Adult - Plants-liking queer menace - Front-desk worker of a plural system - Unapologetic low-effort poster
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(fallen london stamps by @vagorsol)
the conservative christian concept of hell and the internet's desire for vengeful punitive "justice" are closely related. in this essay I will
Oh, I've punched God(s) amany times in JRPGs. But then I come back to reality and am mad I can't do it IRL. >:U
I've always felt it a little convenient for rich and powerful men in white robes and gilded cathedrals to be telling us about the virtues of being humble.
Yeah, I had a really good class on religion in college that helped me understand, like, the positive appeal of religion in terms of like, community-building, and structure for life, and communal resources, and like providing culture in the form of shared community narrative (and helped me be less of an asshole atheist. I hope, lmao.) There were better summaries of that but I seem to have lost those notes. Anyway, point being, it's really frustrating seeing some of the good points of the Christian mythological narrative and communities that actually encourage pro-social behaviors and kindness and forgiveness as an intrinsic and valuable part of this faith be swept under the rug by an aggressive high-control cult movement whose high-level players are seeking the financial and political clout that allows them to inflict their control-for-prestige on people who do not want to be a part of this cult in order to use fear-based authoritarian policies and social pressure to maintain their personal power and privilege. (whether or not they Believe in any meaningful sense is beside the point. the damage is the same.)
Leaning over to raise an eyebrow and ask if these chosts are taking into account that internet "justice" squads are largely 1:1 with the conservative Christian punitiveness you're railing again, either directly (practicing conchrits) or only slightly removed (former conchrists who got out of the church but haven't taken the churhc out of themselves)
Not purely 1:1 of course because all humans have a sadism slider and you don't need religion's fig leaf to be an awful person. But like... yeah, the moral puritanism you find on a lot of the English-speaking internet is often people brainwashed by shitty religion, and the only meaningful question is whether the people involved realize they're still acting out the bad shit they were raised with. (They often aren't, which is why leftist spaces full of ex-christians can be Like That: "I know my former religion was Bad so I left! Anyways no further self-reflection required")
Leaning over to raise an eyebrow and ask if these chosts are taking into account that internet "justice" squads are largely 1:1 with the conservative Christian punitiveness you're railing again
NODS they absolutely are, for the exact reason you're stating, with the addition that like... I feel like even if you did not directly grow up conservative Christian yourself, it's very possible to absorb those antipatterns into yourself just from living in a culture absolutely saturated in them?
Oh for sure. For all that sometimes people act like "culturally Christian" is an oxymoron, No It's Not. Religions have a huge impact on their surroundings whether someone's directly participating or not and this absolutely includes setting Overton windows on all kinds of cultural stuff big and small. That it sets the tone and patterns for how people how people even approach or think about morality should be taken for granted!
