I want to add, this observation really stood out to me:

People feel drawn to religious communities because of that word, “community.” People want fellowship, to have other people who will love and support you. But I was struck by how lonely you seemed when you were in this lifestyle and when you were married. It seems a lot of people feel alone in this community.

People hail religion as a ready-made source of community. But I think this forgets how easily that community can isolate you and create a lonely environment. Just because you’re surrounded by people yelling about how they’re looking after your best interests doesn’t make it true.

Sorry, I was slow in removing this one.

I don’t see how they aren’t both rotten at the core. They both spring from the same Abrahamic religion. They both cite extremely fallible and frequently inaccurate texts as scriptures. They both cherry-pick what they want from scripture and knowledge. Neither is better than the other. The only reason that Christianity isn’t just as violent as Islam today is because most of the Christian world is leashed by secularism, which the Islamic world rejected a thousand years ago.

In fact, Jesus was very pro-war/conflict and anti-immigrant. Shall I quote the gospel verses demonstrating it?

Well, yes and no. Yes, during the Islamic Golden Age they successfully introduced a lot of valuable knowledge. There’s a reason our numbers are called “Arabic” and most of the stars we can see have Arabic names. However, the idea that they’ve been strictly defensive is not accurate. After the fall of the Golden Age, when clerics took back their power and declared mathematics to be satanic they began their campaign to establish a global caliphate. They’re brutal with anyone they consider sexually deviant or violate gender norms, and they’re not above attempting to invade a neighbor if they think they can get away with it in the name of Allah.

Just like Christianity throughout history.

The difference is that they have a lot of catching up to do before they can equal the atrocities of Christianity. And from the look of it, this lag isn’t from lack of trying. They just haven’t had as much time as Christians to commit all of the atrocities.

“Rules for thee but not for me.” Which brings us around to Wilhoit’s observation:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

Have you sought help for this problem? It’s not too late.

Koch’s reason.com. One of the most ironic site names in the history of the Internet.

Just because there are a few thousand people who still worship Norse gods doesn’t mean the religion is thriving.

Yes, they’re still making noise. If anything, they’re making more noise than ever. But public sentiment is against them by a wide majority. Even a majority of Republican voters favor gay rights along with female reproductive rights. What we’re seeing is the impact of a minority imposing its will on the majority, and it cannot last.

They’re the dog that caught the car, but they can’t keep it.

Who wants to voluntarily move into a slum?

I wish he had.

Good luck with that.

It’s not like new culture wars won’t be started and fought just the same. But there was a time when slavery was the topic of a fierce culture war in the US, and it wasn’t resolved until it broke out into a literal war. Now, nearly two hundred years later, it’s still unacceptable to suggest that people who look different are better off as property rather than people. Even Florida’s attempts to whitewash Southern slavery doesn’t go so far as to blame the slaves weren’t people.

They’ve lost this culture war, just as they lost the fight for slavery and later to keep the population segregated. They’ll try again in time, but for the moment, the question of abortion and homosexual rights is largely settled at a cultural level. The conservatives lost, and that’s why they’ve largely moved on to nitpicking the definition of gender and trying (unsuccessfully) to defend their legal victories on women’s reproductive rights.

This is a perfect example of how liberalism enables fascism

Today I learned that being inclusive and working toward the betterment of all people instead of a privileged elite is fascism.

As the article points out, they’re determined to bull through anyway. But the effort is doomed to failure. Even if they achieve victory conditions (effectively ending democracy) it won’t last. It’ll just make the next revolution that much more painful. But their sense of entitlement won’t allow them to stop.

So the staff of “Never Back Down” are backing down.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/424263-trump-supporter-complains-shutdown-is-not-hurting-the-people-he/

Paul Ryan is mostly upset that Trump beat him to it.

In buildings. Heat pumps are amazingly efficient, and pumping hot air from inside to outside (or the other way around) is something we’ve been doing for generations.

That still doesn’t make this a black and white situation. Would Israel be able to get away with selling their atrocities to the Israeli people if Hamas weren’t dedicated to doing the same to Israel? If the Palestinian government had been willing to accept compromise forty to fifty years ago, would Israel have been able to do what they’ve done?

The answer, of course, is no. No one’s hands are clean. And there’s really no easy solution that doesn’t violate ethics because we’re on the outside looking to force solutions on them. Just like they’re doing to each other. If we abandon Israel, then they’ll suffer what they’ve done to the Palestinians, and the Israeli people don’t deserve that any more than the Palestinians. You can’t tell me you have a better solution because you don’t.