I lived through the 80s, my friend groups played D&D then, and I lived to tell!
The worst I ever personally saw was one friend who had to go to one Bible study because his mom had bought into the “D&D = Satan worship” thing. It sucked for him. His mom was non-denominational if you know what that means. He didn’t quit, and it worked out in the end.
Compare that today to people who use the wrong pronoun and get pilloried and attacked from peers, teachers, professors, strangers, etc., and I think the fundamentalists—progressive leftists—of today are worse than the Christian fundamentalists ever were in America.
Is your argument simply “what aboutism”? “Leftists are bad, but what about conservatives?” That’s the line for me. I am anti-neocon, I’m anti-theocracy, and I’m anti-leftist, in an interchangeable order. I don’t go in for what aboutism.
I think if you took the founding documents of the US, entirely removed the blight of slavery, and added a few more protections of liberty to defend against assaults that the founders never could have imagined, you’d have pretty close to an ideal political and social framework. It worked pretty damn well until the Civil War and progressivism birthed our modern state.
Conservative Christians, even the Deus Vult types, are allies because I think they are more right than wrong. The progressive leftists are far more wrong than right. The Christians are closer to believing in that original American ideal than the progressive leftists are. Thomas Jefferson’s red letter Bible is a great example of how intelligent, non-believing, Christian-centric, rational, belief systems can coexist. Jefferson didn’t attempt to rewrite the Bible to mean something it clearly did not, neither did he try to turn America into a theocracy. We could use more of that.
I'm glad you bring up Jefferson's bible, because it actually underscores the crux of my argument (and which I'm really not sure how you got "what about"ism out of).
My issue, as was Jefferson's, is the magic and mysticism of the bible (and, by extension, every other religion). Yes, leftism currently holds the reigns of power, and has held them with more vim and vitriol then the bible thumpers did a few decades ago. No, this is not a reason to embrace the viper of the "deus vult" types to your breast.
Consider this a simple "Scorpion and Turtle" allegory. The scorpion must sting, for that is its nature. The theist must expand the church, for that is his nature. If you accept the theist into your fold, you must either immediately and permanently hobble him, or else understand that he will continue to push the envelope until he has seized the reigns of power.
Magic and mystical thinking must never be accepted. This means no gods, no men becoming women, no magic soil, none of that horseshit. While it is true that, for example, a large portion of writing survived into the modern era only because christian and catholic monks and monasteries endeavored to save them during the dark ages, this doesn't erase the face that the majority of incorrect "folk knowledge" stemmed from religious or "mystical" practices, and the majority of religions would purge what came before them as heretical, the same way rising dynasties often destroyed records of prior dynasties (look to china as an amazing example of the latter, or afghanistan under the taliban for the former).
And don't get me started on all the people who try to blame all human evils on "demons", and insist we need jesus to come back and purge them to cure all of society's ills, instead of accepting that it is evil humans who do evil, and the only solution to evil humans is non-evil humans standing and sacrificing in opposition.
This is my line in the sand. No gods, no demons, no wizards; only men and the cold, uncaring universe we happen to exist in.
I lived through the 80s, my friend groups played D&D then, and I lived to tell!
The worst I ever personally saw was one friend who had to go to one Bible study because his mom had bought into the “D&D = Satan worship” thing. It sucked for him. His mom was non-denominational if you know what that means. He didn’t quit, and it worked out in the end.
Compare that today to people who use the wrong pronoun and get pilloried and attacked from peers, teachers, professors, strangers, etc., and I think the fundamentalists—progressive leftists—of today are worse than the Christian fundamentalists ever were in America.
Is your argument simply “what aboutism”? “Leftists are bad, but what about conservatives?” That’s the line for me. I am anti-neocon, I’m anti-theocracy, and I’m anti-leftist, in an interchangeable order. I don’t go in for what aboutism.
I think if you took the founding documents of the US, entirely removed the blight of slavery, and added a few more protections of liberty to defend against assaults that the founders never could have imagined, you’d have pretty close to an ideal political and social framework. It worked pretty damn well until the Civil War and progressivism birthed our modern state.
Conservative Christians, even the Deus Vult types, are allies because I think they are more right than wrong. The progressive leftists are far more wrong than right. The Christians are closer to believing in that original American ideal than the progressive leftists are. Thomas Jefferson’s red letter Bible is a great example of how intelligent, non-believing, Christian-centric, rational, belief systems can coexist. Jefferson didn’t attempt to rewrite the Bible to mean something it clearly did not, neither did he try to turn America into a theocracy. We could use more of that.
I'm glad you bring up Jefferson's bible, because it actually underscores the crux of my argument (and which I'm really not sure how you got "what about"ism out of).
My issue, as was Jefferson's, is the magic and mysticism of the bible (and, by extension, every other religion). Yes, leftism currently holds the reigns of power, and has held them with more vim and vitriol then the bible thumpers did a few decades ago. No, this is not a reason to embrace the viper of the "deus vult" types to your breast.
Consider this a simple "Scorpion and Turtle" allegory. The scorpion must sting, for that is its nature. The theist must expand the church, for that is his nature. If you accept the theist into your fold, you must either immediately and permanently hobble him, or else understand that he will continue to push the envelope until he has seized the reigns of power.
Magic and mystical thinking must never be accepted. This means no gods, no men becoming women, no magic soil, none of that horseshit. While it is true that, for example, a large portion of writing survived into the modern era only because christian and catholic monks and monasteries endeavored to save them during the dark ages, this doesn't erase the face that the majority of incorrect "folk knowledge" stemmed from religious or "mystical" practices, and the majority of religions would purge what came before them as heretical, the same way rising dynasties often destroyed records of prior dynasties (look to china as an amazing example of the latter, or afghanistan under the taliban for the former).
And don't get me started on all the people who try to blame all human evils on "demons", and insist we need jesus to come back and purge them to cure all of society's ills, instead of accepting that it is evil humans who do evil, and the only solution to evil humans is non-evil humans standing and sacrificing in opposition.
This is my line in the sand. No gods, no demons, no wizards; only men and the cold, uncaring universe we happen to exist in.