The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America

originally posted by: Tiger5
Lots of xtian fundamentalists do not plant bombs or throw gays off of roofs.

True. But when you have a significant stratum of society that gives more credence to Bishop Ussher that to Neil deGrasse Tyson, it, too, is a destructive influence on the nation's well-being. Of course, that could 'just be my education talkin'.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Did you know that Will Smith turned down the job for The Matrix, and that's why Keanu got it?

YIL
Yesterday I Learned.

See, the thing is, they won't give up The Holy BIble.

They can't.
They would not know how to behave. And it doesn't matter that others who read the same text think about it differently. It's really no different from competitive companies. Do you want Apple, or Microsoft?

Do you want your enemies to roast in hell, or do you just want them to try to figure it out (again)?

How would you feel, really feel???? if you learned that all of that is just crap ways to get us fighting over the same damned scraps?

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.

Prayer of Humble Access

That ^ that's a thing.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Did you know that Will Smith turned down the job for The Matrix, and that's why Keanu got it?

YIL
Yesterday I Learned.

I wonder if regret is why he did so many Sci-Fi movies.

a reply to: Tiger5

"Xtianity....."


Really, so compassionate and sensitive to your fellow man and assorted world cultures and religions that you can not be bothered to even write the word "Christianity?" I remind you that those 7th century infidels that you casually reference have conducted a mass genocide in the lands they conquered during Obama's regime.

You state you are British and have "seen combat" which I find irrelevant unless you have remained proficient in these skills in your old age....the invasion of your country is nearing completion and you may need those skills in the coming months.

Fundamentalism......I find this whole OP to be a waste of time and energy and regret becoming involved in a pointless philosophical discussion...in the end we must all accept the consequence of our beliefs. Judge not lest ye be judged.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Deaf Alien

Are you a "kill all Pit bulls" guy?

That "kill all Pit bulls" is a sickening suggestion and policy. Only monsters (and football players) do that kind of thing.

No sane person capable of empathy or compassion could ever back that kind of sick hoping. Yikes.

Shame on you.

a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

My dear fellow you are obviously a Xtian. Your comments on infidels are meaningless to me as I am not part of any of your ridiculous tribes(). You could actually do what many others of your kind choose to do and speak out about the idiocy of fundamentalism. Instead you take issue with me so I can only assume that you are fundamentalist. Your problems are your own. Seek out your brothers in Daesh!

a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

Really, so compassionate and sensitive to your fellow man and assorted world cultures and religions that you can not be bothered to even write the word "Christianity?" I remind you that those 7th century infidels that you casually reference have conducted a mass genocide in the lands they conquered during Obama's regime.

Just wondering....where were you on 9/11 of 2001? Do you remember? I remember exactly where I was.

Also - are you aware that in the US, the Jews and Muslims are ALL experiencing 'hateful' acts? And how they help each other? Yep! Jews lending the synagogue to the Muslims whose mosque has been blown up?

Have you heard of that?? Yeah? Good.

Now. Have you heard of the "Christian Missionaries" in Africa who pour acid down the throats of children? What about the Taliban, who board school buses and shoot girls in the head? How about Hitler?? You know about him? How about these idiots vandalizing/desecrating Jewish cemeteries? Shooting and killing non-Jewish people exiting a Jewish Community Center where they'd had a gathering. Did you hear about that?

How about the guy who shot two Indian nationals AND a normal American white guy in a bar in suburban Kansas City and thought they were "Iranians"?

What about the US bombing and droning and generally trashing the Middle East? You know --- killing all those people, but not wanting their survivors to come here because women and children are scary!! And the Mexicans? Phewew!!! Damn them!!! Someone stop them from cooking and cleaning and mowing and roofing and fixing your car and bussing your table and taking care of the hotel linens and towels.......damn them!!!!


BLOODY HELL!!





People like you make me sick.
There is NO "CORRECT" RELIGION.

Not yours, not any of theirs. Xtianity, yeah. bleah. The Abrahamic religions are the ultimate PLAGUE on our race.

Group hug?

a reply to: Stormdancer777





no

seriously

You want a group hug? Seriously?
Why?

Old thread at this point, but I want to share this story which came up recently on Reddit. There's a 17 year old girl I've been talking to in this thread. Her boyfriend is 21. They live in a rural, very fundamentalist area. For the boyfriends 21st birthday he invited his girlfriend to come to his place and get drunk. She doesn't like drinking much but goes along with it to make him happy. You can probably guess the next piece of this story at this point. She passes out, after which her boyfriend has sex with her without a condom. Fast forward a couple weeks and the girl learns she's pregnant.

The girl goes to the boyfriend, trying for plan B the day after. He refuses saying he doesn't want to murder his baby. She goes to her parents. Her mom threatens to disown her if she does anything to harm the child. She goes to her dad, and her dad is starting to set up a wedding cerimony for the two people. Her parents also take away her phone, car, and any money so she can't go anywhere. When left alone she's locked in the house, such as when her parents go to church weekly... the daughter is too much of a shame to the family to go now, so they lock her away until the baby comes.

The girl desperately wants an abortion. She doesn't want to be a 17 year old mother. She doesn't want to be forced to marry her rapist. She doesn't want to have to deal with her rapist with child concerns for the next 18+ years. She wants to go to college, get educated, and get a job. In about two more weeks, she'll be too far into her pregnancy for her state to allow an abortion... not that it matters because since her parents confiscated her car and bank account, she has no transportation to get one, and no money to pay for it.

This is life in this type of area. Women are baby machines, they have no other purpose in life, and if you rape them... they're yours forever. Someone who wants to go to college, live in the real world, and have a career... all of that taken away by fundamentalism.

a reply to: [post=22021519]BuzzyWigs[/post

"People like you make me sick. There is NO "CORRECT" RELIGION."

...and there is no incorrect religion....alpha & omega, dude.

I wish to direct this reply to both you and Tiger5. I believe in what I believe in and it sure as hell isn't anything you do. I believe you are both unhinged and in need of a safe space to chill out a little. As I stated before I regret becoming involved in a pointless philosophical debate on Fundamentalism.

originally posted by: Tiger5
a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

My dear fellow you are obviously a Xtian. Your comments on infidels are meaningless to me as I am not part of any of your ridiculous tribes(). You could actually do what many others of your kind choose to do and speak out about the idiocy of fundamentalism. Instead you take issue with me so I can only assume that you are fundamentalist. Your problems are your own. Seek out your brothers in Daesh!

.........it may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

Maybe but it is a dead certainty that you are communicating complete nonsense. We just had some fundamentalist shoot up the mother of all parliaments. You people are all the same! A stain on civilisation!



I have no problem with "holy books" except when they preach humans and dinosaurs cavorted together!

originally posted by: Tiger5
a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

Maybe but it is a dead certainty that you are communicating complete nonsense. We just had some fundamentalist shoot up the mother of all parliaments. You people are all the same! A stain on civilisation!



I have no problem with "holy books" except when they preach humans and dinosaurs cavorted together!

You deal in gross generalizations.....you're embarrassing yourself.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Great read, and one I think hits the nail on the head. All these liberals, after the election, wringing their hands, whining about how they failed to understand "flyover America". They are as Naieve and ignorant about "flyover America" as flyover Americans are ignorant of life, the universe, and everything. Ignorance abounds.

I learned up close and personal about the reality of white fundie Christians and their natural habitat. I was born and partly raised in California. Partly. I say that because my whole family had caught the religious fundementalist bug from friends and spouses, and I was raised in a heavily fundementalist-evenagellical family, with some fundementalist Baptists thrown in the mix. As a result, I spent much of my childhood living in red-states and the heartland. Combined 6 years in Rural Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and even Florida for a year. Surrounded by hard-core die hard conservatives who took the Bible literally in everything, and believed in the apocalypse. There literally was no room for questioning anything. Questions were freaked out over, considered blasphemous, or "Satan attempt" to lead us astray. Fear, condemnation, emotional and psychological blackmail.

When I lived in California, it was not so bad, because we lived in the Bay Area, where there were plenty of havens from this mentality. Outside of the home and church, no one single idealogy reigned supreme, and thus, had the opportunity to be exposed to a plethora of ideas, facts, information, and perspectives from everywhere, so the fundementalism was constantly challenged, and I was able to break free and learn the joys of 20th century rational thought. And as a result, I was able to ditch the chains and spiritual slavery of Fundementalist Christianity.

Living in the heartland, however, was a totally different ball game. There were no reprieves, no sanctuaries of thought and questioning. The entirety of their societies is molded around fundamentalism, from the household to the school, local radio and TV stations, and local government. There was literally no desire to learn beyond the basics. We even had open religion pushed in the school, like a Bible van that visited once a week, and kids who didn't participate were ostracized and shamed by our teachers. Racism was not only rife, but open, and so bad that a black family from Philidelphia had been harrassed and run out of town (despite the fact that the wife was a pediatrician who had moved there to work at the poorly funded, understaffed, backwards rural "hospital" ). Anytime these ideas and attitudes were challenged, they were met with aggressive contempt, the person challenging them being somehow "poisoned" by city life or something. The only way to escape this mentality and be exposed to concepts like critical thinking rational thought is to leave and move elsewhere, which is what happens a lot of the time with the younger ones. Which is why they end up leaving for good a lot of the time, and the towns end up drying up.

When you step back and look at the bigger picture, it makes liberal's hand-wringing, and their overall mentality, even more confusingly idiotic. Liberals do suffer from their own brand of mental illness, and one of those things is excessive tolerance of everyone, and a neurotic desire to try and work with their enemies and love their neighbors, ironically, a Christian mindset. Despite how revolting and crazy their enemies seem, liberals always seem to think they can reason and find common ground with with them. They do this with fundamentalist Islam and conservative Muslims. And the results will always be the same: appeasement never works. The same can be said with this approach towards flyover America, who at their core, are indistinguishable from the Muslims they fear. This is why liberals will continue to fall apart in their delusions of unity, and become as irrelevant as the conservatives. Excessive believe in "universal goodness' is as dangerous as religion in its own right. The desire to constantly want the love and approval of people who flat out hate you and want you dead is its own brand of mental illness.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

I grew up in a redneck #hole and I agree with most of what this person is saying.

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Great read, and one I think hits the nail on the head. All these liberals, after the election, wringing their hands, whining about how they failed to understand "flyover America". They are as Naieve and ignorant about "flyover America" as flyover Americans are ignorant of life, the universe, and everything. Ignorance abounds.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to add a comprehensive response. I'm one of those Liberals that you are busy schooling, and while I don't agree with everything you say, there's food for thought there.

And the contradictions that you cite really add context to the polarisation in society today. Education is a remedy, but that's a generational process unless you engineer a 'Cultural Revolution'...and those rarely go well. Interesting how PBS and NPR are taking hits in the latest budget, though they amount to chickenfeed in the larger scheme of things. They do provide enlightenment to the masses, and for many in the power structure...that's a threat.

On a personal note, I just want to add that I know a lot of good people define their moral compass through their faith, and that's just fine. I also know that a lot of people drape their bad intentions in religion. That's why blind faith has no place in government.