Almost no atheists in the West are as you describe. That’s like saying Christians like those at the Westboro Baptist Church are common. Most atheists are not interested in using force to make religion disappear. Try looking at countries that are majority atheists like Iceland and Sweden, or where the biggest “religious” group is atheists like New Zealand, the Netherlands or Norway, and you will see that they are the most peaceful, lacking in corruption, socially harmonious countries on the planet.

Maybe Atheism was once the absence of an ideology, but that is not how it is expressed these days. Many of its adherents are just as militant about spreading this “absence” as any Fundamentalist Christian is about spreading his/her religion. They want to make all religion disappear completely, by force, if necessary–just like religion was made illegal in the U.S.S.R. It didn’t work, of course, and religion–and religious extremists–are back full force in Russia.

I think maybe you are right that the Left has always been authoritarian to some degree. It would certainly explain all the Vegans who want to make meat eating illegal, including the video from “Freelee the Banana Girl” on Youtube that people who eat meat should be executed. It explains why the Greens and others on the Left are so obsessed with Hillary and hate her as much or more than Trump does. It explains the post I just saw from an atheist about how he wants to eliminate even the words to describe people who aren’t atheist from the English language. I find the rise of extremism/authoritarianism on both the Right and the Left absolutely terrifying. If either group ever seizes real power, they will make life on earth unbearable, or even impossible for the rest. Not only do they hate each other, but they also hate anyone who wants to allow any freedom of speech or choice of any kind. All they seem to know is hatred.

Yeah. I think Pence is more likely one of the ones who, like the white evangelicals, think Trump was established in office by God. Whether that’s to save the country from the Devil or help bring on Armageddon who knows.

My guess is that it is both — Trump is a fool and he is causing chaos on purpose. I think he is a profoundly ignorant and incurious person who’s entire psyche and life is devoted to ruthless power games — gaining a sliver of advantage over opponents and increasing it any way possible without regard for any off the concerns that even normal psychopaths have.

He loves it when his opponents are in disarray, and his biggest and most dangerous opponent at the moment is the Republican Party. And they have been in utter disarray ever since his campaign for nomination begun.

My opinion — and I would love to be proved wrong — is that there is no way that the Republicans will impeach him. His position is now too well entrenched.

My only vaguue hope is that his political stupidity will so cripple and lame the US that his regime will do less damage to the rest of the world than he does to the US. He’s not trying to improve the poower or position of the US for the future, rather he is using it as an extension of his business. He has absolutely no stakes whatsoever in the welfare of the US, and his strategy is based on installing like-minded dictators in other countries with the help of Bannon and Putin etc. It’s really up to the people, media and politicians of other countries to rpevennt this.

It’s too late for the US. It may not be too late for the rest of us.

The thing is we don’t know whether Trump is a fool or if he is causing chaos on purpose. It does seem that Bannon is trying to bring about the fourth turning and believes bloodshed and war are inevitable. He has even said Trump may not understand what he’s being used for. I don’t know how much Pence buys into this, but it may be reason enough to hope the Reps impeach Trump sooner rather than later.

Then a fool like Trump comes along and reinforces the clash of civilisations narrative, and everyone on Fox News denies what he’s saying is a problem. “They always say that. Give me proof that ISIS is using his words.” There is proof. I’ve seen a small amount and I’ve heard reliable commentators saying they’ve seen a lot of it. I’ve already got 4 posts half written. (I keep getting distracted.) Maybe I should get diverted again and write about that and bring it to Fox’s attention!

Yep. It was to contrast with the USSR that God was put on the money and in the pledge. A recent report from Pew shows that 32% of USians think you have to be Christian to be USian. That’s an extremely high percentage compared to similar countries.

There’s nothing particularly new in that article. Western apologists are always going to exist. I can’t see that it changes anything. And terrorism is hardly a side issue with regard to the US, let alone the Muslim world. The same is true in Europe even though they have much greater issues with assimilation as well. It’s usually the other way around, we reduce the problems of terrorism to Islam, too largely ignoring our own role and therefore the actions we can take that would actually reduce it. And the real irony for those like Sam who argue the main action should be to support internal reformers of Islam, is that their efforts will only ever have a chance of success *after* we reduce Western violence and Saudi funding of radical Islamist teaching, both of which bolster terrorists claims that the West is at war with Islam, and therefore make it effectively impossible for would-be reformists to succeed.

Yes we should keep them at arms length, a bare minimum. I see now that the fear of communism a few decades ago led to this extension of fundamentalist Christianity in the US, at least one of the causes. I mean Christianity was systematecally encouraged, not being Christian was un-American and potentially commie. The regressive left nowadays causes a comparable reaction, while we haven’t even overcome the earlier ‘drive’ yet.