Allow me to introduce myself...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

While I would tend to agree, since it is virtually impossible to be apolitical,

For you and I.  I have a guy who works for me that has precisely zero political opinions.  It's kind of creepy.

[emerod]

Really?  Because looking at Christians these days, most of them have become Tea Party statists.  They're against taxes (that most of them don't actually pay), but they're FOR eradicating the few remaining rights we have.

Not speaking to your case, mind you...I have no idea what your opinions are on the subject.

I call these losers "Galtistas". Galtism is a collectivist fantasy favored by impotent, oppressed middle-class trolls who are completely dependent on society for all their needs. In this scheme, the Galtistas stage a series of mass demonstrations in order to extort ever greater rewards from their government sugar daddy.

They're also about 48% of the US population, from what I can tell.

And they aren't demanding rewards, they're demanding tyranny.  Which, I suppose, would be a reward to a certain type of person.

These are the same idiots who supported the Patriot Act.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Really?  Because looking at Christians these days, most of them have become Tea Party statists.  They're against taxes (that most of them don't actually pay), but they're FOR eradicating the few remaining rights we have.

Not speaking to your case, mind you...I have no idea what your opinions are on the subject.

I call these losers "Galtistas". Galtism is a collectivist fantasy favored by impotent, oppressed middle-class trolls who are completely dependent on society for all their needs. In this scheme, the Galtistas stage a series of mass demonstrations in order to extort ever greater rewards from their government sugar daddy.

They're also about 48% of the US population, from what I can tell.

And they aren't demanding rewards, they're demanding tyranny.  Which, I suppose, would be a reward to a certain type of person.

These are the same idiots who supported the Patriot Act.

And ESA2003, The Media Shield Act, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

They're also the folks who think that the "mosque" 6 blocks from ground zero should be stopped by the Big Government they pretend to despise.

[emerod]

While I would tend to agree, since it is virtually impossible to be apolitical,

For you and I.  I have a guy who works for me that has precisely zero political opinions.  It's kind of creepy.

There is a difference between being apolitical and having no political opinions. I am full of political opinions, but I am apolitical, insofar as I think that it doesn't matter who is in charge. What matters is keeping the rulers in fear of overstepping their bounds, and keeping the people from idolizing the rulers. Hence my support of Discordianism.

[Cain]

So, perhaps the best way to put it is he self-affirms the spiritual label of Christian, and the political label of anarchist.  No need to try to combine the two.

Well sure.  If you want cognitive dissonance.

As a matter of fact, I do want cognitive dissonance. I find it spiritually refreshing.

The name "emerod", BTW, is an old variation of hemorrhoid. A philistine king was afflicted with emerods because he offended God. In order to relieve himself, he was instructed to make golden images of them, which of course would require him to be completely humiliated.

I prefer to be the cause of cognitive dissonance in others.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

While I would tend to agree, since it is virtually impossible to be apolitical,

For you and I.  I have a guy who works for me that has precisely zero political opinions.  It's kind of creepy.

There is a difference between being apolitical and having no political opinions. I am full of political opinions, but I am apolitical, insofar as I think that it doesn't matter who is in charge. What matters is keeping the rulers in fear of overstepping their bounds, and keeping the people from idolizing the rulers. Hence my support of Discordianism.

Viewing a system as being hopelessly corrupt isn't apolitical, it's a reasonable apathy with respect to the "choices" rendered to us by the political parties that have dominated the American system.  In the past - to some degree, anyway - one party (Federalist, Whig, GOP, Dems, etc) has been statist, the other individualist.  Now they're both statist, so there's no actual political system to oppose or support (or ignore).

For example, I view recent elections as nothing more than gambling opportunities (see 2010 betting book, in aneristic delusion), because none of the electable candidates promise anything other than a change of colors from blue to red or vice-versa.  This doesn't make me apolitical at all, it makes me aparty, so to speak.  I'm chock full of opinions, as anyone here can tell you.  Most of them have to do with scorn for the common run of Homo Americanus, who proved incapable of shouldering the burden placed on them by the founders, and who forgot about Johnny Cash and Saturday Night.

Because if you have those two things, freedom comes naturally.

[emerod]

While I would tend to agree, since it is virtually impossible to be apolitical,

For you and I.  I have a guy who works for me that has precisely zero political opinions.  It's kind of creepy.

There is a difference between being apolitical and having no political opinions. I am full of political opinions, but I am apolitical, insofar as I think that it doesn't matter who is in charge. What matters is keeping the rulers in fear of overstepping their bounds, and keeping the people from idolizing the rulers. Hence my support of Discordianism.

Viewing a system as being hopelessly corrupt isn't apolitical, it's a reasonable apathy with respect to the "choices" rendered to us by the political parties that have dominated the American system.  In the past - to some degree, anyway - one party (Federalist, Whig, GOP, Dems, etc) has been statist, the other individualist.  Now they're both statist, so there's no actual political system to oppose or support (or ignore).

For example, I view recent elections as nothing more than gambling opportunities (see 2010 betting book, in aneristic delusion), because none of the electable candidates promise anything other than a change of colors from blue to red or vice-versa.  This doesn't make me apolitical at all, it makes me aparty, so to speak.  I'm chock full of opinions, as anyone here can tell you.  Most of them have to do with scorn for the common run of Homo Americanus, who proved incapable of shouldering the burden placed on them by the founders, and who forgot about Johnny Cash and Saturday Night.

Because if you have those two things, freedom comes naturally.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

While I would tend to agree, since it is virtually impossible to be apolitical,

For you and I.  I have a guy who works for me that has precisely zero political opinions.  It's kind of creepy.

There is a difference between being apolitical and having no political opinions. I am full of political opinions, but I am apolitical, insofar as I think that it doesn't matter who is in charge. What matters is keeping the rulers in fear of overstepping their bounds, and keeping the people from idolizing the rulers. Hence my support of Discordianism.

Viewing a system as being hopelessly corrupt isn't apolitical, it's a reasonable apathy with respect to the "choices" rendered to us by the political parties that have dominated the American system.  In the past - to some degree, anyway - one party (Federalist, Whig, GOP, Dems, etc) has been statist, the other individualist.  Now they're both statist, so there's no actual political system to oppose or support (or ignore).

For example, I view recent elections as nothing more than gambling opportunities (see 2010 betting book, in aneristic delusion), because none of the electable candidates promise anything other than a change of colors from blue to red or vice-versa.  This doesn't make me apolitical at all, it makes me aparty, so to speak.  I'm chock full of opinions, as anyone here can tell you.  Most of them have to do with scorn for the common run of Homo Americanus, who proved incapable of shouldering the burden placed on them by the founders, and who forgot about Johnny Cash and Saturday Night.

Because if you have those two things, freedom comes naturally.

I wasn't being facetious, you understand.  Freedom is about fun.  The moment it's about anything else, it's just a word used to justify no end of excess on the part of people who really don't care for expressions of freedom that differ from their own.

Incidentally, I have stated this above, but I feel I should reitterate it:  Please, PLEASE do NOT start any threads about anarchism.  No shit, we've had the argument about 20 times, each one being a verbatim replay of the one before it, and each one leading to no end of blood on the walls.  I'm not telling you not to express your opinions, of course, I'm just warning you that the subject is as explosive here as abortion and vaccination debates are elsewhere.

[Cramulus]

I just want to put in that over here in the north east, Christianity does not have the right wing association it does in many places in the country. I'm in deep protestant country - CT loves Obama, gay marriage, and is pro-choice. My mom works for an episcopalian church with an openly lesbian minister, and only the age 75+ crowd seems to have a problem with that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I just want to put in that over here in the north east, Christianity does not have the right wing association it does in many places in the country. I'm in deep protestant country - CT loves Obama, gay marriage, and is pro-choice. My mom works for an episcopalian church with an openly lesbian minister, and only the age 75+ crowd seems to have a problem with that.

That's because you have this "weather" stuff that blocks the sun from pounding on your skull, and enough oxygen to properly run a human brain.

Here in the high desert, we have neither, and extremism in the defense of extremism is no vice.

[Cain]

Ironically, the only CTer I know IRL is a Catholic Bush supporter who works as a volunteer for the GOP.

[Cramulus]

ehh it takes all kinds 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Ironically, the only CTer I know IRL is a Catholic Bush supporter who works as a volunteer for the GOP.

Every population group has the occasional mass of double recessives.

[Cain]

We were actually in the same IR classes for my first year.  And the same dorms.  I didn't actually realize he was a Bush supporter until the day before the 2004 election, and always put it down to naivete (he once asked me if people really hated America in other countries...after 6 months of studying IR).

He's a nice guy, he's just very good at constructing theoretical situations in which Bush has no choice to do all the things he did, despite very much wanting to do otherwise, and then believing in them.  Which is why it's probably a good thing that he went into Theology.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We were actually in the same IR classes for my first year.  And the same dorms.  I didn't actually realize he was a Bush supporter until the day before the 2004 election, and always put it down to naivete (he once asked me if people really hated America in other countries...after 6 months of studying IR).

He's a nice guy, he's just very good at constructing theoretical situations in which Bush has no choice to do all the things he did, despite very much wanting to do otherwise, and then believing in them.  Which is why it's probably a good thing that he went into Theology.

Everyone has their place in the world.   

In any case, all the foreigners I know IRL don't hate us, they just view us with a combination of bemusement and horror.