There is hope that the backlash from this will be brutal. It will take half a generation to get here. But overall Christianity is not gaining more net followers, especially not the asshole flavors that so vocally seem to represent it.
The anarchist term is: no gods(atheism=free spiritually) no masters(no slavery=free in reality).
No gods, no masters" is a political slogan associated with anarchist and leftist labor movements, expressing a desire for freedom from both religious and secular authority. The phrase is a rejection of all forms of oppression and hierarchical structures, including those based on religion and power.
Elaboration:
Origin:
The phrase "no gods, no masters" likely has roots in a 15th-century German proverb and gained prominence in the 1870s through a disciple of Auguste Blanqui.
Meaning:
It signifies a rejection of all forms of authority and control, including religious, political, and economic domination.
Anarchist Context:
The slogan is a core principle of anarchism, which advocates for a stateless society based on self-governance and voluntary cooperation.
Leftist and Labor Movements:
The phrase is also used by leftist and labor movements to express opposition to capitalist structures and to advocate for worker empowerment and social justice.
Other Meanings:
The phrase can also be used in a more general sense to express a desire for individual autonomy and freedom from external constraints.
Given the shitheads who’d actually buy that crap, I’d say this is one group of people to scam the shit out of without fear of compromising one’s scruples.
They’re going to send their money off to scammers anyway. Might as well redirect it somewhere were it won’t be used by straight up evil people doing straight up evil shit.
I’m also not sure how much I believe in their “victim” status. I was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist household in Mississippi, and I figured out that stuff was bullshit after a few Sunday School sessions.
I figured out that church was bullshit at a young age too. I was raised in West Virginia in shitty schools. We were still victims, even though we had the luck of being born perceptive enough to limit our victimization. Imagine if all the wasted hours we spent in school and church, we were learning instead.
I had a science teacher in fifth grade who was a preacher as well. When we got to evolution all he had to say was "If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys, ever think about that?" He refused to teach the material. We skipped it.
Ugh, I had a biology teacher who was very similar. We briefly went through what the textbook had to say on evolution, then spent the next week or so watching stupid videos of this nutjob ranting about how current species with symbiotic relationships couldn’t have evolved separately or some drivel. Knowing what I know now about my rights as a student in a public school, I wish I could go back just for the opportunity to tell him I’d be doing my own independent study time in the library during his class periods while he was showing his blatantly illegal proselytizing propaganda.
Easy to forget that Bush and Reagan also had these Faith Based Initiative and religious themed cabinet positions. And they were also primarily about funneling state money to religious demagogues. And then Clinton/Obama kept them around because they didn't want to offend the religious extremists.
The large network of Crisis Intervention Centers that effectively exist to abuse young people with poor grades, substance abuse issues, and non-conforming gender/sexual preferences were all originally bankrolled by Reagan/Bush Era pilot programs and church kickbacks.
Only a matter of time until he declares himself Holy Roman Emperor. And silly me was under the impression, he's trying to emulate an entirely different era of German history.
would it be more painful to very slowly crush you head, or like your torso? I understand that the with the torso it can last longer, however, as someone who has had head injuries, not much compares to the insane, and unique pain, of your skull getting bashed in.
Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday establishing a “religious liberty commission” at the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and present strategies to eliminate “threats to domestic religious liberty.” During his comments on the order, Trump said that he doesn’t know if there’s a separation of church and state and that we should “forget about that for one time.”
Words alone simply fail to adequately describe my disgust and rage at this travesty.
Also, even though the deluded right wing like to claim that "secularism is a religion", and same for liberalism or any other ism they are skeered of, they won't be letting anyone practice those, either.
He's in an intra-party dust up with Doug Ford, brother of the infamous crack smoking Toronto Mayor.
So its possible we'll get a porn ban if Poilievre comes out ahead. But we could alternatively get pole dancing as an elective and weed in the school cafeterias.
My guess is that it's a step towards banning anything considered "sexual" or "deviant." I.e., anything to do with LGBTQ people, sex ed, educating women about their bodies and rights, etc. Anything that the white patriarchy dislikes while also making it easier to subjugate the population through ignorance and propaganda.
Which leads to uninformed teenagers becoming pregnant, being forced to carry the child, and being stuck in poverty and ignorance for the rest of their lives as a result. This gives us uneducated workers and soldiers.
Every live baby is a potential dead soldier. And the more education is destroyed the more popular that path will be.
I'm replying twice to the same comment but it just jogged a memory of porn I used to have on DVD of a bunch of random shit and one of the scenes it was a woman and two guys but the guys were painted green and they had green pterodactyl heads and wings.
I've been warning people about the setup to martial law. That's the final step of project 2025 that officially and completely destroys democracy. There will be no going back and no voting in the future. I keep being called an alarmist, but I was called an alarmist in late 2015 when he announced his run. It's also perfectly spelled out and they've been doing every project 2025 has step by step.
To be fair Christianity isn't the problem. Christian nationalism is the problem. Most Christians I know aren't this shitty. I say this as a hardcore atheist.
They'll be all about "forgetting" about that separation, all the way up until someone opens Beezlebubs Intermediate School of the Damned - then they'll be up in arms again.
By uniting church and state they can claim that “beezlebubs intermediate School of the Damned” goes against the official religious doctrine so it is banned but “holy Christ of the saints of Peter school for conservative belief” is allowed and gets taxpayer dollars
That's only because he isn't the one handling the business, but those choads that wrote Project 2025. They just keep shoving EOs in front of him and he signs them.
Religion is more powerful in countries with low education standards.
With the US government actively dismantling its education system, this is part of that bigger picture of wanting a dumber population so they're more easily controlled - through fear.
A shame to see America go so regressive so quickly.
That's what these nut jobs want: the rapture. I'm no Christian loon but if I recall the end days that these dumb fucks follow starts with/in Israel and ends with the return of Jesus. It's so fucked up their own beliefs warn them about tRump, almost to the letter like you point out, yet they voted for him and put him in power. They support Israel STARTING THE THING, FFS...
I have always loathed the hypocrisy of Christians, but now I'm actively rooting for the end of organized religion starting with Christianity.
I had an old boss tell me that Christians are the most persecuted people on earth. They truly believe it and get off on it. All while existing in a country where you almost have to be Christian or at least Jewish to be elected to national office. It's pure mass delusion propaganda.
That and the least amount of their privilege being questioned/ignored/dethroned is what they hate the very most.
They don't WANT people to have a right to choose to ignore their little book club. They don't believe in this country, which is secular. They want xtian Shariah law to be the law of the land, which violates the very principles of this country.
I am a religious person even and this is insane. Do these people not read the Good Book? Trump is clearly the antichrist. And still all these chodes have... simp-pathy for the devil (because they simp so hard. I tried really hard to make that joke work this is the best I can do.)
The man should be investigated first for the most flagrant violations. I don't know if holding a bible upside-down counts, but we can go on from there.
Most kings, dictators, emperors in history claimed to be gods themselves or at least to have been chosen by whatever gods were popular in their territories.
Generally none of these guys were big on following the moral teachings of "their" religion, more to claim that what they want is a direct emanation of the will of the gods, so it must just be accepted.
That's why separation of Church and State is a thing in a working democracy and that's (of f-ing course) why it's now being targeted
The final form of conservative regimes always resorts to imposing religion and rigid moral codes in order to suffocate any form of dissent. Conservatives have been painting themselves as the "rebels" in their manufactured culture wars and the warriors of freeze peach, but in the end it always funnels back to this: Bible authoritarianism. They will use this argument for push for more censorship, information control, stripping away rights and oppressing every community they deem against their dogmas. The writing has been on the wall for a decade now.
I am hoping that America's new implementation of this "Christian state" proves to be grotesque enough to serve as a warning for the rest of the world that even had the fleeting thought of going down this route. And I while am not very hopeful for Americans, I wish they find the strength to resist and revolt against this movement.
We are going to be required to interpret the bible as justifying conservative power hierarchies, which requires ignoring surface level interpretations of most of the book.
The fascists have done a damn fine job of consolidating power in the church by grossing out most of the leftists into not attending, now the physical place designated for moral and ethical debate and community organization in society is dominated by the right.
If you are a self proclaimed leftist in America i implore you to get your butt into a church pew and integrate with their community, only tithe if you are confident the money is serving the community, and lead everywhere you can.
Meanwhile the vast majority of the leaders don't give a shit about christianity except when it comes to elections and a means to an end. Anyone who tries to say Donald Fucking Trump is a christian is in a cult.
Yesterday I watched the documentary "Hail Statan?", about The Satanic Temple. Not a bombastic documentary but shows a bit what they are, what modern satanism is and what they do in the US.
They do mostly require an intact legal system to fight christian overreach so maybe its over for their legal battles
The people who claim that America is a "Christian" nation don't ever read anything about the values the founders had. Most of them followed a deist philosophy.
Not to mention, the King was considered to have a "Divine Right" to rule. I can see why the Founding Father'a weren't too keen on mixing religion and government.
This is a complete upheaval of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment of the Constitution per Wikipedia's entry on Separation of church and state:
Jefferson and the Bill of Rights
In English, the exact term is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state", as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. In that letter, referencing the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Jefferson writes:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.[6]
Jefferson was describing to the Baptists that the United States Bill of Rights prevents the establishment of a national church, and in so doing they did not have to fear government interference in their right to expressions of religious conscience. The Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791 as ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, was one of the earliest political expressions against the political establishment of religion. Others were the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, also authored by Jefferson and adopted by Virginia in 1786; and the French Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
The metaphor "a wall of separation between Church and State" used by Jefferson in the above quoted letter became a part of the First Amendment jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was first used by Chief Justice Morrison Waite in Reynolds v. United States (1878). American historian George Bancroft was consulted by Waite in the Reynolds case regarding the views on establishment by the framers of the U.S. constitution. Bancroft advised Waite to consult Jefferson. Waite then discovered the above quoted letter in a library after skimming through the index to Jefferson's collected works according to historian Don Drakeman.[30]
As an atheist that agrees more with Buddhism and Paganism than any organized religion this infuriating. I went to Catholic Church and school for 18 years of my life, I know what it's like to be "forced" to believe in something you don't.
Are they going to keep records of who goes to what churches and arrest people if they don't go to the correct church at the correct time and day?
I don't give a shit what anyone believes as long as they are not an asshole, that's their own business. I've had people try to shove their religion on me and it's not fun. If I had the financial means to leave this country I absolutely would now even if I was a Christian and went to church every Sunday.
This is REALLY freaking dangerous and scary on top of all the REALLY freaking dangerous and scary other bullshit Orange Man and his Disciples of Dumbasses have been doing since January 20th.
So I occasionally check the Fox News site just to see what the idiot commenters say because I find it sad yet entertaining...anyway for the article that was posted about htis issue several people were like "this is a good thing, because sepration of church and state isn't in teh constitution" like bruh have you read the constiutuion? It's literally stated in teh first amendment xD
Something I'm confused about: if Republicans believe government policy should be based on Christian values, why are they against government programs helping the poor?
They just believe in the most hateful parts they can cherrypick to fit their ideology. Putting women, gays, blacks and the non-believers in their place.
The separation of church and state protects the church from the state at least as much as the state from the church. Christians should fear a "Christian" state.
This. All the Christians that support a theocracy need to stop and realise that there's no guarantee that their particular denomination is going to be the one running said theocracy. The whole concept of freedom of religion depends on the separation of church and state.
Yeah, that's why I said the religion is rotten. If I say an apple is rotten, people don't usually respond by saying "Yeah but it came from a cool tree".
That's whats great about spirituality, no one person can say what you believe other than you. Similarly, Christianity doesn't have a single voice of authority.
We're not talking about spirituality. I'm spiritual. We're talking about organized religion, that has an awfully genocidal and hateful track record, with one halfway decent prophet who said some nice things, and also some completely incoherent things about being one with the hateful God of this religion.
No, we're describing a religion and what its followers behave like. Atheism isn't a religion or a group. It's a choice to refrain from belief in a god. Christianity has churches, pastors, and now presidents who lead their followers into morally reprehensible behavior. One is rotten fruit, the other is rejecting rotten fruit. It's not the same.
I said nothing about you as a person. My criticism is of your religion. If you're taking it personally, that's on your own conscience, and perhaps something you should reflect on.
A good person doesn't support their religion when their religion is creating fascism in their country.
A good person stands up and says to trump: Despite my beliefs, I denounce what you are saying and cast you out of my religion you heathen.
But this is not what we are seeing, is it? You are against trump, I assume, yet you still defend religion before you fight fascism. Maybe ask yourself why that is.
Good luck defending what trump does in the name of religion.
The main difference between Christianity and atheism is that atheism is no organised movement. We don't have a pope (no matter what Christians say about us, I don't follow any of the so called "leaders" of the atheist movement like richard dawkins and his positions on the trans right movement for instance) and we don't have a centralised structure, we simply don't believe in ANY god.
On the other hand there is Christianity and all organised religions which, as the name suggests, are ORGANISED around a central set of dogmas which are intended to be accepted as gospel by all their members. If you're part of one of such religions you implicitly accept all their teachings as true and you support their message and actions. If you don't want to be lump in with all other cultists following these directions please remove yourself from this specific group or shut the hell up.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I'll be here as long as needed
"the Bible. It's great, you know that? So many verses, so many. Many that I know. You want verses? I could give you verses but I'm not gonna do that. Love the Bible."
Maybe if they bring back the church into politics he will learn who this Jesus guy is who everyone is talking about. Might be surprised that he was a "radical leftist"
There's a pretty radical idea going on in wiccan circles right now that believes the "Jesus" these Christian Nationalists are worshipping is actually something called an egregore. Now, an egregore is a non-physical entity or "thought form", created by the shared beliefs, emotions, and intentions of a group. What's more, I've met people who claim to have interacted with this being.They claim that it truly believes it is Christ and wants you to believe it, too. It desperately wants into Heaven, and it is vain, and narcissistic, and ugly. It butters you up with false flattery, empty promises and lies, and, if the true spirit of Christ is with you, it calls that spirit Satan. If you recognize it for what it is, instantly like a toxic person it flips to anger and threats to scare you into getting it to believe.
I've always been interested in jungian archetypical symbology. It's really amazing that these characteristics of humanity show up again and again as if it comes from the same well. I don't know anything about egregore but I'll have to certainly look into it. This is an interesting take, thanks.
Any god is an egregore, like any other thought or believe is. Santa, the black man, Allah, these are all egregore with more or less power according to the mental strength and energy of the believers which are part of these groups. Of course, as anything created by humans, egregore are fallible and presents various "defects" in their behaviours and actions. The most important thing is to always remember that egregores, being a byproduct of human though, are and always will be much less powerful than any human being. Take Yahweh or Allah and place it in front of an infant, they won't be able to do shit as the child will be uneffected by the social knowledge about these entities and thus will be receptive to their true form, which is one of ethereal beings having no control on the physical world. Anything they can do they do because we give them the power to do so, once we realise they are no more powerful than a breeze through the leaves their power crumble and they return to be what they truly are, invisible and intangible leeches praying on our mental energy.
If you believe in spiritual teachings of course, otherwise please continue not believing in such things and cussing against god and/or the modern American Christian nationalist faith, the effect will be the same
He means American evangelist Christianity. Which is just capitalism with god. They are more interested on social control of masses and collecting tithe than any actual idealism.
It's far bigger than tithe. The article explains that the white house god office is run by someone who will take $1000 payments to send angels to people. They brought on that fucking moron Ben Carson too, which makes me think this is more about persecution if gay and transgender people than anything else. Other than that they're just making sure all the grifters (religious and MAGA) on the same team.
If your god loving right now punch your balls for me. You did this. And for what? I don't see me believing in your fucking Jesus anytime soon when you keep fucking around with my science. I much rather you not take advantage of any science so you can be pure to your stupid fucking retarded ways:
Drop this phone carefully so others can use it.
Cancel every single subscription.
No LEDs, LCDS, chips of any kind for you
No refrigeration for you.
No cars for you.
No glass for you.
No insulation for you.
No plastics or fuel for you... You may burn animals or wood.
So take off your clothes fucker, you're wearing animal skins wool or silk and you're paying for that shit.
No elevators for you, you asshole!
No metal parts of any kind, all those use science.
Prescription glasses? Not for you fucker. Taken off...
No aspirin or meds of any kind. Make some tea you asshole, maybe Jesus will heal you.
Cement? Asphalt, nope, you're gonna go chop wood by hand using a piece of flint to cut it and you'll live happy because that's what Jesus did for a living.
No electricity or batteries, those things are based on science... No motors or lights, no compass or GPS. No.mosquito repellent or shark repellent or bear repellent or sun screen or bicycles or telescopes or microscopes. And here's your covid back asks Jesus if he wants you dead a little to the left or a little to the right.
I'm totally fine if you want all that for yourself.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
He never meant it. And all of the cons hate ACTUAL freedom. Meaning, the kind of freedom that includes freedom FROM religion. Not just the "freedom" to select from a set of talibangelical cults.
The point is replacing a somewhat transparent legal system with an arbitrary mess which makes everyone that isn't exactly on the politically desired line feel uneasy all the time due to uncertainty of state actions.
GOP politics and agenda are all about control. And religion historically has always been a means of control. Add a more aggressive form of indoctrination instead of education in schools so that you have young people just smart enough to profitable but brainwashed into not being free thinkers who go tribal against anyone against their tribe. Once you have people replacing morality with religion you can alter that religion to match what ever you want as a means of control.
The Christian Right wants to make Christianity supreme and use it as the basis to take away rights of minorities including Muslims and LGBT. They want this as cover to take away sex ed and ban pornography and rap music and a long list of other stuff. Project 2025 laid it out pretty explicitly.
Watch some of the people they interview in The God Who Wasn't There. One of the guys thinks you should be able to execute homosexuals. Just casually talks about it and you realize how the people that talked about the Nazis and the banality of evil, you are watching it.
Old-ish movie now, but if someone wants to get an idea of what we are dealing with, the interviews with some of the xtians are off the chart...if you don't talk to xtians much, or live in a different country, or live in a more metro area that is not filled with this kind of delusion, this might be the first time someone comes across this kind of thing.
I'm gonna teach about how church molests everything it touches. I'm going to teach how religion uses "peace and love" as a rouse to get you to trust them, like a predator. I encourage the state to do this
Trump needs a bunch of people willing to believe anything told to then and the religious crowd seems to have an endless appetite for rage inducing bullshit.
Religion is a control mechanism draped in fake moral superiority. People don't need to believe in fairy tales to distinguish right from wrong. The evidence of those that do believe in fairy tales and can't tell right from wrong is overwhelming.
ETA: In fact, I would argue that anyone that thinks they need some holy book or religious leader to tell them what's right and what's wrong has a serious problem.
Seriously. Anyone who says that without religion society would be rampant crime such as rape and murder is immediately suspect. They're especially claiming that they'd be out there raping and murdering except their religion keeps them in check. When's the last time you heard of an atheist committing horrible crimes? Stalin and Mao? We know that morality exists outside of a religious cage.
And for all Stalin did, Putin has more power than ever, partially because he brought religion back.
Religion can also be a WEAPONIZED moral code. And America has had a history of weaponizing it's idea of morality. So nothing new here, just more extreme.
I wasn't talking about asking others to risk their lives without risking your own though, I specifically said 'especially keen', as in eager to sacrifice others for their own enjoyment (or whatever.)
As a way of calling out the hypocrisy of the people who claim to be all gung-ho to stamp out tyranny from behind the barrel of a gun I have no issue with it, but 'why aren't you sacrificing yourself to satisfy my vicarious moral outrage' is a bit fucking rich coming from someone who isn't also lining up to do the same thing. One might even call that a kind of hypocrisy too.
You know what, I think maybe I was a little overzealous in my reading of that person's comment. I just went and reread it and realized there's not a lot there, so I was probably assuming intent or meaning that may or may not have been there. My bad.
You might be shocked to learn that other countries exist and that the internet works in those countries and that your joke of a fucking constitution doesn't apply there.
And you might likewise be shocked to learn that non-Americans don't have a lock on the understanding of how maps work, or that the idea of hurling yourself pointlessly at a professional army/police force is just as unappealing here as it is in any of those countries. It's easy to say 'Someone should do something' when you're not the one who is going to be at risk in the doing, isn't it? But I'm sure wherever you're from is perfect, and even if it's not there's no reason to worry because others will no doubt be lining up to sacrifice themselves to satisfy your vicarious moral outrage so that you don't have to get your own hands dirty.
Or, and hear me out, the country that built itself in part on being prepared to meet tyranny with force is the one who ought to actually meet tyranny with force when the time comes. Other countries, which did not do this, have every right to call out hypocrisy and cowardice for what it is, especially after decades of watching the cowards be cowardly.
And no, my country is far from perfect. Surely you see how irrelevant that is to this discussion.
UPDATE: How nice! You understood me after all. You also assumed some facts not in evidence, but in a discussion such as this, that's likely to happen. I'm not "keen", I'm merely fucking exhausted.
As a way of calling out the hypocrisy of the people who claim to be all gung-ho to stamp out tyranny from behind the barrel of a gun I have no issue with it [...] https://lemmy.world/comment/16821307
That country doesn't exist anymore, and it hasn't in generations. Anyone who believes otherwise has been drinking a bit too much of the kool-aid. What we have left is a bunch of rednecks who trot out that line about tyranny to justify holding onto their guns, and otherwise a bunch of fat, happy people who have little to no real idea about what's going on at home, much less around the world.
Mind you, as you pointed out in my comment elsewhere, I agree that it's hypocrisy and cowardice, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with expecting people to sacrifice themselves (especially when you're not willing to put yourself on the line too) for some heavily-propagandized patriotic ideal that is pure fabrication at this point. Especially when the reality is that tyranny has been winning here for a long time and most people seem fine with it as long as things aren't too uncomfortable for them (which amounts to: they get to drive their big stupid SUVs and watch football and pretend that they're temporarily-embarrassed millionaires.) The idea of 'rugged individualism' has been drilled into this country's head for at least the last 40 years I've been paying attention to politics, not because it comes from the core of our national identity, but because it divides us and hampers efforts to engender class consciousness.
What I'm trying to do here is thread the needle: yes there is hypocrisy and it should be called out, but, as the rest of the sentence you quoted says, it's also a little bit hypocritical to expect others to do what you aren't here doing too. I understand the frustration non-Americans feel at the direction this country is going and the implications it has for them, and trust me when I say that some of us feel the same way too. But I'm a disabled man in my 50s, I'm more useful on the information/ideas/inspiration side of things than on the front line.
Country with a second amendment refuses to use it.
Donald Trump has a First Amendment-protected right to say this. It may be irresponsible or outrageous, but the First Amendment protects irresponsible and outrageous speech.
On the outrageous-things-Donald-Trump-has-done list, this is probably one of the more-clearly-legal things that I can think of.
If you want to kill a national leader because he does something lawful that you don't personally agree with, go do in someone yourself in your own country, who I suppose would be Ulf Kristersson.
The four boxes of liberty is a 19th-century American idea that proposes: "There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge (or ammo). Please use in that order."
That is, one speaks out against things one objects to, one votes out leaders one objects to, one goes to the judicial system, and only then does one resort to violence.
We've no issue with speaking out against Trump --- I've done so many times on here, quite publicly. That has not failed.
Trump's tried to ignore an election that he lost, but the system rejected it. That has not failed.
Trump's been stopped on a number of occasions by judicial rulings. There are certainly a few questionable cases, like trying to find a legal loophole to not reverse deportions that had occurred by trying to get people outside US jurisdiction, there's a long list of Presidents who have looked for legal loopholes; Bush Junior tried a very similar tactic with Guantanamo. That has certainly not reached a point where the judicial system is ineffective.
If all three of those had been rendered inoperative, then and only then would the use of violence against him be warranted.
James Madison, the Founding Father who drafted the Constitution, addressed the subject in Federalist Paper No. 46:
The only refuge left for those who prophecy the downfall of the state governments, is the visionary supposition that the federal government may previously accumulate a military force for the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. That the people and the states should for a sufficient period of time elect an uninterrupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors should throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the states should silently and patiently behold the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism. Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the state governments with the people on their side would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield in the United States an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the late successful resistance of this country against the British arms will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprizes of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain that with this aid alone, they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition, that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures, which must precede and produce it.
You don't go assassinate someone because he does something that you don't like. You fight someone if they actually break with democracy.
Each separation of church and State?
I was in the impression that the USA was a country that made people sweat on the bible to take a serment, that evocks God in its political speech and discours and even in its moto.
That comment is not sarcastic. I actually feel I miss something to understand the situation.
Swearing on the bible is a choice made by the individual being sworn in. The actual swearing is to the Constitution and the interests of the people. You could swear on a copy of The Origin of Species if you wanted.
The shit about having god on our money, motto, and pledge didn't come about until the red scare of the 1950s. A way to separate the country from the godless communists, and one of the earliest violations of separation of church and state that I'm aware of.
Nah, first Amendment trump's Trump, regardless of his bullshit, he's a citizen. He can hold an opinion, just like that can be a dead fucking wrong opinion.
I wonder if any of the dumbasses that are still supporting donvict yet understand what this would mean?
Log Cabin twats like Peter Thiel? These motherfuckers will come for YOU eventually, Einstein. Same for the likes of Tammy Bruce - an openly gay lesbian won't be in a position of leadership, what kind of gawdly message is that going to send? The Libertarian dumbfuck techbros still underwriting this shit, that are also hard atheist? You too, motherfuckers! Fast talking fools like Ben Shapiro and Stephen Miller? You guys are Jewish! Are you kidding?
The loudmouth uppity women like Beetlebert and Marjorie Trailer Queen and Kristi "dog murderer" Noem and Karoline Leavitt? You too - the Babble bangers won't be having YOU ruling over men, what are you even thinking? Best you can hope for is marrying some powerful man that keeps a roof over your head while he bangs some younger handmaidens to raise a crop of kids with his superior genes.
but someone think of the jobs lost in the comedy industry! it is not fair to take away all their jobs. i thought maga would help pick cotton, but no...
How about go fuck yourself.
As if the fucking Christian indoctrination wasn't already bad enough here.
No. It's the woke that was doing the indoctrination.
Now, against the wall so we can inspect your purity.
You haven't seen anything yet. They're trying to build their own Saudi Arabia.
There is hope that the backlash from this will be brutal. It will take half a generation to get here. But overall Christianity is not gaining more net followers, especially not the asshole flavors that so vocally seem to represent it.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/
Thank God for that.
A poor mans Dubai.
With just half of the cards and only one ugly male hooker called Krasnov.
What about kings and emperors?
Fuck no, not even wannabe ones like Turd.
No masters=no slaves. It's self describing.
Fair point. I've only seen the phrase written as, "No masters, no slaves."
The anarchist term is: no gods(atheism=free spiritually) no masters(no slavery=free in reality).
No gods, no masters" is a political slogan associated with anarchist and leftist labor movements, expressing a desire for freedom from both religious and secular authority. The phrase is a rejection of all forms of oppression and hierarchical structures, including those based on religion and power. Elaboration: Origin: The phrase "no gods, no masters" likely has roots in a 15th-century German proverb and gained prominence in the 1870s through a disciple of Auguste Blanqui. Meaning: It signifies a rejection of all forms of authority and control, including religious, political, and economic domination. Anarchist Context: The slogan is a core principle of anarchism, which advocates for a stateless society based on self-governance and voluntary cooperation. Leftist and Labor Movements: The phrase is also used by leftist and labor movements to express opposition to capitalist structures and to advocate for worker empowerment and social justice. Other Meanings: The phrase can also be used in a more general sense to express a desire for individual autonomy and freedom from external constraints.
Are we building an underwater city?
Yes!
Is this just a map link to all of Florida?
there's a lot going on in this article, but this part in particular is... uhh ... a really special form of religious virtue...
I wish had no scruples because then I could sell people angels for $1,000
I love how the most devout Christians are always always complete shitheads
Given the shitheads who’d actually buy that crap, I’d say this is one group of people to scam the shit out of without fear of compromising one’s scruples.
The people who buy that crap are victims. Uneducated by the state and propagandized into eternal fear by the media and religion.
They’re going to send their money off to scammers anyway. Might as well redirect it somewhere were it won’t be used by straight up evil people doing straight up evil shit.
I’m also not sure how much I believe in their “victim” status. I was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist household in Mississippi, and I figured out that stuff was bullshit after a few Sunday School sessions.
I figured out that church was bullshit at a young age too. I was raised in West Virginia in shitty schools. We were still victims, even though we had the luck of being born perceptive enough to limit our victimization. Imagine if all the wasted hours we spent in school and church, we were learning instead.
I had a science teacher in fifth grade who was a preacher as well. When we got to evolution all he had to say was "If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys, ever think about that?" He refused to teach the material. We skipped it.
Ugh, I had a biology teacher who was very similar. We briefly went through what the textbook had to say on evolution, then spent the next week or so watching stupid videos of this nutjob ranting about how current species with symbiotic relationships couldn’t have evolved separately or some drivel. Knowing what I know now about my rights as a student in a public school, I wish I could go back just for the opportunity to tell him I’d be doing my own independent study time in the library during his class periods while he was showing his blatantly illegal proselytizing propaganda.
It's not just "no scruples". Lots of people run these scams. Only a few of them succeed.
Easy to forget that Bush and Reagan also had these Faith Based Initiative and religious themed cabinet positions. And they were also primarily about funneling state money to religious demagogues. And then Clinton/Obama kept them around because they didn't want to offend the religious extremists.
The large network of Crisis Intervention Centers that effectively exist to abuse young people with poor grades, substance abuse issues, and non-conforming gender/sexual preferences were all originally bankrolled by Reagan/Bush Era pilot programs and church kickbacks.
Also I remember Bush saying he talked to god and was chosen by god and blah blah blah
Only a matter of time until he declares himself Holy Roman Emperor. And silly me was under the impression, he's trying to emulate an entirely different era of German history.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIB7k4Opjax/
Leaning into grifting. Like always. He is just dipping into the Christian side of the grift.
I'm all for the separation of Trump's head and body.
Is there such a thing as a slow guillotine? The slower the better...
Hydraulic press?
You know those scissors of life that firefighters use?
Jaws of life are what we call them...
Rock paper scissors is so childish, upgrade to Boulder Book Jaws!
https://youtu.be/NLctIG2eA-Q
would it be more painful to very slowly crush you head, or like your torso? I understand that the with the torso it can last longer, however, as someone who has had head injuries, not much compares to the insane, and unique pain, of your skull getting bashed in.
His would then float away, its full of air.
And genocidal Biden too
"Trump bad"
"But but but what about Biden???"
I hate Biden too but thats just unrelated
Which genocide?
Words alone simply fail to adequately describe my disgust and rage at this travesty.
Time to get to work Satanic Temple.
They can only do work if the courts are actually following the law.
"Religious liberty commission"
For some reason as a Jewish person I get the strong feeling that this commission wont help me freely practice my religion.
Nor if you are a Muslim a Buddhist, a Mormon or a Catholic
Also, even though the deluded right wing like to claim that "secularism is a religion", and same for liberalism or any other ism they are skeered of, they won't be letting anyone practice those, either.
Meaning: free thought will be a thoughtcrime.
All of this is spelled out in project 2025. If you want to know what's coming next, just look at their website.
Just wait until they start banning porn. It's already started in some states tbh.
Canada almost had the same thing happen, but thankfully Poilievre didn't win PM, and even lost his seat too as a bonus.
He's in an intra-party dust up with Doug Ford, brother of the infamous crack smoking Toronto Mayor.
So its possible we'll get a porn ban if Poilievre comes out ahead. But we could alternatively get pole dancing as an elective and weed in the school cafeterias.
Yup. That’s the next step. Rip smut.
What's the rationale behind this? Is it just pandering to religious freaks, or something else?
My guess is that it's a step towards banning anything considered "sexual" or "deviant." I.e., anything to do with LGBTQ people, sex ed, educating women about their bodies and rights, etc. Anything that the white patriarchy dislikes while also making it easier to subjugate the population through ignorance and propaganda.
Which leads to uninformed teenagers becoming pregnant, being forced to carry the child, and being stuck in poverty and ignorance for the rest of their lives as a result. This gives us uneducated workers and soldiers.
Every live baby is a potential dead soldier. And the more education is destroyed the more popular that path will be.
Which is just a step toward banning anything that doesn't "glorify our dear leader."
That and increasing their authorization grip on society.
well I am totally bored of the step brother genre.
If you’re bored of the same old, check out aliens, ware wolves, vampires and other species.
Like wolves selling knives door to door or more like a flea market run by wolves?
Underrated comment, lol
Get it, flea market? I crack myself up sometimes.
I'm replying twice to the same comment but it just jogged a memory of porn I used to have on DVD of a bunch of random shit and one of the scenes it was a woman and two guys but the guys were painted green and they had green pterodactyl heads and wings.
In my day we made do with porn we found in a box in the woods.
That doesn't mean they won't try.
We are talking about a group of people that has banned PLANTS.
I've been warning people about the setup to martial law. That's the final step of project 2025 that officially and completely destroys democracy. There will be no going back and no voting in the future. I keep being called an alarmist, but I was called an alarmist in late 2015 when he announced his run. It's also perfectly spelled out and they've been doing every project 2025 has step by step.
I'm curious what will happen when they try to abolish the Federal Reserve.
Religion is a plague
Religion in general. It's what will bring humanity to extinction
tips hat
To be fair Christianity isn't the problem. Christian nationalism is the problem. Most Christians I know aren't this shitty. I say this as a hardcore atheist.
They'll be all about "forgetting" about that separation, all the way up until someone opens Beezlebubs Intermediate School of the Damned - then they'll be up in arms again.
By uniting church and state they can claim that “beezlebubs intermediate School of the Damned” goes against the official religious doctrine so it is banned but “holy Christ of the saints of Peter school for conservative belief” is allowed and gets taxpayer dollars
What's that? Did I hear somebody say Beelzebub's Advanced Rifle Academy?
hope this project 2025 is as successful as his casinos
It’s already more successful
To be fair the casinos are a pretty low bar, but yeah...
That's only because he isn't the one handling the business, but those choads that wrote Project 2025. They just keep shoving EOs in front of him and he signs them.
Sooner forget about the separation of his head from his shoulders but that ain't happening either
Raytheon, deliver us.
Religion is more powerful in countries with low education standards.
With the US government actively dismantling its education system, this is part of that bigger picture of wanting a dumber population so they're more easily controlled - through fear.
A shame to see America go so regressive so quickly.
To be fair, the Republican/conservative project against the United States has been decades in the making.
I cannot respect any "Christian" that voted for Trump. Least Christ like person on the planet, quite possibly.
He's literally the antichrist. I'm not being hyperbolic, he fulfills most of the prophecies. I'm no christian, but it's honestly creepy.
That's what these nut jobs want: the rapture. I'm no Christian loon but if I recall the end days that these dumb fucks follow starts with/in Israel and ends with the return of Jesus. It's so fucked up their own beliefs warn them about tRump, almost to the letter like you point out, yet they voted for him and put him in power. They support Israel STARTING THE THING, FFS...
I have always loathed the hypocrisy of Christians, but now I'm actively rooting for the end of organized religion starting with Christianity.
A common theme of MAGA is inventing problems that they can solve.
The idea that Christianity in the US is under threat and needs additional protections, is some epic persecution complex.
That they can pretend to solve.
when your only skills are being angry and stupid you have to get creative
Their skill is making other people angry, and that anger makes them stupid and easily manipulated.
I had an old boss tell me that Christians are the most persecuted people on earth. They truly believe it and get off on it. All while existing in a country where you almost have to be Christian or at least Jewish to be elected to national office. It's pure mass delusion propaganda.
Under threat? Because it's declining in popularity? Sounds like the will of the people if you ask me.
That and the least amount of their privilege being questioned/ignored/dethroned is what they hate the very most.
They don't WANT people to have a right to choose to ignore their little book club. They don't believe in this country, which is secular. They want xtian Shariah law to be the law of the land, which violates the very principles of this country.
I am a religious person even and this is insane. Do these people not read the Good Book? Trump is clearly the antichrist. And still all these chodes have... simp-pathy for the devil (because they simp so hard. I tried really hard to make that joke work this is the best I can do.)
Unfortunately, this is no joke. This needs to stop, or it will end very poorly.
100%, but gallows humor is my favorite kind
I'd like to just forget about the church altogether
But you dont even follow the teachings of Christ?
The man should be investigated first for the most flagrant violations. I don't know if holding a bible upside-down counts, but we can go on from there.
Most kings, dictators, emperors in history claimed to be gods themselves or at least to have been chosen by whatever gods were popular in their territories.
Generally none of these guys were big on following the moral teachings of "their" religion, more to claim that what they want is a direct emanation of the will of the gods, so it must just be accepted.
That's why separation of Church and State is a thing in a working democracy and that's (of f-ing course) why it's now being targeted
Well okay, trump is an adulterer and we have clear instructions about what we need to do about that.
Community stoning......I'm down
The final form of conservative regimes always resorts to imposing religion and rigid moral codes in order to suffocate any form of dissent. Conservatives have been painting themselves as the "rebels" in their manufactured culture wars and the warriors of freeze peach, but in the end it always funnels back to this: Bible authoritarianism. They will use this argument for push for more censorship, information control, stripping away rights and oppressing every community they deem against their dogmas. The writing has been on the wall for a decade now.
I am hoping that America's new implementation of this "Christian state" proves to be grotesque enough to serve as a warning for the rest of the world that even had the fleeting thought of going down this route. And I while am not very hopeful for Americans, I wish they find the strength to resist and revolt against this movement.
Based on one very specific "interpretation" of the Bible that nobody is allowed to argue against.
We are going to be required to interpret the bible as justifying conservative power hierarchies, which requires ignoring surface level interpretations of most of the book.
The fascists have done a damn fine job of consolidating power in the church by grossing out most of the leftists into not attending, now the physical place designated for moral and ethical debate and community organization in society is dominated by the right.
If you are a self proclaimed leftist in America i implore you to get your butt into a church pew and integrate with their community, only tithe if you are confident the money is serving the community, and lead everywhere you can.
Meanwhile the vast majority of the leaders don't give a shit about christianity except when it comes to elections and a means to an end. Anyone who tries to say Donald Fucking Trump is a christian is in a cult.
Yesterday I watched the documentary "Hail Statan?", about The Satanic Temple. Not a bombastic documentary but shows a bit what they are, what modern satanism is and what they do in the US. They do mostly require an intact legal system to fight christian overreach so maybe its over for their legal battles
cant kill an idea, thats what matters most.
Oh lovely, a christian theocracy. How long before they start talking about having morality police?
I give it six months. Gotta hit em hard and fast.
It will be ICE. US becomes a christian nation. Non-christians are no longer citizens. I'm not fucking going to El Salvador.
The people who claim that America is a "Christian" nation don't ever read anything about the values the founders had. Most of them followed a deist philosophy.
And Thomas Jefferson went out of his way to emphasis the separation of church and state.
I'm starting to feel that Donald Trump might not entirely live up to the bar set by Thomas Jefferson.
Not to mention, the King was considered to have a "Divine Right" to rule. I can see why the Founding Father'a weren't too keen on mixing religion and government.
Isn't separating church and state really important?
Only if you care about the constitution, freedom, and/or democracy. It's very clear MAGA does not care about any of that so here we are.
This is a complete upheaval of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment of the Constitution per Wikipedia's entry on Separation of church and state:
As an atheist that agrees more with Buddhism and Paganism than any organized religion this infuriating. I went to Catholic Church and school for 18 years of my life, I know what it's like to be "forced" to believe in something you don't.
Are they going to keep records of who goes to what churches and arrest people if they don't go to the correct church at the correct time and day?
I don't give a shit what anyone believes as long as they are not an asshole, that's their own business. I've had people try to shove their religion on me and it's not fun. If I had the financial means to leave this country I absolutely would now even if I was a Christian and went to church every Sunday.
This is REALLY freaking dangerous and scary on top of all the REALLY freaking dangerous and scary other bullshit Orange Man and his Disciples of Dumbasses have been doing since January 20th.
Pro tip: he doesn't give a shit about the rest of what's in the 1st either. (Freedom of religion, speech, and the press)
This is the kind of separation needed!
So I occasionally check the Fox News site just to see what the idiot commenters say because I find it sad yet entertaining...anyway for the article that was posted about htis issue several people were like "this is a good thing, because sepration of church and state isn't in teh constitution" like bruh have you read the constiutuion? It's literally stated in teh first amendment xD
Amendments aren't part of the constitution... except the 2nd!
Something I'm confused about: if Republicans believe government policy should be based on Christian values, why are they against government programs helping the poor?
They believe in the bible/Christianity insofar that it affirms their preconceived notions.
They just believe in the most hateful parts they can cherrypick to fit their ideology. Putting women, gays, blacks and the non-believers in their place.
Well then Allah be praised!
/S
Christian here.
Trump can fuck all the way off with that bullshit.
The separation of church and state protects the church from the state at least as much as the state from the church. Christians should fear a "Christian" state.
This. All the Christians that support a theocracy need to stop and realise that there's no guarantee that their particular denomination is going to be the one running said theocracy. The whole concept of freedom of religion depends on the separation of church and state.
Your religion is rotten. I judge it by its fruit.
Christ, if he was at all like his stories, was a pretty cool guy.
Shame Christianity co-opted his name.
Yeah, that's why I said the religion is rotten. If I say an apple is rotten, people don't usually respond by saying "Yeah but it came from a cool tree".
That's not helpful right now.
Calling out Christians on their bullshit support of a fascist criminal that completely disrespects all of the values of their religion isn't helpful?
@Inanimate_Carbon_Rod obviously doesn't support that fascist. We need all the allies we can get, and you're pushing them away.
He supports a religion that supports that fascist.
That's whats great about spirituality, no one person can say what you believe other than you. Similarly, Christianity doesn't have a single voice of authority.
We're not talking about spirituality. I'm spiritual. We're talking about organized religion, that has an awfully genocidal and hateful track record, with one halfway decent prophet who said some nice things, and also some completely incoherent things about being one with the hateful God of this religion.
I know quite a few atheist pieces of shit.
Good for you. What does that have to do with Christianity being rotten?
Well we are just lumping groups together by their “rotten fruit” aren’t we?
No, we're describing a religion and what its followers behave like. Atheism isn't a religion or a group. It's a choice to refrain from belief in a god. Christianity has churches, pastors, and now presidents who lead their followers into morally reprehensible behavior. One is rotten fruit, the other is rejecting rotten fruit. It's not the same.
Ok, so no room for me to prove I’m a good person?
None whatsoever?
I’m judged because of my beliefs, not my behaviour?
I said nothing about you as a person. My criticism is of your religion. If you're taking it personally, that's on your own conscience, and perhaps something you should reflect on.
A good person doesn't support their religion when their religion is creating fascism in their country.
A good person stands up and says to trump: Despite my beliefs, I denounce what you are saying and cast you out of my religion you heathen.
But this is not what we are seeing, is it? You are against trump, I assume, yet you still defend religion before you fight fascism. Maybe ask yourself why that is.
Good luck defending what trump does in the name of religion.
The main difference between Christianity and atheism is that atheism is no organised movement. We don't have a pope (no matter what Christians say about us, I don't follow any of the so called "leaders" of the atheist movement like richard dawkins and his positions on the trans right movement for instance) and we don't have a centralised structure, we simply don't believe in ANY god.
On the other hand there is Christianity and all organised religions which, as the name suggests, are ORGANISED around a central set of dogmas which are intended to be accepted as gospel by all their members. If you're part of one of such religions you implicitly accept all their teachings as true and you support their message and actions. If you don't want to be lump in with all other cultists following these directions please remove yourself from this specific group or shut the hell up.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I'll be here as long as needed
I know quite a few human pieces of shit.
Let's just forget about the right to bear arms
Yeah! Let's arm all the bears! My favorite one is the shotgun bear.
Some people like the Kodiak or Polar bears. Me, I like my Browning Bears with .50 BMG (Big Mean Grizzly)
Lmao this dickhead who probably can't recite a single Bible verse.
It’s been proven on live television he cannot.
"so are you an old testament guy or a new testament guy?"
"...I'd say probably...equal"
https://media.tenor.com/Vy8Rc9XmED0AAAAM/spiders-curse.gif
"the Bible. It's great, you know that? So many verses, so many. Many that I know. You want verses? I could give you verses but I'm not gonna do that. Love the Bible."
-Trump, probably.
Maybe if they bring back the church into politics he will learn who this Jesus guy is who everyone is talking about. Might be surprised that he was a "radical leftist"
White supply-side Jesus is different from biblical Jesus which is different from historical Jesus.
There's a pretty radical idea going on in wiccan circles right now that believes the "Jesus" these Christian Nationalists are worshipping is actually something called an egregore. Now, an egregore is a non-physical entity or "thought form", created by the shared beliefs, emotions, and intentions of a group. What's more, I've met people who claim to have interacted with this being.They claim that it truly believes it is Christ and wants you to believe it, too. It desperately wants into Heaven, and it is vain, and narcissistic, and ugly. It butters you up with false flattery, empty promises and lies, and, if the true spirit of Christ is with you, it calls that spirit Satan. If you recognize it for what it is, instantly like a toxic person it flips to anger and threats to scare you into getting it to believe.
So like a poltergeist, but created by an entire population?
I've always been interested in jungian archetypical symbology. It's really amazing that these characteristics of humanity show up again and again as if it comes from the same well. I don't know anything about egregore but I'll have to certainly look into it. This is an interesting take, thanks.
Any god is an egregore, like any other thought or believe is. Santa, the black man, Allah, these are all egregore with more or less power according to the mental strength and energy of the believers which are part of these groups. Of course, as anything created by humans, egregore are fallible and presents various "defects" in their behaviours and actions. The most important thing is to always remember that egregores, being a byproduct of human though, are and always will be much less powerful than any human being. Take Yahweh or Allah and place it in front of an infant, they won't be able to do shit as the child will be uneffected by the social knowledge about these entities and thus will be receptive to their true form, which is one of ethereal beings having no control on the physical world. Anything they can do they do because we give them the power to do so, once we realise they are no more powerful than a breeze through the leaves their power crumble and they return to be what they truly are, invisible and intangible leeches praying on our mental energy.
If you believe in spiritual teachings of course, otherwise please continue not believing in such things and cussing against god and/or the modern American Christian nationalist faith, the effect will be the same
He means American evangelist Christianity. Which is just capitalism with god. They are more interested on social control of masses and collecting tithe than any actual idealism.
It's far bigger than tithe. The article explains that the white house god office is run by someone who will take $1000 payments to send angels to people. They brought on that fucking moron Ben Carson too, which makes me think this is more about persecution if gay and transgender people than anything else. Other than that they're just making sure all the grifters (religious and MAGA) on the same team.
What the ever loving fuck?!!!!
If your god loving right now punch your balls for me. You did this. And for what? I don't see me believing in your fucking Jesus anytime soon when you keep fucking around with my science. I much rather you not take advantage of any science so you can be pure to your stupid fucking retarded ways:
Drop this phone carefully so others can use it.
Cancel every single subscription.
No LEDs, LCDS, chips of any kind for you
No refrigeration for you.
No cars for you.
No glass for you.
No insulation for you.
No plastics or fuel for you... You may burn animals or wood.
So take off your clothes fucker, you're wearing animal skins wool or silk and you're paying for that shit.
No elevators for you, you asshole!
No metal parts of any kind, all those use science.
Prescription glasses? Not for you fucker. Taken off...
No aspirin or meds of any kind. Make some tea you asshole, maybe Jesus will heal you. Cement? Asphalt, nope, you're gonna go chop wood by hand using a piece of flint to cut it and you'll live happy because that's what Jesus did for a living.
No electricity or batteries, those things are based on science... No motors or lights, no compass or GPS. No.mosquito repellent or shark repellent or bear repellent or sun screen or bicycles or telescopes or microscopes. And here's your covid back asks Jesus if he wants you dead a little to the left or a little to the right.
I'm totally fine if you want all that for yourself.
That's because Trump thinks that he is god
well he does also want to become pope. maybe he wants to multi class but what we really wish is if he dual classed.
"Our Country." Is just his White America/Klansmen base. We need that separation more than ever.
-President Trump, just this year.
He never meant it. And all of the cons hate ACTUAL freedom. Meaning, the kind of freedom that includes freedom FROM religion. Not just the "freedom" to select from a set of talibangelical cults.
He didn't even touch the Bible when he swore in this time. I doubt that means anything "legally speaking", but I'm sure it meant something to him
It's incredible that the U.S. is having this discussion again. What's the point—bringing creationism back to schools or stoning prostitutes?
The point is replacing a somewhat transparent legal system with an arbitrary mess which makes everyone that isn't exactly on the politically desired line feel uneasy all the time due to uncertainty of state actions.
GOP politics and agenda are all about control. And religion historically has always been a means of control. Add a more aggressive form of indoctrination instead of education in schools so that you have young people just smart enough to profitable but brainwashed into not being free thinkers who go tribal against anyone against their tribe. Once you have people replacing morality with religion you can alter that religion to match what ever you want as a means of control.
The Christian Right wants to make Christianity supreme and use it as the basis to take away rights of minorities including Muslims and LGBT. They want this as cover to take away sex ed and ban pornography and rap music and a long list of other stuff. Project 2025 laid it out pretty explicitly.
Watch some of the people they interview in The God Who Wasn't There. One of the guys thinks you should be able to execute homosexuals. Just casually talks about it and you realize how the people that talked about the Nazis and the banality of evil, you are watching it.
Old-ish movie now, but if someone wants to get an idea of what we are dealing with, the interviews with some of the xtians are off the chart...if you don't talk to xtians much, or live in a different country, or live in a more metro area that is not filled with this kind of delusion, this might be the first time someone comes across this kind of thing.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_IjNPmIEI
Full thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZrjLLx-aKc
Yes.
I'm gonna teach about how church molests everything it touches. I'm going to teach how religion uses "peace and love" as a rouse to get you to trust them, like a predator. I encourage the state to do this
Ruse*
[Sorry for being pedantic.]
Trump needs a bunch of people willing to believe anything told to then and the religious crowd seems to have an endless appetite for rage inducing bullshit.
He should forget about 4 year terms. He can be removed at any time.
Donald: That one from Pulp Fiction is pretty good.
I only know Genesis 21:6... For reasons.
Right, so this will be a group who will make sure that any other religious will disappear, and soon. Atheisrs will as soon as possible be persecuted
Tell me I'm wrong and why.
He doesn't give AF about religion he's no fucking moral centre. This is lip service to his base
Since when have religion and morality had anything to do with one another?
Religion is a moral code. He doesn't have a moral code
Religion is a control mechanism draped in fake moral superiority. People don't need to believe in fairy tales to distinguish right from wrong. The evidence of those that do believe in fairy tales and can't tell right from wrong is overwhelming.
ETA: In fact, I would argue that anyone that thinks they need some holy book or religious leader to tell them what's right and what's wrong has a serious problem.
Seriously. Anyone who says that without religion society would be rampant crime such as rape and murder is immediately suspect. They're especially claiming that they'd be out there raping and murdering except their religion keeps them in check. When's the last time you heard of an atheist committing horrible crimes? Stalin and Mao? We know that morality exists outside of a religious cage.
And for all Stalin did, Putin has more power than ever, partially because he brought religion back.
Religion can also be a WEAPONIZED moral code. And America has had a history of weaponizing it's idea of morality. So nothing new here, just more extreme.
Religion is a tool for exploitative social control.
I wonder who paid him to say that. Trump is just a muppet.
Please don't insult muppets like that. Trump's a puppet, absolutely, but he lacks the warmth to be a Jim Henson creation.
I'll give you 3 guesses, starts with "P"
God damned pedophiles
American Christians will martyr themselves for their silly beliefs. But not before murdering a bunch of people.
This is not minecraft, so I do not advise the murder of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
It's fascinating how the new world now desires to be just like the old.
What happens when you're the wrong version of Christianity? That's a paddlin..
He REALLY wants to be pope
Can he be pope on a rope?
Of course he does. We are not allowed to talk about killing.
Like we should listen to this asshole.
Yeah, let's just ignore the First fucking Amendment and basically any freedom that actually matters. Go fuck yourself.
What the actual fuck.
There is this global retreat from rationality it seems.
Why do I need a church?
.....but I'm Jewish....
........
.............
"Under His eye. "
Country with a second amendment refuses to use it.
You first. Unless there's some reason you're keen for others to risk their lives but not your own.
I wasn't talking about asking others to risk their lives without risking your own though, I specifically said 'especially keen', as in eager to sacrifice others for their own enjoyment (or whatever.)
As a way of calling out the hypocrisy of the people who claim to be all gung-ho to stamp out tyranny from behind the barrel of a gun I have no issue with it, but 'why aren't you sacrificing yourself to satisfy my vicarious moral outrage' is a bit fucking rich coming from someone who isn't also lining up to do the same thing. One might even call that a kind of hypocrisy too.
You know what, I think maybe I was a little overzealous in my reading of that person's comment. I just went and reread it and realized there's not a lot there, so I was probably assuming intent or meaning that may or may not have been there. My bad.
You might be shocked to learn that other countries exist and that the internet works in those countries and that your joke of a fucking constitution doesn't apply there.
Hint: I live in such a country.
And you might likewise be shocked to learn that non-Americans don't have a lock on the understanding of how maps work, or that the idea of hurling yourself pointlessly at a professional army/police force is just as unappealing here as it is in any of those countries. It's easy to say 'Someone should do something' when you're not the one who is going to be at risk in the doing, isn't it? But I'm sure wherever you're from is perfect, and even if it's not there's no reason to worry because others will no doubt be lining up to sacrifice themselves to satisfy your vicarious moral outrage so that you don't have to get your own hands dirty.
Or, and hear me out, the country that built itself in part on being prepared to meet tyranny with force is the one who ought to actually meet tyranny with force when the time comes. Other countries, which did not do this, have every right to call out hypocrisy and cowardice for what it is, especially after decades of watching the cowards be cowardly.
And no, my country is far from perfect. Surely you see how irrelevant that is to this discussion.
UPDATE: How nice! You understood me after all. You also assumed some facts not in evidence, but in a discussion such as this, that's likely to happen. I'm not "keen", I'm merely fucking exhausted.
That country doesn't exist anymore, and it hasn't in generations. Anyone who believes otherwise has been drinking a bit too much of the kool-aid. What we have left is a bunch of rednecks who trot out that line about tyranny to justify holding onto their guns, and otherwise a bunch of fat, happy people who have little to no real idea about what's going on at home, much less around the world.
Mind you, as you pointed out in my comment elsewhere, I agree that it's hypocrisy and cowardice, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with expecting people to sacrifice themselves (especially when you're not willing to put yourself on the line too) for some heavily-propagandized patriotic ideal that is pure fabrication at this point. Especially when the reality is that tyranny has been winning here for a long time and most people seem fine with it as long as things aren't too uncomfortable for them (which amounts to: they get to drive their big stupid SUVs and watch football and pretend that they're temporarily-embarrassed millionaires.) The idea of 'rugged individualism' has been drilled into this country's head for at least the last 40 years I've been paying attention to politics, not because it comes from the core of our national identity, but because it divides us and hampers efforts to engender class consciousness.
What I'm trying to do here is thread the needle: yes there is hypocrisy and it should be called out, but, as the rest of the sentence you quoted says, it's also a little bit hypocritical to expect others to do what you aren't here doing too. I understand the frustration non-Americans feel at the direction this country is going and the implications it has for them, and trust me when I say that some of us feel the same way too. But I'm a disabled man in my 50s, I'm more useful on the information/ideas/inspiration side of things than on the front line.
Me too, man, me fuckin' too.
I feel you. Let's be exhausted together. Cheers.
Donald Trump has a First Amendment-protected right to say this. It may be irresponsible or outrageous, but the First Amendment protects irresponsible and outrageous speech.
On the outrageous-things-Donald-Trump-has-done list, this is probably one of the more-clearly-legal things that I can think of.
But on my personal list of "thoughts that make me shit my pants" living in a real-world Handsmaid's tale ranks pretty high, though.
When will you folks understand what your first amendment actually means?
I'm not asking your government to silence him. I'm not asking a court to sentence him. I'm not looking for a police force to arrest him.
If you want to kill a national leader because he does something lawful that you don't personally agree with, go do in someone yourself in your own country, who I suppose would be Ulf Kristersson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes_of_liberty
That is, one speaks out against things one objects to, one votes out leaders one objects to, one goes to the judicial system, and only then does one resort to violence.
We've no issue with speaking out against Trump --- I've done so many times on here, quite publicly. That has not failed.
Trump's tried to ignore an election that he lost, but the system rejected it. That has not failed.
Trump's been stopped on a number of occasions by judicial rulings. There are certainly a few questionable cases, like trying to find a legal loophole to not reverse deportions that had occurred by trying to get people outside US jurisdiction, there's a long list of Presidents who have looked for legal loopholes; Bush Junior tried a very similar tactic with Guantanamo. That has certainly not reached a point where the judicial system is ineffective.
If all three of those had been rendered inoperative, then and only then would the use of violence against him be warranted.
James Madison, the Founding Father who drafted the Constitution, addressed the subject in Federalist Paper No. 46:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0261
You don't go assassinate someone because he does something that you don't like. You fight someone if they actually break with democracy.
"Let's ignore the constitution." This is fine.
And then:
What kind of break with democracy the motherfuck are you waiting for?
Your country in a nutshell. I wouldn't care if we didn't catch a cold from you sneezing.
I will never forget.
Maybe HE should worry about the separation of his head from his body.
Each separation of church and State? I was in the impression that the USA was a country that made people sweat on the bible to take a serment, that evocks God in its political speech and discours and even in its moto.
That comment is not sarcastic. I actually feel I miss something to understand the situation.
Swearing on the bible is a choice made by the individual being sworn in. The actual swearing is to the Constitution and the interests of the people. You could swear on a copy of The Origin of Species if you wanted.
The shit about having god on our money, motto, and pledge didn't come about until the red scare of the 1950s. A way to separate the country from the godless communists, and one of the earliest violations of separation of church and state that I'm aware of.
Donny, you’re out of your element.
Nah, first Amendment trump's Trump, regardless of his bullshit, he's a citizen. He can hold an opinion, just like that can be a dead fucking wrong opinion.
Power changes the equation. There is power behind his words. Take him at them and respond accordingly.
True enough!
I wonder what murica will be called in a few years when it ceases to exist?
Gilead
I wonder if any of the dumbasses that are still supporting donvict yet understand what this would mean?
Log Cabin twats like Peter Thiel? These motherfuckers will come for YOU eventually, Einstein. Same for the likes of Tammy Bruce - an openly gay lesbian won't be in a position of leadership, what kind of gawdly message is that going to send? The Libertarian dumbfuck techbros still underwriting this shit, that are also hard atheist? You too, motherfuckers! Fast talking fools like Ben Shapiro and Stephen Miller? You guys are Jewish! Are you kidding?
The loudmouth uppity women like Beetlebert and Marjorie Trailer Queen and Kristi "dog murderer" Noem and Karoline Leavitt? You too - the Babble bangers won't be having YOU ruling over men, what are you even thinking? Best you can hope for is marrying some powerful man that keeps a roof over your head while he bangs some younger handmaidens to raise a crop of kids with his superior genes.
but someone think of the jobs lost in the comedy industry! it is not fair to take away all their jobs. i thought maga would help pick cotton, but no...