Coincidentally I have a list of about 50 people who I am not sure if they are good or bad people. Now I can put Laurie Higgins in the bad pile. Thanks Dan, the work you do is invaluable.
Ugh. Any person who goes around branding others as Evil has a problem, and is the problem.
Perhaps I am naive or lucky, but I have never met an Evil person. I have seen massive damage done by ignorance. I believe there are those who are sociopaths [who I would say are less than fully human, but not evil]. But to say that a person is motivated, composed of, and fully characterized by Evil is pernicious.
It is a way of denying the humanity of the other, of making a blanket dismissal of their worth, and--in a binary God v. Satan worldview--categorizing them as the enemy who must be destroyed. Such thinking is one of the most destructive ignorances I know.
[Great appearance Dan. If that is what evil is like, sign me up.]
If you define evil as harming on others, than Christians are the evil party here.
Dan isn't spending millions of dollars to prevent loving couples from marrying, Dan isn't assassinating doctors.
Dan isn't threatening women's health care, Dan doesn't support the party that has assisted the oligarchs in murdering the middle class in this country.
Nor are homosexuals, as a group, supporting any of these evils.
Kurt Eichenwald had a very strong post about Republicans using Nazi comparisons this way. No speech is comparable to the atrocities committed against mankind at Bergen-Belsen. Ripping your gold tooth out to save your sibling and then dying of infection is not like watching a five-minute interview.
I'm surprised Laurie Higgins thinks people should watch that segment. Everyone who does will become gay! This is what happens when we allow a civil discussion of gay rights.
@16 The Bible is full of cryptic phrases that can be interpreted on the spot to lend credence* to whatever the speaker is arguing. Makes it a great book to base a religion on. Do you care to specify what you mean in unambiguous language?
Just who did the killing at Bergen-Belsen?
Who lynched blacks in the South?
Who, in all likelihood, napalmed a Vietnamese girl?
Who, in all likelihood, aborts most babies in America?
Christians, Ms. Higgins, Christians. Study your history.
@11 Bravo. However, I wish to reclaim a little corner of Christendom from the "Christians" of which you speak.
Despite what they think, Christ doesn't belong to social conservatives, reactionaries, bigots, and homophobes. In fact, if He could meet them today, He'd slap them fucking silly. And, if there's a God, and an afterlife, their wretched pompous, self-righteous souls are in for a big surprise.
Whether or not anyone believes in God makes not one whit of difference, but anyone purporting to believe in Him had better realize that there are people who don't, who are doing a far better job of following how Christ (or Moses, Mohammed, or any other religious figure) told us to behave than they are.
As for Dan, he's a saint in my book. Looking forward to seeing him at the early show on Friday!
@5 I have met evil people, but I was playing Dungeons and Dragons at the time. Our local paladin was sick, so we couldn't detect their alignment and they got a jump on us. Bastards.
You stand up to bigots, Dan? How about standing up to fight for the little people by raising the minimum wage to $15 in Seattle? Business people will adapt, and our society will be better off. Otherwise, fuck you.
I, for one, have a hard time checking my idealism at the door for a paycheck. Or a share in a business. So that I can continue to fuck over the poor so that I can have a pretty house and husband and celebrity life.
Religious fundamentalists dare not venture from the echo chamber that protects and reinforces their fragile beliefs lest they be confronted with the inescapable reality of their existence - they do NOT believe, they only say they do to gain the pseudo-class and familiar comfort that club membership has promised them and the temporary reprieve from the overwhelmingly frightening reality that comes from not knowing and not controlling.
Four words that scare the shit out of people and send them running to the comfort of belief clubs: I DO NOT KNOW.
Ignorance is a universal human condition, deal with it through reflection, reason, education, experience and discovery. Don't run away and hide from it with fantastical, magical and unquestionable and unexamined beliefs that you simply copied from others.
Beliefs are the lazy person's way of circumventing the education of a life well lived. It is a costly shortcut, indeed.
People like her make me ashamed to come out of the closet as a Lutheran. The only thing that makes it ok is the knowlege that I am not religious, I have faith. I was taught from little up that you live your faith and Jesus himself did not associate with the pious but with those who were the outcasts of society because they needed his love and wisdom the most.
Dan good for you! You stood up for your beliefs and did your best to get your point across with humor and aplomb.
Signed,
Santa Claus
Perhaps I am naive or lucky, but I have never met an Evil person. I have seen massive damage done by ignorance. I believe there are those who are sociopaths [who I would say are less than fully human, but not evil]. But to say that a person is motivated, composed of, and fully characterized by Evil is pernicious.
It is a way of denying the humanity of the other, of making a blanket dismissal of their worth, and--in a binary God v. Satan worldview--categorizing them as the enemy who must be destroyed. Such thinking is one of the most destructive ignorances I know.
[Great appearance Dan. If that is what evil is like, sign me up.]
iirc
-Nietzsche
Dan isn't spending millions of dollars to prevent loving couples from marrying, Dan isn't assassinating doctors.
Dan isn't threatening women's health care, Dan doesn't support the party that has assisted the oligarchs in murdering the middle class in this country.
Nor are homosexuals, as a group, supporting any of these evils.
But Christians are.
The way you wrote your post helped me to figure out what iirc means. (No one ever offered to google it for me.)
What was the line you were going for after that? Bill cuts you off, but you're saying something about Catholics.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenw…
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Who lynched blacks in the South?
Who, in all likelihood, napalmed a Vietnamese girl?
Who, in all likelihood, aborts most babies in America?
Christians, Ms. Higgins, Christians. Study your history.
Bible thumpers, fuck the hell off.
Despite what they think, Christ doesn't belong to social conservatives, reactionaries, bigots, and homophobes. In fact, if He could meet them today, He'd slap them fucking silly. And, if there's a God, and an afterlife, their wretched pompous, self-righteous souls are in for a big surprise.
Whether or not anyone believes in God makes not one whit of difference, but anyone purporting to believe in Him had better realize that there are people who don't, who are doing a far better job of following how Christ (or Moses, Mohammed, or any other religious figure) told us to behave than they are.
As for Dan, he's a saint in my book. Looking forward to seeing him at the early show on Friday!
Nucking Futs pulls off a Cunning Stunt.
not 'evil'; right liberals?
asswipes.
Four words that scare the shit out of people and send them running to the comfort of belief clubs: I DO NOT KNOW.
Ignorance is a universal human condition, deal with it through reflection, reason, education, experience and discovery. Don't run away and hide from it with fantastical, magical and unquestionable and unexamined beliefs that you simply copied from others.
Beliefs are the lazy person's way of circumventing the education of a life well lived. It is a costly shortcut, indeed.
Dan good for you! You stood up for your beliefs and did your best to get your point across with humor and aplomb.