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[kaijyuu]

Re: Assumptions based on what religion you are.

I'm forced to listen to conservative talk radio, and one of the hosts I think made a rather good point (though not the one he was intending). He was talking about religion in politics, and how some people think it should be completely divorced when it comes to political candidates. He argued that no, people should care about the religion of candidates, since it gives insight into their character. I have to actually agree with that. What religion someone is can be very useful in determining what values they have (or lack thereof).

The problem here, of course, is that homophobia is considered a "value" in much of mainstream christianity. So, while I do agree it's a bad move to assume any particular christian is homophobic, I certainly think their being christian is worthy of suspicion of it.  In regular conversation I'd probably default to "not homophobic" just to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I would ask questions if I cared to know about someone's character, such as if they were a political candidate.

So, when it comes to religion and politics, if you hold different views from the mainstream ones of your religion, you are of course going to have to explain your views multiple times. Inductive reasoning states you probably have the mainstream views, otherwise.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

@ MSH: I'm pretty sure he meant mentioning that he was a Christian online, not IRL. Face it, some people are assholes online, and on some websites mentioning that you are religious in any way earns nothing but scorn.

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike....

I mean, there's Reddit, but Reddit is terrible in every way possible already.

Sorry, but I don't have very much tolerance for Christians portraying themselves as some kind of oppressed minority in America. The main religious group of the nation doesn't really get to play that card.

[Solifuge]

-holyfrigginsnip-

@ Solifuge
Umm, that was a good argument against our immense military spending, but I don't see how that connects back to a flat tax. You say at the end that a flat tax is good for keeping wealth from being hoarded by the wealthy, but a flat tax is not the only way to do that.
IIRC, theoretical tax structures run from regressive (the rich pay a lower %) to flat (rich pay the same %) to progressive (the rich pay a higher %). When moving away from a regressive structure, why stop at flat?

I'm trying to indicate the Elephant in the room, which people tend to ignore when discussing how to stop the debt crisis. Revision of tax structure is good and fine, and can be part of a solution, but it is not the solution... especially in light of our militaristic imperialism, and how much we must feed it to keep it going.

[Sirus]

@ MSH: Alright, that second part I'll agree with. But it is indeed possible to have religious beliefs without being a horribly intolerant person, and we shouldn't be making assumptions like that. I think that's what ggamer was talking about with that last paragraph.

[penguinofhonor]

If ggamer was talking about being harassed for Christianity on the internet, I'll believe it. I don't think I've ever seen it happen in real life.

I mean, there's Reddit, but Reddit is terrible in every way possible already.

You should see Reddit when the atheists and Christians unite against the Muslims. Suddenly every Christian is all for logic and literal interpetation of the Quran and every atheist is for the government getting as involved with religion as possible.

[Sirus]

Being harassed for being Christian does happen in real life...just not in the United States, usually

[Kilroy the Grand]

I think Obama's biggest problem is that he's so spineless just like every other democrat. "O-oh the republicans are upset that we changed our platform! They might say hurtful things, we gotta change it back!" That was bar-none the funniest part of the Democratic Convention, especially the guy telling them to grow a backbone before hand

Although I'm voting for Jill Stein, even though I don't agree with all of the green party's positions, it seems like the less shitty one.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I agree with most of the Green Party stuff...except for the trying to legislate neighborhoods into acting like hippie communes and funding fake medicine like homeopathy and CTM. I thought you were supposed to be the voice of reason, Green Party! Why did you let yourself get infected with New Age?!

[Nadaka]

I agree with most of the Green Party stuff...except for the trying to legislate neighborhoods into acting like hippie communes and funding fake medicine like homeopathy and CTM. I thought you were supposed to be the voice of reason, Green Party! Why did you let yourself get infected with New Age?!

The first thing I noted disagreement with the green party on is  that they do not support research and development of clean nuclear power. But the homeopathy crap is also annoying.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Oh, yes, the anti-nuclear stance as well. Very foolish stance to take.

[lemon10]

The green party is the fringe of the left.
The most fringe party is obviously going to attract the crazy extreme people.
If you are semi reasonable then you will vote democrat, because you realize that voting green is throwing your vote away.
Most of those who remain are very far to the left, and stand a very good chance of believing in that kind of thing (who amusingly enough are pretty much just as anti-science as the right is).

[Kilroy the Grand]

If you are semi reasonable then you will vote democrat, because you realize that voting green is throwing your vote away.

As we all know, the only way to enact change is to continue as you have always done. If you don't see that democrats and republicans are just two sides of the same shitty coin your deluding yourself.

[Solifuge]

funding fake medicine like homeopathy

Hold up. You do realize how asinine it is to think that the active chemicals we discover in plants and animals, and the pharmaceuticals we manufacture using these chemicals, are not the same thing? I'm all for regulation and testing of biotic treatments; sometimes living things are more efficient at manufacturing a chemical or treatment than labs are.

Not suggesting the huffing of dried tiger testicles to cure cancer or whatever, but at least analyze plausible remedies in an unbiased and clinical setting. Drug labs don't need to have a monopoly on our well-being here.

[Sirus]

That's not what homeopathy is.

[kaijyuu]

Basically, if we discovered an herbal remedy (or whatever) in the past, we've now synthesized the active ingredient and can make pills.

Also, have the wikipedia article on homeopathy. As a concept it's bogus.

FAKEEDIT: Ninja.



Side note: What's wrong with hippie communes?