Random political thought thread.

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It's pretty amazing how far TJ Kirk has come along over the years. Libertarian to alt lite to woke left

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

This magic cuban headache gun sounds like a steaming pile of horseshit. I guess some people really want to bring back the cold war, huh? But of course, it's a great way to justify the bloated military budget.

I absolutely believe I still live in America.

 

[Red Herring]

This magic cuban headache gun sounds like a steaming pile of horseshit. I guess some people really want to bring back the cold war, huh? But of course, it's a great way to justify the bloated military budget.

I absolutely believe I still live in America.

Mass psychogenic illness - Wikipedia
... comes to mind, I think

 

[Lark]

This magic cuban headache gun sounds like a steaming pile of horseshit. I guess some people really want to bring back the cold war, huh? But of course, it's a great way to justify the bloated military budget.

I absolutely believe I still live in America.

While I'm inclined to believe, yeah, economics and old money is what most things boil down to in the end I think for the masses of Trump supporters, Bush supporters before Trump etc. a Cold War of some sort is something they just need to make sense of life and provide them with meaning.

If they cant find the bogeyman outside of the US and in the shape of something actually or supposedly alien, like China, Communism or Political Islam then it'll only wind up being something domestic that stands in for that bogeyman, ie liberals, the traditional enemies of the KKK, name it pretty much, Trump did show it was pretty easy to redirect angry dispossessed masses.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Mass psychogenic illness - Wikipedia
... comes to mind, I think

It sounds like a stretch but in 2015 (starting in the summer) and 2016, coupled with a loss of appetite, I found it difficult to hold food down and would be prone to vomiting, even for food I thought was delicious. I had a chest x-ray (which I actually thought was a neat experience seeing liquid flow around inside my body) and doctors look at it and they found no physical cause. So, I suppose something like this could be the case.

When I look at the actual examples, it's a very interesting rabbit hole. Seems to be something that happens with psychological stress.

 

[Jaguar]

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[The Cat]

 

[Jaguar]

Nothing like emailing lies to a vast number of people about an election just to rip them off to the tune of 250 million bucks. The prick belongs in jail.

 

[Burning Paradigm]

Ted Cruz is a tool, and I continue to apologize for him on behalf of my state.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I would have so much more respect for American evangelicals if there political views were more like that of the American Solidarity Party. As it seems to exist currently, though, it seems to be an almost nihilistic credo that essentially says that everything is permissible because God grants forgiveness to those who believe. I don't see much of a point to a religion that appears to dispense with the concept of morality altogether.

 

[theablekingedgar]

thatcher was a good prime minister.

 

[Lark]

I would have so much more respect for American evangelicals if there political views were more like that of the American Solidarity Party. As it seems to exist currently, though, it seems to be an almost nihilistic credo that essentially says that everything is permissible because God grants forgiveness to those who believe. I don't see much of a point to a religion that appears to dispense with the concept of morality altogether.

In a big sense that is my problem with current evangelism as it exists globally, I also do not like the priding of beliefs in the manner in which they do.

There was a time when I though the essential argument that faith (belief) mattered more than works was legit as God's favour or eternal life could not be earned, what could God want from man when God had created man in the first place. Fair enough. However, if that is the case why would God care what man believed?

It makes even less sense, while every actual discussion of God's judgement in the bible seems to actually involve actions, behaviour, choices and not this simple belief idea. Even all the myriad of teachings or remarks which talk about man being the image of God, that it was impossible to say you loved God, who had not seen, and hated your neighbour, who you had seen etc. Its all actions which seem to matter not motives and thoughts and beliefs.

I think the reason for it (also the problem with it) is that most of the evangelicals are still living out or reliving the reformation and many of its ideas and prejudices, or what errors entered into the mix at that time have simply been amplified since or atrophy has been added to entropy. I also think a lot of the tendencies within evangelism which are woeful have crossed over into culture and politics, a lot of the approach of individuals to online discussion, to differences of opinion and beliefs, conforms to that of evangelical believers and non-believers. Like if you ever read Erasmus and Luther's Discourse on Free Will, you'd be surprised just how much that, which is an exchange of letters, reads like an online discussion forum dispute.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I would have so much more respect for American evangelicals if there political views were more like that of the American Solidarity Party. As it seems to exist currently, though, it seems to be an almost nihilistic credo that essentially says that everything is permissible because God grants forgiveness to those who believe. I don't see much of a point to a religion that appears to dispense with the concept of morality altogether.

I sidewith actually ranked that party high for me. Like second to the greens.

Ideally I think American politics and government would operate with 7 or 8 parties.

-Liberal (the Clinton and Biden wing of the Democratic Party, and very moderate Republicans like McCain)
Right libertarian (think Justin Amash and Barry Goldwater, devotees of the Austrian school, Ron Paul, etc)
-Conservative (think Mitt Romney, Pat Buchanan)
-Left libertarian aka Libertarian Socialist (The ideas of Chomsky)
-Social Democrats or what most Americans refer to as Dem Socialists (Bernie, AOC, FDR)
-Socialist
-Christian Democrats aka American Solidarity
-Green Labour

And your points about evangelical Christians are spot on. Most are more concerned with faith than good deeds and morality. They are fundamentalists, no different than radical islamists and small but extreme sects of Judaism. It is commonly preached by evengelicals and fundamentalists that faith trumps good deeds and concepts like fairness or morality. Sinners in the hands of an angry god sort of bullshit.

 

[Jaguar]

I've always found Jennifer Granholm utterly charming.

 

[Lark]

I sidewith actually ranked that party high for me. Like second to the greens.

Ideally I think American politics and government would operate with 7 or 8 parties.

-Liberal (the Clinton and Biden wing of the Democratic Party, and very moderate Republicans like McCain)
Right libertarian (think Justin Amash and Barry Goldwater, devotees of the Austrian school, Ron Paul, etc)
-Conservative (think Mitt Romney, Pat Buchanan)
-Left libertarian aka Libertarian Socialist (The ideas of Chomsky)
-Social Democrats or what most Americans refer to as Dem Socialists (Bernie, AOC, FDR)
-Socialist
-Christian Democrats aka American Solidarity
-Green Labour

And your points about evangelical Christians are spot on. Most are more concerned with faith than good deeds and morality. They are fundamentalists, no different than radical islamists and small but extreme sects of Judaism. It is commonly preached by evengelicals and fundamentalists that faith trumps good deeds and concepts like fairness or morality. Sinners in the hands of an angry god sort of bullshit.

It depends on what you think the purpose of life is and what the world is, my understanding of Christianity is that is not entirely other worldly, or should not be, it should not be a case of "pie in the sky", or a "happy, eternal reward" in an after life. That may exist, I mean there are sayings and promises of angels, saints, Jesus, which mention such a thing but there are others. They refer to "the world to come" as a definite historical future in the temporal time line, not simply an "after life". The story in revelation is full of symbolism but it prophesies the eventual unification of a worldly paradise and an otherworldly paradise as the Christian "end game".

To be honest the entirely metaphysical, otherworldly varieties are total and utter "cop outs" and the amoral, beyond good and evil BS some of them are responsible for has been roundly attacked already in its history by authors like the guy who wrote "Confessions of a Justified Sinner", which is a story about a guy who kills and commits other crimes as he believes he is part of the chosen elect who can expect heavenly reward come what may or whether he does good or ill all the days of his life.

Your break down of the different parties is an interesting one but what about conservatives, or maybe traditionalists would be a better term, who arent capitalists or dont believe in free markets, privatization, class war etc.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It depends on what you think the purpose of life is and what the world is, my understanding of Christianity is that is not entirely other worldly, or should not be, it should not be a case of "pie in the sky", or a "happy, eternal reward" in an after life. That may exist, I mean there are sayings and promises of angels, saints, Jesus, which mention such a thing but there are others. They refer to "the world to come" as a definite historical future in the temporal time line, not simply an "after life". The story in revelation is full of symbolism but it prophesies the eventual unification of a worldly paradise and an otherworldly paradise as the Christian "end game".

To be honest the entirely metaphysical, otherworldly varieties are total and utter "cop outs" and the amoral, beyond good and evil BS some of them are responsible for has been roundly attacked already in its history by authors like the guy who wrote "Confessions of a Justified Sinner", which is a story about a guy who kills and commits other crimes as he believes he is part of the chosen elect who can expect heavenly reward come what may or whether he does good or ill all the days of his life.

Your break down of the different parties is an interesting one but what about conservatives, or maybe traditionalists would be a better term, who arent capitalists or dont believe in free markets, privatization, class war etc.

I think Jews, and to a lesser extent Catholics, and arguably Buddhists—I like their take that our deeds in the material realm are of utmost importance. As an agnostic atheist, I find a certain appeal in that. I find blind faith distasteful. What we do in this worldly realm is what really matters. Whether or not the reward of eternal life awaits—this is of secondary importance to me. Mind you, I don’t think questions of the beyond, the metaphysical, are to be discarded or dismissed. Those are important questions to ponder, but we shouldn’t let the end goal of an uncertain reward distract us from being decent corporeal beings. Nor should we dismiss the occasional pleasures of corporeal existence, so long as those pleasures don’t cause pain to other corporeal beings.

While people of the Protestant persuasion like to knock a lot of Catholic traditions, I also find an appeal in those such as confession. It can lead to self examination, if the intent is right.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It depends on what you think the purpose of life is and what the world is, my understanding of Christianity is that is not entirely other worldly, or should not be, it should not be a case of "pie in the sky", or a "happy, eternal reward" in an after life. That may exist, I mean there are sayings and promises of angels, saints, Jesus, which mention such a thing but there are others. They refer to "the world to come" as a definite historical future in the temporal time line, not simply an "after life". The story in revelation is full of symbolism but it prophesies the eventual unification of a worldly paradise and an otherworldly paradise as the Christian "end game".

To be honest the entirely metaphysical, otherworldly varieties are total and utter "cop outs" and the amoral, beyond good and evil BS some of them are responsible for has been roundly attacked already in its history by authors like the guy who wrote "Confessions of a Justified Sinner", which is a story about a guy who kills and commits other crimes as he believes he is part of the chosen elect who can expect heavenly reward come what may or whether he does good or ill all the days of his life.

Your break down of the different parties is an interesting one but what about conservatives, or maybe traditionalists would be a better term, who arent capitalists or dont believe in free markets, privatization, class war etc.

I would like to see an anti capitalist, socially Conservative party. I’m a live and let live person, but I take a broad traditionalist approach. I do believe families are crucial units, but in the other hand I don’t agree with a lot of American conservatives who believe in a very specific idea of one type of family as acceptable. For instsnce, I think gay parents can be just as loving and capable as the traditional male, female parents setup

 

[ceecee]

I think Jews, and to a lesser extent Catholics, and arguably Buddhists—I like their take that our deeds in the material realm are of utmost importance. As an agnostic atheist, I find a certain appeal in that. I find blind faith distasteful. What we do in this worldly realm is what really matters. Whether or not the reward of eternal life awaits—this is of secondary importance to me. Mind you, I don’t think questions of the beyond, the metaphysical, are to be discarded or dismissed. Those are important questions to ponder, but we shouldn’t let the end goal of an uncertain reward distract us from being decent corporeal beings. Nor should we dismiss the occasional pleasures of corporeal existence, so long as those pleasures don’t cause pain to other corporeal beings.

While people of the Protestant persuasion like to knock a lot of Catholic traditions, I also find an appeal in those such as confession. It can lead to self examination, if the intent is right.

Lighting candles/prayers for souls is a nice one, ashes on Ash Wed, palms on Palm Sun, saint's feast day celebrations... Also Lent and fish fries - the best part of Catholicism.

 

[Jaguar]

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This looks like Dick Cheney's baby picture.

 

[The Cat]

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This looks like Dick Cheney's baby picture.

if it were, that would be blood, not paint.