Nope. It’s a different novel, by a different author, in a different way. Margaret Atwood is a much better writer, in my opinion, but Frederick Rich’s book is, nonetheless, a real page-turner in a way that if you start reading it in the evening, get ready for a sleepless night.

Also , for fuck’s sake!

Moderate R are an endangered and disappearing species. And even if you find one, you’d be safe to assume they’re “moderate” rather than moderate.

I’ve read somewhere else a book recommendation, and after having read it I can recommend it to you:

“Christian Nation” is an alternate history novel by Frederick Rich about the USA turned into a wholly fanatical theocracy with the necessary amendments to the constitution for it to be lawful and everything else.

From the description in one of those online book-selling websites:

“They said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.”

So ends the first chapter of this brilliantly readable counterfactual novel, reminding us that America’s Christian fundamentalists have been consistently clear about their vision for a “Christian Nation” and dead serious about acquiring the political power to achieve it. When President McCain dies and Sarah Palin becomes president, the reader, along with the nation, stumbles down a terrifyingly credible path toward theocracy, realizing too late that the Christian right meant precisely what it said.

In the spirit of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, one of America’s foremost lawyers lays out in chilling detail what such a future might look like: constitutional protections dismantled; all aspects of life dominated by an authoritarian law called “The Blessing,” enforced by a totally integrated digital world known as the “Purity Web.” Readers will find themselves haunted by the questions the narrator struggles to answer in this fictional memoir: “What happened, why did it happen, how could it have happened?”

Edit: I’ve read it in epub format on my phone.

That’s my music player too.

Yep. I never use sms nor other messaging systems save for WhatsApp. Not that I’m a fan of it since it was bought by Facebook, but it is what everybody here uses, and it works quite well, reliably, and has an interesting set of features.

I somehow envy your optimism.

But what about outside the job? Things like taxes, being able to determine the truthfulness of things you read online, etc?

That was what I was going to comment. Especially that second part. It makes me wonder if it all isn’t by design. Well, yes, it is.

Only n00bs build their own kernel, OS, compiler, and coding language, and they already have that program built in. Cool people create their own universe, with different laws of physics and constants, then they make it act as a whole computing entity capable of anything, it then creates a simulation in which we discuss this stuff.

I agree.

And your phrasing (italics are mine)

ideas like religions take part in a long-term process of evolution.

was quite interesting. Was it an intended pun? It made me laugh.

Apologies accepted, of course.

That may be case. Which is possibly why, historically speaking, Judaism doesn’t seem to be on the winning side. Which is bad, because it means opportunities for more fanatical, agressive religions.

On one hand, I agree. Yet I think that had Judaism been more proselytist, it would have gained more followers and, probably, been more fanatical and aggressive. I mean, ultraorthodix Jews are as fanatical as your fellow Taliban or the right-wing Christians.

Thanks for this exchange of opinions.

Oh, besides the obvious giggles, I like it better with the current ending.

I never said brainwashing children was ok as far as I can recall. Would you mind pointing at the part where I said so it or even implied so?

What I said is that that isn’t proselytising. It’s a different concept to raise your kids in a certain way and to go to others who already have a different faith (or none) and try to convince them to convert.

Of course, I know that everyone is born without any religion and by that account the limit is blurred, yet to raise a kid into one’s own faith and/or traditions is not the same as proselytising.

As for Judaism, I stand by what I said: it’s not proselytist in the way other religions are, trying to convert other people. I don’t judge it as bad or as good, I don’t care. I just state a fact as I’ve seen/read.

Edit: word

Yeah, I agree, to a certain point. Most Jewish people I know, though, aren’t religious at all but for following certain traditions that don’t even include eating kosher food. Of course that doesn’t include orthodox Jews, but I don’t know any.

As for the training of it (“That’s not “keeping to yourself” to me. That’s like passing the cigarettes to your kids” and the “default scenario”), well, it’s the default upbringing in every family. Besides exceptions, conservative parents will raise conservative kids because that’s their growing environment, the same with more liberal ones, etc. That’s not proselytising, it’s a while different thing

I liked it a lot. Thanks!

Same principle as with cassettes/music tapes.

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Although all religions are useless and shouldn’t have any privilege, only to be practiced in their own spaces, I am aware that not all religions compete in a proselytistic way. I understand that, for example, Judaism doesn’t proselytise and that “converting” to Judaism is even a long and difficult process, which makes me think it is like discouraging conversion, in some way, by making it so uphill.

There still are. I bought mine a year and a couple of months ago and it has FM radio and a 3.5 mm jack. And it’s a great phone.

I had an old Moto phone with an FM radio that worked without headphones, although it was stated that with headphones plugged in reception would be much better (which was true). My current phone (a Moto one too) has FM radio, and I use it.

I never had a phone without FM radio. It’s one of the features I actually want in my phone.