Not like they’re putting a gun to Gavin’s head and forcing him to repeatedly be a transphobic shithead (like, he has been this way for years in multiple interviews with multiple outlets now)

If we don’t want the left getting demotivated we should get leaders who don’t attack us all the time

I think we know how an administration that employs Kristi Noem feels about dogs

Do you honestly believe we would be here right now if we hadn’t let the Biden administration and moderate Dems bungle this issue? The only thing proposing that noxious piece of trash legislation did was allow the fascists to say “see? even the libs know migrants are a problem.”

This lesser evil canard completely misunderstands politics and racism, it doesn’t work like an inoculation where doing a little racism keeps us from going full racist down the road, it works like heavy metal poisoning where the shit just builds up in our systems.

Agreed til the final paragraph, but that 2024 bill was authoritarian trash that never should have been proposed in the first place

If you needed a lawyer for some reason, would you refuse to hire a woman because you thought your jury might have misogynists on it?

Sounds pretty Presidential to me

Yeah, only reason this is happening is because they would’ve run into legal problems trying to say this was a Governors Association dinner when their vice chair and about half their members objected

First, that was a really nice story, thank you for taking the time to write all of that out

Secondly, yeah, the intellectual colonization of Christianity is a really tragic thing. I was personally raised by people who had been abused by the kind of conservative and dominating religion you described when they were kids and who had left their churches, so I was allowed to believe whatever I wanted growing up and just relate to the Bible as a collection of cool stories and good quotes (as well as some weird and bad ones), imo not as good as Kurt Vonnegut but better a lot better than Tom Clancy (look I read whatever was on the shelves of my local library whether it was good or not).

What I’m trying to say there is it isn’t a personal thing for me either way, because I never really got bullied by a bad church or had a strong family connection with a good one. But I have seen both of these things in other people, and either way, whether they hate/fear the church or associate or with family and community, the reflexive emotional responses those people have had were undeniably genuine and persistent. Those experiences (along with a lot of neurological research suggesting most human beings have brains that are structurally predisposed towards wanting a connection with a god-like force, which is probably why so many separate groups have independently come up with religions) have really convinced me that religious belief is an almost inextricably deep part of a person’s psyche (a lot like sexuality and gender actually).

And yeah, there have definitely been concerted efforts by states and rich people and tyrannical assholes of all sorts who want to use this thing that has such a deep hold on most people to justify themselves since Constantine. But also there’s a bunch of examples of this backfiring and religion causing people to rebel, from Martin Luther to John Brown. And also, there’s a ton of examples of religion bringing people together from sides that shouldn’t have gotten along and getting them to work together, from the Christmas truce in WWI to the American Civil Rights movement bringing white churches from the north to volunteer alongside black churches in the south to register black voters.

So, yeah, religious belief is a really complicated thing with good and bad aspects, but it is a powerful thing and something everyone needs to sort out for themselves one way or another. It sounds like you’re walking your path now and I’m glad to hear it!

Speaking as an agnostic, this site is a bit too eager to shit on religious folks. Only a bit, because I know a whole lot of evil has been done in the names of gods and I know the frustration of arguing with someone who just explains everything with “god’s got a plan” or some other unverifiable claim,

But ffs, read the fuckin’ room. Fascism is ascendant and we need the biggest coalition we can get to beat it back into a corner. Besides that, Christians in particular are all about righteously walking into lion’s dens in the face of certain death over things they believe, and honestly that is the exact kinda energy we are going to need from a lot of people if we are going to get through this. Also, doesn’t hurt that they are organized as fuck and a lot do praxis like food pantries and other mutual aid on the regular. You don’t have to believe anything to recognize we’d be doing the fascists a favor by not try to ally with these people.

Volunteers will undergo a seven-week training program on how to better engage these voters, including sessions on “active listening” and “having difficult conversations about politics”.

Seven weeks of paychecks for the consultants, but the party members they actually want to go out and do the real work of talking to people are just expected to volunteer. Sounds like the Democratic party I know and loathe.

Yeah, if you do mutual aid lefty stuff for any amount of time you will almost certainly end up volunteering alongside a religious person who’s there for religious reasons at some point, and anybody who tries to kick an ally out of an antifascist coalition over a religious dispute may as well be a collaborator. If they’re there because god told them to, they’re there and that’s what matters.

Yeah, a better version of this article would talk about how Minneapolis has actually always been a kinda radical town, from the general strike in the 30s, AIM being founded there in the 60s, and the whole co-op wars stupidity that happened in the 70s, all the way through the RNC and Occupy protests in the 2000s. Like, there have been self identified anarchists in that city for almost a hundred years at least, and that has got at least as much to do with what we’re seeing as “patriotic and Christian values” do.

Nah, the more she suffers the less she’s able to do her job and inflict suffering on many other people (including sick kids, btw). This is good news.

Oh man, another delivery from Cyberpunk Dystopia Cliche of the Month Club?! We have got to cancel that membership

Yeah, it puts paperwork barriers between aid and the people who need it, and it usually ends up costing more money than it “saves” by kicking needy people out of programs anyway

The salad comb thing is honestly probably the most charming story I’ve heard about her

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, not on someone’s voluntary history of involvement in a fascist organization

Yall realize this goes both ways

This is why every single ICE agent and anyone who sympathizes with them needs all their political power removed immediately before they can hurt this country anymore than they already have, they will try to retaliate against any kind of accountability for their organization’s many crimes

Yeah, but this is a weird usage of that term. Normally it’s for old dudes who are maybe a bit corny (because old) but basically good dudes. Like, FD Signifier’s fans call him unc all the time.

It’s easier to serve civil paperwork to people who are in prison, let’s make sure to do that too

It appears she’s ok

The man was swiftly tackled by someone else in the room and was eventually escorted out of the room. Omar returned to speaking after a few minutes.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to Omar’s office for more information about the incident.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/rep-ilhan-omar-charged-at-by-man-sprayed-with-unknown-substance-at-town-hall-meeting/ (arc)

e; added paragraph of quote and arc link