Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

Such a bizarre line - do you get to butt in to strangers and workmates' private lives in other ways? Find out that the guy in the cubicle across from you is having all kinds of unprotected anonymous sex - well, if he gets antibiotic-resistant throat gonorrhea he'll miss work and that will "directly impact your working environment" so you better say something...

To address the boss analogy directly, I don't agree that one individual's delusion is comparable to a shared religious tradition for lots of reasons. Obviously the line gets hard to draw when you look at cults or even relatively recently developed religions like Mormonism. I'd be curious to know how people who study religious cultures make those distinctions, but I believe all kinds of things I can't, personally, prove, and I'm quite sure you do too. For example, I believe my cat loves me—does that make me insane?

when they don't impinge on me

This is the key. I'm with you for the most part. Your god says you can't do X, Y or Z? Fine, whatever. Your god says I can't do X, Y or Z? Fuck you. That's why my examples have been limited to bosses, political leaders, etc. What a "peer" (broadly defined) thinks or does has no real effect on me. What someone in a position of authority thinks or does can absolutely have an effect on me, whether I want it to or not.

Ahh okay. For me, the problem there isn't about belief or thinking per se, it's about power and rights. I definitely do care if a boss's religious belief--of whatever tradition--means they use their authority to make sure the company health insurance won't cover birth control. I also would be opposed to an atheist boss who refused to let workers wear religious symbols, etc.

I'm not sure that anyone is going to argue that people should be able to impose their religious views on others or should avoid criticism if they try.

At the same time, 'i don't want a religious person to have any authority over me because they're likely to use it to impose their religious views' is not a particularly tenable position.

And the “best friend in the sky, lol” rhetoric is childish. Marx’s critique of religion was better because he at least acknowledged that religion was serving a psychological need, a sense of craving and a felt lack.

People aren’t religious because they are “too dumb” to understand why creationism is implausible. They’re looking for a framework to understand and guide their own lives.

So I should pity them for their psychological weaknesses, not laugh at them for their absurd beliefs, is what you're saying?

No you should laugh at people for their vulnerabilities. That is what a good person should do.

Disdain of “weakness”—awesome trait. It’s why you’re my favorite ilxor!

unperson you are very stupid

I really admire how you have no curiosity about the ways people have, historically, tried to understand who they are and their role in the cosmos. And how you have the strength to belittle people who still wonder about these things. What strength! What power!

I really admire how you have no curiosity about the ways people have, historically, tried to understand who they are and their role in the cosmos.

"Historically" is the key word here. It's not very interesting that people believe crazy shit. It's even less interesting why people believe crazy shit. The impact of people's belief in crazy shit on their material existence is fascinating.

I don’t think you know what “religion” is

Probably too late to go back to this question in a generous & thoughtful way, but I am genuinely curious why contemporary leftists or people otherwise fighting for social justice would choose to belong to the Catholic Church.

we all have coping mechanisms re: the terror of the void, just bc religion isn't yours doesn't mean yours is superior to religion, or that religion is an "insane" belief, which, fuck you

sorry that post was for unperson

lol I figured

how dare anyone impose narrative on non-narrative things, one of the main things the human brain does

Probably too late to go back to this question in a generous & thoughtful way, but I am genuinely curious why contemporary leftists or people otherwise fighting for social justice would choose to belong to the Catholic Church.

Bruenig explains that here, convincingly or otherwise: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/07/25/how-augustines-confessions-and-left-politics-inspired-my-conversion-catholicism

I'd guess you'd have a lot of people inspired by liberation theology in Latin America. It's probably also worth making a distinction between 'the Catholic Church', as an institution, which Bruenig, particularly over the last few years, has criticised, and Catholic theology in a more abstract sense.

I'll read that, thanks, though I don't really want to make this about EB--I've wondered this long before I knew who she was. And TBC: it's precisely the institution & its history that I'm wondering about

Unfortunately, I didn't find that elucidating. It's an interesting piece for sure, but since it's basically TS: Protestantism or Catholicism, it's already too zoomed in for me. I did think it notable that she brought up Quakerism, but her reasons for rejecting it were unclear to me--to be fair, having never been religious there's a likely inevitable sympathy gap on my part.

All that talk about the Church's pre-modern attitude to property but no mention of the Vatican's property holdings. All that talk of coreligionists adding to the tradition without acknowledging that other-people's-traditions-destroyers like Diego de Landa are among them, and so on. I guess it boils down to "I take the good and reject the bad," and tbf I doubt I'll ever find that particularly convincing as an outsider, so perhaps I'm fatally prejudiced here.

I hope you all are enjoying my posts to the Chapo Trap House thread

I guess it boils down to "I take the good and reject the bad," and tbf I doubt I'll ever find that particularly convincing as an outsider, so perhaps I'm fatally prejudiced here.

This is pretty much my mom's position. (My mom who is not only a practicing Catholic but also a graduate of Penn State University...)

this has mainly just been the inter-left squabbles thread for a long time xp

Oh this is about your mom I guess that explains your shitty personality xp

What does Penn State have to do with anything?

Never mind. Paterno. Get it.

a lot of catholics have issues with the church. in fact most catholics ive known, including very devout ones, daily communicants and the like, have issues with the church. when i was a kid my dad, who attended seminary for a time, told me that the pope (JP II) and Mother Teresa were fascists.

i can't speak to the convert experience, i have never personally known a convert to catholicism.

Matt really running the gamut this afternoon, mixing in what sounds like bits of Jung, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer even? Alongside the usual history bits:

https://www.twitch.tv/chapotraphouse

They finally announced that Virgil is officially departing the show.

Virgil Texas in Chapo history. pic.twitter.com/KNrBIBC5Dj

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 24, 2021

a lot of catholics have issues with the church. in fact most catholics ive known, including very devout ones, daily communicants and the like, have issues with the church. when i was a kid my dad, who attended seminary for a time, told me that the pope (JP II) and Mother Teresa were fascists.

I think currents of belief like catholicism are easier to attack because they have an actual figurehead and structure that ppl can point to. That being said, with the amount of US catholics who go "well who cares what HE thinks" every time the current pope says something slightly progressive I think ppl shouldn't be surprised at people having catholicism as their value system while rejecting the church.

They finally announced that Virgil is officially departing the show.

good. dude's been much more insufferable than funny for a while and I'm glad to have his bullshit safely quarantined on something I don't listen to. amber can stay on r*d sc*re while we're at it

which episode did they announce it on?

I saw it as a screenshot (from the Patreon maybe).

stumbled on a thread of people claiming that oren cass is virgil's brother lmfao

had to google him, but I could see it lol

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3408444/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

tbf "Justin Cass" sounds faker than "Virgil Texas"

the main topic/article this week is pretty staggering

The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called "signature reduction." The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.

The unprecedented shift has placed an ever greater number of soldiers, civilians, and contractors working under false identities, partly as a natural result in the growth of secret special forces but also as an intentional response to the challenges of traveling and operating in an increasingly transparent world. The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881

The Americans seems so quaint now

i'll be honest - i'm not into that!

nice try, signature reducer

i've been deep cover for years trying to infiltrate the neil young community

Is Newsweek back to being a trustworthy source? Not trolling: I was under the impression they'd become a garbage click farm

this appears to be one of their rare attempts at actual journalism

aren't they owned by a cult or something?

I really really really wish some Anonymous dorks (lol remember them) or just literally anyone would start doxxing/ counter-catfishing the FBI agents et al who run these ridiculous ops.

The FBI honeypotting the awkward teenager was enraging.