You are being hateful towards religion. That is very different than rationally opposing religious oppression and persecution, which obviously is a thing that does exist and needs to be opposed, but which does not define religion. You can’t make things better with hate. Figure your shit out.

WHAT religion? I was one of those edgy young mid 90s atheists.

Look, I’m sorry. I can see that you have trauma. But please don’t take it out on other people.

Is it your poorly stated, smug, so-ironic-no-one-knows-what-you-are-talking-about point that all religions promote oppression based on sexuality and gender, of the poor, and of children? Because that sounds an awful lot like American conservatism, not religion. But since you won’t come right out and state your points clearly in a way that can be directly refuted, how about you just fuck off.

“Serious question,” asks ridiculous question. You don’t need me here for the rest of this conversation, say what you are going to say. As long as you are not about to extrapolate from some abusive sect of Christianity that you are familiar with to the entire concept of religion generally. You know, like I just said.

Are you certain it is a “cartoon” and not just art?

It’s a bit tortured, I think. Tourist is visiting a scenic vista which we might call reality, and chooses to take a photograph of a photograph of that same vista, preferring the curated and potentially slanted view that it presents.

I mean, you can deny the premise all day long, but it will never win you an argument.

Removed by mod

Ah, the golden age. I dunno, I was running FreeBSD. It was awesome. It still is.

“Ethical” does not mean “good”, “moral”, or “right”, it means something more like, “consistent with an explicit set of ethical axioms.” It’s meaningless to say something is unethical without stating or at least implying a specific ethical philosophy.

Carnism says that it is sometimes acceptable or even good to be cruel and violent to animals. Veganism says that it only is in cases of absolute necessity. A researcher or scientist for a cosmetics company might follow all the ethical requirements of their profession, and yet by any other standard, do unforgivable harm both to animals they experiment on and to the humans they mean to exploit with their research.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. Shut up or I’ll give you something to complain about.”

50% grow out of it by mid thirties.

The Internet atheism movement of the late 90s was extremely liberating and enlightening to many people. But, it has gradually become hateful and I think it has long since run out its useful lifetime. We can’t just stop there, we need to collectively develop a more informed, nuanced and compassionate view. Today’s threat isn’t baptist fundamentalism, it’s fucking fascism. You can’t hate yourself out of that, you only sink deeper.

??? I couldn’t so I eliminated it. It can be hard given how available and addictive the drug is, but I cope much better without it.

there is no ethical consumerism under capitalism

What is the source for this quote? I most often hear it used to argue in a fatalistic way in favour of continuing to do whatever harmful thing it is a person wants to continue doing. I don’t think it is true, certainly not for those who are struggling for survival. Ethical doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no harm. It means that the harms have been considered and a meaningful attempt at balancing those harms according to some ethical framework has been made.

Yeah, it EMOTIONALLY supports them. Dude. It’s okay. It also supports the users who get value out of it in actual material ways.

Wow, you sure did manage to slip in a bunch of self-serving misinformation about veganism for no fucking reason. Who are you actually trying to convince, I wonder. (I’m being sarcastic, I know perfectly well.)

You are born with spiritual needs. It is clear that you still have unmet spiritual needs despite your religious trauma.

I hate the ignorance that edgy kids have about religion, having exposure only to a very very very narrow sample and extrapolating to infinity. Not every religious practice opposes truth, or oppresses and exploits its practitioners. No more than every political practice does. Religious practice is an expression of our innate humanity. You cannot just get rid of it, any more than you can get rid of any fundamental human need. What is important is finding safe, healthy, ethical and helpful means of expressing it.

having needs

anti-car extremist

what is extreme about not wanting to die bleeding and broken in the street, or choking on soot and heavy metals, or drowning in rising sea levels? what’s actually extreme is the fuckers who keep doing the same thing their daddy and their granddaddy did despite the fact that it is actually fucking killing us. THAT IS NOT HYPERBOLE. WE ARE FUCKING DYING. INDIVIDUALLY, CULTURALLY, AND COLLECTIVELY, WE ARE FUCKING DYING. Motorists are the extremists.