Politics

What Do You Actually Believe?

/ Jim / 7 Comments

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Recently, I came across one of those online surveys (I’m not sure what else to call it) that after answering a series of questions, places the respondent into a certain political category. We’ve all seen these before, where at the end the person, based on their answers, are rated as liberal or conservative, authoritarian or libertarian.  the questions themselves are innocuous enough, very straightforward, as to what the person thinks/believes in several different areas. I was intrigued, as a conservative, where I would place on their scale.

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Getting a Little Perspective

/ Jim / 2 Comments

 

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One of the reasons I decided to start limiting my use of Twitter, is that there is some much nonsense out there, a lot of it rage posts, I decided I could only take it in small bites, instead of perusing the site constantly. It is amazing to me how much junk is placed out there, and that I saw retweeted into my timeline, that could easily be debunked if someone just took a moment to be skeptical. But no, in today’s environment, it’s preferable to be morally or ethically outraged than to stop, look around, and discover what the truth of anything actually is nowadays.

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Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

/ Jim / 3 Comments

 

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Over the years, I have written about the perils of groupthink. That is, that we must all have the same or similar opinion or be cast out of a particular social or political class and be assigned to the netherworld. I’ve always despised the idea that as a conservative, I must hold to certain principles, dictated by others to be considered conservative. I find the same being an atheist. I will use my limited talent for reason and logic to find my way and not be cowed into accepting what to me is something I determine to be unreasonable and ultimately illogical.

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Does Atheism Define You?

/ Jim / 6 Comments

 

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I don’t know about everyone else out there, but I’m often asked by people about what social issues I support or don’t support. I know it’s probably common, but in my case, these are atheists asking. My first reaction is it’s none of your business, but I never actually say that, I usually deflect as I really am not interested in those conversations. It seems though that a lot of atheists are; That’s okay, I don’t begrudge anyone anything, but I fail to recognize the relevance  in relation to being an atheist.

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Should We Build the Wall?

/ Jim / 5 Comments

 

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As we’re into the 3rd week of a government shutdown (Has anyone really noticed? Are you still receiving mail, and any other government services? Yes, yes, you are.) there should probably be some clarity on what the wall represents: a deterrence. That’s all. It won’t prevent every person south of the border from entering, but it will deter many.

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Why Are There No Atheists in Congress?

/ Jim / 3 Comments

 

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Since the new Congress has been sworn in, I’ve read a few articles about the makeup of the new body, in both houses. The concern seems to be that there are no open atheists in either the House of Representatives or the Senate.  When I read stories about this I wonder what the concern happens to be exactly? It’s not like we atheists  are a large voting bloc and of course, if we would like to see atheists in our Federal or State offices, atheists have to actually run for office, don’t they?

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Political Ideology as a Litmus Test

/ Jim / 2 Comments

 

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On social media, specifically Twitter, I’m always looking for other atheists to follow. I don’t just follow all that I see in other tweets or in recommendations, I actually  look at the persons profile, as well as take a quick scan of some of their recent tweets, before I decide whether I want to follow this atheist or not. I look at the tweets mainly of course to determine what they are discussing on Twitter.  Would I be interested in being part of any of those discussions? If so, then yes, I will follow that individual. If not, maybe I’ll look another time.

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It’s Not About the First Amendment

/ Jim / 2 Comments

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I’ve been thinking a little bit today about the outcome (it really wasn’t a ruling) telling the White House that they must, at least temporarily, restore the hard pass of a CNN reporter. The judge in the case, a Trump appointee by the way, simply stated that the White House could not arbitrarily take the pass away – that it was a violation, not of the 1st Amendment, but the 5th, specifically due process.

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