That’s why I said ‘regular people’. Non-fascists, non-extremists. People who may not be protesting but who are watching news clips.
Historically, though they may not protest themselves, they don’t have much tolerance for violence against peaceful protesters, and that’s what brings these movements mainstream.
The whispered part of that is that members should run for office; that way they have the power to make laws conform to their ideology. I was surprised by the number of Mormons in Congress. They’re pretty over-represented for the population they represent.
That’s true, but trump is transactional. He and Giuliani were selling them for 2 million a pop. How many military regulars can afford one? Why should trump care to pardon them if they can’t give him something?
If I was rank-and-file, I wouldn’t take that bet.
Yes, I agree with all of this. A major reason the civil rights movement in the 60s was effective was because the majority of regular people couldn’t stomach seeing police brutality against peaceful protestors, so the movement became mainstream.
Images like this mobilised people:
But still, leave your phone at home, bring milk, wear a cup, and don’t talk if they arrest you.
I’m not advocating for violence, but safety – and this is doubly important if you bring your kids.
e: and for any defeatists, note that smaller protests had been happening for many years prior to that photo. Community, then city, then state, then national protests happened for years before the big protests that could no longer be ignored. This is not a one-and-done thing, and adding your support helps exponentially. Just paying attention at this point is helping, but we need to do more now because people are dying at a much higher rate already, and it’s about to get far worse.
On the age scale, they’re barely a blip. On the size scale, they’re massive enough to disappear people with zero accountability.
They’re a full-blown religion.
Before anyone does, don’t register for these events (I’ve seen people do this), and don’t sign up.
This is officially fascism and they will get these lists. Just go, leave your phone at home, wear an athletic cup if you have junk to protect, bring milk for pepper spray, and if you’re detained, you become a Pokémon named Lawyer.
You’re right, and that’s fair. I guess I was talking about general atheists in one breath, then the specific vocal atheists OP seemed to be talking about in another.
I shouldn’t generalise like that. Atheism is simply the lack of belief in a god – any god. And there are many gods. You can be atheistic about any of them.
Scientology is pretty new, and pretty big.
I think you’ll find vanishingly few even fervent atheists who wouldn’t be persuaded by actual evidence. I know some percentage of fervent atheists would say if real evidence of a god were presented, they wouldn’t follow it because it’s a monster (I’m in this camp), but I don’t believe any real percentage would stick their fingers in their ears and say lalalala. That’s kind of the opposite of what atheism is about. It’s literally about evidence.
You can’t really blame people who were raised in religious environments and have newly discovered intellectual freedom, though, right? Sure, they can be obnoxious sometimes, just like we all are when we learn a new thing that’s blown our minds. They’ll grow out of it, and we should have patience, like in all things.
Hilariously, many of these companies already fired staff because their execs and upper management drank the Flavor-Aid. Now they need to spend even more rehiring in local markets where word has got round.
I’m so sad for them. Look, I’m crying 😂
Pretty sure they do. They still own Clearwater, Florida (including the police department) and have a significant presence in East Grinstead, England, plus at least one mega-yacht in international waters. All they need to do is relocate you there then ‘handle’ the investigation when you come up missing.
Shelly is still missing to this day.
e: they may have toned down the crazy publicly because they were attracting too much attention, but I don’t think their power has diminished.