It's been a while since you got spammed with random.
And I've any way been having a weird/bad/insane mood this week... Don't want to go into it, but lets just say that I'm finally on my way to get back on my feet mentally. (I hope.)
Random stuff 1:
Interesting cut-text, no? This may seem weird, but while there are many things I have a firm opinion on and many things I'm fairly neutral about, I also have things that I'm militantly neutral about. As in, I have not picked a side, I don't see myself picking a side in the nearest future and you damn well better not try and convert me to either side in the matter. Simply enough said, things I don't want to be opinionated on. I'll respect that other people have opinions on these things, even if I in general may not respect the opinion itself.
I'm making this list partially to prevent any potential attempt at convertion, but mostly to give me an excuse to completely ramble about various topics. Without further ado:
Number 1. The existance of divine forces at work.
Ramble: I didn't put it down as "the existance of God" because to most idiots this seems to mean the Christian God and no other. Also the word God is quite a bit too limiting to me, and I wish we had a male version of the word, because then God could be the gender-neutral word which would work out a lot better in my mind at least.
Whenever I hear anyone talking about their faith as if it were a universal fact, I feel that this will be a difficult person to deal with. To this I do not count talking about prayers or asking for prayers for someone in need. That is not the same as assuming that everyone has the same faith as you or a faith at all. Especially since the general asking is for inclusion to prayers already being made, hence no pressure on people who don't generally pray. (I presume.)
However, telling me that YOU are certain that something is a certain way regarding afterlife/spirit/etc in an effort to convince ME of you being right in a debate on wordly matters, is making the assumption that your personal belief trumps all others and can therefor be regarded as a fact. What that personal belief may be doesn't matter. That's what you think and have faith in. It's not universal. I don't care what you're gonna pull out of your "I'm-so-certain-on-this"-hat, it just isn't universal that:
- There is no God.
- God exists and is per definition good.
- That if you disprove the Bible that means religion in general is wrong. <--This has epic fail written all over it.
- That good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell. Not even all religions have this distinction. You weren't necessarily bad if you ended up in Hel's realm, you just weren't material for Valhalla.
- Etc. (Seriously, the list of things people think everyone should agree with them on...)
I used to be Christian. At times I've thought about returning to that faith. I don't pray anymore. I do believe there are higher powers, but the nature of divinity still feels a bit elusive to me. It doesn't help that I have a segmented world view, either. At times I feel like I both believe and disbelieve the existance of divine forces surrounding me at the same time. Sometimes I believe in this own mythology I've cobbled together, sometimes I think that just makes for a good story and that it would be superficial of me to think of it as a religious point of view of mine. I used to say that I'm between religions, but also I have had multiple faith. Used to have a mix of Wicca/Christianity/Taoism/Asatru/Weirdo-Fatalism thing going on in my late teens.
I make Agnosticism complicated, don't I?
Honestly I think Atheism should just come out and be honest about it. It is a religion. Sort of. I mean it's a definitive view on something that is not definitive that you believe in to make yourself feel better about the complicated and mysterious universe we live in. (And I'm looking at you, Science! You used to be all cool and radical, and just cruising with the wibes. But now you've got zealots running around declaring you unfallible. Keep this up and you'll be a religion by mid-century.)
Number 2. Israel and Palestina.
Ramble: In general, Sweden is neutral in this question. In specifics? It's an almost clean division in politics where you are in this question. Left-wingers root for Palestina and against the intrusion of Israel, while right-wingers root for Israel.
(I was kind of surprised to see that one of my American flisters, who I've always considered left by Swedish standards even, have a pro-Israel view.)
Now the thing is, I think I know which side I'd pick. But I won't. Because I just think, and I don't know for certain. I feel I'd need to study this question extremely thouroughly to make such a decision of which side to support. And it'd be foolish in general, because neither side is right. Not really. Israel may be a bit less right, but that has to do with how the state was born. To be perfectly frank, I don't think Israel should have been brought into existance in the first place. But now it has been over half a century since it was established, so it's a little late for that sentiment now, isn't it? If I remember correctly, the main reason for this was a diplomatic fumble from, you guessed it, Britain.
Britain wanted support from Palestinian troops, so they promised them their country back.
Britain (along with other European countries) wanted to elevate the guilt of over a millenia of demonising the Jews thus making it even easier for Hitler to instigate genocide, and so promised Jews their own state back where they had their old country.
Why? Why where they used to live? Other people lived there by then! And if any Americans (where I hear the pro-Israel view is strong) wants to argue that "But they lived there first!" think really carefully about what you're saying there. Why did Palestina get to shoulder the burden of easing European guilt? Why couldn't there have been a New Israel somewhere in Europe? Most of the Jews going to Israel were European anyway! Bah!
I was glad to hear that there are efforts towards living together inside the countries, with both Palestinian and Israeli children going to school together and learning about each other's culture without for that sake diminishing their own ones. If they could just get rid of their fucked up governments, things might turn out peachy. Don't know much about the Palestinian government, but I heard there are militaristic/imperialistic forces at work in the Israeli government. If the goverment think such lines of thinking is good for their country, I'm willing to bet someone slept in history class.
In conclusion (conclusion to a ramble?): This is one question where I feel that anyone calling any side a bastard are just making things worse.
Number 3. Freedom of speach contra political correctness.
Ramble: This will be kinda short actually. Freedom = responsibility for one's own actions. If you want to be political correct, you be that. If you don't, you don't.
I hate the term political correct. It sounds so slimy. I'd rather say humanly aware. Aware that just because other humans are different from you, it doesn't lessen their worth. Aware that words can hurt people, because we're built like that.
At the same time I don't think it's possible to talk about certain things without insulting someone of some group. Sometimes one shouldn't get all worried about using insults, because they kinda exist for a reason. I see no problem with using the word lame, TBH. Why? Because when I say something is lame I don't think I'm flaunting my abled body. Mostly because the word has been around for some time now, and I seldom see lame being used to refer to disabled people. More often I see paralyzed, or paraplegic. To see or hear the word lame being used for people with that disability, I basically have to read the Bible.
Dumb actually means deaf/mute.
Bastard actually means someone born out of wedlock.
Dork actually means penis.
And yet we see no problem with calling someone after a demonstration of lesser intellectual elegance, "dumb". Someone who is a horrible person, "bastard". Geeks that win our affections through their geekery, "dorks". (I bet geek has an interesting meaning too...)
Loosely translated convo with bro on this topic:
Bro: "But if you think like that the only words one can use is "food" and "momma"."
Me: "Well, technically momma comes from mama, latin for breast. So what you're basically saying is that a mother's only role in their child's life is to keep them fed."
Bro: "Fine! Food then! Or you got a problem with that word too?"
Me: "Give me a while, I'll think of something."
The human languages are filled with , because humans are bastards. (Been quite a while since I linked to tv-tropes.)
The first sentence of this ramble was a lie!!
I'd have a random stuff 2, but this got random enough I think. Bye for now!
Random stuff 1:
Interesting cut-text, no? This may seem weird, but while there are many things I have a firm opinion on and many things I'm fairly neutral about, I also have things that I'm militantly neutral about. As in, I have not picked a side, I don't see myself picking a side in the nearest future and you damn well better not try and convert me to either side in the matter. Simply enough said, things I don't want to be opinionated on. I'll respect that other people have opinions on these things, even if I in general may not respect the opinion itself.
I'm making this list partially to prevent any potential attempt at convertion, but mostly to give me an excuse to completely ramble about various topics. Without further ado:
Number 1. The existance of divine forces at work.
Ramble: I didn't put it down as "the existance of God" because to most idiots this seems to mean the Christian God and no other. Also the word God is quite a bit too limiting to me, and I wish we had a male version of the word, because then God could be the gender-neutral word which would work out a lot better in my mind at least.
Whenever I hear anyone talking about their faith as if it were a universal fact, I feel that this will be a difficult person to deal with. To this I do not count talking about prayers or asking for prayers for someone in need. That is not the same as assuming that everyone has the same faith as you or a faith at all. Especially since the general asking is for inclusion to prayers already being made, hence no pressure on people who don't generally pray. (I presume.)
However, telling me that YOU are certain that something is a certain way regarding afterlife/spirit/etc in an effort to convince ME of you being right in a debate on wordly matters, is making the assumption that your personal belief trumps all others and can therefor be regarded as a fact. What that personal belief may be doesn't matter. That's what you think and have faith in. It's not universal. I don't care what you're gonna pull out of your "I'm-so-certain-on-this"-hat, it just isn't universal that:
- There is no God.
- God exists and is per definition good.
- That if you disprove the Bible that means religion in general is wrong. <--This has epic fail written all over it.
- That good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell. Not even all religions have this distinction. You weren't necessarily bad if you ended up in Hel's realm, you just weren't material for Valhalla.
- Etc. (Seriously, the list of things people think everyone should agree with them on...)
I used to be Christian. At times I've thought about returning to that faith. I don't pray anymore. I do believe there are higher powers, but the nature of divinity still feels a bit elusive to me. It doesn't help that I have a segmented world view, either. At times I feel like I both believe and disbelieve the existance of divine forces surrounding me at the same time. Sometimes I believe in this own mythology I've cobbled together, sometimes I think that just makes for a good story and that it would be superficial of me to think of it as a religious point of view of mine. I used to say that I'm between religions, but also I have had multiple faith. Used to have a mix of Wicca/Christianity/Taoism/Asatru/Weirdo-Fatalism thing going on in my late teens.
I make Agnosticism complicated, don't I?
Honestly I think Atheism should just come out and be honest about it. It is a religion. Sort of. I mean it's a definitive view on something that is not definitive that you believe in to make yourself feel better about the complicated and mysterious universe we live in. (And I'm looking at you, Science! You used to be all cool and radical, and just cruising with the wibes. But now you've got zealots running around declaring you unfallible. Keep this up and you'll be a religion by mid-century.)
Number 2. Israel and Palestina.
Ramble: In general, Sweden is neutral in this question. In specifics? It's an almost clean division in politics where you are in this question. Left-wingers root for Palestina and against the intrusion of Israel, while right-wingers root for Israel.
(I was kind of surprised to see that one of my American flisters, who I've always considered left by Swedish standards even, have a pro-Israel view.)
Now the thing is, I think I know which side I'd pick. But I won't. Because I just think, and I don't know for certain. I feel I'd need to study this question extremely thouroughly to make such a decision of which side to support. And it'd be foolish in general, because neither side is right. Not really. Israel may be a bit less right, but that has to do with how the state was born. To be perfectly frank, I don't think Israel should have been brought into existance in the first place. But now it has been over half a century since it was established, so it's a little late for that sentiment now, isn't it? If I remember correctly, the main reason for this was a diplomatic fumble from, you guessed it, Britain.
Britain wanted support from Palestinian troops, so they promised them their country back.
Britain (along with other European countries) wanted to elevate the guilt of over a millenia of demonising the Jews thus making it even easier for Hitler to instigate genocide, and so promised Jews their own state back where they had their old country.
Why? Why where they used to live? Other people lived there by then! And if any Americans (where I hear the pro-Israel view is strong) wants to argue that "But they lived there first!" think really carefully about what you're saying there. Why did Palestina get to shoulder the burden of easing European guilt? Why couldn't there have been a New Israel somewhere in Europe? Most of the Jews going to Israel were European anyway! Bah!
I was glad to hear that there are efforts towards living together inside the countries, with both Palestinian and Israeli children going to school together and learning about each other's culture without for that sake diminishing their own ones. If they could just get rid of their fucked up governments, things might turn out peachy. Don't know much about the Palestinian government, but I heard there are militaristic/imperialistic forces at work in the Israeli government. If the goverment think such lines of thinking is good for their country, I'm willing to bet someone slept in history class.
In conclusion (conclusion to a ramble?): This is one question where I feel that anyone calling any side a bastard are just making things worse.
Number 3. Freedom of speach contra political correctness.
Ramble: This will be kinda short actually. Freedom = responsibility for one's own actions. If you want to be political correct, you be that. If you don't, you don't.
I hate the term political correct. It sounds so slimy. I'd rather say humanly aware. Aware that just because other humans are different from you, it doesn't lessen their worth. Aware that words can hurt people, because we're built like that.
At the same time I don't think it's possible to talk about certain things without insulting someone of some group. Sometimes one shouldn't get all worried about using insults, because they kinda exist for a reason. I see no problem with using the word lame, TBH. Why? Because when I say something is lame I don't think I'm flaunting my abled body. Mostly because the word has been around for some time now, and I seldom see lame being used to refer to disabled people. More often I see paralyzed, or paraplegic. To see or hear the word lame being used for people with that disability, I basically have to read the Bible.
Dumb actually means deaf/mute.
Bastard actually means someone born out of wedlock.
Dork actually means penis.
And yet we see no problem with calling someone after a demonstration of lesser intellectual elegance, "dumb". Someone who is a horrible person, "bastard". Geeks that win our affections through their geekery, "dorks". (I bet geek has an interesting meaning too...)
Loosely translated convo with bro on this topic:
Bro: "But if you think like that the only words one can use is "food" and "momma"."
Me: "Well, technically momma comes from mama, latin for breast. So what you're basically saying is that a mother's only role in their child's life is to keep them fed."
Bro: "Fine! Food then! Or you got a problem with that word too?"
Me: "Give me a while, I'll think of something."
The human languages are filled with , because humans are bastards. (Been quite a while since I linked to tv-tropes.)
The first sentence of this ramble was a lie!!
I'd have a random stuff 2, but this got random enough I think. Bye for now!