Category: Beating Back the St00pid

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"Now Piss Off"

Sometimes when they approach you, you're up for a little street epistemology, Boghossian-style: how do you know what you believe is true, do you think faith is a reliable way to know the world, do you think people can believe things on faith and never know they're wrong, how do you know you're not wrong, would you be willing to change your beliefs based on evidence, etc.

Sometimes you're not interested and you just want to get your coffee/watch your program/masturbate in peace. Hell, you don't even need an actual reason. At those times, "no, thank you" is sufficient. No explanations, no excuses are required. "No, thank you." This is the end of the matter.

If they persist, the gloves come off. Anything after this is justified. My advice is not to give them anything. They're looking to engage you, to create or find an opening to continue on. Don't give it to them. They're trying to drag you into their pseudo-reality on their terms.

Remind them that you politely declined, and now they are being rude and disrespectful by ignoring your wishes, so they can kindly fuck off.

"Aren't you worried about your eternal soul?" No, I'm not. Fuck off.

"Have you heard the good news?" That you're going to fuck off?

"The [scripture] says…" I don't give a shit what your stupid book says, I give a shit about the fact I said no and you still haven't fucked off.

"What could be more important than getting right with the Lord?" What better things I might have to do are really none of your business, but right now you're keeping me from them so fuck off.

"Can we leave you with some literature?" No. I wouldn't read it and it would go straight into the recycle bin, so you and it should just fuck off together.

Make a point of noting their names, their church (or whatever) and the date and time, and advise them that their faith leaders will be getting a formal complaint. Now fuck off.

[Source]

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"They Did Their Own Research"

The website SORRYANTIVAXXER.COM lists pretty exhaustively all the antivaxxers who have contracted and/or died from the Trump-Virus. At first it seems devastating (and very, very white) seeing entry after entry of people who were easily manipulated into killing themselves to own the Libs, but then comes both boredom: Another asshole bites the dust, and good riddance.

Before you come at me (@ me?) for speaking ill of the dead, I'll remind you that I spoke ill of them when they were above ground.  I'm just going to say it: these people were selfish assholes who endangered all of us. Lining up to argue with a virus and then die from a preventable disease isn't noble, it's stupid. We're better off without them infecting more people.

Do I feel bad for their families? Maybe in the short run, but these antivaxxer assholes endangered their own families, too. Their families are better off with them gone. Maybe they will get vaccinated and live to see another day.

Look, these assholes were babied, begged, and bribed  to get the free, safe, and effective vaccines and they turned it down; so that's not tragedy, it's a farce. And in the end it is natural selection in action. Again, we're better off without them.

You want to tell me that they were standing on their principles, and I'll tell you that they are now buried with their principles.

I feel a great deal of satisfaction when reading about them (as Clarence Darrow once said). I never used to be this cold and callous towards people, but these selfish, ignorant a-holes have worn down both my patience (which I never had a lot of to begin with) and my empathy. I'm bone tired, both of this never-ending pandemic and the people who are making this pandemic never-ending.

[Source, paraphrased and augmented]

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How Could They Know?

"The problem isn't that they ate the fruit, it's that they disobeyed God." How would they know that disobeying your god is "wrong" without the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil?

"They didn't know that eating the fruit was wrong, but they knew deviating from the instructions would be unacceptable." And how would they know that god-acceptance is a good thing, and god non-acceptance is a bad thing without the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong?

"Well, they should have just obeyed God." Same problem – how do they know that obeying your god is "right" and not obeying your god is "wrong" without that knowledge?

"Because they should have listened to God and not the serpent." You're really not getting this. How would they know that listening to your god and ignoring the snake is the "right" thing to do? And why did this god warn them about the fruit, but not about the snake?

"Be… because it's written on everyone's hearts." So you're actually trying to say that people are born with the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil "on their hearts." So obtaining it from the fruit was redundant. And tormenting them merely an act of capricious abuse.

Furthermore, they were (supposedly) the first people ever in the world. Nobody had any experience with anything. How would they even comprehend "lest ye die" as consequences, when nobody had ever died, ever? And didn't even happen (i.e. was a lie). Without the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, how would they know that paying attention to this heart-writing was the right thing to do?

The mental gymnastics to try and salvage this stupid fable about their omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient god's omni-incompetence are Olympic-grade.

Spoiler alert: the bible makes no sense. And we're only up to page three.