Retrofuturistic's Comments (276)

“We need to:
1. Get the money out of Congress. Lower the salaries of Congress people and make them stop taking bribes.
2. Tax churches. The relationship between evangelical fundamentalism and government has already brought us to fascism.
3. Break up the banks and regulate Wall Street (no more bailouts).
4. Start a Progressive Party (because both the Republicans and the Democrats stink).

If we don't do at least all of the above, nothing is going to get better.
And Obama? He has accomplished nothing.”

“I wish I didn't feel the obligation to celebrate any holidays. I am absolutely not a Christian, yet I am trapped by the traditions of my family and expectations that I myself have created into jumping through all the Christmas hoops.

I would rather skip all holidays. And then if I wanted to buy someone a present, or have a picnic, or pass out some candy, I could do it, without the cultural and commercial imperatives attached to it.”

“Yes. We have been had. Again. First we fell for the fear generated by Bush. And then we fell for the false hope/ rhetoric generated by Obama.

And the robbery continues.­...”

“The Taliban (and Catholicism) express the essence of religion (and/or fascism), without all the social trappings that customarily make it more socially acceptable. As does the FLDS and the Ku Klux Klan. Far-right and patriarchal "religion" is equally repressive everywhere, no matter what name you give it.

This Catholicism, by the way, is the same religion that repressed widespread sexual abuse of children--- the same religion that supported Hitler, gave their baptismal records to the Nazis so they could see who had Jewish ancestors, helped high level officials of the Reich escape to South America at the end of WWII, and failed to excommunicate a single Nazi war criminal. And oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the nine million people killed by the Inquisition.”

“As long as religion-supported patriarchies exist, women will be subjugated.

As far as dress is concerned, it wasn't that long ago that all the women here dressed the exact same way that women who are members of the FLDS still dress--- long skirts, corseted, with the long hair of a good little virgin or a properly married matron. Catholic nuns in America still wear Christ burkas. And as far as the garb of a modern American woman is concerned--- high heels, short skirts, makeup, straightened hair and whitened teeth--- it's still determined by the men.

I think the reason many people find the attire of Muslim women so offensive is because it's the exact equivalent of a Westerner going around wearing a big honking cross and blue eyeshadow. It's a non-verbal way of proselytizing or declaring to the world your own self-perceived holiness. And it's rubbing religion into other people's faces in a workaday context where it most certainly does not belong.”

“Trying to work full time and raise children is excruciatingly difficult, for the woman only, and because it's so hard for her, it causes resentment when she is doing all the work all day and all night and the man continues his free life.”

“Great post, Mr. Schaeffer. I especially liked your observation that the people who would deny medical treatment to a dying child, for religious reasons, would also be "pro-life". Such a position creates an amazing amount of cognitive dissonance, which I suppose religious people have to accustom themselves to. Kind of like when you know that you have to have sex to create a baby, but then your religion teaches you about a "virgin" birth.

To quote a character from a book by Stieg Larsson, leading expert on antidemocratic right-wing extremist and Nazi organizations: "Isn't it fascinating that Nazis always manage to adopt the word 'freedom'?"”

“For "the Republic." What Republic? In case people haven't noticed, there was a coup d'etat. Corporations took over our government and bought Congress. They don't represent US anymore and haven't for some time. We no longer have a free press, as that is now owned by right-wing interests, ALL of it. Our elections and our Justice Dept. have been compromised. This takeover was aided by right-wing Christianity.

So by what stretch of the imagination does this person want fasting and prayer for "the republic". There is no republic. We live in a corporate oligarchy now, with strong fascist overtones induced by religion. The "change" that we needed to get rid of it has not yet happened.”

“I watched a documentary called =King Corn= in which someone demonstrated that when you analyze the chemical composition of the hair of Americans that it is shown to be composed of corn. And that is because of the high incidence of high fructose corn syrup in the highly processed American diet.”

“A fish will die without balance...­.”

“Marriage is a dead institution. I think I still believe in love and fidelity (maybe I'm deluded) but I don't think it can exist in a scenario where one person is under the control of the other or owned by the other. Or legally tied to the other.”

“Yes, stress was born (I like that line), and now we're all crazy and suffering from autoimmune disorders and depression.”

“That's interesting. It may be that gay couples are not hindered by gender roles as much as heterosexual couples, who often cease being a person because they are so busy fulfilling the roles that they have been conditioned to fulfill. So maybe it's easier for people in gay relationships to be themselves.”

“Yes. We were conditioned to think that the "prince" would take care of us and that after the wedding we would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the prince doesn't live up to his advance publicity.

Maybe because his conditioning tells him that women are ball breakers and that he will get the most respect from his peers if he's a player.

Women are conditioned to get a husband. Husbands are conditioned to be players. Not a win-win situation for anyone.”

“Women are still regarded as sexual objects. They are still considered as something to be exploited, either for sex or for money. As a woman ages, she begins to feel invisible. She doesn't feel the same "respect" she had before, when she was a sexual object. All of the connotations for an "older woman" are negative.

In a marriage, a woman wants fidelity, and she wants an equal partnership. Neither of these things happens. Or rarely. Usually, if the woman doesn't flatter the man's ego every minute, he goes and finds someone else.

When a woman has children, her life changes completely. If she is a working mother, she is responsible for the job, the house, the meals, appearances, and the children. The man's life, on the other hand, doesn't change at all. He conducts it as he always did, even though his wife and the mother of his children is now exhausted, unhealthy, overworked, depressed, and resentful.

The problems are compounded because religion, the culture, the media, and thousands of years of conditioning support the subordinate, inferior, and un-valued position of women. And the same things support the man's sense of entitlement.

Yes, women have "advanced", but men have not. Personally, I feel that women would be better off without marriage. It is a dead institution resembling indentured servitude. The man takes ownership of the woman, as though he were her parent instead of a partner, and she is then under his control.”

“The juxtaposition of fundamentalist religion and government leads to fascism. It happens every time, no exceptions. Examples: Iran, Afghanistan, Nazi Germany.

It could happen here. Some would say that it already did, during the Bush administration.”

“"...what America could be all about if we could just scale back the hate and talk to each other."

All of the hate is coming from the Christian right. Religion needs to look at itself first, before this dream for America can happen. Scaling back hate and having a discourse both imply the use of reason and compromise. America was founded with reason and with the intention of creating an environment where diversity could function in equality, a place where each could have his or her private opinions or proclivities but all could function together with equal rights. Religion, on the other hand, is divisive, condemnatory, manipulative, intrusive, judgmental, hierarchical, and exclusionary.

If we want to evolve, as a nation or as a species, we are going to have to face some things about religion. It needs to be regulated as much as the stock market and the mortgage industry need to be regulated. Those regulations were in place, but now we have vouchers and faith-based initiatives and tax exemptions for churches.”

“"The sentient majority." (I love that....)”

“As long as the right continues to have a monopoly on media ownership, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and the Fox network mentality will dominate. Media monopolies are another thing that needs to be regulated (besides the stock market, the corporations, the drug companies, lobbyists, banks, mortgages, and the earning power of churches).”

“All this "bipartisanship". Sometimes I think we should follow the advice of Thomas Mann:

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil."”

“In-home madrassahs should not be permitted. School vouchers for religious schools should not be permitted. Churches should be taxed and limits should be put on how much money any religious institution can accumulate.

Your use of the term "brainwashed" was appropriate. And the brainwashing occurs while its perpetrators are enjoying tax-exempt status.

The only way to ensure a fully functioning democracy is to require all children to be educated in public schools, where real history and real science and real government classes are taught.

Home schooling combined with far-right religion achieves nothing except contributing to the growth of fascism in our country.”

“I am a white person with "Welsh" hair, which means it's very curly. I spent my entire life trying to make it straight. I did so many things to it, it's a wonder I'm not bald. And I suffered a lot of angst, because I thought I didn't look "right".

Anyway, I finally decided to go with it instead of against it. I accepted its curliness, its bigness, and now, its salt and pepper-ness. And I am SO much happier.

But, I'm mourning the years when I felt like I had to be something else besides what I AM.”

“If I had said that, they would have edited me....”

“Nobody tried to keep them from hearing John McCain speak....”

“This happened in New Albany, Ohio, a wealthy suburb of Columbus, home of Les Wexner (Bravo, Joanne Williams):

New Albany-Plain schools did not show the speech live, but officials said they would review it and ask for parental permission if they decide to show it later.

For parent Joanne Williams, that wasn't good enough.

She parked her SUV outside New Albany's high- and middle-school campus and played the speech on its radio. Williams and about 10 other parents and their children listened from underneath a flagpole.

The kids returned to class after the speech.

"To suggest that there would be anything threatening from our president? It's the greatest contradiction," said Joanne Williams, 51, who has seven children including four in the New Albany school district.

(from the Columbus =Dispatch=)”