rant – My Fellow Travelers

It’s Not The Same

Content Notice: hitler mention, pre-war Germany, nazis, current American political climate, trump, death, Auschwitz, gas chamber mention, citizenship proof.

Why can’t they get it?

When actual Jews, survivors included, tell you our country is acting like pre-war Germany, you know there is a problem.

I fucking knew the word Auschwitz before I knew my family was Catholic.

I wasn’t born a century ago, but I grew up with stories about pre-war Germany. As a child, I literally had nightmares about that camp. I lost a lot of my family there.

But, that’s not what frustrates me most.

Men and women with number tattoos speak out and are ignored. Sometimes they are verbally attacked. Some people even accuse them of antisemitism… For comparing the events of this decade to what happened to them.

This is the problem with creating a romanticized image of past atrocities.

People have this storybook image of Germany leading up top WWII.

They see the Hollywood images of grand balls masking the most horrid atrocities.

They have an understanding of the Holocaust that goes from proud Yiddish shop keepers and Yiddish kids polishing boots, to gas chambers and aerial bombardment over the course of an hour and forty minutes.

They don’t see themselves in that.

They don’t see that in the environment around them.

They don’t understand the parallels, because everyone that was there is either dead or too old to fight them.

It didn’t start with gas chambers.

It started with a fucked over economy.

It started with grumblings over lack of work.

It started with the rise of politicians that said they would make the fatherland great again.

Then, with the rise of nationalism came a need for a scapegoat. Nationalism doesn’t work without an “other.”

First it was the easy targets. Homosexuals, trans people, the physically and mentally disabled.

First, it was words, then it was looking the other way while “ruffians” carried out the will behind those words.

Then, it was “Papers Please,” as the government began taking a hand in deciding just who was and was not German.

Then it was who was and was not sufficiently German.

People are fast to say “But he has Hispanic supporters. He has black supporters. He has gay supporters.”

So did Hitler.

Half of my grandfather’s family died because they were “Good Germans.”

They died because they loved Germany, they supported their Fuhrer. They stood proud for their country. They rightly expected the same in return.

Those that survived did so by recognizing the signs. They abandoned everything they had and left their home behind.

They were fortunate and they knew the system. They understood what it meant to be a German in America, and that it would save them here when it would not in Germany.

Those that refused to see, died.

This is not a reaction to Trump alone.

We were not silent when the PATRIOT Act created the Department of Homeland Security.

We were not silent when state after state started actively persecuting trans women.

We were not blind when immigrants, even those on long term visas were deported in mass numbers.

We are not suddenly overreacting.

We’ve been on this spiral for at least eighteen years, and that’s a conservative estimate.

It is just that now, we are officially to the point where American citizens have to fear detainment because they are not American enough.

We are to the point where our nation’s leadership spouts hate towards various groups, and “ruffians” are going out and acting on the implied will of those words. And when they are not caught, the government is silent. When they are, it is either played off as nothing, or words are spoken that imply tacit approval.

The leadership of our nation talks in terms of good Americans and enemies, and both groups are American citizens.

But, it’s not the same. There are no parallels. Sure, Citizens are having to carry paperwork to prove they are American in order to avoid detainment, but that’s not the same.

Trigger Warning

Trigger Warning.

It is two simple words, with much meaning.

Two words that cause so much contention.

I periodically see people post the words “Trigger Warning” at the top of an article or blog post. It almost always inspires the worst in internet commenters.

They will say it is political correctness gone mad, or that the poster is being melodramatic. They will say that the only people who need trigger warnings are week minded people who are too easily offended.

In short, they don’t get what a trigger warning is, they are lucky enough that it is an alien concept to them. To be honest, I don’t begrudge them that. I am happy for them. I just wish that they would show a little compassion for those who are not so lucky.

Trigger warnings are not about political correctness. They are not about what might offend. They are not about what is politically correct, or what might make a person uncomfortable.

They are about emotion. They are about a soul so broken that there is something so beyond their control emotional that even mentioning it can cause them pain and anguish.

It is about walking down the street when a word, an image, or even a stray thought hits you so hard you are physically knocked over by it. It is about a word, meant in kindness, causing sudden waves of grief that there are no words to explain.

Sometimes you know what your triggers are. After all, you know what the root cause is, so that can kind of tell you what you should avoid to stay away from that emotional place

Sometimes you know what your triggers are, and sometimes you don’t.

Trigger warnings are not a way of saying “Oh, this might make you angry or sad.” They are about the realization that there are people in this world that have lived through experiences that no human should have to experience, and survived.

Trigger warnings are not to protect the week minded, or the fools. They are to protect the strong who have walked through this world with burdens that no one else can see. They are for people who have experienced things that have driven others to madness, or left them dead or hollow. They are an acknowledgement that what is to be said must be said, but that there is some trauma so common in this world that it is almost guaranteed that it will effect some people.

Imagine living through an event that was so horrible and so painful that your mind and body just wanted to shut down? Imagine that something happened to you that left you for ever changed? Imagine that there is a scar on your soul that you are certain you will carry with you into the next life and beyond.

That is what trigger warnings are about.

There are things that are common. There are things that humans regularly do to their fellow humans, that are so horrible that they should never happen. Those are the “easy” trigger warnings. Easy is in quotes, because I just mean those are the ones that are easy for us to think of.

Then there are other triggers that are not so simple. Some things are hard to warn about because you really don’t know. If I manage to hit one of those without warning, I apologize.

Sometimes you know what your triggers are. After all, you know what the root cause is, so that can kind of tell you what you should avoid to stay away from that emotional place

Sometimes you know what your triggers are, and sometimes you don’t.

Imagine being afraid to walk into a toy store, because you are not sure if you are going to walk away happy, or holding back tears. Imagine looking at a calendar, and the date being enough to push you to the edge of sanity. Imagine city parks being a place of terror because you don’t know if the laughter of children is going to make you happy, or cause you to break down in tears.

Time heals all wounds, but deep wounds leave scars as they heal

That is what trigger warnings are about.

If you don’t have any triggers, great. I am happy for you. Read the article in question, and assume what you will. Please though, don’t go off on a rant about political correctness gone mad. Having a scar is not about being weak. It is about having survived.

Ken Ham’s Response to the Secular Ten Commandments

So,

Not too long ago (and it has been done a few times I think), a secular website released what they called “The Secular Ten Commandments.”

Ken Ham has decided to respond to each of the ten with bible verses.

In case you were wondering, no, the Bible is not going to be a conversion tool for Atheists. Telling them that the Bible says something is a certain way provides no leverage in convincing them of anything.

To an Atheist, the bible is seen in much the same light as modern people see the ancient texts about Zeus and Poseidon. I intend no disrespect to those that follow that pantheon, but people outside of a given religion don’t tend to put a lot of stock in the stories and legend of other groups.

Telling an Atheist that they are going to hell if they don’t follow Jesus is about like telling a Christian that Herne is going to stalk them in the night if they piss off the pagan gods.

His final conclusion of course is that a 10 commandments type list means nothing in an Atheistic world view, because, in his view, morality can only come from God and the bible.

There are many religions in this world. Only one of them (or one Category of them depending on how you look at it) even believes the bible is anything more than an intriguing piece of literature. Not all of those religions believe in the Christian God, and a hand full of them are a little sketchy on the existence of gods all together.

They ALL have morality. They all have life views that provide them a way to see the world, and to see what is right and wrong.

Even a large number of professed Atheists have other disciplines and philosophies that they follow/practice. The word Atheist does not discuss what a person believes, only part of what they don’t believe.

Ken Ham’s ego trip, like so many he has gone on in past, does nothing to convert Atheists. It just provides them fodder for their own conversations/amusement.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/01/03/ken-ham-responds-to-the-secular-10-commandments-with-the-bible/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/12/20/after-2800-entries-heres-a-secular-version-of-the-ten-commandments/

http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/12/26/10-atheist-non-commandments/

“Studies”

So,

About once a year we see “studies” released by research institutes that just happen to be run by religious organizations or conservative think tanks, that say that [Insert Minority Group A] tends to have a higher rate of suicide than those who are “normal.”

The one that sparked this response just happens to be a post saying that Atheists tend to have a higher suicide rate than Christians.

There is one factor that this willfully ignorant bastards consistently ignore when they interpret the “findings” from their “studies.”

Any time you have a group that is consistently physically and emotionally abused, ostracized, otherized, and treated in general as sub-human, you are going to have a higher rate of suicide.

Atheists, LGBT folk, Pagans, and other groups that the majority deems to be “unfavorable,” face very real persecution in this country.

And by persecution, I don’t just mean they get offended on a regular basis, or that their feelings get hurt. I mean that society looks the other way as they are attacked, physically and verbally. Society looks the other way as their homes and businesses are burned. There is an entire history of Atheists, and homosexuals being killed in the streets and the police shrugging it off and moving on. Just as often it happens in the back woods where their families aren’t even given the benefit of a proper funeral until their bodies are found months later.

For those in power who keep screaming “I’m being persecuted,” persecution is a real thing. And yes, persecution tends to lead people to be more inclined to do something stupid.

They do these “studies,” and point to them as evidence that whatever thing they find uncomfortable was obviously unholy and unnatural to begin with, while totally ignoring Human nature.

A person being an Atheist does not make them unstable or an abomination.
A person being gay does not make them unstable or an abomination.
A person being human does not make them unstable or an abomination.

A person being abused to the breaking point, being told that they are abominations, being told that they are un-American by their very existence, being kicked out of their homes, outcast by their families, abused by people that should be their friends, constantly in fear that they might be the next dead queer/witch/heathen in some assholes back pasture… THAT makes a person unstable.

This is Not Satire

Ok..

People need to learn what Satire is…

And no, in this case I am NOT talking about the people who spread satirical posts thinking they are real.

Dictionary.com defines satire like this:

1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.
3. a literary genre comprising such compositions.

There is another aspect of satire that is quite often forgotten these days. Satire is honest. It is honest to the point of drawing blood. It is a look at society at a level that makes us uncomfortable, because it charges the status quo like a lance. I choose a lance, and not some other weapon for a reason. A lance risks its own destruction as it plunges into the armor of an enemy of equal or greater power. And they do all this in the light of day, where everyone can see their success, but also their failures.

Satire is commentary on the powerful. It is a direct attack on the status quo. It is meant to teach, to goad, to coerce.

Satirists mock, taunt, and deride the powerful and influential.

They target those who are in position to make policy, or who have the ear of those who make policy.

They make mock those who are in a place to right their position and make amends.

They go after those who have willfully put themselves in the wrong.

They do not make fun of the weak. They do not taunt and torment those bellow them. They do not bully those who cannot defend themselves or who cannot change that which they are targeting them for.

That is not satire, that nothing more than playground bullying taken before a wider audience.

Please, keep this in mind when you re-share links and images from “Satire” sites.

A few good examples:

The Onion: They are open and up front about what they are. They proudly announce that they are a satire site. And, while they skirt the boundaries on occasion, their targets are almost always those in power.

The Daily Currant: You have to dig, and dig hard to find that they are a satire site. No one is safe from their attacks, not even the innocent. As long as they can get a laugh, they don’t care if they actually have a message.

You may wonder what brought on this rant. The answer to that is simple. I have seen too many people posting utter bullshit, taken from sites that paint themselves up to be “news,” while attacking people who just don’t agree with them, with flat out lies, and calling it “satire.”

The direct trigger in this case is a flood of posts from a website called ChristWire (http://www.christwire.com/). Not only do they not have the site marked anywhere as a satire site, but they have multiple posts arguing that they are not satire.

The site pretends to be a news blog. It posts the most nonsensical stories possible, insisting that they are real news, with real facts, and real implications, and that the author of the articles is an Evangelical Christian.

Instead the blog is filled with “news” that is made up of fake “facts” about everything from claims that Pokemon is encouraging demon worship, to Obama is infecting Christians with Ebola. They back up their stories with references to fake news reports, “first-hand knowledge,” and badly done Photoshoped pictures.

They are presenting this as what the Rank and File Christian believes.

While they do have stories that deal somewhat with the day to day news, they are presented in the form of “This is the paranoid delusional idea that these people believe.”

They do not target the powerful. They do not target the influential or the famous. They target the rank and file Christian.

They paint a picture of idiocy and say “Look at the nonsense these people believe.”

That is not satire.

That is the sort of bullying that most of us were taught to avoid as children.

They are not attacking the leadership of any organization. They are not attacking the Vatican, or the SBC. They are attacking our neighbors, and using lies to do it.

Satire is about presenting the truth in a way to teach. Satirists choose to be the “fool,” not the bully.

These people are the thugs of the internet, and they hide behind the label of “satire” because they figure people are too dumb to get what they are doing.

Some People Need to Get Over Themselves

Ok…

I am reading an article about an Atheist “Megachurch.”

While I agree that the idea of labeling it as a church is kind of odd (I am not sure if that is their label or just what others are calling it), I think the people who are like “That defeats the point of Atheism!” are confused or just nuts.

There is NO central point to Atheism. Atheism is simply the lack of belief in gods. That is pretty much it. Those who are saying “It defeats the point!” are already doing exactly what they are accusing the other group of doing.

There have been a multitude of Atheistic groups for just as long as there have been a multitude of Theistic/Deistic groups.

If a group is trying to do good, and thinks they have found a way, then that is what Humanism in all its various forms is about, and many Atheists are also Humanists.

Give them a shot. Let them do their thing. Worst case scenario, they screw it up. It is still worth letting them try.

And if you are like “They are defeating the purpose of Atheism,” you need to check yourself. You are doing exactly the same thing as the various religious groups that got all agitated when new sects of their religions formed.

If you approach your Atheism, or Atheism in general as a faith a religion or a philosophy, then you need to recognize that others may as well and it is their right to do it differently.

If you don’t approach it like a faith a religion or a philosophy, then why are you even making that comment/asking the question?

The article itself is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/atheism-contrary-to-mega-churches

As of this posting, there is at least one response that is very much worth reading at http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/28911030 .

Protect the Investors? Really?

I keep hearing about how the banks have not been held accountable and they are still profiting madly (and maddeningly) from the bailouts and the fact that they are still being propped up by tax payer money now.

Add to this the fact that the same guys who were in charge then are still in charge now. Not only that, but many of them got record bonuses that year because on paper they made record profits… Because of the bailouts.

Now, I tend to agree with most people this far. It sucks that this happened. The bankers involved should be jailed, not given bonuses. This is where it gets a bit messed up, and where many in the mainstream media seem to get confused. I am going to use words that may sound very capitalistic for a few moments, but it is unavoidable since we are talking about banks.

The people in the media, who quite often are relatively intelligent people so I won’t call them idiots, actually feel sorry for and want to protect the investors while finding a way to punish the bankers. They WANT the banks to be held financially liable for what they did, but they DON’T want to hold the investors accountable.

What the fuck do they think investing means? The investors, the shareholders specifically, OWN the banks. It is THEIR investment. The guys that the bleeding heart types want to hold entirely accountable (and they should be held to account. I am not saying they should not), are employees of the bank, and not owners.

Yes, those with fiduciary/fiscal responsibilities and authority should be held accountable when they fuck up. That does not mean however that their bosses should be given expensive parachutes and a padded drop zone to escape the results of allowing the whole thing to crash.

Do we want to protect the economy? Yes.

Do we want to protect the depositors? Yes.

Do we want to protect the people directly responsible, and the ones who hired them to do it? Hell no.

Thousands of small business ventures get started and die every year because someone messed up somewhere along the way.

Thousands of long standing businesses collapse and close up shop every year, because of market pressures or because someone just screwed up.

Millions of people lose their jobs when this happens.

What do they get in the way of protection? Well, if they had their paperwork in order they can file it as a loss on their income taxes. That is it. Nothing else. They can file bankruptcy if they figure out what is going on in time. Beyond that, they and their investors are pretty much screwed.

When the crash came, we (the tax payers) bailed the banks out. THAT was our token gesture to the investors. How do they repay us? They gave record bonuses to the idiots that did it. This is called complicity. This is called approval of behavior. That action effectively absolved me of any pity I might have for them when it came to the issue of who to hold accountable.

If the banks are too big to fail, then one of two things needs to happen. Either they need to divide them up majorly, or they need to take them over. Nationalize the suckers and keep them nationalized until such a time as they can once again be able to operate without being “too big to fail.”

Yes, that means using tax payer dollars to insure the deposits… But we already do that, and the depositors are not at fault.

I will make one caveat to my above comments, and that is this: The first banks to nationalize should be the reserve banks… With no provision to ever privatize them again. Their role in our economy is too important to allow them to follow the same sort of stupid behaviors that banks are expected to make. On top of that, it would bring our current currency more in line with the guidelines provided by the constitution. Our government is supposed to generate money, not privatized banks.

When You Say “Support Our Troops,” Think About What That Actually Means

General rule of thumbs:

If you are not prepared for people to voice their opinion, avoid making controversial posts.

If you have comments to make about the troops, and you have troops on your friends list, assume that they are likely to see those comments. Assume that there are going to be times that they cannot hold their tongue.

And when you make comments about the troops, remember that they do not all think the same. Even if what you are saying is something that is agreed upon by about half the troops (that is a higher percentage than you can actually expect for us to agree on anything), the flip side of that is that about half don’t agree.

Supporting the Troops does not automatically mean supporting the regime that is sending them to die.

Supporting the troops does not mean buying into every bit of ra ra Jingoistic propaganda that you see.

It sure as hell doesn’t mean blowing the troops off when their opinions don’t match the image that you have in mind of how they should think and act and feel.

I hold my tongue on a lot. I hold my tongue on most things. There are limits however beyond which I have a moral obligation as a member of the United States Armed Services, as a Citizen of the United States of America, and as a plain old Human being to speak up and say something.

If I see posts that are purely religious in nature, I am generally going to ignore them. It is your right to hold whatever religious beliefs you want. I am not going to judge that.

I ignore a lot of posts that are just plain dumb, or misinformed unless it is something I can actually be of help on in some way.

I generally try to avoid offending people whenever I can.

However, when I see posts talking about the constitution, about people’s rights, about what a person thinks it means to support our troops, those are kind of things I have to speak up on if I disagree. They are things that are very personal to me, and quite often have a direct impact on me and my way of life.

When people say “Support our Troops,” I am one of those troops.

When people say “The troops fought and died for your right to do such and such,” we also generally fight and die for your right not to do it as well.

When people speak about freedom of religion, and how something is trampling their rights, Freedom of Religion is Freedom to practice ANY religion, not just yours.

When someone says that preventing them from trampling someone else’s rights is taking away their rights… There is a world for that, and it is plain old bullshit.

I am opinionated about certain things, but as a general rule they are things that I am very passionate about for one reason or another. When it comes to issues of what our troops fight and die for, that one is about as personal as you can get.

We are Freaking Out Over Nonsense

So… I see a trend, and it is not just on the right.

People are picking up on “scandals” and “outrages” that are being fed to them by their respective “wings” of the media.

People are getting all worked up on little things that are at most slights, and offenses.

People are freaking out over things that are flat out not true and have been debunked a thousand times over, because their favorite pundit is still pushing the issue.

You know what else is happening as a result?

It is a heck of a lot easier for the media to conveniently overlook some pretty heinous stuff. It is a heck of a lot easier for the media to run horse and pony shows while the real news is overlooked, ignored, or worst yet, flat out changed.

Stephen Colbert has a slogan for his show: “When news breaks, we fix it.” There is a reason for this. He is a satirist, and that is how he sees the real “news” media most of the time.

If we are taking the horse and pony show, and seeing it as real news; If we are accepting all the little nit picking details as controversy; then it is a hell of a lot easier for the media outlets to feed us the party line. It is a lot easier for them to make out normal people as criminals and heroes as villains.

We have wars going on that are not legal under international law. These wars are only called wars when it is convenient, such as when they want to invoke the espionage act.

We have secret laws: you know the thing that once sent famous politicians into a frenzy because they were introduced in other countries. These secret laws are being used to clamp down on first, fourth, and fifth amendments.

We have journalists under investigation by the FBI and CIA for… Yeah, journalism. Peaceful activists are on FBI watch lists, and potential whistle blowers dare not speak up without fleeing the country first (or at least preparing to do so).

Let me ask you this: What is a bigger issue, protecting your already existing right to say “Merry Christmas” that no one is trying to take away, or the fact that pretty much all of our online communications and the meta-data on all of our phone calls is being stored away in a massive database out in the desert? Now, which one have you heard more about on the news?

Persecution?

Ok…
News flash…

Just because some talking head tells you that the guys in charge are being persecuted, just because they believe that some prophesy said that would be the proof that you were doing things right, doesn’t make it so.

If you belong to the group that makes up 76% of the country’s population, and 88% of the US Congress, and likely an even larger percentage of the law making bodies over all in the states… Odds are you are not being persecuted.

In the day and age of persecution that was discussed in the bible, Christians were a smaller percentage of the world population than the Jews are now. They were new, they were strange, they were more vocal than any monotheistic group that the government had dealt with up to that time.

You want to know how you can tell if you are being persecuted:

Have you been denied or lost a job because you were Christian?
Have you ever felt that local law enforcement might gun you down because you are Christian?
Have you ever had to practice your faith in secret to avoid being jailed, executed, or tortured because you are a Christian?
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a brick through your window, or a random holy symbol burning on your front lawn because you are a Christian?
Have you ever been refused service in any establishment because you are a Christian?

These things do happen in modern America, but not to Christians.

I have seen these things happen to Pagans in the US, and I have heard of them happening lately to Muslims as well. These things do happen. These things are persecution.

Being asked not to teach your religion to other people’s children is not persecution. Would you like me to teach your children Buddhism, and tell them it is the only way to enlightenment? Telling you that it is wrong to bully our children is not persecution. Would you like me to tell your children that they are worthless and will burn in hell because they are different from me? It is not persecution to tell you not to pass laws based on your religion. The part of the Constitution that says not to do that is entirely about preventing the persecution of one group or the raising up of another.

I know these examples may seem like common sense to most people that will read my posts, but they are obviously news to others. After all, that is one of the biggest things I hear from the talking heads lately “Bullying is not wrong if it is based on firmly held beliefs, so anti-bullying laws are persecution!”

Screw that. You are free to practice your religion as long as it does not harm anyone else. It makes Christianity as a whole look bad when you get those few idiots who want to bully others in Christ’s name. No offense, but if the bible is the word of God, and Christ was the son of God/ultimate prophet, then there is a special place in Hell for people like that.

You can teach whatever you want in the church house. You can teach whatever you want at home. If you are running a parochial school (i.e. a Church run religious facility), then whatever you want to teach is fair game. After all, the parents made a conscious choice to send their children to you, and that choice was quite likely based on your teachings.

And guess what! If your group was being persecuted, that would not be possible. Yes, there are people who petition to have the accreditation of some religious schools revoked. However, the accrediting agencies generally already know what is being taught so that is not likely to happen. Furthermore those attempts are not based on your faith. They are based on the fact that there are schools teaching non-sense as science. That non-sense is harmful in the long term because it can affect your child’s future education possibilities. Still, those schools exist and are allowed to exist. In a lot of ways that in and of itself is the exact opposite of persecution. It is acceptance to the extent that society is effectively standing back while people teach their students things about physics and geology that just aren’t founded in any form of science. I suppose that at this point it is too late to voice an obvious bias towards Young Earth “theory”.

Does persecution exist in our country? Yes. You can bet it does.
Are some of the groups persecuted against Christian? Yes.

However, if you are a Christian, odds are you have never experienced true persecution unless you are a Mormon. There are parts of the country where Catholics are actively persecuted as well, but only by other Christians.