That’s what I thought church was all about when I was a little kid. By the age of 8 I knew it was a boatload of crap as there were more mean people in church than nice and friendly ones. Even when they introduced 360 degree handshaking, it still felt contrived.
I learned at a very young age that church’s real purpose is to make shitty people feel better about themselves.
360° handshaking? Wut?
Yeah. One day in the middle of mass everyone started shaking hands with the person on their right, pew ahead, their left and pew behind. It freaked me out the first time I experienced it. All of the pained smiles. This started in early to mid seventies. I don’t know if they still do it. It was a small town roman catholic venue.
That sounds like stepford wife shit. Sorry you had to deal with it.
We gotta take care of our own! No no not like that!
Yeah if we could track every dollar of my taxes and exactly where its going, that’d be awesome. But we already know where its going in america- war and politicians pockets.
I do mind, actually. In that I specifically want my taxes to go to that rather than going to more bombs for genociding Palestinians.
rather than going to more bombs for genociding Palestinians
Got it. Who shall we genocide instead? /s
Absolutely, absolutely.
Okay what about a diversity initiative to fight antisemitism (in in the brains of young children and structurally in hospitals)?
Structurally in hospitals? I don’t see what hospitals have to do with anti semitism
Well, the structures themselves are clearly hamas, all hospitals. Everywhere. So they must be destroyed. Or are you an antisemite?
I do mind if they’re spent subsidizing Walmart’s shit paay
If you house the homeless they are no longer homeless so you can’t house them so they become homeless and then you need to house them and then they are no longer homeless so you can’t house them and then they become….
Sorry, got in a little loop there. Point being, taking care of people is ok. That’s what money is for. Even after the acute need has passed.
Every single study shows that it is economically cheaper to house the homeless. You literally save money. Less costs needed for policing, health care, social services and all that stuff.
But without the threat of homelessness nobody will work for me for what I want to pay them with how I want to treat them!
Ah! But! Then you create a more functional society with less inequality and greater overall stability! An economy less prone to outlandish bubbles the wealthy can exploit to get even wealthier! Even positive trends in medical outcomes for the population at large!
Plus all those poor cops you’ve put out of a job! Those are good union jobs, man!
So there are trade-offs!
Well tough tits, they’re going to killing brown children and making rich people more rich and you’ll like it or you’ll make them rich from within the modern slave system.
“But what about the tax subsidies for billionaires? Won’t someone think of the billionaires for once?”
I’d much much rather my taxes go to taking care of people than to cruelty.
I’m probably paraphrasing someone famous but the quality of a society is measured by the way it treats the vulnerable.
Some people would feed 99 people who don’t need it if it meant feeding 1 person who did. Other people would refuse to feed 99 people who need it if it also means feeding 1 person who doesn’t.
We call that second group republican.
Perfection being the enemy of good. But in reality, it isn’t about the lack of perfection, it’s about selfishness.
“I don’t mind” is far too passive.
I want my taxes to benefit the people on the streets far, far more than the wealthy.
I don’t want people to go hungry or be homeless because one day I could be hungry or homeless through no fault of my own.
Unless of course they voted for people who don’t think that way. I don’t want to help anyone not willing to help someone else.
In fact, I insist.
The fact that people would rather see their taxes bomb a brown person’s house instead of building 10 is sickening.
It’s somehow simultaneously terrible economic management and terrible ethical management. There’s just no upside to anyone but the Military Industrial Complex which funds the politicians. I really wish more people could understand that.
