This Week in Religion

[revbob]

Medieval friars were 'riddled with parasites,' study finds

https://phys.org/news/2022-08-medieval- ... asites.amp

[Sparky]

Sacrilege, but funny.

[Dr. Medulla]

[Kory]

I have a friend who has this to say about people who complain about loan forgiveness:

This kind of hits a straw man I’ve seen quite a lot of on this subject. To be clear, I am in favor of student loan forgiveness, absolutely! But I think if we frame the other side as simply being salty about, for example, having to do work (paying off loans) that someone else didn’t have to do, we miss the personal economic issue. If someone has been hoping to buy a house for ten years, while losing a great deal of their income over those years to loan payments, and then a new generation of buyers is able to enter the market at a younger age and with less debt, that first person has not only not been able to succeed thus far, but also sees a new influx of younger competition for the thing they still haven’t gotten in middle age. The problem with what I see as this straw man argument is that getting out of debt (whether from paying or from forgiveness) is not the achievement. Getting out of debt is the unfair price of admission to the market. People aren’t salty because they want others to suffer now that they themselves all better; they’re salty because they’re still suffering themselves.
Again, I’m absolutely for debt forgiveness. I just think we miss an important point if we paint others as petulant rather than suffering.

Which, like, yeah some people I guess may think that way about it, but that does not mean that the country is not literally overflowing with horrifically selfish assholes, which jokes like this are created about. I was surprised that she almost seems to be advocating that all these people don't think the same way by offering that they do all think the same way, just from a different motivation.

You really only have to be on Twitter for like an hour to see that people absolutely deserve to be the butt of jokes like this.

[Dr. Medulla]

I have a friend who has this to say about people who complain about loan forgiveness:

This kind of hits a straw man I’ve seen quite a lot of on this subject. To be clear, I am in favor of student loan forgiveness, absolutely! But I think if we frame the other side as simply being salty about, for example, having to do work (paying off loans) that someone else didn’t have to do, we miss the personal economic issue. If someone has been hoping to buy a house for ten years, while losing a great deal of their income over those years to loan payments, and then a new generation of buyers is able to enter the market at a younger age and with less debt, that first person has not only not been able to succeed thus far, but also sees a new influx of younger competition for the thing they still haven’t gotten in middle age. The problem with what I see as this straw man argument is that getting out of debt (whether from paying or from forgiveness) is not the achievement. Getting out of debt is the unfair price of admission to the market. People aren’t salty because they want others to suffer now that they themselves all better; they’re salty because they’re still suffering themselves.
Again, I’m absolutely for debt forgiveness. I just think we miss an important point if we paint others as petulant rather than suffering.

Which, like, yeah some people I guess may think that way about it, but that does not mean that the country is not literally overflowing with horrifically selfish assholes, which jokes like this are created about. I was surprised that she almost seems to be advocating that all these people don't think the same way by offering that they do all think the same way, just from a different motivation.

You really only have to be on Twitter for like an hour to see that people absolutely deserve to be the butt of jokes like this.

Timing is never going to advantage everyone. If you served in the US military, you got a huge advantage going to university, getting a business loan, and a mortgage (the GI Bill). If you were a Boomer, going to university was dirt cheap and it wasn't unreasonable to emerge with no debt and a good job. My college education seems stupidly cheap now, but didn't at the time. Just because a political event doesn't benefit you due to timing doesn't mean it's not a good idea. People who are carping ignore historical circumstances that advantaged them. They're refusing to admit that they're fundamentally selfish assholes.

[Kory]

I have a friend who has this to say about people who complain about loan forgiveness:

This kind of hits a straw man I’ve seen quite a lot of on this subject. To be clear, I am in favor of student loan forgiveness, absolutely! But I think if we frame the other side as simply being salty about, for example, having to do work (paying off loans) that someone else didn’t have to do, we miss the personal economic issue. If someone has been hoping to buy a house for ten years, while losing a great deal of their income over those years to loan payments, and then a new generation of buyers is able to enter the market at a younger age and with less debt, that first person has not only not been able to succeed thus far, but also sees a new influx of younger competition for the thing they still haven’t gotten in middle age. The problem with what I see as this straw man argument is that getting out of debt (whether from paying or from forgiveness) is not the achievement. Getting out of debt is the unfair price of admission to the market. People aren’t salty because they want others to suffer now that they themselves all better; they’re salty because they’re still suffering themselves.
Again, I’m absolutely for debt forgiveness. I just think we miss an important point if we paint others as petulant rather than suffering.

Which, like, yeah some people I guess may think that way about it, but that does not mean that the country is not literally overflowing with horrifically selfish assholes, which jokes like this are created about. I was surprised that she almost seems to be advocating that all these people don't think the same way by offering that they do all think the same way, just from a different motivation.

You really only have to be on Twitter for like an hour to see that people absolutely deserve to be the butt of jokes like this.

Timing is never going to advantage everyone. If you served in the US military, you got a huge advantage going to university, getting a business loan, and a mortgage (the GI Bill). If you were a Boomer, going to university was dirt cheap and it wasn't unreasonable to emerge with no debt and a good job. My college education seems stupidly cheap now, but didn't at the time. Just because a political event doesn't benefit you due to timing doesn't mean it's not a good idea. People who are carping ignore historical circumstances that advantaged them. They're refusing to admit that they're fundamentally selfish assholes.

Yeah it's weird that she says she supports forgiveness, but that we should basically mollycoddle the people complaining.

[Dr. Medulla]

I have a friend who has this to say about people who complain about loan forgiveness:

This kind of hits a straw man I’ve seen quite a lot of on this subject. To be clear, I am in favor of student loan forgiveness, absolutely! But I think if we frame the other side as simply being salty about, for example, having to do work (paying off loans) that someone else didn’t have to do, we miss the personal economic issue. If someone has been hoping to buy a house for ten years, while losing a great deal of their income over those years to loan payments, and then a new generation of buyers is able to enter the market at a younger age and with less debt, that first person has not only not been able to succeed thus far, but also sees a new influx of younger competition for the thing they still haven’t gotten in middle age. The problem with what I see as this straw man argument is that getting out of debt (whether from paying or from forgiveness) is not the achievement. Getting out of debt is the unfair price of admission to the market. People aren’t salty because they want others to suffer now that they themselves all better; they’re salty because they’re still suffering themselves.
Again, I’m absolutely for debt forgiveness. I just think we miss an important point if we paint others as petulant rather than suffering.

Which, like, yeah some people I guess may think that way about it, but that does not mean that the country is not literally overflowing with horrifically selfish assholes, which jokes like this are created about. I was surprised that she almost seems to be advocating that all these people don't think the same way by offering that they do all think the same way, just from a different motivation.

You really only have to be on Twitter for like an hour to see that people absolutely deserve to be the butt of jokes like this.

Timing is never going to advantage everyone. If you served in the US military, you got a huge advantage going to university, getting a business loan, and a mortgage (the GI Bill). If you were a Boomer, going to university was dirt cheap and it wasn't unreasonable to emerge with no debt and a good job. My college education seems stupidly cheap now, but didn't at the time. Just because a political event doesn't benefit you due to timing doesn't mean it's not a good idea. People who are carping ignore historical circumstances that advantaged them. They're refusing to admit that they're fundamentally selfish assholes.

Yeah it's weird that she says she supports forgiveness, but that we should basically mollycoddle the people complaining.

Assuming she's sincere about debt forgiveness, she's on a fool's errand of assuaging the antisocial bitterness of assholes. You can be bitter about conditions and still care about others. That isn't these people.

[JennyB]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

[Flex]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

It's like the baby jesus said: better to let 1000 children starve than make 1 persecuted trans person's life slightly less miserable.

[JennyB]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

It's like the baby jesus said: better to let 1000 children starve than make 1 persecuted trans person's life slightly less miserable.

Right? THIS IS ALSO A SHAMELESS PLUG TO FOLLOW MY WORK TWITTER ACCOUNT.

[Dr. Medulla]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

Remember when Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative"? Could anyone on the right survive saying that now? The base would destroy them just for the rhetoric.

[JennyB]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

Remember when Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative"? Could anyone on the right survive saying that now? The base would destroy them just for the rhetoric.

Yep. They would eat him alive now and call him a RINO.

[Dr. Medulla]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

Remember when Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative"? Could anyone on the right survive saying that now? The base would destroy them just for the rhetoric.

Yep. They would eat him alive now and call him a RINO.

Maybe a decade ago, a (ex?)conservative historian named Geoffrey Kabaservice wrote a book about conservatism since the 1950s. One of his arguments is that one of its engines has been the consistent redefinition of who is a true conservative. In the 1950s, it was William F. Buckley declaring Eisenhower to be, in essence, a RINO. For the next 60 years (now 70), the definition of conservative gets narrower and further to the right, making solid conservatives from ten or twenty years ago heretics. It's momentum borne of a need to seek out the impure and purge, and the only way to keep it up is by changing the definition.

[Low Down Low]

We certainly don't want to accommodate any LGBTQ+ youth in any way, so lets let kids starve!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... user-share

Remember when Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative"? Could anyone on the right survive saying that now? The base would destroy them just for the rhetoric.

Yep. They would eat him alive now and call him a RINO.

Maybe a decade ago, a (ex?)conservative historian named Geoffrey Kabaservice wrote a book about conservatism since the 1950s. One of his arguments is that one of its engines has been the consistent redefinition of who is a true conservative. In the 1950s, it was William F. Buckley declaring Eisenhower to be, in essence, a RINO. For the next 60 years (now 70), the definition of conservative gets narrower and further to the right, making solid conservatives from ten or twenty years ago heretics. It's momentum borne of a need to seek out the impure and purge, and the only way to keep it up is by changing the definition.

I've always found that phrase "compassionate conservative" almost comically absurd and very telling, like not only do you feel the need to stress the fact that you actually do care about people but you are also quite consciously and very overtly drawing a distinction with colleagues who patently don't. In Britain they have what are called "one nation tories" which i think is basically the same thing, just with a slightly less absurd label.

[Flex]

Compassionate conservatism mostly ended up being a label to defund public education domestically and start going on "civilizing" wars abroad, best as I can tell. Today's conservatives may be upset at the pretence of doing these things to help anyone, they'd much prefer the motives be outwardly racist and classist, I suppose.