Category: Magical Thinking
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Jews’ Refusal To Convert Is Antisemitism’s Root Cause
If you pore over history and histories searching for the root cause of antisemitism, you won’t find it. That’s a curious thing considering the answer’s so obvious. From their first entrance on the world stage, Jews have been outsiders to whatever cultures they lived beside. Take the Romans. They considered the Hebrews “outsiders”. What, from…
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Where The Hell Does Antisemitism Come From Anyway?
Antisemitism has been called “history’s oldest hatred”. That’d be quite an honor if it wasn’t so deadly and (worse) so wrong-headed. From the moment Jews first appeared in the historical record, they set themselves apart from the other tribes with whom they lived. Antisemitism predates Christianity and Islam. The Greek and Roman worlds both viewed…
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Maybe It’s Time For “The Big Die”
Donald Trump has lived “The Big Lie” long enough. The Big Lie itself has lived far longer than it had any right to live considering the fact that it’s one hundred percent pure bullshit. It’s absurd that such a thing as “The Big Lie” is even a “thing” to begin with! But then, it’s absurd…
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Republicans And Magical Thinking
Kellyanne Conway – Donald Trump’s staff Crypt Keeper lookalike – famously said that Trump World preferred “alternative facts” to actual facts. That was a remarkable statement when Kellyanne made it. We still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of Trumpanistas always saying the quiet stuff out loud. But, that’s what Kellyanne did: she articulated a…
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Magical Cookies
All religions sell magic of one kind or another. Magic is their stock in trade. It’s religion’s response to questions humans can’t yet answer with hard data. Religion (and the religious) despise uncertainty. Wrap it in a mystery though and they love it! Where science will answer “I don’t know”, religion insists it does know…
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A Third Of Americans Are Hardcore Royalists And Always Have Been
One of our common misconceptions about how America started is that everyone living here wanted to revolt against the British. It ain’t so. “At no time did more than 45 percent of colonists support the war, and at least a third of colonists fought for the British.” That third of us never wanted to be…
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Monotheism’s Dirty Little Secret
America today is what happens when religion runs amok. It isn’t good policy – or even democracy – motivating dumbasses like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and North Dakota’s Doug Burgum. Both signed legislation cutting off abortions after six weeks in their states – effectively making abortions illegal. Both, like all pro-lifers, love humans when they’re in…
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The Opposite Of “Woke” Is “Asleep”
It’s strange how certain words trigger the right wing mind. To be fair, certain words can trigger the left wing mind, too. Words that assault people and marginalize them. The word “woke” makes right wingers apoplectic. Somehow those four letters terrify the right wing mind like nothing else. Ironically, right wingers spend their days dreaming…