(02-23-2023, 01:19 PM)NYC4jags Wrote: Childhood indoctrination was 100% conservative-christian-bible-thumping-vengeful-god-will-smite-thee-for-thine-sins garbage.

I only came away impressed by the Jesus bits. He was cool. I dug his basic decency and unconditional compassion.
Selflessness.
The rest was all fear-laden tripe. No way to live, waiting on eternal damnation and a lightning bolt from the heavens to strike you down to the flames unless you beg forgiveness incessantly for being human.

Luckily my pops set a very christ-like example for me and my brother.
He talked the talk and walked the walk 99.9% of the time, which is more than I can say for most church folk I've known.
So, I was fortunate to grow up around a practical example of someone just being a good person. Even if I didn't believe everything he did.

I also grew up around lots of racism and had to make the conscious decision to not adopt or normalize it at a young age.
What a strange thing to go through as a kid. Having to reconcile that 70% of the adults in your life are seeing the world all [BLEEP] up. Pointless hate. It still baffles me. This was also one of the early clues that the church was full of [BLEEP]. Tons of outward racists there every Sunday.

Ultimately - for me -  it just comes down to trying to find balance between being compassionate for others and doing whatever you can to help people, but knowing where to draw the line and look out for oneself.

I reckon where we choose to draw that line is one of the things that makes us attracted to different sorts of political policy. It's a wide spectrum.

Lots of conservatives these days seem to take on a "survival of the fittest" mentality and let the weak be damned.
I just tend to be more compassionate for folks who struggle through little or no fault of their own.
Hard for me to stomach folks who don't give a [BLEEP] about anyone but those in their own little microcosm of existence.

If I had to pick one thing that reaffirmed my own inclinations toward a progressive mindset, it would be travel.
Seeing the world gives you new perspective. You realize that many of the institutions and methodologies you grew up with are merely one way of doing things among a broad horizon of possibilities. And you also realize that the human spirit is the same every where - and it is coursing through the veins of good people, bad people, and all those in between on every continent. We are all the same in so many ways.

Anyway, I'm an opinionated prick and and I know that about myself.
I've come to accept it as long as I keep trying to do good things for friends, family, and strangers in my day to day however I can.

Anyhoo - there's your libtard drive-by for the month.
Cheers.

Marty, I broke the [BLEEP] out of my arm patting my elitist back on this one.

That bolded part above resonated with me. I had the same challenges growing up. It was frustrating. The church part was hit or miss. Usually Mom turned to God after my Dad did her wrong. We didn't show up every Sunday though. My Dad couldn't stand it. He's an atheist. He hated the hypocrisy of it all and that's why he we would never claim to be a Saint. 

The racism part still happens within my family and it's honestly the reason why I try to limit my family appearances with them to just birthday's and holiday's. I don't want my son picking up racist slurs or nonsense because somebody had a bad experience at the grocery store or at a traffic light. 

They lump a few bad apples, a minority, into an entire minority race. Or, they'll blame it on a specific religion, instead of looking at the specific facts or details within a direct sect of said religion. Not all Christians, Catholics, Jews and Muslims are bad. 

Do we have outliers from these religious groups? Sure. It's not the Christian to be feared. It's the extremist Christian that's to be feared. It's not the Jewish people to be feared. It's the Zionist Jewish Elite to be feared, it's not the Muslim. It's the Wahabisim Muslim. And even in those sects? Not ALL of them are evil or corrupting Governments behind the scenes. 

I never understood the logic behind that. Just blaming it on an entire group of people. It's too easy in practice but it's also very, very lazy and dangerous in the long run.

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