In paraphrase:
SG: "So if gay marriage is legal, what's next? People are going to want to marry their horse?"
OG: "Why in the hell would I marry my horse? I already own the god damn thing?"
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
So, the Internet is all a buzz over the 9th Circuit Court ruling overturning Prop 8 in California. So much is being written about its details and specifics that I don’t think I need to add anything to it.
This is such a bittersweet moment. I'm happy and I'm sad at the same time.
The talks, discussions, arguments and yes, even the insane, bigoted, demonizing rants from some active LDS members and other religious fundamentalists that I've witnessed, and had to endure, over the last few days on Facebook, all pretty much fit in with the predictable pattern of human behavior that is based on extreme religious fundamentalism such as Mormonism as they go through culture changes. Even drawing from my own experience as an angry and raging ex-Mormon homosexual who has been continually wronged by the hateful domination of my religious peers, and speaking hateful like language on my own blog towards the religions they've committed their loyalty to, I'm not completely innocent in my own rants. But what is setting me apart in this is that I’m now aware of my own reality.
I can understand where they are and I know what drives their fears, and I’m not trying to prevent them from living their religion, even if I find it misguided and hateful. I’m also aware that I used to be one of them. But now I’ve seen and experienced both sides, and I know that their fear is unfounded. But they only know the shadows on the cave wall, which now look even more threatening to them than ever before.
We may have won this little fight, but the backlash, bullying, and violence are going to swell because of this. The twisted, fear-crazed, religious fundamentalists, which includes much of the active LDS membership, right along with other fundamentalist around the nation, most of them in the south and mid-west, are going to be expressing their fear, hate, and rage in ways we've never seen before. I fully expect to see an acceleration of the continual upsurge of violence toward LGBT people as this so-called "culture war" escalates.
I know I'm considered a pessimist in this but sadly, this is just the way it is; this is reality.
It will be several decades before it's even close to being over. Even if the Supreme Court granted full national marriage rights in 2014, there will always be several generations of hateful and dangerous bigots to contend with.
It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
This is such a bittersweet moment. I'm happy and I'm sad at the same time.
The talks, discussions, arguments and yes, even the insane, bigoted, demonizing rants from some active LDS members and other religious fundamentalists that I've witnessed, and had to endure, over the last few days on Facebook, all pretty much fit in with the predictable pattern of human behavior that is based on extreme religious fundamentalism such as Mormonism as they go through culture changes. Even drawing from my own experience as an angry and raging ex-Mormon homosexual who has been continually wronged by the hateful domination of my religious peers, and speaking hateful like language on my own blog towards the religions they've committed their loyalty to, I'm not completely innocent in my own rants. But what is setting me apart in this is that I’m now aware of my own reality.
I can understand where they are and I know what drives their fears, and I’m not trying to prevent them from living their religion, even if I find it misguided and hateful. I’m also aware that I used to be one of them. But now I’ve seen and experienced both sides, and I know that their fear is unfounded. But they only know the shadows on the cave wall, which now look even more threatening to them than ever before.
We may have won this little fight, but the backlash, bullying, and violence are going to swell because of this. The twisted, fear-crazed, religious fundamentalists, which includes much of the active LDS membership, right along with other fundamentalist around the nation, most of them in the south and mid-west, are going to be expressing their fear, hate, and rage in ways we've never seen before. I fully expect to see an acceleration of the continual upsurge of violence toward LGBT people as this so-called "culture war" escalates.
I know I'm considered a pessimist in this but sadly, this is just the way it is; this is reality.
It will be several decades before it's even close to being over. Even if the Supreme Court granted full national marriage rights in 2014, there will always be several generations of hateful and dangerous bigots to contend with.
It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The Question of Choice, Again!
Well, controversy! It appears that Cynthia Nixon has been saying things that have gotten a few people in a tizzy in the past about the concepts of choice and homosexuality. And now, this recent article has brought that all back in to the discussion again. (The money quote can be found in context on page 3 of the article.)
And a few others have been weighing in on it as well:
Sulli: The word "choice"
and
dadsprimalscream: Choices – We’re not All the Same
I like what they have to say about it. And I agree with Cynthia and Dad, on this as I had pretty much come to the same conclusion myself last year in my post A Question of Choice.
But there is an argument going on in a few Facebook groups about it that I sort of let myself get sucked into. And I realized that the topic isn't as straight forward for some as it was for me. But I've been reflecting on it to see where I've come with this since last year.
Some people feel like she was being a troll in her comment, I don't see it that way at all. Some are concerned that bringing choice into the argument is dangerous for the younger and insecure kids trying to deal with this while being pounded on by the nasty religious environment they are growing up in, and that her statement is only adding fuel to their rhetoric. I don't discount that many feel that way. But I also believe that what they believe is fuel for their rhetoric could also be the very thing that drowns it.
Cynthia has a slightly different perspective than I do as she is attracted to everyone whereas I'm only attracted to my own sex. Cynthia chose gay over not gay in the end. But before that she also had to make the choice to accept that part of herself and choose to live it as well. I also believe that many of the worst homophobes out there may have had the same type of choice. But they chose to be not gay. But before that, they chose to reject and hate the gay part of themselves.
My choice was to decide if I was going to accept it and live as I am or repress it and live as someone who was not attracted to anyone. I eventually chose the one that would make me happy because choosing asexually for the past 17 years stopped working for me. So, I tried gay and gay was better. I never chose heterosexuality because I could never understand it. I did choose to consider it, date a few women, even claim I was straight, but all that time I was essentially, unconsciously, choosing asexuality when I did that. And after awhile, I began to believe I was asexual and then eventually identified as such for a time. I also chose not to live AS a heterosexual because I didn't have or understand what it was. I chose what I understood.
For far too long the LGBT community as been on the defensive. The choice question has been allowed to be framed by the people who want to see choice in terms of right and wrong. I can say I made a choice and I can defend my choice because I don't let the bigots frame the question of choice as right or wrong. I did not choose my innate desires. But I choose how I'm going to live with them. The LDS church has come to the point now of accepting that the innate desires are not chosen, but that how we act on them is a choice. Well, of course they are right, HOWEVER, they are also dictating what is the right or wrong choice by giving that choice meaning that is important only to them. And that if we choose wrong by their standards, we should not be respected, supported or loved. This is pretty much the entire religious right's stance on it not just the LDS view.
What I'm getting at and what I believe Cynthia is trying to say is that pandering to the bigotry, as if the bigots have any right to dictate what choices people make, is the wrong approach and the wrong way to justify one's own choices.
We do not have to justify our choice to live as we are, even though they are demanding it from us. They're also demanding the right to have control over people to prevent them from making choices that they don't agree with and that don't even affect them. That is what needs to be challenged.
Ironically, reminding them that their religious belief is a choice actually doesn't work because they see it as someone making the right choice. And for them, if it's something they agree with, why shouldn't it be protected?
Again, challenging their argument that personal choices shouldn't be protected because they disagree with them is really what it comes down to, and it's basically what the whole Prop 8 trial debate has been about.
I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice.
And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me.
A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.
As you can tell, I am very annoyed about this issue. Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate.
And a few others have been weighing in on it as well:
Sulli: The word "choice"
and
dadsprimalscream: Choices – We’re not All the Same
I like what they have to say about it. And I agree with Cynthia and Dad, on this as I had pretty much come to the same conclusion myself last year in my post A Question of Choice.
But there is an argument going on in a few Facebook groups about it that I sort of let myself get sucked into. And I realized that the topic isn't as straight forward for some as it was for me. But I've been reflecting on it to see where I've come with this since last year.
Some people feel like she was being a troll in her comment, I don't see it that way at all. Some are concerned that bringing choice into the argument is dangerous for the younger and insecure kids trying to deal with this while being pounded on by the nasty religious environment they are growing up in, and that her statement is only adding fuel to their rhetoric. I don't discount that many feel that way. But I also believe that what they believe is fuel for their rhetoric could also be the very thing that drowns it.
Cynthia has a slightly different perspective than I do as she is attracted to everyone whereas I'm only attracted to my own sex. Cynthia chose gay over not gay in the end. But before that she also had to make the choice to accept that part of herself and choose to live it as well. I also believe that many of the worst homophobes out there may have had the same type of choice. But they chose to be not gay. But before that, they chose to reject and hate the gay part of themselves.
My choice was to decide if I was going to accept it and live as I am or repress it and live as someone who was not attracted to anyone. I eventually chose the one that would make me happy because choosing asexually for the past 17 years stopped working for me. So, I tried gay and gay was better. I never chose heterosexuality because I could never understand it. I did choose to consider it, date a few women, even claim I was straight, but all that time I was essentially, unconsciously, choosing asexuality when I did that. And after awhile, I began to believe I was asexual and then eventually identified as such for a time. I also chose not to live AS a heterosexual because I didn't have or understand what it was. I chose what I understood.
For far too long the LGBT community as been on the defensive. The choice question has been allowed to be framed by the people who want to see choice in terms of right and wrong. I can say I made a choice and I can defend my choice because I don't let the bigots frame the question of choice as right or wrong. I did not choose my innate desires. But I choose how I'm going to live with them. The LDS church has come to the point now of accepting that the innate desires are not chosen, but that how we act on them is a choice. Well, of course they are right, HOWEVER, they are also dictating what is the right or wrong choice by giving that choice meaning that is important only to them. And that if we choose wrong by their standards, we should not be respected, supported or loved. This is pretty much the entire religious right's stance on it not just the LDS view.
What I'm getting at and what I believe Cynthia is trying to say is that pandering to the bigotry, as if the bigots have any right to dictate what choices people make, is the wrong approach and the wrong way to justify one's own choices.
We do not have to justify our choice to live as we are, even though they are demanding it from us. They're also demanding the right to have control over people to prevent them from making choices that they don't agree with and that don't even affect them. That is what needs to be challenged.
Ironically, reminding them that their religious belief is a choice actually doesn't work because they see it as someone making the right choice. And for them, if it's something they agree with, why shouldn't it be protected?
Again, challenging their argument that personal choices shouldn't be protected because they disagree with them is really what it comes down to, and it's basically what the whole Prop 8 trial debate has been about.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Version 1 Results of LGBT Mormon Survey
The first version of results regarding the LGBT Mormon Survey has been released.
Contains explanations about the charts released in the prelim results.
Please click here:
Version 1 of LDS SSA study newsletter now available
(Previous reference: Prelim Results of LGBT Mormon Survey )
Contains explanations about the charts released in the prelim results.
Please click here:
Version 1 of LDS SSA study newsletter now available
(Previous reference: Prelim Results of LGBT Mormon Survey )
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Prelim Results of LGBT Mormon Survey
UPDATE (Jan 7, 2012): Version 1 of LDS SSA study newsletter now available
Some preliminary results are in for the Utah State University conducted LGBT Mormon Survey.
Please click here:
Preliminary Results of LDS-SSA Survey Now Available
(Previous reference: LGBT Mormon Survey)
Some preliminary results are in for the Utah State University conducted LGBT Mormon Survey.
Please click here:
Preliminary Results of LDS-SSA Survey Now Available
(Previous reference: LGBT Mormon Survey)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
LGBT Mormon Survey
UPDATE (Nov, 9, 2011): Preliminary Results of LDS-SSA Survey Now Available
UPDATE: Survey is closed.
Utah State University is conducting a survey for all Mormons or former Mormons who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender.
Click next to read the consent form and more about the person(s) conducting the Survey.
I completed the survey myself and I found it to be, well, rather cathartic. There are lots of open ended questions and plenty of space to write out experiences, stories and explanations. Of all the surveys I've take in the past which have attempted to research this subject, I feel like this one is was well thought out as opposed to many in the past that felt like they were written by "religious" high school kids or church institutions.
Anyway, if you identify as LGBT Mormons/Ex-Mormons, or even if you don't, as it says in the consent document that it's for non LGBT Mormons as well, I highly recommend it so that you can tell your version of the story in relation to this matter.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Those Nasty Recruiting Homosexuals
I have been meaning to post something about my resignation from the LDS church but life has gotten so busy lately that I've, well, sort of let this blog collect spiders.
I'm not really going to disturb the spiders much right now but I wanted to draw attention to this post by Maureen over at My Black Bikini.
Since I've already resigned, I don't have much else to do other than go out, proselytize and recruit others to resign as well by taking advantage of their shaky testimonies and pointing their browsers to the Facebook group "Resignate: Mormon mass resign for Prop 8 pending supreme court repeal" that Maureen talks about in her post.
Just so you know, resigning from the church can be a really easy process but there are some specific steps that need to be carried out to ensure you're legally protected from unwanted contact or in some cases harassment. For more information on the process, please see: Mormon No More.
I have documented my resignation process and may post it here some time. Although, it's really a dry and boring read. Hell, it bores me just thinking about it.
In the mean time, join us in the Facebook group. If you've already resigned, join us anyway to offer support to those who are planning on taking this big step.
I'm not really going to disturb the spiders much right now but I wanted to draw attention to this post by Maureen over at My Black Bikini.
Since I've already resigned, I don't have much else to do other than go out, proselytize and recruit others to resign as well by taking advantage of their shaky testimonies and pointing their browsers to the Facebook group "Resignate: Mormon mass resign for Prop 8 pending supreme court repeal" that Maureen talks about in her post.
Just so you know, resigning from the church can be a really easy process but there are some specific steps that need to be carried out to ensure you're legally protected from unwanted contact or in some cases harassment. For more information on the process, please see: Mormon No More.
I have documented my resignation process and may post it here some time. Although, it's really a dry and boring read. Hell, it bores me just thinking about it.
In the mean time, join us in the Facebook group. If you've already resigned, join us anyway to offer support to those who are planning on taking this big step.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Part of the Problem
So, I see this little link pop on Facebook: Another Victim Bites the Dust
Well, I just have one thing to say to Mr. Fales about that. FUCK. YOU. ASSHOLE!
Mr. Fales has probably never in his life felt the deep depression that precedes suicide. And if he has I think he has quickly forgotten that when someone is in that state there is no rational thought at all. I have been there many times in my life. I do not seek help during those times because I'm oblivious to it. EVEN if the god damn suicide hot-line is staring me in the face! And I can, as well as the next person, put on a cheery happy face and laugh and have fun while I'm secretly planning my suicide attempt. It's real, it's irrational and there is no other way of thinking while in that state. So, people who get on their high horse such as Mr. Fales just adds the problem and drives people who get that way into further despair.
And one more thing that I think Mr. Fales doesn't understand is that there is, even in this day and age, a massive stigma associated with depression and other mental illnesses. That is one of the reasons I never sought professional help during my moments of rationality and why I still don't seek it.
I don't know what the hell Mr. Fales thinks he is doing claiming that the vigil has anything to do with politics and creating an enemy, and then that stupid statement he made about it being "...narcissistic “Look at me, I’m gay!” when he uses the Mormon church and his sexuality as the basis for his bloody career. Holy shit, that kid really needs a kick in the ass!
UPDATE (26 July 2010): Words from the organizer of the vigil, Eric Ethington.
Well, I just have one thing to say to Mr. Fales about that. FUCK. YOU. ASSHOLE!
Mr. Fales has probably never in his life felt the deep depression that precedes suicide. And if he has I think he has quickly forgotten that when someone is in that state there is no rational thought at all. I have been there many times in my life. I do not seek help during those times because I'm oblivious to it. EVEN if the god damn suicide hot-line is staring me in the face! And I can, as well as the next person, put on a cheery happy face and laugh and have fun while I'm secretly planning my suicide attempt. It's real, it's irrational and there is no other way of thinking while in that state. So, people who get on their high horse such as Mr. Fales just adds the problem and drives people who get that way into further despair.
And one more thing that I think Mr. Fales doesn't understand is that there is, even in this day and age, a massive stigma associated with depression and other mental illnesses. That is one of the reasons I never sought professional help during my moments of rationality and why I still don't seek it.
I don't know what the hell Mr. Fales thinks he is doing claiming that the vigil has anything to do with politics and creating an enemy, and then that stupid statement he made about it being "...narcissistic “Look at me, I’m gay!” when he uses the Mormon church and his sexuality as the basis for his bloody career. Holy shit, that kid really needs a kick in the ass!
UPDATE (26 July 2010): Words from the organizer of the vigil, Eric Ethington.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Happy New Year!
Before I go off on a heavy handed tyrannical rant, I would just like to pre-apologize for the offenses that I will deliberately be dishing out. OK, to be honest, this is only a partial or rather fake apology. What I'm really getting down to is that this is just a preamble to some serious and offensive ranting and I'm not holding back. Why I'm even bothering to warn the reader? Why don't I just start ranting? Because I seriously don't want to hurt anyone's feelings with what I'm about to say. As I'm currently in a state of some deeply hurt feelings myself, I wouldn't wish such things one anyone else. With that being said, I'm going to start off my little rant by first inviting anyone who might be offended to seriously fuck off. I'll recap on that later.
Anyway...I just got past the holiday season.
Oh My Fucking God!
I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. But this time around it's mostly the hate.
How did the year end and how did the new one start? It ended with a crash and a bang and bunch of other complete bullshit. It was an otherwise great year that came together in the most fucked up holiday season ever. And it's still not over yet. In fact I think I'll still have a few more months of this shit before I might be clear enough to start thinking and feeling grounded again. It's not to say I'm in a constant state of rage. I do have moments throughout the week of positivity, but it's only about 0.6% of the time. I think that equates to about an hour per week where it's just me and the equines.
I debated if I should even bother listing all the shit that has gone down since October but I don't think I will. There is just too much of it. Perhaps it would have been better had I made small blog entries for each incident as they happened. But it really came down to the fact that I'm still relatively anonymous on this blog and after considering the implications of revealing the nature of the shit that's gone down, it would seriously compromise my identity. Besides that, listing all that shit would incite a pity party. It's bad enough that I pity myself as much as I do. Getting it from others doesn't feed my ego in healthy ways. And right now the combination of all this shit going down and the affects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), regress me to some serious irrationality. Besides, all of the shit that's happened is actually incidental and doesn't really have any real meaning. The important question to ask is: How I've been handling it all? To which I would respond: GAH!!!
Needless to say I've got so much pent-up anger right now I could bite anyone who crosses me...until they bleed of course, and then I would let them go. I'm not a vampire and don't like the taste of blood. Don't worry. I am seeking counseling.
But for now I feel like ranting about shit that I've wanted to rant about for decades. And to make it even worse my rant is all a fucking cliché. When ranting about the so-called Holiday Season how could it not be?
When I see people walking around wishing each other "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" and all that crap, I want to gag. And yet I find myself going along with it anyway so I don't come across as a complete asshole. But deep down inside I'm screaming, "Whatever!" That alone pisses me off further. It's hypocritical and I'm angry at myself for playing the game.
It's a pointless and mindless time of year where people try to act extra nice. Why now? Why not all of the time? These holidays and their dates are utterly arbitrary to me. Take New Year's Day for instance. That one is especially pointless to me. It is a week and a half after the winter solstice. To me the solstice is more like a new year than January 1. A solstice is an actual measurable physical phenomenon that can be used to mark the end and beginning of a solar cycle. January 1 is just a number on some made-up calendar. Who made up that calendar anyway? And why does that calendar say the year has to be 2010? Why not 8302 or some other number in say, base 12?
And then there is the Christmas holiday and all of that crap. Set aside the fact that December 25 is not even the actual date of the birth of the Christian religion so to speak. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it's the one time out of the year where all of the hypocrites can come out in droves and be EXTRA hypocritical. Personal experience has allowed me to witness many so-called Christmas holidays where Christianist behave in some of the most unchristian ways ever seen. That really doesn't bode well for celebrating the birth of their Savior™.
Another thing that doesn't bode well is that most of the modern Christmas traditions claimed by some Christianist come from the Pagans! Yeah, PAGANS! After all, to trick the Pagans into becoming Christians they had to assimilate their traditions. But don't worry; it was all done in the name of Christ. Too bad that Christians don't know who Christ really is anymore. Not that they would care anyway. And they especially wouldn't give a shit what a godless heathen such as myself would have to say about it anyway.
Sorry folks, I guess I just don't have the Christmas spirit. Well, I guess if I stick with just the hypocrite part I do have it. I get that. But the rest of it? Whatever!
Am I waging a war on Christmas? I don't think so. Christianist are doing it themselves just fine. I'm just watching them go at it while I do my own thing. Such as: no lights, no tree, no music, no shopping, no family, no handouts and no Christ. Selfish? Meh. If you want all that stuff, great! Go for it. I don't care. Just don't expect me to do it to.
God, I'm glad the holidays are over!
I guess this makes me a scrooge or a curmudgeon or something. It doesn't matter. I'm hated by one group of people or another no matter what I think, say or do. So I'm going to do my own god damned thing from now on and if you like it, join me, if not, FUCK OFF! I'm serious. I invite anyone who finds my little rant offensive to seriously fuck off. I don't mind at all. It may sound like I mind because of the seemingly harsh language but at this point I'm really not talking directly to anyone. It's more of a proverbial use of the phrase to anyone in my life who really does need to fuck off.
Postscript: It was the Christians who came up with the word 'Pagan' to call these unbelieving, polytheistic, heathen, low life, evil people. I'm proud to be called a Pagan. It's like taking back the word 'fag', which I'm am one of those as well. :) Happy Xmas! (Nov 20, 2010)
Anyway...I just got past the holiday season.
Oh My Fucking God!
I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. But this time around it's mostly the hate.
How did the year end and how did the new one start? It ended with a crash and a bang and bunch of other complete bullshit. It was an otherwise great year that came together in the most fucked up holiday season ever. And it's still not over yet. In fact I think I'll still have a few more months of this shit before I might be clear enough to start thinking and feeling grounded again. It's not to say I'm in a constant state of rage. I do have moments throughout the week of positivity, but it's only about 0.6% of the time. I think that equates to about an hour per week where it's just me and the equines.
I debated if I should even bother listing all the shit that has gone down since October but I don't think I will. There is just too much of it. Perhaps it would have been better had I made small blog entries for each incident as they happened. But it really came down to the fact that I'm still relatively anonymous on this blog and after considering the implications of revealing the nature of the shit that's gone down, it would seriously compromise my identity. Besides that, listing all that shit would incite a pity party. It's bad enough that I pity myself as much as I do. Getting it from others doesn't feed my ego in healthy ways. And right now the combination of all this shit going down and the affects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), regress me to some serious irrationality. Besides, all of the shit that's happened is actually incidental and doesn't really have any real meaning. The important question to ask is: How I've been handling it all? To which I would respond: GAH!!!
Needless to say I've got so much pent-up anger right now I could bite anyone who crosses me...until they bleed of course, and then I would let them go. I'm not a vampire and don't like the taste of blood. Don't worry. I am seeking counseling.
But for now I feel like ranting about shit that I've wanted to rant about for decades. And to make it even worse my rant is all a fucking cliché. When ranting about the so-called Holiday Season how could it not be?
When I see people walking around wishing each other "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" and all that crap, I want to gag. And yet I find myself going along with it anyway so I don't come across as a complete asshole. But deep down inside I'm screaming, "Whatever!" That alone pisses me off further. It's hypocritical and I'm angry at myself for playing the game.
It's a pointless and mindless time of year where people try to act extra nice. Why now? Why not all of the time? These holidays and their dates are utterly arbitrary to me. Take New Year's Day for instance. That one is especially pointless to me. It is a week and a half after the winter solstice. To me the solstice is more like a new year than January 1. A solstice is an actual measurable physical phenomenon that can be used to mark the end and beginning of a solar cycle. January 1 is just a number on some made-up calendar. Who made up that calendar anyway? And why does that calendar say the year has to be 2010? Why not 8302 or some other number in say, base 12?
And then there is the Christmas holiday and all of that crap. Set aside the fact that December 25 is not even the actual date of the birth of the Christian religion so to speak. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it's the one time out of the year where all of the hypocrites can come out in droves and be EXTRA hypocritical. Personal experience has allowed me to witness many so-called Christmas holidays where Christianist behave in some of the most unchristian ways ever seen. That really doesn't bode well for celebrating the birth of their Savior™.
Another thing that doesn't bode well is that most of the modern Christmas traditions claimed by some Christianist come from the Pagans! Yeah, PAGANS! After all, to trick the Pagans into becoming Christians they had to assimilate their traditions. But don't worry; it was all done in the name of Christ. Too bad that Christians don't know who Christ really is anymore. Not that they would care anyway. And they especially wouldn't give a shit what a godless heathen such as myself would have to say about it anyway.
Sorry folks, I guess I just don't have the Christmas spirit. Well, I guess if I stick with just the hypocrite part I do have it. I get that. But the rest of it? Whatever!
Am I waging a war on Christmas? I don't think so. Christianist are doing it themselves just fine. I'm just watching them go at it while I do my own thing. Such as: no lights, no tree, no music, no shopping, no family, no handouts and no Christ. Selfish? Meh. If you want all that stuff, great! Go for it. I don't care. Just don't expect me to do it to.
God, I'm glad the holidays are over!
I guess this makes me a scrooge or a curmudgeon or something. It doesn't matter. I'm hated by one group of people or another no matter what I think, say or do. So I'm going to do my own god damned thing from now on and if you like it, join me, if not, FUCK OFF! I'm serious. I invite anyone who finds my little rant offensive to seriously fuck off. I don't mind at all. It may sound like I mind because of the seemingly harsh language but at this point I'm really not talking directly to anyone. It's more of a proverbial use of the phrase to anyone in my life who really does need to fuck off.
Postscript: It was the Christians who came up with the word 'Pagan' to call these unbelieving, polytheistic, heathen, low life, evil people. I'm proud to be called a Pagan. It's like taking back the word 'fag', which I'm am one of those as well. :) Happy Xmas! (Nov 20, 2010)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wanna fight?!
For the past several months I've been in one of those moods where I feel like picking a fight with Mormons again. I get really fed up with the stupidity and I just want to make a point of telling people they are being hypocritical.
I used to be on a mailing list with several friends. The list was intended as a social community to stay in touch. On occasion politics would get brought up and create heated debates filling my inbox with 30 page email posts. I despise politics. I have a hard time doing nothing more with it than mocking it. Equal opportunity left and right so I didn't read most of it. Just skimmed for key words to get the gist of what they were saying. Unfortunately I found that on a few instances a few of them managed to find a way to offend me when they took whole classes of people and demonized them for a political point. The first of which was right after hurricane Katrina. The next one was last year when one expressed his outrage that our government was endorsing immoral and perverted sexual behavior in referring directly to gay marriage. The comment was out of the blue because the discussion was about the economic bailout prompted by some article on a Mormon blog that happen to mention that gay rights were an example of corrupt government. ( It seems that no matter the topic many Mormons will find a way to make it about "Teh Gays".)
For the most part I just stay quiet. And I eventually left the group as I didn't want to be tempted to spew a bunch of angry words as I made the mistake of doing a few times in the past. I'm still friends with most of the people from that list on Facebook, just not the ones who made those remarks.
But here is my problem. On occasion they continue to throw out their view of life and take for granted that they think they are "preaching to the choir". Every so often they express their disgust for the declining morals of society and then go on to list what they are. They always seem to include homosexuality as that is one of the many things in the Mormon church's handbook of things that destroy societies. It's those people I want to pick the fight with. And sometimes all I have to do is post something on Facebook that disagrees with the church and wait for the arguments to start. It's as if all I really want to do is state my piece and let them make a fool of themselves as they state theirs. So, which choir do I think I'm preaching to?
I hope that those people will take me off their friends list rather than just "hide" or ignore me. That's all I really want. I feel like I'm walking around amongst people who despise me but rather than be honest and tell me up front, they do it behind my back. But after they remove me then I can hate them for it. I never said I wasn't a hypocrite. I just want them to see where they are one too. And those that stay with me I would hope that they learned something of the whole discussion and got some perspective. I hope I get some perspective too.
I've been cranking in my mind how there could be a connection between the people who so strongly believe their religion and those that see religion as a form of mental illness. And that's just it. If we do see it as a mental illness then the correct way of dealing with it is clinical. Meaning that we must employ the skills of a psychologist.
It's like the time I realized a solution to the rocky relationship with my dad. I had for years been expecting a 60+ year old man to have the maturity of a 60+ year old man. But when I realized I had to handle him with the skill and patience the same way one would with a deeply troubled 5 year old child, things started working out and our relationships improved dramatically.
Unfortunately most of us, including me, don't have the patience and skills to deal with the insanity that is religion despite having dug out of that hole myself. So we end up fighting with the insane. Lose-Lose!
*Sigh*
And here I am, trying to pick a fight with insanity.
I used to be on a mailing list with several friends. The list was intended as a social community to stay in touch. On occasion politics would get brought up and create heated debates filling my inbox with 30 page email posts. I despise politics. I have a hard time doing nothing more with it than mocking it. Equal opportunity left and right so I didn't read most of it. Just skimmed for key words to get the gist of what they were saying. Unfortunately I found that on a few instances a few of them managed to find a way to offend me when they took whole classes of people and demonized them for a political point. The first of which was right after hurricane Katrina. The next one was last year when one expressed his outrage that our government was endorsing immoral and perverted sexual behavior in referring directly to gay marriage. The comment was out of the blue because the discussion was about the economic bailout prompted by some article on a Mormon blog that happen to mention that gay rights were an example of corrupt government. ( It seems that no matter the topic many Mormons will find a way to make it about "Teh Gays".)
For the most part I just stay quiet. And I eventually left the group as I didn't want to be tempted to spew a bunch of angry words as I made the mistake of doing a few times in the past. I'm still friends with most of the people from that list on Facebook, just not the ones who made those remarks.
But here is my problem. On occasion they continue to throw out their view of life and take for granted that they think they are "preaching to the choir". Every so often they express their disgust for the declining morals of society and then go on to list what they are. They always seem to include homosexuality as that is one of the many things in the Mormon church's handbook of things that destroy societies. It's those people I want to pick the fight with. And sometimes all I have to do is post something on Facebook that disagrees with the church and wait for the arguments to start. It's as if all I really want to do is state my piece and let them make a fool of themselves as they state theirs. So, which choir do I think I'm preaching to?
I hope that those people will take me off their friends list rather than just "hide" or ignore me. That's all I really want. I feel like I'm walking around amongst people who despise me but rather than be honest and tell me up front, they do it behind my back. But after they remove me then I can hate them for it. I never said I wasn't a hypocrite. I just want them to see where they are one too. And those that stay with me I would hope that they learned something of the whole discussion and got some perspective. I hope I get some perspective too.
I've been cranking in my mind how there could be a connection between the people who so strongly believe their religion and those that see religion as a form of mental illness. And that's just it. If we do see it as a mental illness then the correct way of dealing with it is clinical. Meaning that we must employ the skills of a psychologist.
It's like the time I realized a solution to the rocky relationship with my dad. I had for years been expecting a 60+ year old man to have the maturity of a 60+ year old man. But when I realized I had to handle him with the skill and patience the same way one would with a deeply troubled 5 year old child, things started working out and our relationships improved dramatically.
Unfortunately most of us, including me, don't have the patience and skills to deal with the insanity that is religion despite having dug out of that hole myself. So we end up fighting with the insane. Lose-Lose!
*Sigh*
And here I am, trying to pick a fight with insanity.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Maggie Gallagher is a Caricature
I know that I said that I didn't want to talk about current events or politics in this blog and I'm still not going to. But just to give you, the reader (assuming I have any), some background as to who Maggie Gallagher is, she is an anti-gay activist. Well, she would never admit to that title but that is what she is. Why do I say that? Because she is currently President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) which is an organization formed for the sole purpose of lobbying to prevent same-sex couples from having marriage rights. But this isn't about that.
Recently she was on the MSNBC program Hardball, "debating" with HRC's Joe Solmonese. See for yourself: (as long as the video continues to exist)
For me, watching that was frustrating. Maggie outright lied and contradicted herself but neither of them could call her out on it because she would just talk over them. There are words for that. Sidetrack, deflect, avoid...
But then I'm not sure I'm willing to accept that Maggie is a conscious liar though. She is so proud and lost in her beliefs that she appears to be lying when in reality she is just ignorant and damn proud of it.
I say that because I was accused of being a liar the other day. The reality was I was just stating my belief in something that was a lie. As much as it hurts to hear the other person call me a liar, I realized that him calling me a liar hurt worse to my pride than if I was just told that I was misinformed. I felt like I was being attacked rather than just schooled. I honestly didn't know I was believing a lie.
What I've observed over the years is that when people hold conflicting beliefs, most commonly encouraged by religious or political dogma, the amount of mental gymnastics that a person must perform to link the conflict into something that sounds rational and coherent, gives one a sense of pride for the effort involved. It's as if we believe we are some intellectual powerhouse and we can make perfect sense of the "tough issues". Once we've done that our belief becomes an infallible fact.
I once held a great personal satisfaction that I was able to think I truly understood how my sexuality wasn't gay, despite the evidence to the contrary. Going back to my old journals from 2004, (I avoided the subject before then) I am constantly surprised at the contradictions I would write, many times in the same sentence. I remember my state of mind when I wrote them too. I was consciously denying my reality so that a religious belief could fit and I felt a strange piousness in my heart because of that. Then, I would state the reality with a justification as to how I was a special case and then feel justified that I was on the right path. I was essentially creating deeper layers of lies by patching the inconsistencies with lies.
Looking back I can see the insanity. I was not rational even though I had convinced myself that I was. So, even though my convictions were based on lies, I was not lying because I didn't believe they were lies. But when I state my belief I am lying. But I'm not lying because I believe it to be this way...more mental gymnastics.
It comes down to this for me: when my beliefs are challenged am I going to lie to cover up the contradictions or am I going to acknowledge them and admit that I'm not properly educated on all of the facts? Well, it depends on my mood some days but also depends on how hard I worked to form the belief in the first place. The stupid belief I was called on the other day was not something I spent my lifetime trying to form. It was easy to let it go. But, when it comes to beliefs that I've spent years forming, I'm insanely protective of them.
Even though I'm better at killing my pride now than I was in the past, some days I find that I'm so hurt that my pride is the only defense mechanism that I've got. It's sad that I still think I need a defense mechanism. But when I'm afraid of something and I'm not willing, out of fear, to really look at why I'm afraid(double bind), I really bust open the pride and turn myself into an ever living asshole.
What also frustrates me is that few people ever ask the right question that would really get Maggie to think. And that is: what are you afraid of? Of course, as we see in the video, that line of questioning is always side tracked and never gets pressed. But then with some people, continuing to press it would get tedious which doesn't make for good television. After a few layers of fears are exposed the avoidance would pop-up again and again because the root fears always seem to be horrible shameful secrets. And many of us usually end up forgetting we have them anyway. For instance, like being gay. I managed to actually forget about that one for 25 years. Yeah, incredible isn't it? LOL!
Personally, I feel sorry for poor Maggie. Even though no one outright called her a liar, she got defensive when called on her contradictions (lies). It hurts to be called a liar. And it hurts to realize that you really are one. I feel bad for anyone who is hurt. I get conflicted because I don't want to perpetuate that hurt but at the same time I want to slap them upside the head. But that's just arrogance on my part. But what will it take? It took some serious tragedy (mental breakdown) for me to finally see where I got distracted (LDS dogma). What will it take for her and others like her to see where they took the wrong turn? And will they be willing, if or when their "storms" finally come, to be open to alternative ideas, scientific, political or religious?
Is it ALWAYS about religion? Those who realize that religion cannot be used as a defense seem to be getting desperate and calling on more non-religious reasoning but they are having trouble because the peer-reviewed scientific community, which ironically they do not trust, can't help them anymore like they did in the early part of the 20th century. It looks like it's now turning into pure politics at this point. Unfortunately politics seems to be in bed with religious rhetoric now. What a mess.
Going back as far as I can remember when I started following politics, 1980 (6th grade?), it always seemed to be about countering each other's misinformation and fears. The winner was the one who could out "opinionate" the other by sounding convincing enough that people believed their stores as fact.
I learned to despise politics at a young age.
So when someone brings up the topic of why gay marriage or gay rights in general are bad, I'm immediately at a loss for words because no matter what I say it's only a response to a sidestepping of the real issue. The real issue is really about their deep personal fears about themselves. And because I can't respond to their liking, they declare themselves the winner and boast at how they "confounded the opposition". In reality I was confounded by their utter stupidity and realized that arguing with them was a waste of my time and brain cells. And then I'm angry because I know how they perceived it and that the entire confrontation worked against me. And then I'm double angry because I wanted so much to slap them upside the head knowing full well that it would victimize them for real instead of the fantasized victimization that they are currently enjoying.
No matter what, the loser is always someone who tries to talk some sense into a nut job.
We humans are truly strange creatures.
Recently she was on the MSNBC program Hardball, "debating" with HRC's Joe Solmonese. See for yourself: (as long as the video continues to exist)
For me, watching that was frustrating. Maggie outright lied and contradicted herself but neither of them could call her out on it because she would just talk over them. There are words for that. Sidetrack, deflect, avoid...
But then I'm not sure I'm willing to accept that Maggie is a conscious liar though. She is so proud and lost in her beliefs that she appears to be lying when in reality she is just ignorant and damn proud of it.
I say that because I was accused of being a liar the other day. The reality was I was just stating my belief in something that was a lie. As much as it hurts to hear the other person call me a liar, I realized that him calling me a liar hurt worse to my pride than if I was just told that I was misinformed. I felt like I was being attacked rather than just schooled. I honestly didn't know I was believing a lie.
What I've observed over the years is that when people hold conflicting beliefs, most commonly encouraged by religious or political dogma, the amount of mental gymnastics that a person must perform to link the conflict into something that sounds rational and coherent, gives one a sense of pride for the effort involved. It's as if we believe we are some intellectual powerhouse and we can make perfect sense of the "tough issues". Once we've done that our belief becomes an infallible fact.
I once held a great personal satisfaction that I was able to think I truly understood how my sexuality wasn't gay, despite the evidence to the contrary. Going back to my old journals from 2004, (I avoided the subject before then) I am constantly surprised at the contradictions I would write, many times in the same sentence. I remember my state of mind when I wrote them too. I was consciously denying my reality so that a religious belief could fit and I felt a strange piousness in my heart because of that. Then, I would state the reality with a justification as to how I was a special case and then feel justified that I was on the right path. I was essentially creating deeper layers of lies by patching the inconsistencies with lies.
Looking back I can see the insanity. I was not rational even though I had convinced myself that I was. So, even though my convictions were based on lies, I was not lying because I didn't believe they were lies. But when I state my belief I am lying. But I'm not lying because I believe it to be this way...more mental gymnastics.
It comes down to this for me: when my beliefs are challenged am I going to lie to cover up the contradictions or am I going to acknowledge them and admit that I'm not properly educated on all of the facts? Well, it depends on my mood some days but also depends on how hard I worked to form the belief in the first place. The stupid belief I was called on the other day was not something I spent my lifetime trying to form. It was easy to let it go. But, when it comes to beliefs that I've spent years forming, I'm insanely protective of them.
Even though I'm better at killing my pride now than I was in the past, some days I find that I'm so hurt that my pride is the only defense mechanism that I've got. It's sad that I still think I need a defense mechanism. But when I'm afraid of something and I'm not willing, out of fear, to really look at why I'm afraid(double bind), I really bust open the pride and turn myself into an ever living asshole.
What also frustrates me is that few people ever ask the right question that would really get Maggie to think. And that is: what are you afraid of? Of course, as we see in the video, that line of questioning is always side tracked and never gets pressed. But then with some people, continuing to press it would get tedious which doesn't make for good television. After a few layers of fears are exposed the avoidance would pop-up again and again because the root fears always seem to be horrible shameful secrets. And many of us usually end up forgetting we have them anyway. For instance, like being gay. I managed to actually forget about that one for 25 years. Yeah, incredible isn't it? LOL!
Personally, I feel sorry for poor Maggie. Even though no one outright called her a liar, she got defensive when called on her contradictions (lies). It hurts to be called a liar. And it hurts to realize that you really are one. I feel bad for anyone who is hurt. I get conflicted because I don't want to perpetuate that hurt but at the same time I want to slap them upside the head. But that's just arrogance on my part. But what will it take? It took some serious tragedy (mental breakdown) for me to finally see where I got distracted (LDS dogma). What will it take for her and others like her to see where they took the wrong turn? And will they be willing, if or when their "storms" finally come, to be open to alternative ideas, scientific, political or religious?
Is it ALWAYS about religion? Those who realize that religion cannot be used as a defense seem to be getting desperate and calling on more non-religious reasoning but they are having trouble because the peer-reviewed scientific community, which ironically they do not trust, can't help them anymore like they did in the early part of the 20th century. It looks like it's now turning into pure politics at this point. Unfortunately politics seems to be in bed with religious rhetoric now. What a mess.
Going back as far as I can remember when I started following politics, 1980 (6th grade?), it always seemed to be about countering each other's misinformation and fears. The winner was the one who could out "opinionate" the other by sounding convincing enough that people believed their stores as fact.
I learned to despise politics at a young age.
So when someone brings up the topic of why gay marriage or gay rights in general are bad, I'm immediately at a loss for words because no matter what I say it's only a response to a sidestepping of the real issue. The real issue is really about their deep personal fears about themselves. And because I can't respond to their liking, they declare themselves the winner and boast at how they "confounded the opposition". In reality I was confounded by their utter stupidity and realized that arguing with them was a waste of my time and brain cells. And then I'm angry because I know how they perceived it and that the entire confrontation worked against me. And then I'm double angry because I wanted so much to slap them upside the head knowing full well that it would victimize them for real instead of the fantasized victimization that they are currently enjoying.
No matter what, the loser is always someone who tries to talk some sense into a nut job.
We humans are truly strange creatures.
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