Comments on the Kingdom of Leisure: Ask Ty...November 20 [The Teabagger Question]

@ Grayman - You know I... *Door flies open - Jim ...

2009-11-21T21:32:37.166-08:00

@ Grayman - You know I...

*Door flies open - Jim Mora comes in to participate in the discussion*

Iran?

Iran?!?!

IRAN?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!

(Okay, I'm done being silly)

This Glenn Beck fella sure wants to turn our Once-Great Nation into Iranistan, doesn't he?

And this kook is a Mormon.

Don't get me started on that shit - everyone wants to freak out about Hollweird being run by the scary-scary Scientologists, and about how they're a goddamn cult and all that - the motherfucking Mormons think Ty made a deal with the devil, and he was cursed by Elohim with black skin - try and tell me that shit isn't nutty.

But seriously - I've been saying this for a long time - if the Evangelicrats/Theocrats want a nation that is bound by the principles of faith and all that - including telling people who they can or cannot marry, and they want to have free reign to run around shooting doctors who provide services for women - by all means, they should move their monkey asses to Iran with the quickness.

I don't think they'll be missed.

@Sean Glad you're enjoying parts of my rants....

2009-11-21T17:50:05.830-08:00

@Sean

Glad you're enjoying parts of my rants. :-)

Regarding my Part B I was envisioning Iran.

-Grayman

@Grayman - I've already logged thousands of p...

2009-11-21T17:19:35.632-08:00

@Grayman -

I've already logged thousands of personal hours sans electricity/roof over head/place to bathe regularly etc, so I already grok what you're riffing on - I just don't think I'm the right example for this one. Good, but not about me as much as it might be about someone who hasn't had to suffer in any way due to their own circumstances and poor choices.

As far as the second part of your riff - Part A I'll buy for a dollar. That's some tr00f is there ever was some tr00f. I'm of the opinion that these people - the ones that are so angry and forceful about their worldview/dogma - well, they're terrified to find out they might be wrong. They're terrified to come to the realization one day that it just doesn't matter, and we're all worm food/ashes on a shelf.

When you really think about all of the magnificent eye-opening moments in your own life - don't you just shudder a little bit when you think about how easily you could have spotted what switched things up for you - if only you had been open to the possibility of said revelation?

That's some shit right there.

Part B? Sheeeeeeeee-it. Don't get all Conspiracy Jones, Esquire on me now(you've been doing real good thus far!) - next thing you know you'll be pointing me to some Alex Jones/Infowars/Disinfo shit, right?

That's as kooky as the people who believed Castaneda was trained by the CIA to conduct mind control experiments in the late 60s - early 70s. Dude was just a weird little anthropologist who had a magical way with his tongue that made ladies drop their entire lives to chill with him. Well - that and the peyote.

I gotta thank you, though - this is some good shit.

Yes, s-a-c-r-e-d. I'm a terrible editor. Sry...

2009-11-20T15:35:34.099-08:00

Yes, s-a-c-r-e-d.

I'm a terrible editor.

Sry.

^^^Ty needs an editor, Maniyer Mark. I'm sure...

2009-11-20T15:31:39.306-08:00

^^^Ty needs an editor, Maniyer Mark. I'm sure that joke-fail was "sacred." Doy!

Ty said "scared scrolls of Twitter" (as ...

2009-11-20T15:21:39.485-08:00

Ty said "scared scrolls of Twitter" (as opposed to "sacred") intentionally, didn'tcha, Ty?

Fear and fiction...

@Sean Quote: "That being said - why haven&#...

2009-11-20T15:14:45.230-08:00

@Sean

Quote: "That being said - why haven't we EVOLVED as a populace? Why are the people who are being the loudest the people who are "the fringe element?"

Regarding evolving...

Some parts of the world have evolved other have not. The world moves at different speeds.

Take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Think about how YOU, in U.S. modern day society fulfill those needs.

Now remove electricity, running water, and make it so you can only travel on foot.

Now ask yourself how do you meet the requirements of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

Bingo -- with tribalism and stories.

Next... Loud people on the fringe element.

These people are either:

A. Scared of what they interpret as their world changing i.e. loss of control.

B. Folks WAY up there in the Religious or Governnment heirarchy and use Religon as a tool to control the population and to get the population to focus elsewhere i.e. "Our God says to hate the U.S. so we should do so! Additionally you should hate the U.S. because while you are busy doing that you won't notice me and my Religious / Government cronies being corrupt and hooking up with prostitutes and behaving in a way totally counter to all of the religious beliefs that I force upon you."

-Grayman

^^^Greatest Story Ever Told. Snap!

2009-11-20T14:51:55.213-08:00

^^^Greatest Story Ever Told.

Snap!

@Grayman & @Ty - EXCELLENT. The Bible - at ...

2009-11-20T14:51:07.874-08:00

@Grayman & @Ty -

EXCELLENT.

The Bible - at least the OG Testament, is nothing more than The Torah having been cold-jacked from The Tribe Of Abraham. The Torah, IMHO, is just the written history of said tribe - with some of the stories that were told amongst the tribe being thrown in for good measure - like a Philip Roth novel, minus all the emotional puppetry and self-deprecation.

That being said - why haven't we EVOLVED as a populace? Why are the people who are being the loudest the people who are "the fringe element?"

"Common sense is not so common." - Voltaire

@Grayman: "...need to be looked at in the co...

2009-11-20T14:44:48.557-08:00

@Grayman:

"...need to be looked at in the context of the time in which they were written."

Right! Shouldn't that like the most obvious thing ever? You make an incredible point. Exactly.

Oh, and also the fact that they are largely fiction.

I guess people will worship the scared scrolls of Twitter in the future.

@Sean Food for thought... IMHO all of these sa...

2009-11-20T14:42:26.901-08:00

@Sean

Food for thought...

IMHO all of these sacred texts (Bible / Koran / Whatever) need to be looked at in the context of the time in which they were written.

I believe they were all intended as manuals of how to successfully live within a tribe.

"Cheat on your wife? You're going to hell."

"Thou shall not kill."

Rules like that help keep a society in line.

"Eat with one hand wipe your ass with another."

"Don't eat pork."

Understanding how hygiene and food preparation worked back in the days of yore I think that was good advice too.

At the end of the day I would say Religion is about control more then about fear -- though fear is used as a tool to enhance / ensure control occurs.

-Grayman

RR to KOKO- get the chimp off your shoulder.

2009-11-20T14:22:43.253-08:00

RR to KOKO- get the chimp off your shoulder.

Oh, Sky Cake. Patton Oswalt on religion: http://w...

2009-11-20T14:16:16.095-08:00

Oh, Sky Cake.

Patton Oswalt on religion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmzeY65voe0

LOLOLTEEHEE

When I was younger/so much younger than today... ...

2009-11-20T13:53:39.221-08:00

When I was younger/so much younger than today...

I was rigid in oppositions to all religions and considered anyone with an organized faith to be a mope and a rube. Including loved ones.

Religion just does not calculate in any way, shape, or form. It's a scam and I'm surprised that everyone doesn't know it.

I now further understand human weakness and vulnerabilities. Maybe I'm too forgiving anymore. Dunno.

But I can no longer immediately and automatically label all "believers" as a rube and a mope. Why? Because we vary in our levels of fear (of the unknown), intelligence, upbringing, and expectations. We are all not enlightened or self-actualized; just some of us - the cultural intelligentsia.

I'm not ashamed of the label: Cultural Elitist. Yeah? So? What's the problem.

But, us elitists are generally not the types to yap on and on about our "belief structure" and about "traditional values" and made-up bullshit. We think therefore we advance without dwelling on the past.

I know, I'm a softie. Maybe Mr. Softie. But I do not waiver in my beliefs nor my superiority complex.

^^^Oh shits! Mr. Show to the rescue!

2009-11-20T13:51:54.248-08:00

^^^Oh shits! Mr. Show to the rescue!

Religion http://bit.ly/6VshnG

2009-11-20T13:41:53.718-08:00

Religion
http://bit.ly/6VshnG

Holy Shit - I'm about to sort of agree with Th...

2009-11-20T13:32:51.542-08:00

Holy Shit - I'm about to sort of agree with The Grayman!

(Actually - I usually agree with a lot of what Grayman posts, which is kind of interesting to me - seeing as how I am a Liberal Pinko ex-Military Guy)

ANYWAYS...

I am The Ghost Of Thomas Jefferson(Not Necessarily Stoned, But Beautiful). I sent this "Ask Ty!" in for a bunch of different reasons - one of which, has totally NOT been discussed amongst all y'all(which is a schtikel disappointing, I might add) -

Why aren't Regular Joe Christian organizations standing up and making Public Statements to distance themselves from this pigeon-holing going on?

I'm not religious, but I have spent plenty of my time buried in religious thought/study. And I am curious - like MAD CURIOUS - as to why Regular Joe Christians are allowing this to taint the rest of the country's view on their religion. I mean - post 9/11, almost every single Muslim-based group in the country was completely avalanched in by a wave of bullshit from all comers. And really? It's still happening to them. I see it every day here in NYC - big, tough construction worker types making odd faces when they see a woman rocking a burqa and working the Halal food stand outside the work site. You know what I am talking about, because almost every single one of us HAVE BEEN GUILTY OF THIS.

As The Grayman so verily put it - "People who need to be scared (or hate or whatever) will always find a reason to be scared (or hate or whatever)."

Religion is about fear.

Let's get right out into the middle of Front Street, shall we? Religion is a construct, created by men and women thousands of years ago, to ease us into the psychological reality that death is imminent. It's a con-game. Sure - each one of these religions has some really powerful and sometimes even beautiful ideas behind them, morals and what-have-you. But ultimately - it's just people either being born into it with no choice by their Parental Units(who are our own Gods & Goddesses for us when we are nothing but little grunyon, looking for guidance), or it is a choice that was made.

All of these crazy people using religion as a suit of armor to act a fool? That's just motherfuckers being too insecure to stand up and say how they feel about shit - a bunch of people not taking emotional responsibility for their actions/reactions/feelings.

Fear runs this world. Fear puts votes in boxes. Fear puts the money in the collection plates. Fear puts stories on the news. Fear puts a gun in some dithering moron's hand outside of an abortion clinic in Kansas.

I'm not some Hitchens Disciple, either. I'm a straight-up, dyed-in-the-wool, lunatic Taoist freak. I think people should be able to believe whatever the fuck they want to believe - AS LONG AS PEOPLE DO NOT DIE FROM THE DIFFERENCES.

Anyway. Yeah. So - I'm Sean. That's me.

I'm right here - seeking wisdom.

I also agree with Koko The Gorilla - that shit RR posted was totally racist.

At least they can't contain themselves from co...

2009-11-20T13:12:39.063-08:00

At least they can't contain themselves from covering their cars, t-shirts, etc. with their propaganda. Sure, they're crazy, but easily identifiable. They love this little team they have, right or left, so they love to make themselves visible to their brethren.

I think one of the most relevant contributions I c...

2009-11-20T13:04:28.050-08:00

I think one of the most relevant contributions I can make to this already excellent and humourous post is this:
You mentioned "Joe Christian" and contextually imply that he is somehow better than extremist crazies. I think you should take it a step further - I assert that ANYONE who considers themselves a "religious moderate" but believes in heaven/hell, talking snakes, winged horses, burning bushes or any other religious mumbo-jumbo is just as crazy as the guys who flew those planes into those buildings, for the simple reason that their beliefs are manifestly UNTRUE. The problem with religious moderates is that they act as a shield, protecting extremists from thoughtful and critical discourse on matters of faith. In our society it has become taboo to criticize someone's religious beliefs, and most religious folk will say that it's only fair that we show some tolerance towards the beliefs of others. Well I got news for you wing-nuts: your belief that you will go to heaven for your unwavering faith while infidels such as myself will roast for all eternity in Satan's hibachi for our unbelief doesn't sound too damned tolerant to me. And (insert-your-god's-name-here) help you if you try to reject the religious beliefs of others in a theocracy like Pakistan... You're likely to be stoned to death for heresy. What is this, the Dark Ages? Well, I suppose if Electro, flannel plaid shirts and skinny jeans can make a comeback, then the days of religious persecution can too!

Hallefuckin'lujah.

^^^Koko FTW!

2009-11-20T12:03:14.374-08:00

^^^Koko FTW!

People who need to be scared (or hate or whatever)...

2009-11-20T11:52:43.348-08:00

People who need to be scared (or hate or whatever) will always find a reason to be scared (or hate or whatever).

IMHO it has always been this way.

The only reason why we think there are more scared (or haters or whatever) folks today then in the days of yore is because the interwebs give everyone a voice -- which is both liberating and saddening at the same time.

-Grayman

@RR - U R RACIST TOWARD GORILLAS. I WILL MAKE PICT...

2009-11-20T11:29:22.427-08:00

@RR - U R RACIST TOWARD GORILLAS. I WILL MAKE PICTURE OF U. U WILL BE SAD.

the SCIENCE and DATA of psychology and biology say...

2009-11-20T10:34:43.058-08:00

the SCIENCE and DATA of psychology and biology says we don't get out of this human predicament.

we most likely destroy ourselves and the planet before the sun has a chance to expand.

^^^Old Skool I don't think we got here. I th...

2009-11-20T10:24:23.197-08:00

^^^Old Skool

I don't think we got here. I think we've always been here (see: witch trials; slavery; 19th Century anti-Irish sentiment; 19th Century anti-Chinese sentiment; 19th Century anti-Italian sentiment; Spanish-American War; the Klan; Senator McCarthy; and so on).

The real question is why can't we get out of here?