If "economic hurt" justifies a bombing campaign, then imagine what else would be justified. America economically devastated Iraq, so it's only fair that the Iraqi airforce comes over and drops a few hundred tons of bombs on us.
By your logic, Iraqi bombs should be dropping on your house and killing your family. And following your insane logic, it would be your fault that your family is dead, because you should have taken it upon yourself to overthrow the Republican Party regime.
Alright I watched your video. I agree it is a problem that a small subsect of secular humanism has been entangled with "anti-wokeness", Trumpism, and fascism. Many of the figureheads of the atheist movement in the past two decades have become part of the alt-right pipeline, and that is a tragedy.
But as your video readily admits, the vast majority of atheists, anti-theists, and secular humanists are on the left. I was involved with the Freedom from Religion Foundation for a decade or so, and my personal experience was that nearly everyone there was on the left(even in a heavily rightwing state).
I think you are falling into the pitfall, judging a large and diverse group for the misdeeds of a small subsect of that group.
As for "not thinking of religious people as people", if you would personally know me you would understand this is a laughable notion. I am surrounded by religion and religious people everyday, their views and beliefs are thrust upon me often, and I always respond with respect, very rarely will I offer a counter argument.
But I am still of the conviction that religious people are victim to religion. I believe my cousins, who do not allow their children to see any doctor, are victims of religion. I think any rational person would agree that their young child, recently ill for a month but not allowed to see a doctor, is a victim of religion.
And as for marginalization, I do believe religion should be marginalized. Just like I believe the alt-right and fascist movements should be marginalized. Good things are good, and bad things are bad, and I am convinced religion is bad. But let's be honest, the power dynamics are heavily weighted on the other side. Religious people are marginalizing atheists, fascists are marginalizing leftists.
As for "intellectually engaging with their position", I would love to. My experience has been that very few religious people are willing to intellectually engage in the subject. Despite this, I have had many intellectual and respectful discussions on religion, and I appreciate that you are giving me one more.
But if you are so concerned about anti-theism leading to Trumpism, then you should be much more concerned about religion leading people to Trumpism. That correlation is much stronger.
I think my post makes it quite clear that I was not referring to people as diseases, I specifically said that religion is the disease. The people are victims to the disease.
And if it isn't also obvious, I do consider myself an anti-theist. The overall effect of religion on society is negative, and we would be better off without religion. I don't see what this has to do with "woke mind virus" nonsense.
Those many "private, personal" benign religious people form a strong foundation upon which the crazies, cults, and conmen build their structures.
In my experience, these benign people are one tragedy away from metastasizing into the malignant religious type.
I have cousins who were benign-religious for most of their life, but after a death in the family they started following a new sect of christianity. Their children have never seen a doctor, nor a vaccine.
I agree people are entitled to their personal freedoms, but we would be much better off as a society if we could educate our way out of the cancer that is religion.
Why would they choose otherwise?
Because some people have principles, and can recognize the longterm consequences of their decisions.
Choosing between your economic wellbeing and your principles is a difficult and tragic choice. But let's be honest, the partners that choose their wallet over their ethics are dishonorable, and they are now willing tools of the fascist regime.
They are one step away from being Nazis, and they should be treated as such.
Anyone who seriously looks at history would agree that yes, every wartime military has a war crimes problem. No exceptions.
But anyone who seriously looks at history must also admit that American veterans have committed the vast majority of war crimes since the end of WWII. We have invaded over 70 countries and killed millions of innocents. No other country even comes close.
Liz Cheney is a disgusting figure that has, time and time again, defended the indefensible. She has no honor; her words may ring true but they are hollow.
Liz Cheney is a torture advocate, warmonger. and anti-Muslim bigot.
Americans see protest as pointless right now.
Americans have seen a generation of peaceful protests that were crushed and villified. Anti-WTO, Anti-Iraq War, Occupy Wall Street, George Floyd, etc; all failed to achieve any of their stated goals.
And now that the fascists have taken control, peaceful protest is even less effective. For peaceful protest to succeed your opponent must have empathy, and fascists have none.
The last protest movement that accomplished something substantial was the civil rights movement. It was not peaceful, it was militant. I think we need a modern Black Panther Party.
Launching a $2 million dollar missile and crushing a few children to death should also be sensational.
Unfortunately here in America that's just another Saturday.
Have you actually tried to do this?
Personally, I've tried to reform the democratic party from the inside for the last 20 years, and I've given up, I think it's a foolheardy endeavor.
Corporate interests are thoroughly entrenched in the party at every level. The democratic party has set up so many structural hurdles that make it nearly impossible for a progressive challenger to have a shot.
Take a small example: when I was volunteering for two different local progressive challengers, they both had extreme difficulty doing basic campaign things like printing flyers, road signs, pamphlets etc. Why? Because the Democratic Party has a explicit policy of blacklisting any vendor who aids a progressive challenger. No print shop would print our flyers.
There are so many structural hurdles like this set up by the Democratic Party, I would encourage you to volunteer and find out how bad it is for yourself.
And how do you propose we wrest control of the Democratic Party from its corporate overlords and put the power in the hands of the working class?
Seems about as farfetched as a new party imo, but I'd love to hear a realistic plan.
Well there was the "first 9/11" or "other 9/11", which is 9/11/1973, when the US-backed coup violently overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile...