I strongly disagree. All incarnations of Abrahamic gods have been vengeful and cruel, including Jesus.

Believe it if you like, but a loving god is a retcon, and your own texts prove that.

Humanism is the absence of an authoritarian deity. The reason humanism exists is because we are a cooperative species that’s helped and fostered each other for millions of years. We have archaeological evidence of this that far predates any notion of modern gods.

Okay, but no gods exist, so all belief, no matter how seemingly benign, is delusional and harmful.

It’s only a small step from seemingly benign belief to this dangerous delusion, and it only takes a charismatic leader saying the right words to turn that belief into violent fanaticism. Otherwise good people will commit or support atrocities based on these delusions.

People don’t support horrific things because they’re moustache-twirling villains – they think they’re good people supporting good things, and these beliefs convince people to do horrific things by twisting their minds.

That’s been the case for thousands of years.

Moisturise me!

Most right-wing outrage has been driven by bots for a decade. Yeah, what’s new?

What’s funny is Elon started this whole thing. The mainstream had mostly stopped reporting on Epstein until the Doge debacle, when Musk got his knickers in a twist and reminded everyone Trump was in the files.

Aim the cobra at your foes, but watch your own hand.

Yeah, and ‘quietly’ is the key word.

If you’re expecting an internal coup, you’ll be waiting a long time. There was no real coup against Hitler. His army never stopped him.

It won’t. If we’ve learnt anything from history, it’s that the military almost always sides with the fascist state. They are built to support the status quo, no matter how bad it gets (up to and including internal genocide). They only rebel when their own institution is threatened, which a fascist state explicitly doesn’t do.

Here’s the timestamped link.

Thank you! I love humble creators, and this is very good advice.

I’d love to see that video, do you have a link?

Had a long conversation the other day with someone who doesn’t know what ‘fascism’ means, and insisted I’m the fascist for calling out an actual fascist.

The issue isn’t the platform, it’s that many people are ignorant (sometimes by design, and sometimes by their own choice).

As Lemmy becomes more popular, we’ll see more of this.

I try to be gentle at first, because some people didn’t choose to be ignorant and can be reformed, but trolls are also learning we exist.

I don’t disagree that it works. That’s what I mean – a disturbing number of people buy this obvious bullshit, mostly because they were indoctrinated into it, so their critical thinking was compromised before they had the chance to discern fiction from reality.

It’s sad, and tantamount to child abuse, and now we all have to deal with the shitshow caused by people who believe in fairy tales and will make us all pay for it.

Which antichrist?

I think manipulating an emperor into adopting your kid as an heir worked once. Another time, tricking people into thinking you’re socialist then backstabbing them worked. Or perhaps whitewashing your record of abject failure by becoming a reality television star.

These people are genuinely, certifiably insane, and they’re in charge.

People who believe in fairy tales, demons, and other childish nonsense as adults should be referred to mental health services, not be given the keys to the economy and governance.

How can so many grown adults think this is okay? It’s complete madness. They’re dooming us with their psychopathy and people are nodding along like this is normal. Fucking hell.

No no, it’s fine, because they’re teaching critical thinking and media literacy in schools, and – [checks notes] oh wait. Oh shit.

It’s from South Park, S8 E7 – the ‘took er jerbs’ episode. ‘Goobacks’ were immigrants from the future where the world had become a hellscape.

As I’ve aged, it seems my sleep pattern has gone medieval: I go to sleep at 11pm, wake at 2am, go back to sleep at 5am, and wake at 8am.

Can’t seem to break it, and it’s been that way for a couple of years now. It’s a bit shifted from the medieval times (probably because I’m on my phone til later; I think they did more like 8-12, and 3-6), but the pattern is pretty similar.

Oh good lord.

Something something sparkling conservatism.

Yeah, we can see that’s what you’re in. Thanks for acknowledging it.