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I won some stuff in a church raffle when I was a teenager. Nothing remarkable - i think a suitcase.

I also won some sex toys from a charity raffle for repro rights, but some past partner took them. Not sure who, but I don't have them anymore.

Thinking about it for the first time now, it is funny how those are two very different contexts.

Seems like the lesson is "Don't bother doing non-violent protest. You'll go to jail anyway. Shoot a CEO, become a hero."

At the risk of being a little spicy, I feel like a lot of christianity has been about hearing what people want to hear for a long time. All the stuff that boils down to "do whatever you want, you'll be forgiven" is nonsense. Prosperity gospel is garbage.

If you think you are a good christian but you are not helping the poor, you are fucking fool.

Luke 18

18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’ a ”

21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Luke 10

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

All of these so-called christians who refuse to aid other people are fools, cowards, and failures.

Of course, the bible has a lot of strange and inscrutable stuff, too. Like the parable of the talents is a weird one. I just get really mad at people who say they're christian but are selfish

Would you rather reach in and pick an item from

Sack 1, which contains [rusty nails, angry scorpions, razor blades, one fun sized candy bar]

Sack 2, which contains [various candy bars, one rusty nail]

The US is sack 1 in this metaphor. People should improve the canadian system, but there's no reasonable take that they're at all similar

That torment nexus joke really is evergreen

Things like this happening in real life are why I think some conservatives are legitimately, sincerely, deeply stupid. And a little cruel.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192663920/southern-baptist-convention-donald-trump-christianity

It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis.

I don't know what can be done about this. Humans are tribal and facts can't beat that.

It's the only MMO I've played that doesn't routinely irritate me.

Pray to Saint Luigi for help

The laws exist because people wrote them. They can change. But some people would rather die than live in a more equitable world.

guild wars 2 is the only MMO I've ever considered worth playing

• feels like a real video game. You can dodge and move out of the way of attacks.
• you don't have to make formal groups for most of the content. You walk outside, see zombies attacking and you go fight. You get credit. So does anyone else there.
• the story is pretty okay and you can play it yourself
• there's no real gear grind. You swap gear out during the initial level up process, but once you hit the cap you're done. There's cheap good-enough gear (and dirt cheap mediocre gear), and slightly expensive next tier, and "fancy free reskin and stat swap super expensive", and that's it. My characters have had the same gear for years and it's fine. Sometimes they release new combinations of stats, but it's never just a power bump
• the mounts are fun
• the big "convergence" events are fun. ~50 random players shuffle into an instance and fight monsters together. You don't really need to talk, but it's fun to win (or lose sometimes) as a group
• all 9 classes play differently, and their subclasses are also pretty distinct
• there's good free QoL. Deposit materials anywhere. Teleport to merchants/banks for free and back (if you weren't in an instance). Only cost is waiting for the loading screens.
• no subscription fee. Buy once and you're good. Base game is free, but the expansions add a lot

Well let me share with you the wisdom of age: often you can just ask someone what's up.

This also works on dates: you can just ask someone out. You don't have to go all in your head about it. If only someone had told me when I was a teen, alas.

How old are you?

Have you considered asking what's up?

Things that aren't Nazis might be a good stopping point