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Nope, you were just way more annoying than you generally care to remember. Sorry you had to find out this way.
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If you say, "but actually I wasn't annoying as a teenager." Sorry, you missed your chance! Not my problem!
Nope, you were just way more annoying than you generally care to remember. Sorry you had to find out this way.
If you say, "but actually I wasn't annoying as a teenager." Sorry, you missed your chance! Not my problem!
It is absolutely impossible for modern teens to be more annoying than I was. I was a Reddit teir edgelord atheist as a teenager. And used to constantly stir the pot at school for no reason other than to piss the teachers off. Turns out some 15 year old kid who thinks he's got everything figured out insulting your whole belief system to rile the class up is very effective at that.
I had my atheist phase as a teenager, and even as a Catholic nowadays, fuck religion. Atheists got coopted by the mens right and other right-wing memelords, but there needs to be a strong secular control of government and all these freedom of religion discrimination protections need to fucking die.
Fuck evangelicals. Even the devil can quote scripture.
Don't get me wrong I'm still an atheist, just not some edgy teenage Reddit debatelord one. It's been a long journey, but I'm finally satisfied with my outlook on that.
I think the biggest journey every human embarks on is to not be annoying.
Hey I realize this is super off topic, but what brought you back into the fold? Absolutely no judgement from this apostate - I just don't meet a lot of leftists who return to religion as adults so you've got me curious.
I read Zealot that discussed Jesus place in Roman Judea as more of a rebel fighter that was essentially speaking in code. That to some extent the crowning of Messiah's and tracing lineages to David was a way to say "he is the real chosen one" it was a mythologization of the human being that was fighting an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggle against the Romans...like seriously the Romans fucking suck.
The Nazi Pope had also stepped down and Pope Francis was selected and he is absolutely despised by the right-wing Trad Caths; when I realized that religious infighting is just as complex and equally stupid as political infighting, I kinda made my peace with just...believing in something. As stupid as it sounds, we shouldn't let Right Wingers have a monopoly on God. It is an affront to humanity, to cede spiritual matters, religious ritual, and morality to morons, evil, fascist, morons.
I was already struggling with being an Atheist, ex-Ancap Libertarian, and in my way to becoming a socialists, now commie. I read a bunch of stuff. Marx cites religious utopians and their concern for the poor in Capital Vol I. Paolo Freire is a marxist and a radical Catholic christian, Fr. (now Saint) Romero died helping indigenous and was killed by the Great Satan and its death squads, Che Guevara was raised religious. Fidel Castro was taught by Jesuits. Paolo Freire says that both radicals and Christians should find his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed a useful resource. In Hammer and Hoe the communist and radicals in Alabama were having church meetings and highlighting different Bible passages to speak in code/keep track of meeting notes. The Bible, like any book, can be a tool of the oppressor or the oppressed.
My wife and I had also just met, she was religious and I would accompany to church and I just kinda stuck with it.
I am trying to come at the brokenness of the world from a place of Love, rather than just violent hatred.
I will definitely check out Zealot and some of the other works you referenced!
I don't think this sounds stupid at all. I don't have any faith and I'm not the type to fake it, but I often wish I did or I could for that particular reason.
I think this is a good approach regardless of religious beliefs. For me it's about what can be accomplished, and there's just a lot less that you can get done through hatred.
seconded
I was an insufferable ass. I was too cool for everything. I was counter-culture, but that got too cool so I became counter-counter-culture. When that was too cool I basically just booked myself down to one niche interest.
I missed out on so much actually cool shit because I was so insufferable.
Yeah that kinda happens. I was counter culture, but not because I wanted some niche interest, but because I ended up on the fringes at middle/high school (grades 8-12), as the closeted gay/bisexual kid on a scholarship/bursary at some elite all boys boarding school. So I just embraced being on the outs and being a punk. Definitely missed out on some stuff because of it.
I was the poorest nerdy kid at a poor "sports are life" school, so not on your level of fringe but I definitely get where you're coming from. I just kept leaning harder into it.
I hope you're doing awesome and catching up on some cool shit, friend.