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BevoAbyss

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  1. Nice ride. Hope the prom was fun! My dad bought a brand new Delta 88 (20 feet of American steel) with a massive trunk in 1974. Just to drive the family from Texas to Disneyland and to see relatives in LA. And then to SF, Sequoia Nat'l Park, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, and Petrified Forest Nat'l Park and back home. That was our most epic family vacation.* (Our D88 was a hard top version of the car below.) *Parents divorced 5 years later and the nuclear family suburban utopia was over ...
  2. I have not lived in Texas in over 25 years, but I seriously doubt the big city flagship newspapers are calling it what is — fascism or theocracy. Same with the local TV stations. They always offer brainless, toothless "both sides" perspective that only empowers the fascists/theocrats. The Texas Tribune enables this as much as the Dallas Morning News or other mainstream news outlets, with their supposedly "objective" (both sides) perspective that is ultimately Orwellian in its subtle doublethink. Of course, this is happening in the mainstream news media all across America. The terms "conservative" ... "far-right" ... "extremist" ... are no longer accurate. Those were terms used in the Reagan era in the 1980s. Forty years later, MAGA and the GQP are far far beyond what Reagan jump-started. Even the term "Christian nationalism" sets off very few alarm bells for most people. There is no way to stop or slow down MAGA-GQP until it is properly identified and addressed. Even then, it might be too late or not enough. Of course, Beto and the Democrats are too weak and brainwashed to call it what it is. "Can't risk offending anyone's religious beliefs..." Religion's free pass will be the downfall of Texas/America. At least as a secular democracy. Margaret Atwood saw it coming with A Handmaid's Tale.
  3. You already know what is "wrong." We all do, at least those not in denial. It's called a fascist theocracy. Run by MAGA-GQP. The goal in Texas (and America) is to colonize, conquer, and convert—with legalized violence and malevolence toward the non-converted and a list of "enemies" and "others" not favored in their sacred scrolls. The goal is to rule with pain and humiliation, the Christian playbook for 2000 years, along with endless grifting. Peace and charity come after conquest/conversion. Not before. Pain, then peace. Then some more pain ... just for good measure. The goal is for MAGA-GQP to stand astride the vanquished and conquered, with Texas flags flying, AR-15s and crosses held high, all as they gaze upon their carnage and into the sky, thinking their unseen Sky Daddy is nodding in approval and their rapture is imminent. ----------- Meanwhile, NASA and the James Webb Space Telescope peer across 100 billion light years and no Sky Daddy is anywhere to be seen. Hell, this Sky Daddy is too lazy to even photobomb one image of a distant galaxy.
  4. Why the veiled insults What the Buck? I am glad you can see Trump for what he is, a blatant fascist and enabler of theocracy (among many other things). As for me, you don't know a damn thing. I have faced "witty" comments like yours for decades in cities/states where I lived. Same old story: I am alarmist, too paranoid, etc. I am new on this site, yet I have spoken/written/published (in print) on these topics at times over the past 3-4 decades. I post here while taking a break from other formal projects.... and for the peerless Surly humor! And as a proud UT alum disgusted by Bush-Perry-Abbott-Trump-MAGA Texas. Buck: I've been warning friends and others (liberals, libertarians, and conservatives I knew) about the threat of theocracy since Reagan/Religious Right in the 1980s, while I was at UT. Every freaking conservative/libertarian I knew at UT was in 100,000% denial. Every last one! "Free markets and religious freedom, that's America, dude!" That was the mantra. And I warned about the fascist tendencies of Perot (the proto-Trump) and his "United We Stand," then Bush 2 and "Tea Party" theocracy/fascism, and now Trump and MAGA. Always met with good ole American Exceptionalism and denialism about threat of religious rule and the ongoing intellectual collapse across a huge swath of America. No matter the facts or elegance of my assertion, it was too paranoid, too cynical, too anti-American, I was told. And, yet here we are.... yes, the "Pod People" you mentioned are coming. Waving flags, bearing crosses, carrying AR-15s, driving SUVs or F-150s! Adios, Buck. With all due respect, this will my last comment to you on this. I no longer argue/debate/attempt to persuade anyone of anything—all pointless, as I have learned over the decades. I just put out ideas/concepts and let people do what they want with them. Surly seems like a good place for that!
  5. I appreciate your comment. I too esteem Art. But, my brush is not broader than most. "Art" is not just what we like in a gallery or the classics in a museum. History is filled with all kinds of art—good, bad, beautiful, ugly, sacred, and profane. Paintings, sculpture, music, dance, architecture, and even graffiti and others. Sadly, there are tons of politically-inspired works celebrating tyrants and despotic regimes. Books have been written about art of the Third Reich (and art of the Soviet Union). No one is saying Nazi art is great, but it has been studied to understand how it expressed the Nazi ideology. McNaughton's Trump-inspired paintings are fascist-style art and should serve as a warning to us all.
  6. Look, I don't want to argue with you. It is pointless. But please quit putting words in my post that are not there. I never said the McNaughton's art was good. I never said it should not be mocked and laughed it. So no one is getting carried away. But, there are millions in America in denial of what is going down. As for western art/aesthetic history, I know it quite well. Poor quality or aesthetic kitsch does not change the fact that McNaughton is creating fascist-style art for Fascist America.
  7. We can mock and laugh at the Trump paintings. But these paintings are fascist art, circa the 21st century and our Hollywood hyper-mediated era. These paintings are, in philosophic and artistic principle, no different than the many paintings of Hitler (lionized, militarized, warrior, God-like) that emerged in Nazi Germany. McNaughton's Trump paintings are art for Fascist America.
  8. Obviously, there were fascists in the USA, as shown in the 1939 Madison Square Garden photos up thread. That good ole American Exceptionalism and assumption that fascism "can't happen here" is naive and mistaken. Fascism is already happening here on a huge scale, along with theocracy. The question is: can these be stopped before democracy is finished?
  9. Not the overwhelming majority for Trump. Okay. But are the results good news? After 4 years of complete Trump-Pence idiocy and Covid denial, more than a third of of the military still supported a fascist leader and fascist/theocratic ideology. Seems like a reason to be extremely alarmed. When you say it "aint your grandpappy's military anymore," you are correct. The grandpas (and my two oldest uncles) were busy defeating the fascists, who were in Germany and Italy. Not in the White House.
  10. Re: Reed O'Connor ruling. Theocracy masked as rigorous scrutiny of the law. No surprise, appointed by Bush 2, the evangelical prez who paved the way for fascism/theocracy. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/30/texas-judge-obamacare-00089641
  11. It's incredibly naive to think the police forces in the USA are not overwhelmingly MAGA-GQP. Same with the rank-and-file military and likely many of the top generals/admirals. MAGA-GQP fascism did not begin with Trump or Fox News. Been building for 40+ years. It began with Ronnie Raygun, his astrology-loving wife, and the army of warrior Bible thumpers! And the police and military top brass loved that Ronnie Raygun, ready to zap the commies and pinko liberals from atop his horse in California.
  12. About that New Yorker article 1. Re: the secularists wanting a Christian nation. Never underestimate the power of "doublethink" and believing that two oppositional and contradictory thoughts are both true. 2. There's always a bunch of academics splitting hairs in the guise of "rigorous scholarship." They can divide Christians into sub-groups all they want, but the unimpeachable empirical fact is that 70+ million people voted for Trump. Which means that 70 million voters are down with fascism and theocracy, regardless of which Christian group they are in.
  13. It is pointless to debate any of the gun cult members. The Christian family photos with everyone (dad, mom, kids) holding AR-15s tells us everything we need to know about they interpret the Second Amendment and gun rights. Those weapons will never be used to resist tyranny. The AR-15s (et al) will be used to impose tyranny. Those guns will be pointed at the rest of non-Christian society. They are freaking advertising the future right in everyone's faces. They deeply crave an ultraviolent (see Burgess, Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange) society, with a bloodthirsty medieval mindset. When there is an army of Christians with AR-15s, all believing the unseen Sky Daddy has their back, they will be more than ready to impose ultraviolence across America and the planet—to fulfill the apocalyptic prophesies of Revelations. History is 100% clear on that.
  14. Mass shootings (enabled by gun worship) are not the only form of ultraviolence sanctioned by MAGA-GQP. Two other notable examples of MAGA-GQP ultraviolence: — January 6. A near perfect example. — Anti-mask, anti-vaxx movement. This is a more subtle form of ultraviolence. After all, anti-maskers/vaxxers were happy to go into public spaces and risk unleashing the deadly Covid virus on random citizens. Thus, causing/enabling the deaths of 1.1 million Americans, still 10x the death rate of the flu. If not for vaccines, the American death toll would have been many millions higher. The dominant pillars of MAGA-GQP philosophy are: ultraviolence—anti-science/logic—fascism/racism—nationalism—theocracy. (Apologies if this veered a bit off the thread topic, but it fit with previous posts).
  15. Thanks Roma. I appreciate that very much.
  16. A violent, militarized society, armed to the teeth, living in daily fear and existential dread — that's the MAGA-GQP goal. There's a name for it from science-fiction: ultraviolence. Burgess and Kubrick warned us in A Clockwork Orange. “Ultraviolence” is the senseless, excessive, and wholly unjustified violence that terrorizes a neighborhood, a city, a society, a nation. It terrorizes all ages and demographic groups. Schools, night clubs, movie theaters, military bases, college campuses, grocery stores, fast food joints, and many other locations — all subject to senseless, random, bloody mass shootings. That's a society more likely submit to fascists and religious fanatics. Ultraviolence. That's the MAGA-GQP plan for America. It's right before our eyes.
  17. That Texags thread shows the clear power of unchallenged Christian propaganda, from birth to college and beyond. The thread also shows the inability of secular/science education to counter the sacred scrolls and fact-free fables — which serve as an all-purpose template to blindly interpret all of reality, along with past, present, and future events. That's the template for 40-50% of Americans and it's effecting a massive intellectual collapse.
  18. With all due respect, this 25 million is not that nuanced. They want predictability for fascists and theocrats on on Supreme Court and federal courts. If they did not want that, they would not vote for Trump. If they just want lower taxes and ignore the fascist judicial appointments, then they are enabling fascism and, in fact, are okay with fascism/theocracy. Fact is, 40-50% of America is ready for a fascist/theocratic state. Time's up for denial.
  19. In America, religion is being weaponized as a violent purity movement. Make no mistake, it is medieval madness. Religion is a pre-scientific philosophy that appeals to a variety of inherent fears, insecurities, idiocies, and violent tendencies that go back to hunter-gatherer societies and especially to our primate/tribal origins — with fears of the other or the outsider. When the faithful think the Creator of the entire freaking universe (two trillion galaxies and counting) has their back and says they are the special ones on the fast track to spiritual and eternal destiny — then they will often do bad things to other people. Very bad things. In the name of purity! In Christian history, it's the Inquisition in Europe and the genocidal conquest of the Americas. With GQP-MAGA, it's a 21st century version of medievalism and purity through violence. The clock is ticking backward, history is in repeat mode.
  20. Oops! Huge typo: "I never have to offer bullshit rationalizations about a God who remains unseen, never cures diseases, ends famines or stops wars, and seems utterly uninterested in anything on Earth. ("God works in mysterious ways." Lulz) God's trying to work in mysterious ways and I busted his plan! Ha ha!
  21. I was lucky. Damn lucky. — Mom was from a very poor family in the Hill Country, a God-fearing, Bible-believing Texas lady, yet who had a massive distrust of preachers of all kinds. She thought they were mostly con men. — Dad was a military veteran, degree from UT on GI Bill, and completely agnostic and uninterested in religion. He was a "live and let live" dude. Thus, my family never went to church or watched TV preachers. We never said a prayer at Thanksgiving or Xmas. Religion was non-existent in our lives. We were a secular family with emphasis on education, honesty, hard work, respecting others, and a trust in science/medicine. Which means I was not subjected to the relentless religious brainwashing propaganda in my youth. Thus: — I never have to think the Bible offers profound truths about life, morality, or human existence. — I never have to cherry pick passages/verses from the Bible to support my worldview or moral positions. — I never have to believe religion is a force for good, when, in fact, it is tool for the 3Cs: colonize, conquer, convert. — I never have to ignore or make excuses for the genocidal atrocities enacted by Christians all across the three American continents. — I have have to offer bullshit rationalizations about a God who remains unseen, never cures diseases, ends famines or stops wars, and seems utterly uninterested in anything on Earth. ("God works in mysterious ways." Lulz) — And I never have to feel guilty about too much fun, sex, or tequila. Damn lucky, I was.
  22. Two quick points. 1. Religious Belief: The single greatest predictors — by far — of someone's religious beliefs are where they were born on Planet Earth and their parent's beliefs. It's not truth, evidence, or virtue. It's where you were born and your parents. End of story. 2. Weaponization: As I have posted elsewhere at Surly, religion was weaponized and unleashed upon Native/Indigenous Peoples across three continents (North, Central, and South Americas) to violently colonize, conquer, and convert those few left alive. It's always the 3Cs (colonize, conquer, convert) first, then "freedom" second. It's freedom within religion, not outside religion. GQP-MAGA and their gun worship are not an aberration, they fit the historical record.
  23. Apologies if my recent posts appeared as black on black screen. Brian Fantana alerted me that it might be because I was pasting text from a Word doc, which I was use for long posts. I had no idea. Sorry about that!
  24. Thanks for the Nietzsche/Sartre connection. Much appreciated! This points toward what I see as failure of secular philosophy. No doubt, that Existence being the ultimate locale — site for the observable universe (or multiverse, Big Bang) at 13.75 billion years old and stretching across 100 billion light years — creates a huge void in space and time and human thought. Nietzsche's poetics that humanity is on a rope over an abyss was followed by Sartre's view that the vast/eternal nature of Existence created a "vertigo" that challenges all previous belief systems. We, as a species and individually, must overcome the voids and vertigo and make the leap over the abyss to a sane philosophy for the future. So far, secular philosophy has failed to develop a popular philosophy/narrative for the leap — a unifying narrative that connects humanity to the universe from we emerged. We need a secular, evidence-based narrative that recognizes universal human rights (for every human being on Earth, regardless of gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc.) and protects the planet as the home/support system for all life on Earth—along with providing meaning and a shared destiny in a seemingly meaningless universe. Sorry, Star Wars ain't it. Star Trek was on to something, but got derailed and overwhelmed. Two forces have filled that void. Church and Corporate Consumerism. Both tap into our primate tribalism and narcissism, with Corporate Consumerism selling endless lifestyles/identities for tribes and would-be individualists via brands and products. Church sells purity and eternity, a seductive and powerful claim, however bogus. Consumerism sells hedonism, pleasure, and exhibitionism, which are a lot of fun, but are eventually not good for the ecosystems. I admit I get a lot of fun, pleasure, and meaning in life from art, architecture, design, fashion, science, along with national parks and sleeping under the starry skies. Speaking of the starry skies, up there just beyond Earth, the Hubble and Webb telescopes are peering ever deeper into existence .. TLDR: Secular philosophy is weak, consumerism is fun but bad for the planet long-term, thus much more is needed for the human species to survive and flourish
  25. Thanks for the thoughtful-witty reply. My argument is not based in science. It is based in logic, as summarized in Points 1, 2, 3. Existence must precede Consciousness (Genesis 1:1). Contemporary cosmology supports this logical conclusion, but is not the foundation. Existence includes all forms of the universe, past, present, future—the multiverse, singularities, Big Bangs, etc. Even the “singularity” had to come from some previous aspect of Existence, as logic suggests. As stated in the last sentence of my post: "astronomers are beginning to realize the Big Bang happened in a pre-existing universe of some kind." (Yes, I am familiar with Lawrence Krauss's fallacy "The Universe Came From Nothing.") Cosmological sciences support/correlate with the logic test. Genesis 1:1 fails the logic test. Completely. Once we abandon logic and evidence as starting points, anything can follow, no matter how fact-free or illogical. Look at GQP/MAGA for proof of that.
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