Good point. And we did manage to elect a Black man by a veritable landslide (twice). Maybe it’s just anecdotal evidence or the particular flavor of MAGA in my area.

I don’t know this particular asshole, but IME, the racism is typically more important than the misogyny for MAGA-types (but it’s a pretty tight race)

This is legit why people started to believe in Hell

This, and monotheism. You can’t have an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent deity if there’s observable evil in the world unless “it’s all part of God’s plan,” and/or “people reap what they sow”

Respectfully.

Very well put; this is exactly what I’m talking about.

I’d say part of the difference is that, at this point, the billionaires have left us with just enough to lose. I’m sure the risk of physical violence was still daunting, but when you have nothing left to lose then the prospect of physical harm somehow seems preferable to continuing with the status quo. That seems like an easy thing to say, but I’ve been there before.

Many people can’t miss a few days work without significant financial implications. Billionaires and corporations have us so underwater that we have no choice but to make a big stink where we can and voice our concern, with the occasional weekend march.

Nice to see at least one other person understands the definition of “Third World Country”

I can see your point, but I respectfully disagree. I find the desert to fairly beautiful, and at least Bakersfield and Stockton have more of a small-town feel. IMO, LA combines all the negatives of Stockton and Bakersfield into one plasticized, superficial mess; LA’s better at covering up their flaws, but there’s a certain authenticity in owning your blemishes.

While I stand in solidarity with my fellow Californians, LA is objectively the worst part of California.

I’m sure someone will come along and point out that the 90s were no more or less peaceful than any other decade

Not to be that guy, but there was the whole Bosnian Genocide thing from 92-95 and the Gulf War from 90-91 that really legitimized the US practice of inference in the Middle East in the eyes of many US citizens. Up until then, most Americans still saw intervention a la the Iran Contra Affair as a negative.

Plus, the Troubles in North Ireland were still in pretty high gear until 1998, most of Africa was involved in civil wars and ethnic cleansing for a large chunk of the 90’s, and the collapse of the USSR, which was viewed as a positive in many parts of the world, did leave a power vacuum that resulted in numerous civil wars and militant separatist movements throughout eastern Europe and western Asia

You’re correct that the police like having the dogs as a pretext to search on flimsy/non-existent evidence, but it’s not that the dogs are half-trained; they are very well trained to give false positives based on the officers’ body language and attitude.

Agreed, that’s my whole point. It was not the ideal way to get where we are, but it’s how it happened. There was a… I don’t want to say purpose, but “benefit,” might be the right word.

If we were designing things from scratch, then obviously religion would be left out. But it’s an unfortunate accident of the evolution of consciousness and evolution of civilization that certain societal benefits were included with the magical thinking. Just like the health of the human gut biome is tied to the existence of the appendix, even through the appendix doesn’t provide much in the way of direct benefits these days and can become inflamed and kill us.

The supernatural claims are just a byproduct of the mechanism that passed along the creation myths and cultural norms. It would be great if that wasn’t how it happened, but it did. Rational people can agree at this point that the magical thinking is a net negative for society, but IMO, to ignore that there were some positives to come along with religion is the same sort of blind denial that religious folks use.

It was a collective delusion to soothe ancient fears of a world we could not comprehend

Agreed, but can’t you see that that was an advantage during the formative ages of society and civilization?

I’ve said that, word for word. When I actually sit and think about it though, I think it’s more like appendicitis. Religion once served a purpose (passing on of useful cultural norms and expectations), has become vestigial, and is now inflamed and likely to kill us (as a society and individually, in some cases)

That book… Was the Bible

or “water closet” in the UK

Keep in mind, these are almost certain to be the same people who complain about how political everything is these days. What they mean is that they don’t want to see leftist/progressive memes, but they’re fine shifting the Overton widow to the right.

I don’t know; during the Bush Jr. Era, I would have agreed with you, but I think the powers that be have figured out that religion is more useful for creating wedge issues than actually governing.

If the goal is simply controlling the population, then oligarch-controlled media and social media seems to be perfectly adequate with just a little bit of religion to give the conservatives bad-faith plausible deniability when it comes to the racism, misogyny, and homophobia (both the politicians and the voters).

If I’m being honest, I don’t expect to see a penny of social security. I’m making other arrangements wherever possible