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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   33445 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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There are many good contingent arguments why suppressing conservative Christianity would be a poor idea; Christians are pretty near the core of good citizens, at least under a standard of "good citizen" that has prevailed until recently, and also they are a very old and thus fairly well-understood phenomenon, so there's an argument to stick to the devil you know, as it were. Ultimately, however, toleration is a question of value, and values observably change over time. If your values have changed sufficiently that toleration of conservative Christians no longer seems like a good idea, that's sorta the whole ball game, isn't it?

This assumes that Christians are the ones standing still and others are the ones whose values are changing. This does not fit with the last few years, where people who previously didn't know what IVF was have made opposition to it central to their politics. As you say, the question of whether a religion should be tolerated depends on what it's actually doing, and that can change over time.

This does not fit with the last few years, where people who previously didn't know what IVF was have made opposition to it central to their politics.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I remember IVF as a hugely controversial issue since before I was even politically aware, like since I was 10 or thereabouts.

Why is IVF more important than every other part of being a productive citizen? Especially given that it's not like Christians are being at all successful in getting rid of it.

The fact that you seem to be sincerely arguing for this makes me considerably more positive towards the times when being a Christian was a prerequisite for holding public office.

Especially given that it's not like Christians are being at all successful in getting rid of it.

Reminded me of this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=AQQPNQ0PFSc

That reply is understandable, if seculars are going to take away Christians' rights, Christians are going to try and preemptively suppress seculars to prevent that. And likewise seculars will point to this and say, "look, this is why we need to suppress Christians before they suppress us." Might there be some way that these two groups can get along, say, come to an agreement not to force their morality on one another? And yes, this will mean woke seculars, who I despise just as much as Bible thumpers, will stop trying to use anti-discrimination law to violate the free association rights of their enemies.

Not permitting a population to hold political office is very different from attempting to eliminate a population by force.

What does "force their morality" mean? What is your morality? I don't like all the imprecision of the language here.

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