I was on the Oregon Trail in reverse for the last couple of days, it took so long to get home. I had to change planes once with the most awkwardly timed layover, and then I had to take a long shuttle ride with a couple of transfers, and then one of the oxen died and I was laid up with dysentery. Finally, though, a kindly lady picked me up and took me home to my home and my bed.
Except, then…
OK, not really (I also didn’t really get dysentery — was being dramatic). The “Modern Crusaders” are not getting anywhere near my house, but instead, are thriving on Twitter. They don’t seem to be trying to be ironic at all. Looking at their Twitter feed, which I am not linking to, their latest post announces that “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church,” they include a link to a Telegram channel that declares their goal of “Elimination of the demonic forces dominating our people politically and spiritually. Promoting the establishment of a Catholic monarchy,” and what follows is a welter of posts declaring that “Abortion is Jewish,” linking to Nick Fuentes, and engaging in Holocaust denial and Hitler apologetics.
So…just ordinary Twitter, then.
I’m happy to have left that shithole, and I don’t understand how anyone can be a fan of that hateful twerp, Nick Fuentes.
Hmmm, OK. So, they want to patrol my bedroom and chase demons. They’ve certainly came to the right place, as I summarily and painfully eject them, as they’ll happily testify about their survival from an apparent demonic attack. They’ll definitely need platelets injected and some clotting cofactors, due to depletion secondary to numerous contusions.
But, “Abortion is Jewish”, OK, I’m down with that! Jesus supports abortion, as abortion is Jewish and Jesus was a Jew! Then, wave their bruised buttocks bye-bye, as they crawl away from my now messy bedroom.
Oh well, at least they left poor Satan alone. I hate it when people so abuse my best employee!
This is the most delusionally malevolent crap that I have ever read. I honestly think I lost a few brain cells reading this. I had no idea people like this actually existed.
This kind of casual ordinary evil both frightens and baffles me.
While I’m sure I’m going to get a lecture for this quote, I stand by it:
“There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church,”
This could be good news for the rest of the country as it will reopen the old antagonism between the conservative US catholics and protestants that seems to have been papered over in recent years due to common effort on the anti-abortion front. It’s always the same story. Once a coalition of religious groups obtain a common goal, they start turning on each other. I wonder why that is…
These are the kind of people who think 1984 is a blueprint and not a warning.
To continue with your Oregon Trail metaphor, it looks like Twitter has become the mother lode for the craziness of our society.
Strangely enough, they aren’t wrong here.
There is also no Salvation within the Catholic Church either.
Hell is as imaginary as the gods who created it and heaven doesn’t exist either.
This is an easy goal.
Real Demons don’t exist.
OTOH, as an adjective for malevolent forces dominating the USA, it could describe the right wingnuts of the GOP.
And, getting rid of them won’t be easy and isn’t happening right now.
@Akira #3:
I would just correct that to say “Religion” instead of “Catholicism”. I have yet to hear of a religion that didn’t get a hard-on for tyranny.
@Raven #6
Sadly demonic forces always means “opinion or idea that terrifies me”. These people are living in a much scarier reality than the rest of us and they hate us for it. They don’t want to make their lives better, they want to make everyone’s lives far worse.
I would even feel sad for them if they weren’t so darn evil.
Akira @3
Nope, I think you’re good. You could also include Mormons, 7th day Adventists, Scientologists, JW, Amish, Mennonites, hell, any protestant denomination. Pretty much anyone but the Unitarians or Quakers (even those guys have some issues worthy of a side-eye).
And @7 beat me to it.
@ 7, 9
I’d recommend you read the novel to get the full context of the quote. Sufficive to say, even in a transhumanist future of the novel, the RCC is still a pain in the ass.
Usually when I think of “Toxic Masculinity” I usually imagine lewd, hyper-horny, dude-bros who can’t wake past a woman without being a sexist pig, not sexually-repressed fantasy LARPers.
So I guess these voyeurs wanna watch me go reverse cowgirl on my husband while we watch adult movies. I don’t think these dipshidiots can handle that.
Two sides of the same coin.
“Neglect your spouse.”
Why do I suspect that’s an allusion to marital rape?
angoratrilobite @ 8, I dunno, I usually describe as demonic my flatus. Fully capable of dissolving the walls from the paint, that’s just flat out pure evil.
Hence, why I eat beans sparingly. ;)
OT, just received via my old county of residence county alert system a request to not dispose of the Deterra Drug Deactivation System pouch that was distributed from funding of the county’s drug settlement money. Total scam, it claims to utterly inactivate drugs and is safe for the environment, so residents are advised to dispose of unused drugs in the pouch, add water and toss the pouch into the municipal garbage. A perusal of the MSDS on the product reveals no inactivation of the drug, merely absorbent properties inherent in activated charcoal, so the drugs will happily leech out into the landfill and into the water supply.
I guess consumer level chemical neutralization is out of the question, so hide it and hope for the best, 1950’s and ’60’s style, worry about the public health crisis that follows later.
Back on topic, Akira @ 14, yeah, pretty much. It’s a pretty Catholic attitude. With a fair number of Protestant faiths following as well, that whole originating from Catholicism and all. And biblically, about as faithful to the faith as Machine Gun Jesus.
Not that there isn’t abundant other stupidity in the whole thing, but “marriage is a sacrament” my ass. Not here.
This is like a baseball umpire rushing on to the tennis court and telling the players they’ve violated the infield fly rule.
One of the most vocal voices back some years ago in Vermont against civil unions was the Bishop of Burlington, wailing about how it violated the sacramental hoo-ha of marriage. He apparently, in his hypocritical swivet, sort of forgot that his church has never recognized any civil marriage as sacramental in the first place. The marriage of anyone but a Catholic in a mass of holy matrimony is no more sacramental than shopping. You can’t micromanage the attributes of something that does not exist in the first place. And of course they know that, but they hope enough stupid people will say “yeah yeah” and they’ll get their dream of a theocracy, impervious to the lessons of history.
So here we go again. Happily allied with all the other loons who share a few peeves, onward they march, and hey this wall looks a lot like the one we stood the Jews and Muslims up against, but I thought….
When the crusaders took Jerusalem, they slaughtered everyone, willy-nilly because they supposedly could not tell the difference between jew, gentile, and muslim. The problem remains. The crusaders remain a great symbol of ignorant violent bigotry.
[Joinville describes how the crusaders finally reached the church of the sepulchre and the blood dripping off their armor splashed like smoke on the stones. I read that when I was 13 and it really helped me understand religion as a system of power]
Takes a hateful twerp to be a fan of a hateful twerp, I guess.
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.
The clearest analysis of religion made 2000 years back.
Wow, an Ohio woman apparently outraged God and humanity and has been charged with a crime because of the outrage.
The crime being miscarrying into her toilet. She’s been charged with abuse of a corpse.
Apparently, she should’ve called for medical assistance to come and cure her non-viable fetus, which died in utero and called in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or something, maybe call for US Marine Corpse chair support, rather than having been warned she was going to miscarry, continue on with life.
Welcome to developing nation status, folks!
#20 At the time the fetus was declared nonviable, abortions were illegal in Ohio and thus the doctors wanted to induce the miscarriage but they would have been breaking the law. So they sent her home.
The prosecution is is simply racism and misogyny wrapped up in a Christmas present for a woman who is morning the loss of her dreamed for child. It is evil.
@ 20
Dad was screaming about this last night, only not for the injustice. As far as he’s concerned this was a to-term infant that a slatternly slut decided to flush down the toilet after giving birth. He’s screaming they didn’t hang her on the spot.
Akira I’m sorry your dad is so hateful.
If the fetus had been in anyway obvious she wouldn’t have flushed it, she actually tried to rescue it (assuming the same case) and just ended up with a the wrong blob of red goo.
“There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church,”
As said several times above in one way or another, something like this will enflame the schism between Catholics and Protestants. Those Baptists, Methodists, various Churches of God, Holiness, and many other evangelical types will not stand for that. The various Orthodox churches won’t be for it, either. Papism is anathema.
On top of that, the Pope is practically blessing same-sex marriages lately which will be another thorn in the side of uniting these religious cults.
The Crusaders in the picture seem to be Knights Templar, who had a rather colorful reputation and are the subject of even more colorful speculation and projection, supposedly worshiping Baphomet (and all the either “un-Catholic” or “hidden mystery” Catholic practices that suggests).
Like the Illuminati, they could be, were it not simply ridiculous fiction, our deepest humanist and progressive allies.
benedic @19: The context of the line (from De Rerum Natura by Lucretius) is interesting. The particular act of wickedness referred to is the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon, in order to ensure fair winds for the Greek fleet in their campaign against Troy.
More wickedness (depending on your point of view*) followed. The sack of Troy; the slaughter of most Trojan males, and enslavement of most Trojan females. And the subsequent murder of Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra to avenge Iphigenia, and the murder of Clytemnestra by their son Orestes to avenge Agamemnon. Interesting mythical times…
*I wonder if the Romans of Lucretius’ time actually believed these stories. If they did, would they have been grateful for the sack of Troy since it brought them a Trojan refugee and forefather of Rome, Aeneas?
Actually, I couldn’t think of a worse mood killer. Look in the bed at those people’s faces!
@ 27
Hey! No kink shaming!
Remember also that if you shake it more than three times after urinating, you’re playing with it.
@28, Akira:
yes, that’s exactly it!
It’s their kink, and what a doozy it is. Watching a couple goin’ at it while standing in their bedroom wearing armor with sword in hand. You sure it’s a sword you’re clutching so spasmodically, buddy?
I don’t remember who said it, but every accusation from these people is really a confession. Accusatio non petita, perversio manifesta?
Akira, not that it would make much difference, your father should be aware that even the ranting bigoted fools who are putting this case forward acknowledge that the fetus was born dead. I don’t think there is any actual dispute about this. It was a miscarriage not an abortion, and that is why the charge is what it is.
And as Jazzlet points out, she did actually try to pull the fetus out, and thought she had buried it.
You can be all sorts of racist religious wacko and still find fault with this prosecution.
@ 31
My father get’s his “news” mainly from either Drudge and Hannity or his even more right-wing twin brother (he is an open Putin stan) and I shudder to think we’re Uncle Bob get’s his info from.
@27
Indeed, and the sentiments were probably those of Epicurus – three centuries earlier.
As to your speculative question as to contemporary belief in the « myths » the whole question was examined by a quondam colleague in « Did the Greeks Believe in their Myths ?» Paul Veyne 1982.
Not 27 . Sorry! @26.
I see two women on the bed.
(What, is that Castle Anthrax?)
Is this picture AI-produced? If not, who the fuck would paint this shit?
It looks bad enough to be AI-produced. For a start, some of the helmets look too small to accommodate human heads.
@36 & 37
Thomas Kinkade. Or some sycophantic wannabe.
And yes, it does look like someone gave Midjourney instructions like “Knights Templar bedroom kink in the style of Thomas Kinkade”. For starters, the painting on the bedroom wall showing a horse and rider is the wrong style–there was no over-the-shoulder butt shots in whatever time period this is supposed to be depicting. Medieval art was pretty representational–oil paintings were expensive and generally a symbolic depiction of power, wealth, etc., not painted purely for aesthetic reasons.
As for the too-small helmets, that’s easy–there are no brains in them. Problem solved!
@ 37
One of those Templars looks like he has a shield in each hand. That and their stances seem… off. I’m leaning heavily toward AI.
@3 Well if they didn’t, they’d have left like all the other Catholics when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church doors, thus leading to the schism and Reformation.
The ones who stayed were clearly fine with the hierarchy’s corruption and contempt for the laity.
@39 There is so much wrong with that picture it’s hard to know where to start. The architecturally incorrect windows? The flocked wallpaper that wouldn’t exist for centuries? The electric bedside lamp to the left of the bed?
Also, the knight with two shields isn’t actually holding one of them–it looks like one of his hands is resting on the anachronistically wrong bedside chest of drawers. That shield is apparently levitating.
all I could think of when I saw the images of the Knights was one of my favorite snarky bastards “Sir Sic” and
yes that catholic attitude was a major contributor to my lose of religion.
@7, 9 The US Presbyterian Church, possibly. Notable for being gay friendly (as of the early 21st century anyway), progressive and more interestingly, the only religion who sent a minister/other religious leader to sign the US Declaration of Independence. Democratic since its founding (basically, it’s Calvinism as interpreted by the Scots), the US Presbyterian Church (there are other Presbyterian churches–a whole lot of them, actually) has a democratically elected council of elders but no one ruling or executive leader. All church leaders are chosen in elections, there are term limits and the ministers are chosen by a democratically chosen committee (church members elect the committee, who finds candidates, then church members vote from the candidates’ list). More interestingly, the ministers are not the head of the church–they preach but they don’t actually have any ruling power.
Fun fact: both Mr. Rogers (Fred Rogers of children’s TV fame) and Donald Trump are members. Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
The Quaker Church was a huge economic force at one time. I never understood why they didn’t play a larger part in American politics, with the exception of Benjamin Franklin.
The Unitarians are a more modern religious organization, so maybe they haven’t had time for the rot to set in? Also, the UUA didn’t even exist before 1961, so as religious organizations go, they are still pretty young. That said, they are pretty liberal AND democratic, so it might not be as attractive to wannabe religious despots?
Hmm. That’s just an awkward list of kinks. I can only imagine them panting away with a lot of heavy breathing while they listed all that. But it’s kind of hard not to see it as self-defeating and contradictory.
Engage in unnatural acts: Sorta like… entertaining a bunch of delusional voyeurs? I mean, it’s one thing if they’re people you like and respect enough to invite into your intimate affairs. It’s something else entirely if they’re a bunch of boorish, judgy scumbags who think they get to backseat drive your sex life whether you like it or not.
Be polyamorous: And what the hell do they think entertaining a bunch of sick voyeurs in my bedroom is going to be? Polyamory is about multiple partners but also about different types of relationships. Like letting someone who you never touch voyeur it up in your bedroom because that’s the relationship you’ve agreed upon with them and your other partners. So they’re either polyamorous and getting their kink on or they’re sex pests there without permission. There really isn’t a middle ground. If you think consent is ambiguous then you don’t have it!
Neglect your spouse: My future spouse could reasonably be someone who is male, female, or non-binary. They could NOT reasonably be someone who would put up with anyone who seriously thought this sort of BS. Engaging in intimacy without taking the trash out first would definitely constitute neglecting any spouse I can envision having.
The rest of it is just weird, overly judgy, and more than a little uppity for someone who wants to pretend they’re uninvolved. Being a dom is a lot of work. I’m not one but I know it’s not easy. Being weird poly-not-poly voyeur doms sounds far, far too advanced and difficult a role for these clueless yahoos. Maybe start simpler by being respectful of one partner of your own first.
silvrhalide @ 41, you missed the one closest to the painting having a backpack radio antenna sticking up behind his back and I’m fairly certain that the one kneeling is checking his smartphone, as appears the woman in blue is also doing.
As for the miscarried fetus, an autopsy confirmed it died in utero. So, Akira’s father seems to have granted the mother the supernatural ability to restore life to the deceased, just to murder them. I’ll admit to great pleasure to be unlikely to meet that father or his brother, thereby being spared no end of legal difficulties that would have occurred within minutes of meeting them before their horrific demise.
As for Protestant vs Catholic antics, again, a reflection of history, as the nativists of the Know Nothings did actually engage in religious warfare in the streets of Philadelphia – complete with artillery. They didn’t begin to behave themselves until a regimental artillery unit of the militia showed up and threatened to bombard the nativsts if they didn’t give up their stolen cannon and return home.
@22, 32 OMFG
Is being somewhere else for the holidays an option? I can’t imagine sitting through that holiday meal.
Seriously, I’ve been dodging family holidays since late teenhood. There is almost always someone who needs a petsitter, someone who is in the hospital, someone who is going on a family vacation but needs someone to check on elderly parent once a day, etc. Reasonable excuses to be Anywhere But Here are everywhere.
Give yourself the gift of freedom this year.
lanir @ 44, I really, really doubt they could manage to fulfill that last sentence, as that’s one of the main gripes INCEL types have.
And given their attitudes, one can trivially comprehend as to why.
@45 Is that what that is? Seems kind of large to be a radio antenna. I though that guy pointlessly and uselessly brought a lance inside. (To what end? A lance is a horseback weapon. Unless the horse will be putting in an appearance in this bedroom too.)
I thought the woman in blue was reading a pocket version of a how-to manual. My bad.
I also missed the anachronistic post-Gutenberg printed books on the floor. What, these clowns didn’t start out by burning those first? THEY ARE DOING RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY WRONG.
Still trying to figure out what that beige oval object is in the corner.
wzrd1 @ 47: Well… If you convince them that’s a prereq for any of this other nonsense they want to do then that is also a solution to the problem, isn’t it? :)
Was thinking the same on the last two points. Orwellian televiewer? Raspbian Pi 5 interface panel for their Sybian?
Knights in white satin.
One of those knights seems to be stabbing anorher through the chin whilst kneeling down..
Also in any home in the USA they are very likely to have brought swords to a gunfight which, well, I doubt will go well for them.
Outdated in every way including armament!
@ 48. silvrhalide : “Still trying to figure out what that beige oval object is in the corner.”
Not entirely sure but looks like an artistic decorative plate or oval placemat maybe? The oben e btweent he painting and the lampshade I take it you mean?
Ï wonder what they mean by “engage in unnatural” acts given the diversityof human sexual practices that all occur naturally? (Ok, I don’t really wonder that hard or much..) Does l look like two women in that bed although not entirely sure.. maybe one or more trans people there? Appearances being potentially deceptive natch.
As for “marriagae is not a private affair” well, duh! The latter being well just that private and an affair not a marriage. Marriage is generally a public ceremony and consdiered more than “just” an affar and ofcourse comes with certain legal rights & status.
Should ask them too if the converse applies and WE are allowed into their bedrooms to check on what they are doing there given, well, the whole well known XN hypocrisy thing.
Sigh. The one between the painting and the lampshade I take it you mean? Could also be a wicker basket on its side bottom facing out and handle pointing to the wall & thus hidden FWIW.. among other options..
@24
Sure, but from the brief news paper article I skimmed it can’t “look like” a marriage. lol
Still, I look forward to the day that the “official” Catholic Church gets fed up with the US Catholic League, who hates the Pope and the official church anyway, and flat out excommunicates the lot of them. Yeah, I know, not going to happen, since the “official” one functions a lot like the insane branch in the US, and would never let go of their death grip on memberships, even, in some cases, when those “members” have been apostate, and/or openly hostile to the church, for decades. They are almost as bad as Mormons, and I know of people that have gone full blown joined the Satanic Temple, who are never the less still trying to get the freaking Mormon church to remove their names from their stupid list of members. That said, it would be funnier than heck, for at least the first 24 hours before they proved themselves to have never been Catholic in the first place, and declare themselves the “true church” in the process of anointing someone that would probably be a thief, murderer, pedo, and half a dozen other “unChristian” things as the new American Pope, and then started hammering on a return to the days of the Inquisition. But, for those few moments…
I think I’d like a consensus here, is using fire an unnatural act? I’d think that it is. So, they’d deny humanity the ability to use fire and obviously, the use of tools is also unnatural.
For that matter, isn’t the wearing of clothing (and hence, armor) also unnatural? Gonna be a cold, cold winter!
And if marriage is not private, why is it that one must be invited to a marriage ceremony and wedding reception (if one’s held)? If it were public, it’d be open to the public.
Aw screw it. I’ll just get that door mat that I was looking at. Printed proudly on it is, “Totally not a trap door”, which is precisely what the graphic is of. Should confuse them for life and they’d be afraid to step near my door.
@ 56
“I think I’d like a consensus here, is using fire an unnatural act?”
Well, what ELSE are they going to use to burn us blasphemers?
Akira @57
Good point. Perhaps we should argue that and insist they wait for a divinely ignited fire before they start . . .
wzrd1 @56
Dunno about elsewhere, but in the UK marriages are public if the place they are occurring is normally available to the public, the couple are making a public declaration of intent to their community so anyone can attend the ceremony.
@ 48 that beige oval is a barely there face! Looks like Borgia Jesus . I tend to recognize blurry objects, astigmatism has its up side.
I’m hoping that woman is eventually able to sue and or get that ridiculous law changed . The doctors couldn’t remove the dead fetus and sitting in the emergency room for hours and hours is extremely uncomfortable, stressful, and horribly boring . I don’t blame her for wanting to go home and lie down especially since she was probably in pain too. They are abusing her
Medieval misogyny used to blame women for stillbirths and accuse them of deviltry or sorcery and witchcraft . This looks like SSDD
Someone should show this to Sir Sic .