An amazing piece! During the protests I've noticed all the chanting and gesturing in unison along with what seems like the manipulation of peoples' emotions. Read the whole thing at the link:
It-is-racist-to-say-I-am-in-a-cult. Obama-is-our-messiah. Biden-is-the-apostle-of-Obama. Vote-Democrat-2020
Having grown up with religion pushed on me, even though I clearly saw religious belief as silly at a young age, I have spent time and energy pushing back on religion and religious institutions as an adult. Even publicly debating hard core religious people. I have always been curious as to why people would believe things, even devote their entire life to things that just weren’t true, A god being one of those things. However with the rise of modern American conservatism in the past forty years, I have noticed a close parallel between religious belief and Republicanism. I used to hear this line all the time, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. It was used in the context of the idea that if one didn’t devote themselves to Jesus, or at least to the conservative way of life, one would fall for any silliness that came along. I always found it an odd saying as those who said it tended to be one who had obviously fallen for something. At least by the time of Reagan, the Republican Party has basically become the party of conservative Christianity, better known as Evangelical Christianity. For some reason, those who have fallen the hardest for a belief in Jesus, have also fallen hard for the Republican Party line. Of all the people in the world, the only group who regularly insists that global warming is a hoax are those who subscribe to Evangelical Christianity, vote Republican and regularly listen to right wing media. If Trump is anything, he is a cult of personality, even if his personality is rather foul. People like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and all the clones on radios across the country have been preaching the gospel of Republican ideology for decades. There is no comparison on the other side, even though Republican ideology insists that there is. It is but one of the many things they get wrong. Like Aristotle who was famously wrong on just about every scientific idea he had. Yet conservatives like to cite him, as if his reputation isn’t what it is. It seems to me, that the mystery as to why people fall for religion was answered once I came to the realization that almost every innovator of the past two hundred and fifty years has been a freethinker.
Only the OTHER cult is a cult. Here's how it works... Evangelical atheists: Not a cult Evangelical Christians: A cult __________________ Republican Trump supporters: A cult Democrats who see Obama as their messiah: Not a cult __________________ Again: Only the OTHER cult is a cult. Vote Democrat 2020
Democrats never saw Obama as a messiah. That was just some crap that people like Sean Hannity kept pushing. I get a kick out of Christians who try to insist that atheism is somehow a religion. I grew up having Christianity pushed on me, even though I have never accepted its validity. As a young man I joined atheist groups as a vehicle to push back on the influence of religion in our popular culture. I even ended up on the board of a few. I used to joke that if atheists were organized like Catholics, I would be an archbishop. At some point, I came to the realization that all of atheistic thought could be expressed in a nice neat concise bible. It would be a very thin bible with only one page of text. Only one paragraph. Only one sentence. The Atheist Bible There are no gods or other such supernatural beings. Nonetheless, having grown up around Christians, I am quite aware as to, Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor; if one’s neighbor is an atheist, most Christians seem more than willing to bear false witness.
and all atheists are so vain to believe that their frail, finite existence created itself. Following that chain of logic there is no useful purpose to this existence therefore all of what we are, all of what we do, are constructs and whether good or evil are all equal and equally meaningless.
Same thing can be said about global warming and WuFlu. Racism is the label as feared today as being labeled heretic was 500 years ago. The term is weaponized and used to silence dissent, preventing any meaningful discussion.
Absolutely ridiculous. It's not chanting at unison that makes something a cult. It's denying reality in favor of some messianic leader, that leads people to abandon everything they believed before that leader came into their lives (among other things). Protesters are not denying reality. Police violence which is disproportionate on black people is a real thing. They have experienced it all their life. Simply to contrast, consider all those who, in their quest to follow Trump, abandon their previously held beliefs about the country, the constitution, the economy, the laws, family, society... Who deny reality when it smacks them in the face every single day. That's a cult! And, of course protests are intended to change people's emotions. Namely from indifferent to being aware of the problem and sympathetic to those who wish to change it. That's the whole point of all protests! If you disagree, name another one and show an example. Bottom line: you are cherry-picking observations that support a pre-conceived notion you had beforehand, while ignoring those that contradict that notion.. In the best of cases, what you say would be a strawman. In the worst, it could rise to the level of ... cult-like reasoning. But evidence for the latter explanation is that what you write has absolutely nothing to do with what you quote.
Some of the smartest people I know are religious. Including a couple of scientists. Also some of the smartest people I know are atheists. There appears to be no pattern. Show me evidence to the contrary.
All those swooning crowds the faux Grecian columns the leg tingling? Are you kidding I haven't met a leftist supplicant yet wasn't hunting a Messiah to take all their fears and troubles away.
Atheist cult: Not a cult Christians: A cult ____________ Obama cult: Not a cult Trump supporters: Cultists!!! Vote Democrat 2020
That Obama cult was - and is - quite the cult, I agree. Not the first time a child-murdering war criminal was treated like a god. And it won't be the last time.
I'm happy to see you agree with yourself. I thought you were on the verge of a breakdown because nobody agreed with you . But see? You kept on trying and you finally got yourself to agree with you. Effort pays. Congrats!
