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Blue state perspective: I Don't Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People [1] [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-ex

Blue state perspective: I Don't Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People [1] [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to-you-that-you-should_b_59519811e4b0f078efd98440 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to...

_v7gu 3y ago
[flagged]
mrweasel 3y ago
Which is EXTREMELY weird given that the "red state" people often claims to be Christians. It's literally the core tenant in their religious texts that they should care about others regardless of circumstances, yet... NOPE.
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  The US is confusing because analogously 'most jews are atheists' and 'most christian's are not practicing' It's only like 10% or so that are thriving and practicing core tenants of faith.
- brightball 3y ago
  What makes you think otherwise? There are so many charities to help with every need out there almost entirely funded by churches. Homeless shelters, home building, bed building, women’s shelters, food pantries, career programs and centers to help you finish your education to get back on your feet, disaster relief and the list goes on for miles. These orgs are funded, run on shoestring budgets and are heavily operated by people freely donating their time. Exactly how does one ignore all that evidence because people favor the effectiveness of these orgs over the bloat of government programs?
  - mrweasel 3y ago
    I just find it really weird that you can get together to collect money to help a neighbor get a cancer treatment, which is wonderful, but you're at the same time completely against building a system that would ensure that this wouldn't be a problem for anyone in the future. Or you'll do volunteer work at a soup kitchen, but you refuse to let you tax money fund programs that would ensure that no one will go hungry in the future. All the things you list are wonderful, but the churches can not do it alone nor should they be expected to. I think it weird that the same people (and let's face it, it's not the same people) wouldn't vote for a more careering government.
    - throwawa14223 3y ago
      Can you agree hypothetically, that no matter how much you want anti-hunger programs you wouldn't agree to do it at the expense of putting the Nazi party in charge of it? You might reasonably believe they would use the leverage of having administrative control of that to program to evil ends.
    - brightball 3y ago
      If life experience has taught me anything it’s that government run programs will be expensive, inefficient, ineffective and impossible to remove once in place. We can all freely donate our money and time to organizations that make a difference and we also have the freedom to stop if we don’t believe they are effective anymore. The moment a government program exists, that freedom to choose goes away and you’re stuck with whatever the result happens to be.
      - soco 3y ago
        Here's a challenge: try looking outside the US borders.
- ubertaco 3y ago
  A growing religious demographic group in the US "self-identified evangelicals who attend religious services fewer than once a month" [1]. "Christian" has, in the US, become increasingly synonymous with "Republican" rather than "follower of Jesus Christ". It's slowly becoming just another label that does the job "Traditional Values" used to do before that one lost its stickiness: it's increasingly just a dogwhistle. As a Christian in a red state, it makes me pretty depressed. I find it hopeful to see trends outside the US political bubble. I hope in the long term it won't be just a political descriptor or a convenient in-group label to wear, but may again be used primarily to describe a set of binding values. [1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/august-web-only/church-attendance-sbc-southern-evangelicals-now-lapsed.html https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/august-web-only/ch...
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  If they were good people they wouldn't need an instruction manual on how to be good.
wavemode 3y ago
If the author of this article thinks that all their political disagreements can be reduced to "I care about people and you don't", that precisely explains why they struggle so much to "reach across the aisle" and why they are burnt out on political debate. If your political opponent wants the same things as you, but merely has differing values and perspectives, then reason and compromise should be able to cause some meaningful change in perspective or come up with some useful middle-ground policy. But if your political opponent does not want the same things as you - they are, in fact, "callous" and don't care about the well-being of others - then there's no room for meaningful debate. Telling someone who disagrees with you "can you please stop being evil?" isn't going to convince them of anything. The other side simply needs to be removed from power so that you are unopposed in implementing your policies. So I actually agree with the author: if that is what you believe about your political opponents, then debating about politics is probably a waste of your time.
- civilitty 3y ago
  > “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -Barry Goldwater Goldwater called it thirty years ago. That's exactly what happened, especially in the last few years. It'd be one thing if there were any more free market (small "c") conservatives left to compromise with. All that remains in the GOP are the religious and Q-anon factions that genuinely believe that Democrats are Satanists and child molesters. These people expect total capitulation because they think god is on their side and that is not compromise in any sense of the word. They're not even fit to govern with total control of three branches as shown during the first half of Trump's term, let alone compromise when they're in the opposition. The recent shitshow with the Speaker of the House election and the constant brinkmanship with the budget are just the latest symptoms of their degeneracy as a functioning political party. They can't even compromise within their own ranks because their religious fervor has turned terminal.
  - 3y ago

_v7gu 3y ago

[flagged]

mrweasel 3y ago

Which is EXTREMELY weird given that the "red state" people often claims to be Christians. It's literally the core tenant in their religious texts that they should care about others regardless of circumstances, yet... NOPE.

mensetmanusman 3y ago
The US is confusing because analogously 'most jews are atheists' and 'most christian's are not practicing' It's only like 10% or so that are thriving and practicing core tenants of faith.
brightball 3y ago
What makes you think otherwise? There are so many charities to help with every need out there almost entirely funded by churches. Homeless shelters, home building, bed building, women’s shelters, food pantries, career programs and centers to help you finish your education to get back on your feet, disaster relief and the list goes on for miles. These orgs are funded, run on shoestring budgets and are heavily operated by people freely donating their time. Exactly how does one ignore all that evidence because people favor the effectiveness of these orgs over the bloat of government programs?
- mrweasel 3y ago
  I just find it really weird that you can get together to collect money to help a neighbor get a cancer treatment, which is wonderful, but you're at the same time completely against building a system that would ensure that this wouldn't be a problem for anyone in the future. Or you'll do volunteer work at a soup kitchen, but you refuse to let you tax money fund programs that would ensure that no one will go hungry in the future. All the things you list are wonderful, but the churches can not do it alone nor should they be expected to. I think it weird that the same people (and let's face it, it's not the same people) wouldn't vote for a more careering government.
  - throwawa14223 3y ago
    Can you agree hypothetically, that no matter how much you want anti-hunger programs you wouldn't agree to do it at the expense of putting the Nazi party in charge of it? You might reasonably believe they would use the leverage of having administrative control of that to program to evil ends.
  - brightball 3y ago
    If life experience has taught me anything it’s that government run programs will be expensive, inefficient, ineffective and impossible to remove once in place. We can all freely donate our money and time to organizations that make a difference and we also have the freedom to stop if we don’t believe they are effective anymore. The moment a government program exists, that freedom to choose goes away and you’re stuck with whatever the result happens to be.
    - soco 3y ago
      Here's a challenge: try looking outside the US borders.
ubertaco 3y ago
A growing religious demographic group in the US "self-identified evangelicals who attend religious services fewer than once a month" [1]. "Christian" has, in the US, become increasingly synonymous with "Republican" rather than "follower of Jesus Christ". It's slowly becoming just another label that does the job "Traditional Values" used to do before that one lost its stickiness: it's increasingly just a dogwhistle. As a Christian in a red state, it makes me pretty depressed. I find it hopeful to see trends outside the US political bubble. I hope in the long term it won't be just a political descriptor or a convenient in-group label to wear, but may again be used primarily to describe a set of binding values. [1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/august-web-only/church-attendance-sbc-southern-evangelicals-now-lapsed.html https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/august-web-only/ch...
PrimeMcFly 3y ago
If they were good people they wouldn't need an instruction manual on how to be good.

wavemode 3y ago

If the author of this article thinks that all their political disagreements can be reduced to "I care about people and you don't", that precisely explains why they struggle so much to "reach across the aisle" and why they are burnt out on political debate. If your political opponent wants the same things as you, but merely has differing values and perspectives, then reason and compromise should be able to cause some meaningful change in perspective or come up with some useful middle-ground policy. But if your political opponent does not want the same things as you - they are, in fact, "callous" and don't care about the well-being of others - then there's no room for meaningful debate. Telling someone who disagrees with you "can you please stop being evil?" isn't going to convince them of anything. The other side simply needs to be removed from power so that you are unopposed in implementing your policies. So I actually agree with the author: if that is what you believe about your political opponents, then debating about politics is probably a waste of your time.

civilitty 3y ago
> “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -Barry Goldwater Goldwater called it thirty years ago. That's exactly what happened, especially in the last few years. It'd be one thing if there were any more free market (small "c") conservatives left to compromise with. All that remains in the GOP are the religious and Q-anon factions that genuinely believe that Democrats are Satanists and child molesters. These people expect total capitulation because they think god is on their side and that is not compromise in any sense of the word. They're not even fit to govern with total control of three branches as shown during the first half of Trump's term, let alone compromise when they're in the opposition. The recent shitshow with the Speaker of the House election and the constant brinkmanship with the budget are just the latest symptoms of their degeneracy as a functioning political party. They can't even compromise within their own ranks because their religious fervor has turned terminal.
- 3y ago