In every war an ideology or religion is demonized. What were the pundits saying about Zen Buddhism in 1942? Clear path from detachment to atrocity?

Um, maybe don't post shortened links, especially with a malware warning. I'd suggest if you went there, at least say what it is and use the actual URL.


edit: I guess I jumped the gun a little and you sort of did that, except for posting the actual link.



For the curious:

That's not Sam Harris' position at all.

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/st...34790757707777

I think, maybe, possibly, this is a good statement. ?

Seems like a big journalistic fail not to pull the meaning from him in more clear terms. :/

Half of my family is on fbook praising the Trump rally yesterday. Otherwise sensible people (or so I thought) who have been brainwashed by this administration. My only play which doesn't irreparably damage my family relationships is to just smile and nod at them. Instead I am going to repeatedly needle them with Russia.

Something else very interesting about chez's worldview there is on reading the rest of that Islam thread, chez gave the TINIEST BIT of pushback against a previously banned guy:

You notice what chez never even HINTS at? That there is no enormous increase in migrant rapes. Like kind of combining chez's posts here I think the 2p2-endorsed moderation view here is that migrants are ruining Sweden but it's impolite to say so explicitly, one must be careful in how one words the non-politically correct truth.

Pence visiting former Nazi camps

He's wearing that coat to hide his boner.

I don't want to stick up for Pence, but there's nothing wrong with that and it's completely standard unless he's having a party in the camp or something.

Looks fine until he pulls a sketch pad out and starts taking technical how-to notes.

I know, I'm just making a joke.

Sweeden: wtf!?

I don't think the bolded is what Harris is saying. My interpretation is that he's simply pointing out that MANY religions have some pretty bad ideas and when taken literally can lead to harmful effects. Islam just happens to be at the forefront now because a very small percentage are using fundamentalism to kill people in any way possible. I'm sure Harris would concede that Islam has nothing on Christianity when it comes to violent and bat**** crazy ideas. But the fact is, there aren't currently groups of Christians (that I know of) who are trying to take over the world through unspeakable violence. You'd have to go back a few hundred years for that.

I take him to mean that even though the overwhelming majority of Muslims are decent peaceful people no different than anyone of any other religion, even a very small minority can be scary considering Muslims make up 1.6 BILLION people. He also cites polls which, if accurate are unsettling. Questions like: "Should the penalty for apostasy be death?" have more people answering yes than the rest of us should be comfortable with.

This is very true and it's important not to confuse religion with geopolitics or even geographic regions. There's a reason why some Muslim countries have had woman leaders while others, won't even let women drive a car. Is that religious law? Or the laws of a particular country? I tend to think it has more to do with the country and geographical location than religion.

But as a (fellow) atheist, you must also see we should have the right to call out a set of beliefs and ideas we think are crazy, wrong, or harmful. If someone proposes their claim to me that some dude walked on water or survived his own death, I should be able to tell them I don't buy it and think it's a pretty silly belief to hold, just as I would if they told me they saw Yeti while hiking in the woods last night.

Well, there ARE some differences. While you can justify violence under Christianity and Islam, you simply could not do so if you were a Jain. Ignoring this shows a cognitive dissonance that is nothing to be proud of.

I'm not sure what's in that blank. I'm not willing to make any blanket statement that Islam is ______'. But I AM willing to say that there are legitimate violent interpretations of Islam (just as with Christianity) and that a small minority have hijacked Islam to carry out these fundamental interpretations. Hence, I have no problem with the term "radical Islam". And I think Harris' only point is that radical Islam is currently a bigger problem than is radical Christianity, Judaism, etc., even if this was not always the case.

Rand Paul blasted McCain today--didn't take long for them to turn.

I thought Rand was supposed to be the libertarian with principles. I remember the other day he mentioned something about "Republicans shouldn't investigate Republicans."

Good read.

Well, Paul wasn't wrong. McCain is very warhawkish.

Right, but he's throwing flashes like a magician and the media (and rest of us) are chasing them, instead of zeroing in on what's important. On what can actually get him impeached.

You can insult the guy all you want make fun of his news conferences and rallies, but that's not gonna do it. As fun as it might be to do, you're simply not gonna shame this guy out of office.

I just hope somewhere out there, are good solid reporters who are zeroing in on Russia, his taxes, and business ties. He's almost certain to have broken emolument clauses by now. If I understood correctly, immediately after he rescinded his two country comment, China immediately approved a patent for one of his companies after years of being denied.

Mccain was advocating freedom of the press

I lol'd.

I know the boner post was a joke. SuperSwag posted it and, not knowing anything about SuperSwag, I'm not really sure why.

The best part is all this Swedish nonsense is propaganda because a report came out highlighting the recent wave of immigrants as a huge part of a recent economic boom.

Yeah, and I think McCain was good for doing that, but he isn't exactly a shining example of a pearl on the right.

Yea so much for Rand Paul having the principles to stand up to Trump. Not only did he snap into line, he's taking others to task on behalf of Trump.

If McCain goes out on a limb here, and no one follows, but instead they alienate him, it will be catastrophic for the already slim chance that the GOP will do anything to stop Trump.