He made the right call, 100%. I would say good job on raising, him but my own parents are crazy vaxxers and can't stand the fact that I'm right-wing, so I am not even sure how much that has to do with anything anymore. But you obviously did something right!
Plus don't forget all of the guilt messaging of "if you catch Covid and spread it you'll kill Grandma!" The shot makes them feel like at least they "did their part." Social conformity/being "accepted" is all these types really care about.
I love how at the end they want people to just use drugs if they don't want to work or have nothing better to do. Real winners, these ones.
I'm sure those collective worker-owned business will run just flawlessly and there will be "jobs aplenty" as they say.
Yes, there are all sorts of "false dichotomies" present in religious and spiritual dogmas, and I believe they are meant to divide people using the belief of "my faith is right and your faith is wrong" when in reality, multiple things can be (and are) true.
For instance, even if you have one capital G creator God who is supreme, why couldn't you also have lesser plural gods or godlike entities? Why does it have to be one or the other? Look how often similar archetypes and personality traits appear in different deities of old religions, even if each has a different name for it. Why can't Christianity and astrology both be valid? If Jesus was a human man who was also the son of God, and said that all of us were also children of God who would someday do the things he could, then why is it such a stretch to believe that other prophets and divine figures might also exist?
I keep an open mind about such things and have a sort of working model that is constantly evolving. I don't get hung up on old stereotypes of God from thousands of years ago, because the idea that he hasn't evolved at all in all of that time seems ridiculous to me. He evolved so much even from just the Old Testament to the New Testament!
I might even get attacked on here for pointing these things out, but I am getting tired of insecure bullying dogmatists arguing over whose version of reality is "correct" when each of them only has one piece of the puzzle so NOBODY is incorrect, it's just they don't have the FULL PICTURE yet. To me, it just seems more like cultures and belief systems egoically fighting for dominance rather than searching for the truth, which in my experience is far more complex to the point where I'm still struggling to learn and understand it after 15+ years of study. But then, I think the money- and power-hungry leaders of so many of these religions/faith communities engineer it that way by design: "I have the truth, the only truth, and I'll let you know what it is if you just give me enough money and allegiance."
I'll tell you one thing I know for sure: it doesn't cost anything to have a personal connection/relationship with God, and don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise.
Yes, 100%. I keep craving information about what is going on and I just can't find it anywhere. It's been a waiting game for so long that you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but this ramping up of tension right now is almost unbearable.
From what I hear/read, the Equinox is supposed to be a big deal this year. So I'm going to wait another couple of days and see what surfaces. Nice to know I'm not alone in this at least--feels validating. Thanks for posting.
That's how I feel about it. I love to travel but am willing to do what is necessary, whether that is driving or hunkering down, I'm ready. But then, I am fortunate that I have gotten to travel quite a bit already and took advantage of any opportunity to in my youth.
When I was a teen growing up in the 90's, I went through the same sort of rebellion phase virtually all teens go through (or used to?), because it's part of that stage of growing up to question and even perhaps arbitrarily rail against certain familial or societal rules and restrictions as you seek to define yourself as an individual and an independent person capable of navigating the world. If you always choose to live within your parents' mindsets and beliefs without questioning them, then you never really define yourself as a person (even if you end up agreeing with their beliefs on your own, that is different than just "doing as you're told.")
In my youth, everything in society seemed very "solid" and even impenetrable. I was nerdy, creative, on the fringes of my peers; "normal" at the time was so different than what it is defined as today. At the time, it felt like the cool kids (who had money, elite hair/clothes, or who were really good at sports, or who were really hip and into partying, etc.) would never accept me. Now, our society has done such a total 180 that I feel extremely conservative by contrast, whereas I used to feel edgy and like I challenged the norms; I now feel like I'm lamenting their disappearance and that I shouldn't have taken them for granted. Part of that is just getting older and having a calmer/more responsible lifestyle, of course, but it's way more than that. Our society has completely lost its barometer for what is "normal," and I don't think it's a good thing at all.
What's sadder is that a lot of the kids who are ascribing to these types of degenerate philosophies would have previously been more like I was: on the fringes, awkwardly trying to find their way and trying to carve out a unique identity against a backdrop of reliable normalcy. Now, they connect with these perverted groups online and suddenly are given the support (grooming?) for a "new identity" to make them feel cool, but none of it is actually cool or creative or edgy. It's just sad.
I blame Postmodernism for all of this.
I was never a socialist, per se; I followed him for less than a year and wasn't really thinking it through all that much in those days. What I really liked most about Bernie at the time was his anti-corporatist stance and his desire to break up some of those elite circles of power; I still despise corporate culture to this day, especially the technocrats who are effectively running our country now. But when Bernie let BLM take his microphone and immediately bent the knee when the DNC gave the nomination to Hillary instead of him, I was done.
Some people were saying at the time, though, that Bernie and Trump's campaigns actually had some parallels/similarities in that they were both grassroots-driven and that both of them were populists. So I think it actually wasn't all that far of a stretch if you notice that both of their follower bases are largely anti-establishment politics (or at least, used to be/parts of them were)! There's also sort of that horseshoe effect where if you go far enough to one extreme of the polarity, you might actually jump over to the other side of the spectrum--if that makes sense? I don't agree with progressives on almost any issues these days, but there are certain topics where I do occasionally agree with them. And at least some of them do genuinely believe in what they are spouting off (however misguided it might be), versus the phony power-hungry neoliberal/neoconservative ruling block who only care about saying whatever it takes to get elected.
And again, at that time I hadn't really parsed through the financial side of things (it would take a long time to explain "where I was at" and what had brought me to that point) and this was before I became aware of what identity politics actually are. I'm not claiming to be a poli sci expert; I was mostly going with the messaging that resonated with me at the time, the process of which eventually led me to Trump. But hey, you live, you learn...
This is a very beautiful story, I appreciate you sharing it on here!
My "political awakening" almost five years ago (not too different from yours) was preceded by a spiritual awakening many years prior, and I often draw parallels between the two. My spiritual awakening taught me to listen to my intuition and the "small still voice inside," which was what later spoke to me to let me know that "all was not as it seems" politically, and I began to question the narrative about Trump in 2016 after people I knew were trying to bully me into voting for Hilary Clinton (I was a Bernie supporter before that but could not stand Hilary). Since that initial questioning, my eyes have only opened more and more.
Mikenificent from Right Side Broadcasting has a pretty amazing story as well; as I recall he was miserable living in a very blue city and prayed to God until God told him "move to Florida." He took a chance, packed up all his stuff, moved down and started driving for Uber. He would sometimes pick up people in MAGA hats--he was initially unsettled by them, but after many very genuine and open conversations, he realized that they were actually good people and that the media had been feeding him lies--and now he is in the role he is in! It's pretty incredible, but it does go to show that by turning to God with an open heart and listening to your inner guidance, you can change your entire life.
Corporations should not be donating to politicians in the first place.