In recent years, they've combined yet another favorite, racism, to get that tasty peanut butter chocolatey goodness to get the base angry enough to go to the polls to vote based on that.

I hold on to hope that somehow, someday, we can overcome this nonsense. I have nothing to support this so I get in this sense it makes me a man of faith.

I'm all for challenging assumptions and what not, but that should come with a willingness to change one's mind when confronted with compelling evidence. I see a paucity of that from the people who push this kind of stuff.

Market economies are clearly preferable over demand economies (like, no question about it), but Late Stage Capitalism is bad for everybody except the oligarchs.

John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

With AI and Robotics looming over us, we would be very well served to re-examine our economic systems while we still have a chance.

While it's nice to be vindicated, I'd much rather we live in the same universe and this is why I try to engage. I saw dang's warning about this is a flamebait topic, but I need to stress a couple points:

  * I'm in no way trying to attack *anyones* spiritual beliefs
  * I'm not trying to denigrate their religion of choice
  * I *am* trying to point out the nature of their religion in regards to outsiders

That said, drug abuse can happen and it can spread in society in a very unhealthy way. My point analogy is: let people do what they want but let's not have a public health crisis with people overdosing in the streets.

It's a crude analogy, but it's the best I've got for the moment.

I think you see my comments as an attack and that I am "the enemy", but I'm not. I just want to be able to live my life the way I choose to, rather than by somebody claiming to speak for God.

They undeniably are not without risks but they also can have huge rewards, and those who champion bodily autonomy in other contexts should be consistent across the board.

Indeed! A shared news source with known, manageable bias (don't rock the boat, bite the hands, and ostensibly just deliver events of the times as they happen).

A common, shared reality is a good thing for unity.

What is the analysis? What is the behavior? I'm genuinely curious. Help me see what I am apparently blind to seeing.

Not a religion, not a faith. It's simply well-publicized challenging of religion.

I think that you only see it as such because of how you see the world, but Dawkins, Harris, et al are not my leaders and I strongly disagree with several of their positions.

It's not like it was this passive meme that spread because people who encountered it loved it so much they wanted to join.

Yes, it does feed a spiritual need but is's absolutely about control. The current US administration is guided by Project 2025 which wants God to govern (so to speak).

I spend a lot of time thinking about religion, and most of that is anger/fear over the religious zealots who want to control everybody else.

I'd join the Church in a heartbeat to get those things if I thought the foundational concepts were real.

I'm not trying to knock "personal ambition", the test was for who would knowingly and willingly choose to subjugate everybody else to misery if it meant that they could gorge themself on a firehose of wealth and power.

Basically, it is: are you a sociopath?