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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • You overestimate how willing people are to throw their bodies at the problem. Things have to be so bad that they expect to die anyway. Otherwise, your militia sign-ups will be limited to only those most brave, ideological, or stupid.

    You also underestimate how much more effective military training and ordinances are among the US military vs militias. If they really wanted to mow down civilians, it would be fish in a barrel, even if everyone in the militia is armed.

    This is why the hope is that US service men are committed to the constitution and not to Drumpf’s orders. It’s a thin hope.






  • Daily life is what daily life is all about.

    I do think I’d potentially be happier with a partner who I could speak philosophy and politics with, but if we couldn’t also function simply navigating running a household and raising our family, then we really couldn’t be anything more than friends with benefits long term. Not that that would be a bad thing. It just depends on how you want to move your life.


  • And that’s great so long as it’s a source of comfort and not dread. The fear of God and hellfire is real. We need people who carry faiths to recognize that this is by definition an uncertainty for which no real evidence exists, when it comes to consequences in the real world. Maybe that’s a contradiction to some, but it doesn’t need to be.


  • Nonsense. I don’t believe in any divine entity, which is the definition of theism. Moreover, my “faith” isn’t predicated on any actions in the world. It’s a musing about the universe. A hopeful fantasy that I think is worth wanting. But it’s not a gospel for how you ought to live in the world. That’s why organised religions are a toxic force in the world overall, and we should never shy away from criticising them.


  • Thing is it shouldn’t be comforting to anyone if they really take the details seriously. You could do as much damage really educating someone about Deuteronomy and other fun parts of the Bible and ultimately leave them in a worse state than finding a way to make them an atheist.

    We forget an atheist is just a non-theist. Someone who doesn’t believe in any specific canonical god. I’m an atheist with a genuine faith the universe has more in store for “me” (whatever that is; I don’t believe it’s necessarily or eternally “ynthrepic”) than a mere human lifetime given what we know about the universe as a whole and how mysterious and seemingly fundamental consciousness is to it all. That gives me some relief and comfort from the existential dread. More than I could possibly get from Yahweh and his totally uncompelling biblical heaven and hell dynamic.