I recently read “How to Quit Like a Woman”, written by Holly Whitaker, who’d struggled with addiction of different kinds, and one of the reasons she wrote the book was because AA didn’t work for her. The letting go of the ego was not something that was helpful for her when she was working on her relationship with alcohol and drugs. In her reflection on how she was able to overcome, she wrote about how for some women, it isn’t about letting go of the ego; it’s about embracing the ego. Women are so used to being sidelined and not listened to, pushed aside, that the best way to overcome personal addictions was to really embrace the opposite of these everyday occurrences. And this was from an advocate and writer who completely embraces yoga and meditation as a way to help overcome addictions in life. She devoted a chapter to ways to help the self, and yoga as mind practice rather than a physical one was one of the core ways she said can help.
Aparigraha is about depriving the ego of things, power, ideas, etc. The things we accumulate feed the ego and limit our internal development. I think if we can provide the ego with an opportunity to feed off our internal development instead of material possessions, that is what Holly was talking about, especially for women and other minorities. AA was developed for men, but for those who’ve been limited by a misogynist, racist society, boosting the ego with a sense of self can help to create a better relationship with the self (and hence, others).
But back to hoarding the stuff. We live in a society where stuff is the goal – the more we have and can purchase, the better we look. This is harmful to those who don’t have a lot and harmful to the environment. Ultimately, it’s also harmful to ourselves. Aparigraha is how we can give instead of take, or take only what we need and allow others to take what they need as well. Any excess that we have is best given to those in need.
The ultimate way of embracing non-hoarding is helping the environment. Without an earth for humans to live on, nothing else really matters. By reusing, reducing, and recycling, then dispersing our excess to others for a better life, we are really helping the earth. I’ve been trying my best to do what I can to help – reducing, recycling, minimizing plastic use, buying used. But this needs widespread cooperation, and our world is so full of ego-minded people that it would take a lot of inspiration and unity.
Maybe this is a pollyanna, socialist view of the world. People are flawed, and we like things to stay the same. Bachman has a line that I really like: “…everything – including the world and ourselves – is always changing, and instead of a rigid ego, we need a flexible heart-mind to navigate these changes comfortably.” That can be applied to so many things as the world changes around us. One thing we can always count on is change, and we need to be able to go with the flow. That is why I don’t like to make solid long-term plans. Part of letting the ego feed off developing internally vs things and power means that we can be flexible and helpful and want to be in community.
Write your thoughts and reflections on the yoga philosophy Satya.
I read “The Four Agreements” a couple years ago by Don Miguel Ruiz, and there are a lot of overlaps between those and the yamas. The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word, which I find correlates to the yama of satya, truthfulness and sincerity.
Overall, I think people like to think they’re mostly truthful, but when some of the examples came up, I started to think about all the little things that we say or don’t say throughout the day that may fall into untruthfulness or insincerity.
I was brought back to a time when I wasn’t truthful during a meeting at work but didn’t even realize it at the time. It was during a presentation to faculty about what marketing efforts we were taking to help their programs and SCTCC, and I was talking about organic reach through our social networks. I mentioned that my coworker, Matt, and I write student stories. Then I gave an example of a story that “I” wrote and talked about the reach. The truth was, Matt wrote it. I didn’t even realize that I had even been untruthful. As we walked back after the presentation, he mentioned that he had written the story, and I was mortified. I apologized over and over, and he was 100% understanding, saying that people credit him for a lot of things that I do. But even that slip had let about 30 faculty think that I had written this great story that got a lot of interaction in the community, when it should’ve been Matt who got the credit.
*****
After reading through Nicolai Bachman’s description of satya, one of the items that stood out to me that more people would do well to embrace is, “It is our responsibility to separate what is actually true from the falsehoods and deceptions couched as truths.” This also goes along with Bachman’s statement, “I can change my mind when new and sensible information presents itself.”
I think this is so true of our world today when anyone who sees anything on the internet now thinks themselves a scholar. It is a responsibility we have to ourselves and to our community and fellow humans to make sure that information we espouse and are sharing is the truth. Maybe it takes a little bit more time and effort to seek out medical journals or scientific papers versus an opinion piece from a newspaper, but armed with the truth, we can make sure that we are helpful and truthful to ourselves and others. When we embrace that, we also make sure that we are holding true to ahimsa at the same time and not sharing harmful information or communication.
i think that if there were a perfect time of year for earth day to occur, a day for us to celebrate the earth (inasmuch as you could only limit it to one day), the middle of april might be it.
especially in the northern states, this is a time of year that yanks us in many directions. march may be cold; it may be warm; it’s always drab but slushy. may is almost always at least mostly warm and gloriously green. march makes us mad. may makes us happy. but april? april is hope.
i think that’s how i feel right now about our place in the earth at this moment in time.
this morning i got an email from my mom that outlines native philosophies toward humans’ relationship with the earth around us. while i’ve always hammered on “we are stewards of the earth,” i like kciye a lot better: harmony with the natural world.
it’s not enough to know that we a part of the world and all its habitants; we need to actively take steps to live in harmony with all creation. meaning, we can’t see ourselves as being greater than or above the land, water, animals. instead of keepers of the earth, we need to be keepers of an attitude that is in harmony, a part of a living whole.
i recently read “neither wolf nor dog” by kent nerburn, about a white man’s journey with a native elder. it was a wonderful book and i’d recommend it to everyone, but one thing he explained really made me take a moment to assess my biases.
one of the things kent didn’t understand is why native people kept broken stuff in their yards. why not clean it up? why not just clear it out? because native people use everything (like when killing buffalo), and this applies to inanimate objects as well. done driving a truck into the ground? well, the dog likes to use it as a bed, so it sits in the yard. just because the items they use has changed doesn’t mean their philosophy around use has changed.
this way of life, of course, means humans have a lot of work to do. we especially good at thinking we’re the best, and even within our own species we have issues with this.
but like i said, i’m feeling a little hopeful right now. maybe it’s because it’s spring. maybe it’s because i picked up my garden seeds last weekend. or maybe because there are some things moving in the right direction that i’ve been seeing lately.
there seems to be a lot more resources being pumping into electric vehicles.
as a nation, we’re back on some level of handling climate change.
i’ve been noticing more and more products promoting plastic-free packaging. (speaking of that, i have to review the items i’ve been using plastic-free.)
while i’m not partaking, the more people working from home means fewer cars on the roads spewing out CO2.
more and more solar farms are popping up around me (and i’ve got a share! woo!)
i know there is a lot more going on, but if we keep pushing corps to do their part, our individual actions, as minimal as they seem (and are), won’t be in vain. keep making a ruckus, people. keep that april-esque vibe alive.
i was on the treadmill running away, happily covid free because i was breathing like normal, when i realized that i forgot a MAJOR component of my covid post!
but it’s going into my body
ugh, i hear/read this over and over: it’s unnatural and it’s going in my body blah blah blah. you know what else is unnatural that we put in our bodies?
plastic.
microplastic is found in lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys in donated human cadavers. which means the probability of you having plastic built up in your body is pretty good. the average person ingests about 5 grams of plastic every week (equivalent to a credit card!).
cigarette/cigar smoke, a carcinogen and tar-ridden. that causes lung cancer.
processed food in general is not healthy.
trans fats are awful for you.
and that doesn’t include all the things we do to our bodies physically, like botox, metal plates, implants, reconstruction, any type of surgery.
if you’ve ever smoked, eaten margarine, american cheese, or anything with high fructose corn syrup, or just lived recently (apparently that does it), i’m going to say that you shouldn’t worry AT ALL about sticking your arm with an approved vaccine.
in which i talk about the covid vaccine and peer pressure you!
i am pro-science. there’s never been any doubt that once the covid vaccine becomes available for me, i will get it. once it opens up for the public at large – for healthy, low-risk people – i will get up at 4:30 a.m. to get in on an online lottery if i need to, for as many days as it takes. i will get that vaccine and not think twice about it.
with the current anti-vaxx movement and people questioning the speed at which this one was approved, i though it would be useful to do a little research for you all on how the advances in medicine are such that vaccines can be produced at this rate. i’ve read headlines and tweets from scientists, but a deep dive into the actual science (i’m assuming my readers all still believe in science) would also be helpful for me.
but first, an aside. i had listened to a podcast recently about the “godfather of vaccines”(click to listen to it! super interesting) who basically came up with all our childhood vaccines (MMR, etc.) and wanted to know the public’s reaction to the polio vaccine. polio was a devastating disease, and i’d heard that parents all over the country volunteered their children for vaccine trials to make sure the vaccine was safe before distribution. so i called my dad to see what the public sentiment was surrounding the polio vaccine, since it seemed that the public sentiment surrounding the covid vaccine was one of trepidation, at best, for a lot of people.
my dad said that it was like a giant sigh of relief for everyone once the polio vaccine was available. so i wondered why we don’t have the same reaction today, and my mom got on the phone and talked about something that i think needs to be shared. modern medicine is amazeballs. people don’t realize how bad it WAS and that our advances in the past 40-50 years have been just outrageous. then i watched a video from john green (my fave youtuber) about vaccines and he mentioned that the advances in VACCINE medicine in even the past TEN YEARS is such that a pandemic in 2010 would be much more devastating because we wouldn’t have a vaccine as quickly.
here’s his video:
so, that’s one long introduction for a post that may be long as it is.
let’s get into the science behind the covid vaccine, why it was produced so quickly, and whether or not you should take it (i can predict that yes, yes you should take it). please let me know if i’ve got anything wrong here; i’m a summarizer and researcher, not a scientist.
how it works
the covid vaccine uses new technology that’s actually been around and studied for a while, mRNA vaccines. the vaccine you get for mumps, measles, rubella, flu, etc., uses the actual live virus to prompt your immune system to recognize it and create antibodies that resist the virus when it attacks full bore. it’s just a little bit, which is the reason you may feel a little flu-ish after getting the flu shot, but it’s a much better than getting the full-on flu.
the mRNA instead just send instructions to our cells on how to make a piece of protein that triggers an immune response, which prompts the antibodies to protect us. after the protein is made, our cells break down the instructions from the shot and get rid of them (think of all the other stuff your cells get rid of – this is nothing).
how it came to be
mRNA stands for messenger RNA. the covid vaccine is the first vaccine that’s been approved using this technology, though scientists have been working with it for many years. a hungarian scientist named katalin kariko* had been working in the 90s to get grants, funding, and even support for mRNA. it made sense – naturally, your body relies on proteins to keep health, and it uses mRNA to tell cells which proteins to make. if science could design specific mRNA, you could create any protein that helps keep you healthy, reverse diseases, mend damaged tissue. in 1990, it worked in mice. but synthetic RNA had one problem – the body’s natural defenses would likely destroy it before it had a chance to do its thing.
katalin ran into barrier after barrier. no funding, demotions, ridicule. instead of giving up, she pressed on, and about 10 years after trial and error, she was working with an immunologist MD/PhD when they discovered the way around the problem. in its synthetic form, mRNA was signaling the immune system with one of the four nucleosides, but they substituted it for a slightly tweaked hybrid version that could bypass the body’s defenses (biology was a long time ago for me and probably you too; let’s just take her word for it that this makes sense, since she’s the scientist and expert).
starting in 2005, several scientific papers described the process, and that was the start of a big vaccine advancement. two scientists grabbed onto it as a way to create stemcells. when they were able to do this, they went to visit a biomedical engineer at MIT, who recognized the technology as a way to pretty much have a huge number of applications to save lives. they created moderna, (which, haha, contains the letter mRNA).
this biotech was mostly being experimented with for immunotherapy, not vaccines. this required several doses over and over, and at high levels of the mRNA. that was proving to be difficult to work around the immune reactions, like katalin had found a workaround for. so instead, they had to focus on using the biotech for something that only took one or two low-dose injections for an effect: vaccines.
why it was so quick
the technology is much quicker than using a live virus to create a vaccine, so that was one reason a vaccine came to the public so quickly. another was that this was FUNDED. i saw a tweet from a scientist who works in the field, saying that half the time they spend working on new breakthroughs is waiting and applying for grants and funding.
but why does a live/inactivated virus take so long to develop in the first place, in comparison to the mRNA? vaccines can take 20+ years to develop and get approved! the HPV vaccine took 26 years. rotavirus took 25. they still don’t have one for AIDS.
using the actual virus in a vaccine means that a lot more can go wrong. they need a LOT of testing and can take years. plus, they need to be able to mass-produce the actual proteins for the virus, and the mRNA vaccine just uses the genetic material to signal to our cells to create the proteins, which is easier to mass-produce.
then there’s testing. since this was a world-wide pandemic, finding volunteers to test the vaccine after animal testing was easy. this is done in three phases, and phase three is time consuming. they have to wait for enough participants to be exposed to a virus naturally. well, considering that covid was/is rampant and people have trouble even wearing a mask, i think phase three moved along more quickly than normal.
plus, scientists had been working on vaccines for other coronaviruses. they’d been working on SARS and MERS in 2003 and 2012, but stopped when the outbreaks were under control. scientists knew what to target and how to stabilize it.
as far as production, because manufacturers don’t know what vaccines will be approved when, they’re reluctant to invest in prepping for making the vaccines.
but, because this was widespread, everything sort of happened quickly and absolute MORE quickly than we expected. the science was there. the prep work was partially done. the demand was there. the funding was there. and through it all, covid was there.
the results
when covid first hit, we were told that it would at least 18 months for a vaccine, if not longer. but in late 2020, pfizer announced its trials were over and the mRNA vaccine was 90%+ effective after two doses. the FDA was ready to approve a vaccine that was 50% effective. the vaccine has not actually been 100% approved yet but is being used under the emergency use authorization, which is NORMAL. don’t let that deter you at all.
many people have already had the vaccine and had no ill effects. we may hear about people that have had ill effects after getting the vaccine, but one does need to take a look at what the chances of that ill effect happening WITHOUT the vaccine. if 2% of the population gets a heart attack every day, having gotten the vaccine a week before does not change that percentage. it would’ve happened with or without the vaccine.
the benefits of the vaccine GREATLY outweigh any potential risks.
final thoughts
like i said, as soon as i am eligible to get a vaccine, i’m going to be first in line. after reading about side effects in the lungs that last and last and last, and how every single thing i read about runners who’ve had to take baby steps to get back to where they were before they had covid, along with heart problems?? (and we’re talking every. single. runner. , no matter how bad their covid was) come on, there’s not a lot as far as short-term side effects that i wouldn’t take to make sure i avoid all that. i had absolutely no adverse effects from my flu shot this year, so i’m guessing i’d probably be ok with a covid shot.
and you would too. if there’s ever a time to succumb to my peer pressure, now would be it.
and let me say, i am kind of excited about this new mRNA biotechnology. if they can cure cancers and autoimmune diseases with cell-specific therapy instead of blasting us with radiation and chemotherapy and drugs with awful side effects, that’s the kind of future i want to live in.
science for the win.
________________________________
*you will note that i only mention her by name, as she was the one who persevered with this science. she deserves all the credit.
i just tweeted about this, but here is basically the “unroll” of my tweet thread about my experience this evening in the target electronics department!
after being in st cloud earlier today and seeing the crowds, i decided to wait until late evening to head to target so i could avoid crowds and covid. i was in search of a bluetooth speaker that didn’t suck so i could listen to podcasts and music in the kitchen. a reasonable thing to want. i found a JBL flip that seemed to have decent sound when i turned on the sample for 1.3 seconds (it was LOUD).
an associate in electronics grabbed the speaker for me and was ringing me up when another associate came over to ask him a question from a couple he was helping. the couple was maybe a little older than i was.
the two associates were dudes in their 20s – someone you’d automatically think of when you think of someone who works in the target electronics department. i listened to the question: would an iphone 12 work with the USB A lightning charger or do they NEED the USB C charger? (for those of you who know nothing about this [dad], the USB C is much newer technology than the A, a lot less ubiquitous, and more expensive [tho not prohibitively so]).
so, i interrupted and said, “yes the A will charge the iphone; it’ll just be slow.” because i knew. i have an iphone 12. i plugged it into my computer to restore the backup when i got it. i had to use an A because my computer has no C outlets. it worked.
at this point, the dude talking paused, glanced at me, then turned back to the other dude and continued talking.
what? -_-
looking back, i feel like i should be infuriated by this, but i literally am just like, huh. i thought this generation was supposed to be past this.
so, i turned to the couple, noticed the woman was the one holding a phone case to purchase, and said directly to her while nodding, “yes, the regular USB will charge an iphone 12.” the dude asked, “will it just be a slow charge?” i nodded and the woman gave a thumbs up.
then of course, the target dude decided that he would talk to them about how go make their phone charge faster and all that and walked over to them, so i decided to leave. said thanks, grabbed my fancy speaker, and left.
i really should have told them to get that USB C charger tho. if your phone can handle it, GET IT. it is LIFE CHANGING and i can’t believe how fast my phone charges. costco has a wall outlet and cord for about $15 i think. i charge my phone in what seems like no time these days. so fast.
as an aside on charger with the old cord, you might need an actual apple A charger – my 3rd party one doesn’t work with my new phone 🙁 but that’s ok because of my superfast charger! and it works with my wireless charger and my apple charger that’s plugged into my computer and the wall brick.
so, lesson of the day for target brossociates: never underestimate xennial* women’s electronics knowledge. quit with that dismissive behavior.
*microgeneration of about 1977-1984, a cusp of genX and millennials**. grew up analog and embraced a digital adulthood. we are rather optimistic cynics. or cynical optimists. whichever you choose.
**millennials are older than you think. the youngest millennials are 25ish and oldest are pushing 40. the “kids these days” are genZ.
in which i talk about covid, covid, the apocalypse, and a free press
i talked to megan tonight, who does an occasional shift as a pharmacist at a hospital in the cities, and she said she has never ever seen anything like what’s going on there right now. covid is taking over the hospitals, so god forbid you need the ICU for something like a broken bone or heart attack. i think that my work is set up that we are overflow for the st cloud hospital, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet. (we’re a block away from the hospital and we have several labs for our nursing programs).
on a positive note, nate is symptom free so far. turns out his coworker did test positive, and the last time he was with her was a little over a week ago, so i’m holding out hope that he avoided that exposure. he got a mail-in test and will do that tomorrow morning. i’ve got one coming tuesday, i think, so i’ll take one too just to make sure. in the meantime, i’ll stay at home from work until after thanksgiving break.
there are several severe conservatives on twitter talking about rising up and taking up arms over stupid mask mandates. over wearing a MASK. no one is asking you to cut off a limb or flagellate yourself; you wear a mask to prevent your germs from spreading to other people. you know what they say: your rights to swing your arms end where my nose begins. (i think a scotus judge said that.)
so the apocalypse comes, and instead of having to defend yourself against the zombies (haha at first i wrote zombines, the best defense against the buggers) with guns and knives, you need to wear a mask to protect others. the lack of empathy is pretty resounding and just confirms that many americans are sadly hyperindividualistic and can’t see past their noses for the community that they are a part of. but they’ll certainly bludgeon others’ noses.
imagine a world without a free press and not knowing what was going on (well, it might be nice to take an info break, but i think that’s more about instant saturation of the newscycle that we’re currently in). there’s a reason that a free press is part of the first amendment.
GRRRR.
(i have to say, my anxiety level is much lower now that i know we’re not getting four more years of psycho orange goober, but i’m still annoyed at 2020.)
(also, i have no solutions in this blog post. just a lot of ranting. please post your solutions.)
first off, i’d like to mention that wikipedia finally got me. i’ve used it for years and years and it’s extremely useful. tonight, while looking up the fairness doctrine, i finally donated. if you use wikipedia as much as i do, maybe it’s time to help keep its lights on.
onward and upward! let’s talk about the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. why? because in this age of one-sided news that our feeds serve us, it’s important to look back at what information people USED to get from all networks that called themselves news and how it contributed to a well-informed (for those who watched) society.
introduced in 1949, this was a policy in the FCC that:
required broadcast news to give airtime to controversial matters of public interest
air contrasting views regarding those matters.
they could do this with news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. there was no time limit for each, but it just required that the viewpoints be presented. since there were few TV stations and it had a pretty much captive audience, this made sure that citizens were exposed to a variety of viewpoints.
the fairness doctrine was abolished in 1987. why? the FCC said that because there were many media voices in the market and the doctrine be deemed unconstitutional, saying it restricted the journalistic freedom of broadcasters and inhibits the presentation of controversial issues.
and because the print press didn’t have such restrictions on them, that the broadcast press shouldn’t as well. though, if you’re a good journalist, you would present facts objectively and keep your opinions on the opinion page. (seriously, people have issues discerning the opinion page from the news.) Congress tried to keep the doctrine, but it was vetoed by reagan and then threatened by another veto by george HW bush.
in 2005, this was revived for a bit, but stagnated in committee work, and has been in and out of discussions, mostly by democrats, over the past 15 years or so. “I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days than it has become since,” opined jeff bingaman, a dem from new mexico.
the fairness doctrine is pretty staunchly opposed by conservatives and libertarians with the idea that it’s an attack on the first amendment and property rights. because the FD was in place during a time when network channels were limited, the points that support it – media scarcity, liberal viewpoints being censored at a corporate level, and public interest – are myths.
meanwhile, the FD had actually been in the FCC rulebook for a while, and in 2011, it was finally removed.
in fairness, i present to you reasons that i found saying that the FD is anything but fair: scarcity (again) is no longer a thing for cable/network TV (though one could say one needs to PAY for the increased number of opinions – it’s also important to note that the FCC only has regulation authority over over-the-air channels. it’s got nothing to do with cable channels.); fairness cannot be determined by FCC bureaucrats and gives them too much power; and arbitrary enforcement will diminish vigorous debate.
this last one is interesting. it argues that because of the threat of FCC retaliation, broadcasters would choose not to air opinions to avoid airing opposing perspectives. it would reduce the discussion of controversial issues of public importance. sort of a self-censorship. then the author of this article gives the old “don’t like it? turn the dial.”
but we don’t turn the dial to hear an opposing or different view.
******
i’m torn on this one. on my one hand, i support the first amendment and its freedoms. on my other, the echo chambers that we place ourselves in on our social feeds, the tv programs and “news*” channels we watch, the radio shows we listen to – in general, they offer very little, if any, time for opposing viewpoints. one could argue that we are so polarized as a country now because no one is introduced to new or different ideas on a daily basis.
being presented with new and diverse information and viewpoints helps our critical brains make decisions and to help sort out choices. by only viewing one side, there’s no real growth or understanding. how do we grow as people if we don’t see diverse opinions and life experiences? and if there is so much disdain for mainstream media “bias” on the conservative side, don’t you think the FD might help with that?
for all the flack i hear about MPR being a left-leaning radio station (some of the programs on NPR are), my experience with the mpr news team has been well balanced. they give equal time to D and R candidates. they make them answer the actual questions (gary eichten actually called out amy k on that once), and they ask both sides hard questions.
i don’t know what the answer is. sure, reenact the FD, but that does nothing for the places we’re spending our real time these days: our social feeds and infinite scrolls. if the facebook and twitter servers blew up one night and they went blank, i’d welcome that.
*cable news channels like CNN and fox news aren’t accredited as news by any official regulatory body. the FCC has no power as far as presenting false information on cable news channels (only over-the-air channels). so take anything cable “news” channels say with a grain of salt. its “facts” are not necessarily facts.
after years of waffling over it and a week of seething after watching “the social dilemma” on netflix, today i clicked on the “deactivate” button on facebook and *poof*.
my account is still out there if i want to reactivate, but i think all my comments on others’ posts have disappeared into the ether. it’s easy to reactivate – i just have to reenter my password. after confirming three times for deactivation, one password entry to reactivate seems wrong.
i am already feeling weird withdrawal symptoms, but it’s not like i’ve completely wiped social from my life; i still have a twitter account, an instagram, and of my course my awesome blog here. it’s funny because i remember when i first signed up for facebook (in early 2005 – a somewhat early adopter), i had been blogging already for a while, was trying to maintain a messageboard, and had a pretty comprehensive website. my thoughts were: why do i need another thing?
who knew that other thing would develop into a worldwide thought control experiment.
anyway. to all of you still using FB, good luck in these next few weeks. it’s going to be interesting times. i’ll see you on twitter? instagram? here at my blog? maybe back on FB afterward? we’ll see how this goes.
on a side note: the tag for this post is dual meaning 🙂
here’s what i’ve learned about “christian* values” in america over the last four years, in the time that we’ve made america great again.
it’s definitely ok for police to be judge, jury, and executioner for criminals. especially if they’re black. even if they’re asleep in their bed in their own home and have no criminal record.
putting families seeking asylum in cages and separating children from their parents is ok. especially if they’re brown and from south of the american border.
freedom of religion is ok, but only if it’s different varieties of christianity or the jewish religion. the other religions are just fake and people who don’t believe in jesus or god are going to hell so who cares what they think. hmmm. maybe we should just make being christian ok. catholicism is borderline, and we’ll pretend to be ok with judaism because there’s something going on with israel. and the end times are coming. so.
displays of machismo and strength and pride for your country are great, even expected. we are americans, after all. but christian first. jesus definitely was good with pride and all that.
poor people brought it on themselves, the lazy bums. i mean, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is what america’s all about, amirite? looking out for number one – i got mine!
health care isn’t a right! are you kidding? no one should be able live a healthy life if it doesn’t come naturally. and if you’re chronically sick, you definitely deserve it and should be able to just work to pay for your own insurance. also, why should anyone who’s healthy have to pay for health insurance? don’t need to go to the doctor, don’t need health insurance.
no one should read the actual news or do any research on current events OR the constitution and bill of rights. just pay attention to what your facebook friend’s grandma’s neighbor is posting because she’s got the same political sign as you in her yard. the media are liars and definitely not watchdogs of the government.
human rights are definitely political. the gays and transgenders chose that lifestyle. women should know their place (the home). black people can leave any time. differently abled people can just stay indoors. poor people should just find a job or two. shouldn’t expect to live if you’re a criminal.
use the earth for all it’s worth. they’re trying to colonize mars so we can start sucking the life out of another planet! who cares if the oceans are full of plastic, the air is smoggy, drinking water will become scarce, the weather’s getting more calamitous, species are disappearing. as long as my life is convenient, that’s all that matters.
mental health is for sissies. except if you’re a white male shooter. then it’s ok to cut him some slack.
socialism is the work of the devil, even though it seems to be working well for a large chunk of europe. capitalism is where it’s at. because anyone can be jeff bezos and an almost 200 billionaire, if he works hard enough. that’s why it’s ok that he continues to pay few taxes and amass huge amounts of dollars during a pandemic and economic crisis. no one should have to give up their money to pay for others’ welfare checks and food stamps if they’ve earned it. because greed is cool and taking care of others is not.
in all seriousness, if this is what republicans are ok with when they tout a christian nation, i will take a hard pass.
these are not christian values as i learned and know them (thanks, mom!). but this is what i think when i hear about how america should be a christian nation. this is what i think when i pass DT signs on my neighbors’ lawns. this is what i think when i see my FB friends talk about how the murdering cops should be exonerated because they killed criminals. this is what i think of when i’m behind big, noisy trucks with DT stickers plastered all over them. and this is what i think when i see an american flag, ESPECIALLY when it’s juxtaposed with a rebel flag (WHY is that ok to fly BOTH – you love your country AND the portion that seceded and made war against it??). i hate that republicans have co-opted the american flag. the flag should be representative of the entire country, not just a very vocal, macho, i-hate-anything-that’s-different, republican portion. while i don’t believe we should all idolize the flag like they do, i do believe that anyone should be able to fly it with a level of pride in being american. it’s at a point where i feel like republican christians idolize the flag more than they worship their god.
because if america’s so great, it shouldn’t even need a flag. and it’s probably time for R christians to take a hard look at the gospel.
*i’ve probably made a few of my readers angry with me. I REALIZE – not all christians are like this. BUT WE KNOW. you know. yes. and you’d be hard, hard pressed to find an atheist who votes republican (although i’d bet a few of them vote marijuana party!).
EDIT: i just wrote this on an FB friend’s post about police shooting criminals
this is also a good example of where someone other than the police may have been a good option to send instead, like social services, or mental health services. using the right responders for the right situations is key, i think, to helping people become better citizens and breaking down systems that hold certain populations down, all by giving them resources to help them succeed rather than spiral further into a life of crime and addiction. lift people up! compassion is always a good answer.
