“God gave man the truth. Then the Devil came in and said, “Hey, let’s organize it and call it ‘religion’.” A bumper sticker is more blunt: “Dear Lord, save me from your followers.”
“And what a horrific toll many political true believers have wrought. With no religious humility to reign them in, they have created the first totalitarian dictatorships in which the party-state (national secular church) prescribes every aspect of citizens’ lives. Inspired by the French Revolution’s Jacobins who sought to create “a republic of virtue”, 20th century communists fought to forge a new “revolutionary man”. So Marxists in Russia, Eastern Europe, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Cuba criminalized all religious, political, social, and even private personal conduct deemed “ideologically incorrect”. A Russian Bolshevik once asked dictator Joseph Stalin to execute a group because “They have no [communist] faith”. The stridently secular Nazi Adolf Hitler declared, “Anyone who interprets National Socialism merely as a political movement knows almost nothing about it. It is more than religion; it is the determination to create a new man.”
The death toll alone from such anti-religious regimes is light years worse than that of all religious wars and tyrannies combined – and in such a terribly brief span of time. Indeed, tolerance and forgiveness can be mortal sins to atheist political puritans.”
“But history shows secular political fanatics do far more harm since they lack a Ten Commandments, Golden Rule, or fear of a judgmental God to restrain them. The godless want to create a heaven too – but right here today since they think this is all there is. So, they have a peculiarly uncompromising urgency to remake society NOW.”
Yes, see Sam Harris. Rigging elections is OK because morals and principals are whatever you need in any given moment to get your way.
“The Conservatives of pre-Y2K were out to outlaw everything from skateboarding to South Park to non-missionary-position sex. If you wanted to fight for your right to party, the Right was who you were fighting.”
The power of stereotypes, left biased news, and myth.
“Here’s the thing: you can only see them online, and here they are preaching to the choir in an otherwise empty church.”
This isn’t true but geography plays a role in who you encounter, so maybe it depends on where you live.
Even when Democrats were attacking societal norms, what some would call having fun, they were still authoritarian. It is just that authoritarianism took a back seat to suckering gullible people and being patient with incrementalism before clamping down.
A Renaissance in late-night television humor (which died long ago) is happening on a Fox show called Gutfeld! My wife and I go there nightly for respite from the downfall of Western civilization. You may be surprised at how damn smart that show is – while still being hilarious.
“God gave man the truth. Then the Devil came in and said, “Hey, let’s organize it and call it ‘religion’.” A bumper sticker is more blunt: “Dear Lord, save me from your followers.”
“And what a horrific toll many political true believers have wrought. With no religious humility to reign them in, they have created the first totalitarian dictatorships in which the party-state (national secular church) prescribes every aspect of citizens’ lives. Inspired by the French Revolution’s Jacobins who sought to create “a republic of virtue”, 20th century communists fought to forge a new “revolutionary man”. So Marxists in Russia, Eastern Europe, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Cuba criminalized all religious, political, social, and even private personal conduct deemed “ideologically incorrect”. A Russian Bolshevik once asked dictator Joseph Stalin to execute a group because “They have no [communist] faith”. The stridently secular Nazi Adolf Hitler declared, “Anyone who interprets National Socialism merely as a political movement knows almost nothing about it. It is more than religion; it is the determination to create a new man.”
The death toll alone from such anti-religious regimes is light years worse than that of all religious wars and tyrannies combined – and in such a terribly brief span of time. Indeed, tolerance and forgiveness can be mortal sins to atheist political puritans.”
https://www.samizdata.net/2022/08/secular-political-fanatics/
“But history shows secular political fanatics do far more harm since they lack a Ten Commandments, Golden Rule, or fear of a judgmental God to restrain them. The godless want to create a heaven too – but right here today since they think this is all there is. So, they have a peculiarly uncompromising urgency to remake society NOW.”
Yes, see Sam Harris. Rigging elections is OK because morals and principals are whatever you need in any given moment to get your way.
“The Conservatives of pre-Y2K were out to outlaw everything from skateboarding to South Park to non-missionary-position sex. If you wanted to fight for your right to party, the Right was who you were fighting.”
The power of stereotypes, left biased news, and myth.
“Here’s the thing: you can only see them online, and here they are preaching to the choir in an otherwise empty church.”
This isn’t true but geography plays a role in who you encounter, so maybe it depends on where you live.
Even when Democrats were attacking societal norms, what some would call having fun, they were still authoritarian. It is just that authoritarianism took a back seat to suckering gullible people and being patient with incrementalism before clamping down.
A Renaissance in late-night television humor (which died long ago) is happening on a Fox show called Gutfeld! My wife and I go there nightly for respite from the downfall of Western civilization. You may be surprised at how damn smart that show is – while still being hilarious.