Standards for signing up with ICE are so low

[conuly]

maybe it makes sense to undermine them from within? Oh, where's the sabotage manual when I want it?

*********************

‘Why would you take away a parking place?’: the city where anyone can build an urban oasis

A Ukrainian startup develops long-range drones and missiles to take the battle to Russia

Surviving the unsurvivable

Living in the shadows: Why stateless people fear Trump's immigration crackdown

Can empathy lead to sin? Some conservative Christians argue it can (Oh, ffs....)

How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies

A wartime mass grave in Sri Lanka yields a baby bottle, children’s clothes and 141 skeletons

'My friend got hit in the back': Witnesses describe terror of US school shooting

Comments

[siliconshaman]

They are basically trying to justify their attitudes, vis'a'vie empathy or lack thereof.

"I'm a good Christian!" They loudly proclaim...
"But being empathic makes me feel icky, and it's annoying and bothersome. So it must be toxic, and if it's a sin then I don't have to bother pretending to care about other people I don't like! Which is ok, because I'm a Good Christian!"

[minoanmiss]

UGH so true.

And they probably have installed the police's way of dealing with would-be internal reformers.

[siderea]

I think it's much more direct and rigorous than that. Their Christian doctrine is that what is a sin is anything God says is a sin (which is of course whatever their authorities say God says is a sin), and it is not for humans to decide out of their own consciences and reason what constitutes sin. Empathy arises from within the person, and thus can (and frankly often does) contradict what they espouse is God's idea of sin. Their doctrine is very clear that one is supposed to ignore one's own sense of sin and obey (what they claim is) God's.

This is in contradiction to their notion of speaking directly with God, but it will surprise no one that they're not particularly consistent about that. If you speak with God in your imagination and he says something at odds with what the religious authorities of your sect preach, then clearly you're not really talking to God.

It's hard to argue they're wrong about their faith. Lots of liberal Christians, as in the article, go on about how Jesus was all about empathy, but the story Abraham and Isaac is a very pointed parable about how what God wants is obedience over empathy.

[conuly]

Yeah, but those same Christians will also say that Jesus obviates all the onerous obligations in the OT, except of course the ones that they want to keep. I'm not sure how exactly that's supposed to apply to Abraham, but to be honest, I've always thought that story was extraordinarily effed up.

(Although if Jesus does obviate Leviticus etc. then surely we're all supposed to pay real close attention to the Sermon on the Mount? You know, for people who read the Bible as much as they do, they don't seem to understand how to read for context even one bit.)

[calimac]

This is an accurate description of their attitude. I know a conservative Christian who told me it distresses her that God says I'm going to Hell (because I'm not Christian), but that's what God says so there isn't anything she can do about it.

[conuly]

> They are basically trying to justify their attitudes, Vis-à-vis empathy or lack thereof.

You gotta wonder if they even listen to themselves when they talk.

[siliconshaman]

Doubtful..(and thanks for the correction.) It's all performative anyway, they make the right sounds to be socially accepted in their circles. Although it is becoming more a thing now that instead of saying coded phrases that would be socially 'polite' in a wider context, they say what they are really thinking.

[jessie_c]

Well, they can hardly get lower than ICE Barbie after all.

[conuly]

Getting paid to take them out just sounds attractive. If only I could actually do it without getting caught and fired or shot or deported.

[kaffy_r]

I keep reading about empathy burnout, which I acknowledge is a real thing; I suffer from it far more than I should. But I suspect that some folks who blithely say in conversation, "Oh, I can't feel for [fill in the blank], I just can't anymore" haven't actually experienced true empathy since the Black Sox scandal, I'm bound and determined to prevent myself from turning into one of those people.

[conuly]

I don't know how they can do it. I even feel bad for terrible people or people I hate. Not enough to excuse their behavior, but they usually have a reason. Even if it's a bad reason and lots of other people with the same reason still manage to do better, I still feel bad for them. I'm sure they'd all be happier if they were better people.

[kaffy_r]

I'm sure they'd all be happier if they were better people.

This should be a truth widely recognized, and yet it isn't.