It’s religious mythology built atop historical cultural standards. Arguing over the age at which a literal angel impregnated a virgin is fucking absurd and has nothing to do with modern morals either inside or outside the religious traditions predicated on it.

Two-thousand years later, members of this same Christian faith have overhauled both the cultural and legal standards for marriage around the globe. Meanwhile, outspoken atheists like Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss ended up all over the Epstein Files, despite unburdening themselves of archaic religious dogma.

Mary was 13 when she gave birth to Jesus.

There is absolutely no verifiable documentation of Jesus’s birth, much less Mary’s age at the time of pregnancy. Might as well complain about the ages of Alcmene or Deichtine.

This kind of rhetoric is playing straight into the magical realism of the biblical literalists. Next, you’re going to start accusing Adam and Eve of incest.

Catholic here. Not as difficult as you might think.

his refusal to do or say anything to otherwise hurt Gee Dubz during the theft if the election, the obvious corruption, war for nothing, and the destruction of privacy

Rather was way out in front of all three of these stories.

Trump’s not going to remove her leash until he’s on his way out of office.

The Telegraph and LBC are both right-wing propaganda mills.

Case in point:

In 2022, Hilda Griffiths, 81, died after Brian Fitzgerald, a Credit Suisse director and member of the Muswell Hill Peloton cycling club, collided with her while riding with other members at about 29mph in the 20mph zone.

Police could not prosecute Mr Fitzgerald because “there were no criminal Acts” which could be applied to cyclists who speed, the elderly lady’s inquest heard.

That’s pure horseshit.

Sounds like he’s violated British law and should be arrested immediately.

Who can forget the time a cyclist ran a red light and killed sixteen people?

I would argue she’s protecting herself, given that her closest associate ended up with a Hyoid bone fracture in police custody after unaliving himself. It’s not like they can put her in double-jail with contempt of court charges. Why would she say anything at all?

I mean there really is no previous state of political system that would really benefit the NFL moreso than the modern day liberal government.

Economically, sure. But you could say the same thing about golf. Hasn’t stopped the Saudis from gobbling up the PGA.

The ownership model for the NFL is borderline aristocratic. The management of the franchises is a barely-regulated monopoly. The players themselves are well compensated serfs. I would not call the operation of the league “liberal” in the economic sense.

No, the liberal aspect is paying someone to belt out “Lo Que Le Paso a Hawaii” while vicariously partaking in the economic colonization of a state like Hawaii.

We’re getting dangerously close to

The benefit of engaging in political liberalism is that you can do both.

The benefits of political liberalism accrue to the capital class, not the labor class. This performance was an expression of, by, and for the labor class. Specifically, the colonized people of Puerto Rico.

I guess you can argue everything on broadcast TV is just liberalism, because broadcast TV is a privatized commodity. But then you’re arguing propaganda doesn’t influence the public. At which point, you have to wonder why anyone is paying so much for the Superbowl ad space.

You think so?

I don’t think it was an accident that Dan Rather was the target for the Killian Documents scandal.

I wouldn’t have agreed, but of course it’s a moot point now.

It’s a low bar. With ABC controlled by Disney and NBC by Microsoft, it was the last organization that could claim a semblance of independence.

The Economist, a journal that speaks for the British millionaires

As part of a critique of the paper’s attitude towards war (specifically, The Great War aka WW1)

i used to use “i’m pagan”

Oh cool, I’m also a Catholic.

I mean, if the goat shepherds have some strong moral positions, I don’t see why they’d be disqualified. Ethics isn’t something we invented in the 21st century, ffs. Bronze Age humans had as much a claim to it as anyone. Just ask Socrates or Confucius or Nezahualcóyotl.

Given the current state of the 21st century political scene, I’m not bending over to give modern day philosophers extra credit. Say what you will about Thomas Aquinas, he doesn’t appear anywhere in the Epstein flight logs. That’s more than Noam Chomsky or Peter Mandelson can claim.

Not so confusing when you define liberal in its original political terms.

I would go so far as to call the NFL reactionary, rather than just liberal.

Technically there’s nothing more liberal than engaging in ethically ruthless free market trading while also engaging in cultural virtue signaling.

I don’t think belting out “Lo Que Le Paso a Hawaii” is an expression of support for ruthless free market trading, though.

Bit more than coded, tbh

Hilary wanted him dead because if he ratted on Bill then it would hurt her election chances

In 2019? Hillary was well past her expiration date by then.

Most of the creators of conservative content know they’re full of shit

I wish this were the case. You definitely have some naked opportunists (ex-liberals like Candice Owens and Bill Maher) who just followed the bouncing paycheck. But the conservative movement has plenty of true believers - folks who absolutely flamed out and destroyed their lives chasing the phantoms of a socio-economic revolution. Media figures like Kash Patel and Mike Pence and JK Rowling and Elon Musk really did down the kool-aid, especially as they grew older and surrounded themselves with far-right Yes Men.

Then you’ve got the money men - Foster Friess, Robert Mercer, Sheldon Adelson, Peter Thiel - who happily liquidated billions of dollars of personal wealth on some real loser candidates and campaigns. For every Donald Trump or Mike Pence, the political graveyard is stuffed with Christine O’Donnells and Richard Mourdocks and Roy Moores. If conservatives could just learn to be normal for one god damned election cycle they might finally secure the Permanent Republican Majority they’ve always pinned after.

You think IQ is a measure of intelligence?

Very broadly, in the “has the concussion caused permanent damage?” or “is your child suffering from debilitating lead poisoning?” sense. It’s good for diagnosing disability. But the joke of it is that high IQs (and we’re talking legitimately high, not I-took-some-bullshit-test-online high) don’t correlate with specific academic or economic or social aptitudes.

Langan’s high IQ had not led to greater success in life – Langan has no degree, having twice dropped out of college. The book compared him with J. Robert Oppenheimer and focused on the influence of their respective environments on success.

Langan has spent many years working on his idea that he calls the “cognitive-theoretic model of the universe” which proposes that reality is a self-simulation. He self-published a book about it in 2002. In interviews and self-published writings, he has expressed beliefs in a variety of fringe proposals and conspiracy theories, including arguing in favor of eugenics to prevent “genomic degradation”, opposition to interracial relationships, and support for the 9/11 truth movement. His political opinions have gained him a following among the alt-right.

Turns out the natural ability to quickly identify the correct subsequent pattern in a series of patterns only gets you so far.

Idiots watch conservative news. Got it.

I mean, I don’t think this says “Idiots Watch conservative news”. Telemundo isn’t particularly conservative. CBS was the most Liberal Broadcaster of the Big 3 (hence Ellison’s need to buy it out).

I do think this shows US Spanish speakers have more trouble getting into college. And that TV News is more popular among the less educated. But consider that The Atlantic is at the top of the list. And that magazine might as well have been authored by the Cheney administration.