you better watch out for the DS9 people…

So far, these things are clearly statistics with extra steps. Like you, I need to see some serious evidence before I would begin to believe this in the slightest.

Same. Thought maybe some local woodworker produced a beautiful lectern.

No, turns out it’s from amazon with some spray paint and Arkansas is just being Arkansas.

Not going to agree with the commenter above, but I want to point out that this happens a lot:

A person who holds views that are detrimental to others comes to a community of those people and cries “why, when I am not quite like other people who hold these views, but agree with them on the detrimental stuff about you, do you not accept me?”

The people in the community try repeatedly to explain why holding views that harm others is harmful and that the person asking may need to revaluate their own views.

The person then says they’re being attacked. Everything they predicted about this community is coming true! They feel like they’re being kicked out!

And they are! Because when they came to engage then didn’t change, let alone evaluate, any of their own views, the community rightly showed them back to the door until they are ready to actually listen and put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

I am sure you feel like you have been badly treated at this point. What you do with that now is up to you. I’ll say this: I have no hate for you, I would like nothing more than to give you some feedback that might help change how you view some things. I hope there is enough food for thought here for everyone.

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I understand, that’s why I was trying to translate their statement into reality-based words. I thought you were defending their position based on your response.

But … they don’t mail the pills randomly. A person in the state where it is outlawed is requesting something from a state where it is not.

I don’t see how the CA doctors are in any way colonizing anything.

The California Catholic Conference opposed the law, arguing the state is “engaging in ideological colonization against states and citizens that do not want abortion.”

Are … are they trying to say CA doctors are mailing abortion pills to people who didn’t ask for them? What does this statement mean? Maybe what they meant was something like: “We do not believe women have a basic right to control their body, whether those women are Catholic or not, and that control should rest with the government of the state they reside in.”

Since it seems we are covering personal opinions, I think this is like all pride: sometimes it can be good and sometimes it can be toxic, often depending on who the person feeling prideful is.

I made no value judgement on this. I just pointed out this is common and it is surprising if someone doesn’t understand it.

You may not agree with it, but you understand it exists and that it is often tied to how someone is raised.

You seem very confident in a lot of what is written in a very old translation of a hodpdge of work.

You are drawing a conclusion I do not from the same text.

It seems odd to me that a divinely inspired work could be so confusing or open to interpretation.

And given so very many passages where Jesus calls for love, why do you spend so much time justifying your interpretation that says Jesus hated a particular group?

There may be food for thought here for both of us.

I’d be interested if you could share the original text, what you’ve shared is a translation. I don’t read Sanskrit or Aramaic so I am not sure I’d be super useful, but I imagine other people might be able to help.

It isn’t my holy book. I read enough as a child to figure out it wasn’t a divinely inspired work.

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Thank you for citing the passages, but I similarly to the other commenter disagree that he is saying he hates them rather than their actions.

The word hate isn’t in there. I might call a gang a “brood of vipers” but that wouldn’t mean I necessarily hated them.

Lastly, and for what it’s worth, I’m not clear if the “Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees” are meant to be quotes of Jesus or if they are Matthew.

Still, thank you for sharing something specific and not just hand waving.

Cite the whole passages, friend. If you’re going to argue your point, bring the receipts and let people discuss. You’re making the claims…

Did he? He flipped over some money lenders tables and he debated the religious leaders of the day. He may have disagreed with them but I challenge you (and I’m an atheist, I have no real horse in the race about supposedly divine beings) to find a place in the bible where jesus was described as hating anyone.

Yes, many people are raised to have pride in the town, city, state, country or planet they are from. It’s so common and cross-cultural that I am extremely surprised you would need an explanation by the time you’re capable of writing comments on the Fediverse.

Now that we have the pedantry out of the way, how is your comment meant to be helpful or move us forward? If it’s neither of those things, why are you doing it? All of this is rhetorical, of course. Just food for thought for us both.

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At what point do we start to discuss how evil the Russian regime is? I mean, this is feeling like we are approaching the lines in the sand that we drew after WWII, if we haven’t already blown past them.

I have no desire to lose more lives, but this is evil. How can any country support Russia in this?