That was interesting. I'm not sure the situation is quite as dire as he makes it out to be, do you think? I mean, he is hawking his book, too.
I guess, though, that we may be underestimating just how nuts things have gotten. I have an (otherwise) intelligent friend who has somehow found a home in his very capable, well-informed head for some pretty crazy shit. I don't understand how his brain doesn't explode, but he argues very convincingly and he, at least, doesn't think there is a problem.
I agree. He's hawking his book and also, as he mentioned, he's coming out that community so his view is extremely personal and emotionally charged. What was it Shakespeare said about the reformed prostitute? ;) Anyway, I'm glad he's speaking up. We have got to stop molly coddling these froot-loop creationists. They are not only being left behind, they are holding us down. Consider how they put the kibosh on stem cell research. Of course they are not all "village idiots". More frightening than that is what I see as a willful ignorance. That is dangerous.
I went through my own evangelical phase from my mid-twenties until nearly 40 so I know how blinding it can be. I did my time in a yoga community which I thought exempted me from dorky mumbo jumbo. Then I read in the Upanishads how the universe was created by some King who flew up into the sky in his celestial horse drawn chariot and carved the orbits for the planets. At that point, I knew my days in the ashram were numbered.
Wow, that was interesting. I haven't really seen such a collapse of the GOP, but I can see his point, McCain having lost his way long since, and me personally not being aware of who else is out there. It's true that the major politicians cannot risk not pandering to the crazies.
Yeah, let's call them crazies, why not. People are people wherever you go, after all, and there are few reasons beyond the Constitution why we shouldn't be similar to some country in the Middle East.
OTOH we do have a history of getting to be better than we were. The rightward swing is part of a long cycle, and it will play itself out eventually; just as we can hope that the trend amongst young Muslims to flock to radicalism may be playing out, as suggested by the mostly positive mob reactions in Tunisia and Egypt.
His rhetoric is admittedly inflammatory, but not necessarily hyperbolic, and yes, I do think the situation is that dire. We are at a point where, the scope of our influence being global and our problems compounding, we can't afford to waste time debating things like the youthful age of the earth and the facts of climate change. These people are crazy, and they are dragging us all down.
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That was interesting. I'm not sure the situation is quite as dire as he makes it out to be, do you think? I mean, he is hawking his book, too.
I guess, though, that we may be underestimating just how nuts things have gotten. I have an (otherwise) intelligent friend who has somehow found a home in his very capable, well-informed head for some pretty crazy shit. I don't understand how his brain doesn't explode, but he argues very convincingly and he, at least, doesn't think there is a problem.
I agree. He's hawking his book and also, as he mentioned, he's coming out that community so his view is extremely personal and emotionally charged. What was it Shakespeare said about the reformed prostitute? ;) Anyway, I'm glad he's speaking up. We have got to stop molly coddling these froot-loop creationists. They are not only being left behind, they are holding us down. Consider how they put the kibosh on stem cell research. Of course they are not all "village idiots". More frightening than that is what I see as a willful ignorance. That is dangerous.
I went through my own evangelical phase from my mid-twenties until nearly 40 so I know how blinding it can be. I did my time in a yoga community which I thought exempted me from dorky mumbo jumbo. Then I read in the Upanishads how the universe was created by some King who flew up into the sky in his celestial horse drawn chariot and carved the orbits for the planets. At that point, I knew my days in the ashram were numbered.
So, like Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, did you have a gunfighter phase?
Kind of but my friends at that time did not want me going out and doing "jobs" with them... whatever "jobs" meant. I didn't exactly want to know.
And then there were ... well... er... let's save that for another day.
Wow, that was interesting. I haven't really seen such a collapse of the GOP, but I can see his point, McCain having lost his way long since, and me personally not being aware of who else is out there. It's true that the major politicians cannot risk not pandering to the crazies.
Yeah, let's call them crazies, why not. People are people wherever you go, after all, and there are few reasons beyond the Constitution why we shouldn't be similar to some country in the Middle East.
OTOH we do have a history of getting to be better than we were. The rightward swing is part of a long cycle, and it will play itself out eventually; just as we can hope that the trend amongst young Muslims to flock to radicalism may be playing out, as suggested by the mostly positive mob reactions in Tunisia and Egypt.
His rhetoric is admittedly inflammatory, but not necessarily hyperbolic, and yes, I do think the situation is that dire. We are at a point where, the scope of our influence being global and our problems compounding, we can't afford to waste time debating things like the youthful age of the earth and the facts of climate change. These people are crazy, and they are dragging us all down.
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