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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024

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Go right ahead. What's interesting about those topics, where can we hear more about them, and what are your opinions on them?

The last time I made a post it was a nice thoughtful thing about how Trump should change his mind and leave abortion 'to the states' rather than try to come up with a cut-off date

Speaking plainly, the response was abysmal, and, it turned out Trump did what I thought he should anyway. The time spent writing the post had negative value.

But just for good faith efforts sake on point #1 here is our sectary of state playing guitar in Ukraine while the war rages:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/us/politics/blinken-ukraine-guitar.html

I would think this was incredibly humiliating to our people to have our representative act like this, but for the fact we don't really have 'a people' anymore and this is much less humiliating than Biden shaking hands with a ghost or Mitch McConnell having what quite sincerely appeared to be yet another stroke when asked about running for re-election

#2 genocide in Middle East, here is a video of Israeli's destroying aid meant for the millions of people they've made homeless, and are now pushing out of their squalid refugee camps. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3wfQtRgcZ_I

It is unthinkable to me that any adult with full cognitive faculties could think these people were the good guys chosen by God. But, it is not a surprise to me at this point that millions of seemingly adult people are actually functionally children who only do as they're told. The irony that the bible could not be more explicit that Christ-denying Jews were not grafted into the Tree of the Covenant is just the cherry on top

#3 There are 10's of thousands of people crossing the border illegally every day in every western country and nobody seems to care beyond how we're going to raise more taxes to pay for them. Our already destroyed cities are having their dicks ground into the dirt. The tallest highrise in St Louis just sold for like $3 million bucks. Denver is literally broke from it https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/denver-only-has-enough-money-to-fund-migrants-for-two-more-months/ar-BB1hRFYT?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=54d5d35986d04a1ca96ee78f18d7de36&ei=17 (that story was from 3 months ago)

Yes, these takes do come across as fairly "boo outgroup." I can see them not being accepted as top level posts. Perhaps you would enjoy Kiwi Farms?

The irony that the bible could not be more explicit that Christ-denying Jews were not grafted into the Tree of the Covenant is just the cherry on top

This is news to me; in fact I’ve never heard the term “Tree of the Covenant” before. Can you please cite chapter and verse?

Not to answer for @VinoVeritas I suspect he's referring to Romans 11.

What are branches? Some are broken off, others grafted on.

Christ denying jews being outside the covenant is news to you?

Fair enough, I did know that the New Testament claims very explicitly that there is no salvation outside Jesus Christ.

Thanks for the cite.

It's worth noting that the way that this is put in some places (e.g. follow the logic of Gal. 3:10-14) would also imply that those in the old testament would also need Jesus, which makes that particular datum a little less demonstrative.

That said, the conclusion is still correct: people cannot be saved without faith in Christ, and the church is the continuation of Israel as God's people on earth.

"What religious practices do you have to follow to not go to hell? -- Trick question, you are all going to hell unless you accept Christ, who will be born in another few hundred years or so" seems like the kind of shit the old testament god would pull, right.

Well, presumably something more nebulous than that: perhaps trust that God would forgive them, by provision of a substitute, and promises of future blessing.

The settlers are far right religious extremist so I don’t really see much surprising in the video at all. They’re a small portion of the country, but a fairly large part of the Likud Party base. Personally, I think most of the Gaza overkill wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the settlers. They’ve been fairly open about wanting to settle in Gaza, in fact I’ll have to find the interview again but one of the settler leaders was a woman who works in real estate, and obviously stands to make a lot of money once Gaza is open for settlement. Bibi doesn’t go after them because they’re his base.

It is unthinkable to me that any adult with full cognitive faculties could think these people were the good guys chosen by God.

Why? God is ineffable. If he picks some nation as his chosen and lets them get away with treating their neighbors as waste, who are you to say that you are right and God is wrong. He reportedly fucked with the Egyptians, alternating between sending additional plagues and hardening the heart of their pharaoh so that he wouldn't just give up and let the Jews go. Now he's hardening the resolve of the Palestinians, so they don't stop dreaming about their state from the sea to the river, and the Israeli Jews can have an excuse to grind them into dust.

None of what you've written here makes a particularly insightful point except to suggest "Here are things I believe are crazy, how about it?" And the not-veiled implication that only idiots would disagree with you--which hardly invites discussion. There are a great number of older threads worth reading on this site without shit-stirring for the sake of it.