Proud anti-fascist & bird-person
Oh yeah, Amarillo is a big city for the NI-coC. Abilene, too.
The us-or-them situation is exactly what they’re aiming for: isolated people are easier to control. But yeah, I’m not sure if it’s an intentional strategy or just what happened to work out for their purposes.
Wow, I’m so glad this dipshit who’s never had to work a day in his life could give this paternal wisdom to the plebs who might need this medication to retain employment and not die destitute in the streets.
Who knew they just needed to be sent to a farm upstate so they could run free forever and ever?
Well, I grew up in what is known as the non-institutional church of Christ. There are different branches of the coC, ranging from the relatively liberal to the downright draconian.
What made this particular branch of the coC “non-institutional” is that they are independent of each other congregation, so the leadership of each group is separate from every other.
The way it actually shakes out is that every congregation gets super deep into the weeds about arcane interpretations of an ancient text about which they are unqualified to explain while making overconfident proclamations of certainty. Other congregations disagree with a fairly minor point in this reading, and they will become effectively dead to each other. Ultimately, the different churches (they would hate me calling them that) would form a loose confederation across the region with various groups they could live in uneasy peace with.
Within the congregation itself was a religion that taught that the world is a wicked place from which we should set ourselves apart. Evolution was a lie spread by the devil to make us doubt God’s power. Women were not allowed to speak or wear pants during the church service. We did not use instruments to make music during the service, as that was not mentioned in the Bible. Any disagreement with doctrine could get one removed from good standing, and we left two churches (forced out, really) based on the Elders’ strict views on baptism and musical instruments: my father would not agree that immersion was strictly necessary to save one’s soul, or that it was sinful to exceed the Bible’s authority and use instruments.
It is a bit of a weird duck as a cult, but they’re extremely controlling, patriarchal, and reactionary. They’re in most towns, but people usually think they’re an offshoot of the Baptists (of which certain types also dip into cult status in my opinion). I’d place them between the Baptists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses on a fundamentalist belief scale. I think the BITE model is a useful one (but not perfect) for defining cults:
The coC did all of these things: they wanted members to live apart from society where only those in the church were acceptable social peers, to limit exposure with “subversive” ideas and science, to make people so afraid of going to hell that you’ll blindly accept the teachings. You were expected to attend every service: Sunday morning & night and Wednesday night.
In short, they wanted to control people’s lives by love-bombing newcomers and then suffocating them until they fit into their assigned tiny little box.
And yes, we were in the end times. Even though nobody knows when Jesus will return. Wink.
I feel equal parts pity and exasperation that they’re ignoring critical crises like global climate change to focus on superstitious nonsense.
I grew up in a cult, so my whole life.
What a generous soul.
“Our goal in a couple of years is for people to think of Infowars as the funniest and dumbest website that exists,” Ben Collins, the Onion’s CEO, told The Associated Press. “It was previously the dumbest website that exists.”
Except our fascist orangutan looks much dumber.
Same for MSNBC, really. Cable news is owned by people who have a conflict of interest with the working class.
Weird, they just let a psycho killer be a cop? I’m sure they’ll prevent that in the future.
Tangentially related, but I just started my first real Morrowind playthrough about a week ago, and it’s great!
When it first came out I borrowed it from my brother, but I didn’t have a computer that could run it; it was just a slideshow. I’d played Daggerfall before, and Oblivion & Skyrim subsequently, but I skipped Morrowind.
It’s a bit disappointing seeing how much Bethesda has trimmed the most interesting systems from their earlier entries. I imagine that if the next TES game had spellcrafting or a deeper dialogue system then it would get a much more engaging reception over Starfield’s bland, watered down experience that has been “polished” so much that there’s nothing compelling that stands out.
Right? They were awesome.
Minestrone or Italian wedding soup are both pretty chunky.
I love you.
I’m a man and I’d never date a Republican either.
A person’s politics are a reflection of their values: if they’re willing to identify themselves as someone who validates all that fascist shit, then I want nothing to do with them.
It’s crazy to me that this take is even remotely controversial.
Because they’re certain that the people getting punished are heretics to their reactionary ideology.
They see it as inferior people getting what they deserve, and since it’s privatized they imagine they’ll pay less for the privilege.
But why?
Make the fascist fire you.
Yamaha makes the best guitar for the money.
The instrument I probably play the most is a nylon string Yamaha with a great dual pickup/mic that I got for $100 at a pawn shop. It has some cosmetic wear, but that’s a bonus in my opinion.
“You’re not watching your kid enough, so we’re putting you in jail away from the kids you’re supposed to be watching.”
Why are cops such fucking idiots? Even if I agreed with their judgement (which I definitely do not) it would be the wrong solution.
And Republicans still pretend like these aren’t their allies.