climate News, who is covering the upshot of a “heat-dome” event in the summer of 2021 in the northern part of Oregon, a region of the United States in which normal temperatures for that time of year are mild in the low 80s. During this period lasting almost a week, afternoon highs ranged between 108 and 116. The heat was so intense that cable car metal melted, asphalt buckled, and 72 lives were lost to heat stroke.
Obviously, climate change is making certain parts of the world increasingly inhabitable, but for some reason, the folks associated with this tragedy didn’t simply write this off with an “oh well, let’s move on.” Rather, they’re suing Big Oil for causing these fatalities, and for other damages, which are expected to reach $1.5 billion.
As suggested here, the rest of the world thinks that the United States’ demand that it proliferate guns throughout its society qualifies us as completely insane. Hard to deny that.
The real issue, of course, is that this conversation is not happening at the level of gun dealers, but between the National Rifle Association and our lawmaking bodies. It’s not about a few thousand dollars; it’s about hundreds of billions of dollars.
And the results are the bullet-riddled bodies of our children, as if U.S. capitalism could possibly care.
Did God give you your love of other animals, or was it part of your basic nature?
18th Century Scottish philosopher David Hume spoke to us on how our minds interact with the world around us to form our base of knowledge, saying, “We always disbelieve the greater miracle.” In other words, when two of our perceptions appear to contradict one another, we automatically accept whichever seems to be more likely.
In the case at left, there is no doubt that someone is lying, or, at least, is 100% incorrect in what they are asserting to be true. In this case, it’s either the driver of an SUV bearing various flags and a Trump sticker, or the world bioscientific community.
Hmmm. That’s a toughie.
It’s said that when one joins a cult, the first thing one learns is that everyone else is lying, and the only source of truth is the cult leader himself.
Let’s extend that into the world of Trump/MAGA. These people are told, and appear to honestly believe, that anyone who is against Trump is a member of the “radical left” that “hates America.”
Think of all the progressives you know who want to see Trump removed from U.S. political life. Do you know a single person who actually hates America?
Actually, many people don’t even defend what benefits them.
The typical Trump supporter is a great example. Sure, if you’re a billionaire, you love those enormous tax cuts.
But suppose you’re in the working class. Trump doesn’t support unions, he’s not helping you with your drug costs or your kids’ education. He’s working to reduce your Social Security and Medicare benefits.
You’re supporting a man who’s doing everything he can to make your life as miserable as possible.
The author of the meme here makes a fabulous point, but one sure doesn’t hear this from many people.
For instance, how is it possible that Trump has any support after being indicted in multiple jurisdictions for attempting to overthrow the U.S. government?
Where are the Republicans who should be saying, “I can’t stay behind this any further?”
I think what the Republicans are going to find out is that most women actually do care about their reproductive rights, and that there is nothing “abnormal” about this.
Of course, female Trump supporters also believe that only the former president can stop the “invasion” of “vermin” at the southern border, stop “runaway inflation,” prevent the “radical left from turning our country into socialist Venezuela,” etc.
If you were tasked with identifying a trend in human civilization that extended from the Dark Ages into the 21st Century, you might choose the development and implementation of science. Solutions in everything from medicine to mechanization to information technology have made our lives longer, healthier, and more productive. One could have drawn a straight line, or perhaps an exponential curve, through our progress over the past 1500 years.
Until the advent of Donald Trump, that is. Now an entire political party is defining itself as anti-science in a number of arenas–certainly insofar as the climate is concerned.
Having said that, it now appears that Trump, formerly distinctly anti-EV, has softened his position here. Why? Perhaps because Elon Musk has agreed to fund the former president’s campaign to the tune of $45 million per month.
Isn’t this illegal, given election finance laws? No. This is what’s called a “super-PAC”; it’s how billionaires bypass our legal system.
