If these people could read ...
MAGA has such a hardon for hurting people.
Goliath also ate children.
perfect analogy for the american government.
Also I heard him call me a slur on Xbox live
I stopped reading Reddit entirely save for deshittifying search results, but I braced myself and looked at the conservative subreddit today, and even they think this is quite dumb.
Hahaha I did the same, I was considering what rock I could turn to find them under and remembered Reddit.
Can confirm, even they haven't found a way of spinning this one. Their best shot was justifying this as an attempt of making Trudeau, who's leaving, to look bad and ease up on the tariffs when the new guy comes in so he looks good and is more eager to work with Trump, but even then they see it as a shot in the foot.
They all seem pretty bewildered by this iteration of the orange rapist from the little bit I looked. I got the feeling that he doesn't have a lot of support there anymore. Idk I'm not digging around but it's just a sense I have.
I find the average atheist seems to be more familiar with the messages of the Bible than many of these people who claim to spend their Sundays studying it.
Teenage me went into reading the Bible expecting to learn more about my religion and become one of those well-versed scholars.
And then I kept reading, and the terrible truth eventually dawned on me. It really is just a bunch of silly stories from farmers thousands of years ago. It's nearly impossible to actually read it and remain neutral about this; yet another one of life's "emperors new clothes" situations.
It really is just a bunch of silly stories from farmers thousands of years ago
Can you imagine how twisted the guy who wrote Revelations was? Why did he just make all that shit up? Why did he try to pass off his own shit as Yahweh's shit? Since he knew that Revelations was his own made up bullshit, he must have known that the entire bible was made up bullshit too. Why did he think it was okay to be a gigantic liar and for him to contribute to the mountain of bullshit started by others?
Out of curiosity I went to one once, I am not Christian and I never believed in the Bible.
I don’t know if this how all churches do it but the one church I went to read the Bible in a manipulative way. Regardless of the book or its content, you cannot construct a narrative by selecting one or two verses from one book and another one or two verses from another book of the Bible. Sometimes the books aren’t even from the same testament.
Any book should be read in whole, and any verse has a context that explains it.
The same technique applied to anything be it a research paper or a comic will produce a false narrative.
Here's a fun one: tell a conservative that rich people are doomed to go to hell. If they ask how you figure that, quote:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God
Without fail their programming will kick in and you will get some lengthy blog post with stupid reasoning about how what Jesus was actually talking about was some rock formation and some other dumb shit. Meanwhile you can just read the verses before and after for context and it's pretty damn clear what was meant: greed is a form of evil.
This is the difference between reading the Bible and having it explained to you.
Another fun one: tell them God prefers atheists to vague believers. Prepare for another programmed blog post about how Jesus was actually referring to the taste of the water at some town that completely ignores the context of the book itself.
The point is that whatever verses are picked out agrees with what the pulpit wants to believe. It makes their hate righteous.
I don't know about other churches, but the Methodist Church I used to go to with my grandma never had a pastor out of the 2 I witnessed that did stuff like that. Maybe it depends on the region, but I've never heard of those type of manipulative strategies where I live, so I'd say I'm pretty lucky on that front. Closest I've probably heard of something like that in my area are the Mormons, but that's a whole nother can of worms that I don't wanna touch.
Regardless, that doesn't sound right or like a very Christian thing to do. Even if the verses tell of similar things, context for those verses are real important, just like with any other readings (religious or otherwise).
More specifically with his own sword after getting knocked out by a rock, but yes.
Maybe he should blame the guy who last negotiated such a bad trade deal, which would be... checks notes... Donald Trump during his first term! 🤦
I always find this imagery amusing. David is touted as this weak shepherd boy who is nearly defenseless in the face of this giant opponent. In reality, you've got someone who has trained to sling rocks with deadly accuracy. He's basically the bronze age equivalent of a sniper, bro can send a 2 inch projectile at mach jesus straight for your dome.
Slings (no NOT slingshots) are actually awesome. It is very fun to learn to throw tennis balls.
I really like this guy's paracord slings, might be expensive but you are also basically buying a template and a tool that will last for years and years of throwing.
https://www.practicalparacord.com/
Do these people read?
This moron can't even decide if his name is Jack or John.
Read? They won't even touch it https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-inauguration-hand-bible-swearing-in/story?id=117897715
He cannot partake in a ceremony meant only to bind his power, Trump will only touch glowing orbs because they enhance his power.
The resulting flames would have been too much if a giveaway
Yeah! Prepare yourselves! You're going up against Cobra Kai!
This is your end game and you're up against Thanos is what I mean!
You're like that Mexican "Chapulin Colorado!"
You're like those blue people fighting Gargamel and his cat! You'll never succeed! Never!
Have you guys ever seen voltron, the thunder cats, robotech, ghost in the shell, the power rangers, you Canadians are just like that going up against all their archnesises! Yeah!
US is giving big Drule Empire vibes recently.
You're assuming that these people give a fuck about Christianity other than as a cudgel for beating people up.
There's an argument to be made that churches are more about community than worship. But don't tell them that.
I’d say it’s just cosplay for these “Christians,” but cosplayers are much more accurate in their affect: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-enticing-sin-of-empathy
The US has strategically used tariffs with great success over the last decades to get favorable pricing from Canada on everything from energy, softwood, potash, you name it. One item at a time, slowly, methodically they were able to bring down pricing. We have been giving the US extremely good prices, and now, because of Trump he has just flipped the board over and it's time to restart.
America will be far worse off than before this started, and this has leveled off the playing field again with Canada.
As a Canadian I am thrilled.
Could you or someone explain this a bit further? You're saying tariffs were used to bring down prices, but now tariffs are bringing prices back up again? What's different this time?
Thanks for any help.
(I'm also thrilled for Canada, especially if it means shit in Donald lap.)
Must be weird thinking emperor palpatine was the good guy
They do not.
No. But they expect everyone else to.
not reading the bible is kind of essential to participate in this american prosperity gospel anti-poor pro-money religious bullshit.
Setting tariffs without accompanying trade negotiations is like starting a fight with someone by shooting yourself, unless of course the goal is xenophobia and isolationism instead of equitable trade.
Bitch, the "unfair treatment" you are going on about was the one proposed by Trump in 2018.
The philistine's were the antagonist in the story.
Yah, Canada is the bully...
This has very much the feeling of ‘they need us more than we need them’
I’m in the UK and some people voted for Brexit saying the same. Look how that turned out for us over the last five years.
I know this is sidetracking a bit, but i just wanted the chance to ask somebody who is actually from Great Britain, how is it there.? Without having to look for information online that could be propaganda as we don't really know which information source is reliable or not. How are you guys holding up?
Bad, I'm lucky and live in a fairly afluent area of the south (but outside of London) but decades of conservative cuts have left our local government councils broke. My best friends moved to Europe because one of them worked in the arts and there's not enough jobs to support them in just the UK. The new Labour government is an improvement but has shifted significantly to the right in their policies and feels like Conservative Light and is actively persecuting Trans and immigrant people through it's policies to appeal to ex-conservatives. They're starting to seek closer ties to Europe again but everything feels pretty hopeless.
Bit chilly today, otherwise fine.
Imports and exports have largely been the same before and after Brexit, with a dip as people figured out the bureaucratic mountains of paperwork involved that wasn't needed before.
Source: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf
Section 3 for the graphs.
I dare say we've lost a lot of influence across Europe over it. We didn't get any of the supposed "benefits", but trade didn't just drop off a cliff either. For all the bluster over the hardness of the Brexit we'd like, it mostly seems to be business as usual.
For starters: If someone has an (R) behind their name it's most likely a lie.
He was referring to Goliath from Gargoyles.
Can these people read?
It has been my observation that the people who claim to be Christians the loudest and most fervently tend to be the ones least likely to have read the bible.
No, they tell aides to write whatever, and those in turn just ask chatgpt or similars for what to write.
It's often been pointed out that Right Wing Media Literacy is poor.
We see this often when they root for villains or characters intentionally unsympathetic, like Bojack's Dad, Homelander.... heck Trump's 2020 Re-Election team compared him to Thanos, saying he was "inevitable" and making gifs of him as Thanos snapping the DNC away.
So this isn't anything new in theory, but it's amazing that this "They're rooting for the bad guys because they don't know how media works" problem extends to the FUCKING BIBLE!
The Heroes of the Bible are intentionally meek a lot of the time, the point is that even when you aren't powerful yourself, your dedication to your Faith and standing up for what's right should be enough to make up for your shortcomings, for the Lord will lift your burden.
It's why "Proud Christian" doesn't make any sense, it's a very Pro-Humility faith!
This means that Canada defends the israelites, and therefore has God on their side.
I mean, David literally had a thousand wives and concubines and he still had to go and fuck one of his best soldiers' wives.
He got her pregnant and then orchestrated the guys desth to cover up his sin, the baby was cursed to die, and the second the baby died, he was just like, "Okay, cool, I'm over it" and he's still considered the beloved of God.
The gist of the story is that people that are pointed to high places and have heroic unbelievable achievements can make horrible mistakes and still be forgiven by God as long as they repent.
Nobody is perfect, not the undefeatable giant Goliath, nor the beautifully-hearted musical genius hero warrior king David of Israel.
Anybody whose understanding of David stops at, He killed Goliath with a slingshot" doesn't deserve any sort of authority when it comes to interpretation of the Bible.
The Bible's track of history is unique in that it doesn't just show when the people written about did good, it also shows when they did bad. David was good, until he got into that affair with Bathsheba, and indirectly got her husband killed in battle. He was called out on that part by a prophet speaking in behalf of God, and the only reason he lived was that he repented, but he still lost their first child because of it.
Solomon was the king with a thousand wives. He asked God for smarts when presented with an option to ask for anything and be granted it, and he was granted that and more for thinking soiritually and not materially, but the he started getting into the whole wives and concubines thing. Another example of "started out good, but then got sucked into doing bad", as he was given advance prophecy that Israel would be broken into pieces over this. Which happened when his son took over and made things worse.
My interpretations of the Bible are as useful as my interpretations of any other fantasy series. Just because something has a deeper meaning doesn't mean it is useful, correct, or should be followed. Every episode of South Park ends with what lessons they learned. It's also more up to date and in tune with the realities of the world around it. The reason people don't worship South Park is because they haven't been systematically brainwashed to do so.
How I know this: god told me so
I've been saying it for a while, but a lot of the US so called Christian groups actually aren't. I'm not really sure what they should be called. Pseudo Christian maybe?
Sure, their fundamentalist, militant beliefs are not rooted in any intelligent reading of their scripture, but, in my opinion, just like humans can not evolve out of our ancestry (humans are apes, are monkeys, are primates, are mammals, are chordates) movements cannot escape the roots of their religion. And they constitute a vast, but for it's size relatively homogeneous, culturally distinct sect of Christianity. So let's not create a "true scotsman" here, just because they don't abide by your (or my) interpretation of their faith doesn't mean they aren't Christians, similar differences in belief exist in many religious sects in many different religions. And at least they violently "claim" to be Christians and will defend that position with vigor. Something apparent in all the big american sects that, from the outside, seeem to have little to nothing to do with the teachings in the New Testament. Like Mormonism.
Just like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are still abrahamic religions, those new american sects will always remain christian in their roots.
For this sect, Christian trappings have fused with the American Civil Religion, the Red Scare and the "Lost Cause"-myth. In this worldview, the defeat in a holy war (American Civil War) facilitated the struggle between evil, socialist, secular, globalist, minority-loving, weak liberalism and the good, pious, capitalist, nationalist, exceptionalist, (mostly white) red-blooded conservatism.
This might actually constitute a new kind of religion, but it is heavily blanketed in pseudo-christian trappings and lots of old-testament fire and brimstone. And this mind-virus relies on the widespread christian beliefs in the US to spread into new hosts. A lack of (objective, comparative) religious education with, at the same time, a deeply religious habitat is the fertile ground that allows this to spread. What you or me would interpret as a "correct" (or "less wrong") christian faith, if followed culturally or blindly and without haven given it enough thought, actually aides in the spread of this militant, nationalistic, chauvinist movement that has infected the US and is (imho) at the root of Reaganism, the Tea-Party and the entire Maga-Movement. It has been mutating and getting more malignant for a while now and I honestly have no idea how this could ever be excised from the US.
Many of them could pretty accurately be called Mammonites.
American with christian characteristics?
he point is that even when you aren’t powerful yourself, your dedication to your Faith and standing up for what’s right should be enough to make up for your shortcomings, for the Lord will lift your burden.
Really? And here I thought it was just another awful story from an awful book that nobody bothers to read.
Please, tell me how the book of Job is all about being faithful to god, even during the worst times. And completely ignore the premise of the book, and the horrific things visited upon the man for simply being "god's most faithful servant". Oh wait, no that wasn't enough. God had to murder his family and destroy his life because he made a bet with the literal devil. What a cool guy.
Your book is garbage and you should feel bad.
If they read it, they would call the main character in part II "woke" and dismiss him as a "liberal."
And he wasn't even especially woke.
Fun fact: Humans are also susceptible to rocks.
I think Goliath was a "giant" in the same sense that an NBA player is a giant. Not like a mythical species in the Bible, just a genetic anomaly family that was crazy big and strong. Meanwhile, the average height was back then was much shorter than it is now.
So think of a fairly average but smallish guy beating up Shaq and I think that's what we are supposed to envision.
I don't know about that. Have you seen David!? He's 20 ft tall and made of pure marble! Just imagine what Goliath looked like!!
Oberyn Martel vs. The Mountain
They speculate that Goliath was one of the last of the Nephilim, hybrid descendants of fallen angels, so I guess this would explain a lot.
The Nephilim would have all been killed in the Great Flood. That was in fact the entire reason for the Flood. Yahweh couldn't be bothered to take out the Nephilim one by one and decided that all of humanity was acceptable collateral damage.
You got right to the problematic issue: "read". Reading is hard. Reading a long text is harder. Reading a very long text with complex meanings and referring to things outside the historical context of most readers, is very hard.
I've read the Bible. Twice. I don't think there is any action or concept by the current GOP where you won't find a sentence in the Bible that is actually condemning this precise move. They don't care, as they have never read it.
I just don't understand the part where we're somehow being "unfair" to the US.
You're trying to reconcile a dude who thinks Goliath is the hero?
Most in the US don't see how Canada is being unfair. Maybe he is using "unfair" like he uses it when his assault victims sue him.
Our president is a baby. Everything is unfair. Diapers? Unfair. Hurricanes? Unfair.
During Trump's first term, Trudeau had to remind him that Canada has the deficit in trading with the US. This is probably retribution for embarrassing him. I wish I was kidding
It's a strongarm tactic to negotiate something else they want or they're trying to spoil u.s.-Canadian relations.
At this point I legitimately want Canada to Annex America, we cannot be left to our own devices.
No. They don't.
They have co-opted something they are too dumb and lazy to even understand.
Any other questions?Canada:
USA: How dare you. Trade war it is
That's certainly the first word that comes to mind when you hear Canada; Unfair. How rude of us to bully America around like that.
Oh, the irony...
Also, remind me Jack, whose side was God on in that fight? Because if I remember correctly it might have not been Goliath's...
Short answer - No
Long answer - Nnnnnnnnoooooooooooo
The long answer is wrong. They read the parts that suit their agenda.
Its usually read to them
The dumbest parts usually.
Villainmaxxing
They can only read at a 5th grade level. If stop signs didn't have a shape and color there would be mass casualties
Republicans for decades have targeted people with a 5th grade reading level. Trump's main "innovation" was targeting a 3rd grade reading level.
4 words, one of them America, only leaves 3 words they need to know. I guess you're right holy shit
They're not even trying anymore
Because they don't even have to
No. No, they do not.
Goliath was killed by a sword - the rock knocked him down so that David could behead him.
It's likely that the stone cracked his skull and killed him, but it looks like David made sure of that by making a gory spectacle afterwards.
_50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. _
Thanks for putting the source, looks like I misremembered
not theirs, ours that they appropriated ~ jews
