Uncivil Discourse and the Power of Names

Earlier today I got into my first quasi-political twitter fight. It started when I retweeted this:

Which then prompted this exchange that I wasn't expecting.

At first I was saddened that the first thing out of someone's mouth, well, fingers, was hateful name-calling, that attack was the go-to response. You really never *know* people on twitter, even though you consider them friends as we all present only the sides of ourselves we wish everyone to see. I try to make sure that I follow folks that share my political philosophies as well as those that disagree with me. Knowing and understanding all sides is important to me and helps me be a better consumer of news as everybody spins. There is no unadulterated truth, not anymore. And yes, when idiots of any party open their mouths, all who cleave to the same party are painted with the same brush. I get that. But these people are in positions of power and as such have the opportunity to do great harm to those who need the most help.

A friend's niece was molested repeatedly over the spring and summer. So really, the child should have 'just relaxed and enjoyed it' Mr. Clayton? Or perhaps she should 'make the best of a bad situation' Mr. Santorum? That's some extremely helpful advice right there. Because God forbid anyone deny the rapist's '...pursuit of sexual freedom...' as no one, you know, died or anything, right Mr. Lockman?

So no, people who excuse, lessen, or otherwise attempt to mitigate the horror of sexual attacks on anyone with inane and dangerous statements like the ones above have no business being anywhere near positions of power. In truth, they don't deserve to belong to the human race at all but that's a different discussion altogether. And if believing that makes me a 'libtard' than so be it. I embrace that title with pride.

Pillow Talk

Wednesday night after the first presidential debate, Dylan and I were laying in bed and as seems to be our wont, engaging in a deep philosophical conversation, this time around the role of religion in government and policies. (What? Doesn't everyone do this? SEXAY TIMEZ NAO) His position (and one that I agree with) is that one of the founding precepts of this country was a freedom to worship as you please; aka the freedom of religion.  Too many in this country operate under the misguided notion that this is Christian country. Let's get this straight right now: No. No it is not. Never has been. The majority of citizens may in fact practice one of the myriad factions of Christianity but there is no national religion. You can look that up in the Constitution. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay? Okay. Moving on.

He was angry that so many felt the need to tell other that UR DOING IT RONG. That there is only one way to peace/enlightenment/heaven/joy and you better get with the program. OR ELSE. That the Bible has good morals and many teachable moments but if you were to actually attempt to live the Bible, you would be reduced to a quivering mass of inconsistencies. There is a book out written by a guy named AJ Jacobs who attempted to literally live the bible for a year (The Year of Living Biblically*). Dyl's point was about picking and choosing and the tendency of those who base arguments and attempt to base policies on biblical passages to ignore the forest for the trees.

Then he brought up an interesting point; all of these different 'Gods', they are really the same person/spirit/entity and truly all we are debating is semantics. It doesn't matter if you address 'God' as God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Muhammed, Grilled Cheese or Honey Boo Boo. If you believe in a divine deity, it's the same figure. And the divine deity? He/She/It likes to mess with us out of boredom. See: everything. I mean, really, how else to you amuse yourself when you are an immortal, all-powerful being?

I admit I was taken by this idea and took it one step further: what if God was participating in a multi-universe Sims game with other Gods of other universes to create the ultimate utopia? What if all we are are but pawns in an intergalatic computer game? WHICH PILL DO WE TAKE?

And as one does after such a discussion, we fell asleep.

* Disclaimer: the link goes to Amazon but that's only because it was the first one that popped up in the Google search. No affiliate link blah blah blah.