US Politics Thread

[Murat Baslamisli]

If you are surprised by Epstein's suicide, imagine how shocked HE was ...

 

[calitennis127]

This is an extremely utopic outlook perspective that really ignores the ideological shortcomings of every religion. I agree humans are the problem. But you'd think an all-knowing God would know better in that case. Yeah, on the surface, every religion promotes peace, good-faith, etc...delve deeper though, even on an ideological level, and you see how much violence, hatred, intimidation and fear they promote. All of them.

But that is not unique for traditional "religions." Why don't we define what "religion" is? I will take a stab at it this way:

A moral guide to life with a sense of ultimate reality that entails both divinization of what is understood as good and demonization of what is understood as evil. It is a belief system about human interaction, the ultimate good of human existence, and universal moral laws.

If operating off of this definition of "religion," you can see right off the bat that it is impossible for human beings to live without it. I often hear atheists today say that "the West is less religious." This is absolutely not the case. The West does have a religion, and that is PC multiculturalism.

You like to pin US war crimes in the Middle East on what you perceive to be Christian fundamentalist war hawks in the United States, but the reality is that the main proponents of U.S. imperial power are secular ideologues whose religion is "global democracy."

I would remind you that Pope John Paul II advised against the Iraq war while Christopher Hitchens and a number of secularists in the United States wanted it.

 

[Moxie]

If you are surprised by Epstein's suicide, imagine how shocked HE was ...

The NYTimes has delineated a lot of the ways that mistakes were made, at the very least. Surely, we're all willing to believe understaffing and incompetence. Let's face it. But the most high-profile prisoner in federal custody in NYC? Did everyone just drop the ball in so many ways? It does kind of smell bad. They mention Whitey Bolger getting murdered the day after he got transferred in the last year...no one thinks that was just bad blood in the prison. Obviously, assassinations happen. I'm not generally given to conspiracy theories, but this "suicide" just looks so bad. Epstein was already a convicted sex offender. How much more humiliated was he going to be? Plus, didn't he think that he had enough dirt on powerful people that he might get leniency? Or off?

 

[mrzz]

Religion is just another ideology... but one based on faith. Most religions actually promote tolerance. You're mistaking human corruption of religion with religion itself.

The ten commandments are:

• “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me.”
• “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
• “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.”
• “Honor thy father and mother.”
• “Thou shalt not kill.”
• “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
• “Thou shalt not steal.”
• “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
• “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.”
• “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods.”

I might have missed it, but I don't recall reading about exterminating people of other faiths, or even suggestions that catholic priests shove their cocks into the arses of choirboys.

To dumb it down, the creed is not to kill people, not to sleep around with taken women, not to lie, not to steal, respect your elders, not to be envious and respect your maker.

But humans will find a way to corrupt every ideology. The most murderous being led by far-left atheist tyrants like Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot.

Religion isn't the problem. Humans are. As DarthFed rightly said - it's the intolerance of others with a different creed or view.

I wanted to reply to this before, but I just cannot find the time to write a decent post. Still can't, so this one goes in the place of a decent one.

I ultimately agree that humans are the problem. But the thing is that you cannot judge any (or almost any) religion or ideology purely on "face value". They all look so great and virtuous per se. The main problem is the moral authority. Since I speak in the name of god (or for the greater good of the masses) I can do whatever I want, because either god commanded me or I have the ultimate moral higher ground. So, in the name of religion/ideology, people can do pretty atrocious things. That is exactly the crack in the wall that humans -- which are indeed the problem -- will explore.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Some of you might find the following book Good without God interesting.

 

[mrzz]

Some of you might find the following book Good without God interesting.

I always knew you were an Epstein fan.

 

[britbox]

I wanted to reply to this before, but I just cannot find the time to write a decent post.

No rush buddy

 

[DarthFed]

I wanted to reply to this before, but I just cannot find the time to write a decent post. Still can't, so this one goes in the place of a decent one.

I ultimately agree that humans are the problem. But the thing is that you cannot judge any (or almost any) religion or ideology purely on "face value". They all look so great and virtuous per se. The main problem is the moral authority. Since I speak in the name of god (or for the greater good of the masses) I can do whatever I want, because either god commanded me or I have the ultimate moral higher ground. So, in the name of religion/ideology, people can do pretty atrocious things. That is exactly the crack in the wall that humans -- which are indeed the problem -- will explore.

Very well put for something you don't think is a decent post. But here's the counter to you and Broken; do you really think the world is a better place if everyone had no religion? For all the people that do heinous things "in the name of their religion" I do think it does good.

I know amazing and awful people that are atheists or agnostic and I know amazing and awful people that are deeply religious, but I tend to think people that do bad shit in the name of religion would find other reasons even without it. Their hatred comes from intolerance of differences...ALL differences.

 

[britbox]

I wanted to reply to this before, but I just cannot find the time to write a decent post. Still can't, so this one goes in the place of a decent one.

I ultimately agree that humans are the problem. But the thing is that you cannot judge any (or almost any) religion or ideology purely on "face value". They all look so great and virtuous per se. The main problem is the moral authority. Since I speak in the name of god (or for the greater good of the masses) I can do whatever I want, because either god commanded me or I have the ultimate moral higher ground. So, in the name of religion/ideology, people can do pretty atrocious things. That is exactly the crack in the wall that humans -- which are indeed the problem -- will explore.

Assuming a position of moral authority is not exclusive to religion. It's a construct based on human nature and the hierarchy that goes with it.

In the name of <insert whatever you like> people carry out atrocious acts. Humans corrupt pretty much every ideology.

 

[mrzz]

do you really think the world is a better place if everyone had no religion?

No, I don't. That is the kind of paradox I live with. I fully understand the social importance of religion. Humans have shown the need for the outside moral authority to refrain them from slaughtering themselves. Oddly enough that same moral authority serves as pretext for some to kill in large scale (as you can see from the way I phrase it, I am from Epsilon Eridani).

Religious sacred texts are usually guidelines to basic behavior -- see the 10 commandments quoted above. That is, humans are stupid enough that you need to tell them that there is an infinitely superior being commanding them not to kill each other out to extinction. Problem is that god is in no rush to revise and update sacred texts (www.officialbiblerightfromgod.com) so humans need to deal with outdated rules.

 

[Federberg]

^The world would be a better place if folks didn't try to impose their religious views on others as far as I'm concerned. It's not religion that's the problem, it's the righteousness of the religious that's the issue in the world we live in today. Frankly PC culture seems to be taking on the same self righteousness at the moment, it might actually be a bigger problem than religion right now. Folks are more concerned about the way people say things than what they mean. It's fucking annoying

 

[Federberg]

@britbox thoughts on Tulsi? Personally I think she's ok. Nice to see the anti-neo-con view for once

.

 

[britbox]

@britbox thoughts on Tulsi? Personally I think she's ok. Nice to see the anti-neo-con view for once

.

She's very impressive.

Her big problem is that she's making some very powerful enemies - the defence and tech giants in particular.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

@britbox thoughts on Tulsi? Personally I think she's ok. Nice to see the anti-neo-con view for once

.

Although a reasonably good candidate, she probably will not even qualify for the debates from now on. She practically has
no chance of launching a serious campaign.

I have a hunch that she will be the VP choice for Biden or Sanders.

She destroyed Kamala Harris in the last debate (most probably the oppo research was given to her by JB Camp, who did not
want to directly launch vehement attacks on fellow candidates) and She has gone on record saying that KH's attack on
JB are underhanded.

More importantly, in 2016, she was the vice chair of DNC (the office bearers of DNC are expected to be neutral to all the
primary candidates) and she quit from that post so that she can openly support Bernie Sanders.

 

[britbox]

Although a reasonably good candidate, she probably will not even qualify for the debates from now on. She practically has
no chance of launching a serious campaign.

I have a hunch that she will be the VP choice for Biden or Sanders.

She destroyed Kamala Harris in the last debate (most probably the oppo research was given to her by JB Camp, who did not
want to directly launch vehement attacks on fellow candidates) and She has gone on record saying that KH's attack on
JB are underhanded.

More importantly, in 2016, she was the vice chair of DNC (the office bearers of DNC are expected to be neutral to all the
primary candidates) and she quit from that post so that she can openly support Bernie Sanders.

She has no chance of winning this election, but she's a keeper for the future.

I think she has qualified for the next round, despite having her Google Ads turned off by the tech giant for a critical period. She's now suing Google.

 

[tented]

I have a hunch that she will be the VP choice for Biden or Sanders.

I doubt it. If nothing else, she doesn’t offer any tactical advantage to the nominee. That person will want to get a running mate who can help to bring a purple state into play. Someone from Ohio, Florida, or Pennsylvania. Maybe even the Midwest or Texas.

 

[tented]

She has no chance of winning this election, but she's a keeper for the future.

She might be better suited for Secretary of Defense than President or Vice President.

 

[Federberg]

She's very impressive.

Her big problem is that she's making some very powerful enemies - the defence and tech giants in particular.

Yup. It's been fascinating to watch how various actors... MSNBC hosts, Megan McCain, NYT journalists have gone for her with a vengeance. Check out this clip...


It really pisses me off. I agree with her completely that it's monumentally dumb to talk regime change in Syria after the lessons of Iraq and Libya. How dumb do you have to be not to get it. And then you realise... these guys get it. The conflict and bad aftermath are exactly what you want, and that's the scariest thing of fall.

By the way... I was a fan of Kamala Harris, but not only did I find her inability to take a hit disappointing. Her towing the military industrial complex line that Tulsi is a schill for Assad extremely off putting. I found that along with her lack of core conviction on healthcare disqualifying. There's a bit of BoJo about her constant flipping, it makes me want to vomit..

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Yup. It's been fascinating to watch how various actors... MSNBC hosts, Megan McCain, NYT journalists have gone for her with a vengeance. Check out this clip...


It really pisses me off. I agree with her completely that it's monumentally dumb to talk regime change in Syria after the lessons of Iraq and Libya. How dumb do you have to be not to get it. And then you realise... these guys get it. The conflict and bad aftermath are exactly what you want, and that's the scariest thing of fall.

By the way... I was a fan of Kamala Harris, but not only did I find her inability to take a hit disappointing. Her towing the military industrial complex line that Tulsi is a schill for Assad extremely off putting. I found that along with her lack of core conviction on healthcare disqualifying. There's a bit of BoJo about her constant flipping, it makes me want to vomit..

I have never heard of a more clueless journalist than this person in this video? Who the fuck is she?

 

[Federberg]

I have never heard of a more clueless journalist than this person in this video? Who the fuck is she?

Bari Weiss. I'm with you... utterly clueless