by glubglubgtlub » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:13 am
Two types of religious right:<br><br>a) The great bulk of them are basically guiltridden about not being christian enough (and probably therefore afraid of death, also) but feel for the religion a lot like cubs' (or red sox until recently) fans, only more pathological: massive umbrage taken to any criticism from outside sources, but only lukewarm personally. this group depending on where you draw the line covers probably 20-50% of americans, maybe more. much of that number would blow the other way should a respectfully irreligious environment come to predominate<br>b) The extreme edge, composed of raging lunatics through only slightly mentally ill; most fundies that I've met fit into this category (per my characterization and a suitable interpretation of the dsm requirements to make the diagnosis official) at least partially. These folks tend to be anywhere from slightly cracked to batshit insane, but unfortunately rather than getting diagnosed and antipsychotics thrown at them they are encouraged by the lukewarm masses, or at least tolerated more than they should.<br><br>Really, if I steadfastly believed in something that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and based my life around that -- and it wasn't an acknowledged religious text -- how long would it be before my family arranged to have me committed? <br><br>I do think the best way to fight the religious right is to make them irrelevant; because their political interests nicely dovetail with generally rightist candidates they're a power base for the more public of our rogues' gallery here, and likewise masquerading as a far right christian basically gets you a free pass for serious consequences (even if you're the butt of bar jokes at college pubs).<br><br>Aside from their connections with and exploitation by the monied sorts the religious right are basically economically worthless, and it won't be hard to make them moreso with a bit of concerted effort: the energy price rise will make clustering of residencies and workplaces closer together almost inevitable, and since the nutbags need each other for support they'll self-segregate even as the rest of us self-segragate away.<br><br>I really encourage people here to start looking into planned communities of some sort, with covenants that as much as possible will turn away -- if not outright ban, which you'd have trouble getting away with -- undesireables, and proceed to make them successful; I can't see any better way to weather the upcoming storms and I can't see any other way of taking out the RR beyond letting them turn themselves into peasants in as isolated a sandbox as we can get them into. <p></p><i></i>
