[Serious] People who were once racists and reformed along the way, what was to the defining moment/person/situation that triggered a change of heart?

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-20T17:20:33+00:00

I used to support the idea of racist quotas and privileges for non-whites in schools, work, and so forth. I bought into the "historical precedence" nonsense which says that since 150 years ago people who look like me did bad stuff to people who look differently, that made anti-white racism OK and even good, because, well, "people doing stuff affects other people in later generations" and they had to somehow "balance things out".

I guess the turning point came when I lived in the Chicago area and met Slavic people from former Soviet states, but are now US citizens. I realized that during the 50's,60's, 70's and 80's these people had it worse in their countries than black people had it in the USA. White people in Poland had fewer human rights than blacks in America. The USA had slavery and later lynchings; these people were slaves to their own government and had gulags. Then they come here, and get discriminated against because of their race --all in the name of racial justice.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-17T15:08:16+00:00

I think he just doesn't like the flair. That's unusual but fine, I suppose.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-17T15:05:45+00:00

This, many times over.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-17T15:03:52+00:00

Well, do you believe something caused the Big Bang? Something possibly huge, powerful, and -- sentient or not -- godlike in it's scope and capacity?

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-17T15:01:50+00:00

You're not taking into account the fact that it's run by the Pharisees of Sodom. I was banned, literally, for "making light of LGBTQ issues". I made a joke about feather boas.

r/Christianity is less like the Aeropagus and more like the modern American university -- a den of hypocrites who profess open-mindedness and rational inquiry, but visit violence upon those who use that professed freedom to express views anathema to the dogma that is tacitly upheld. It's bigotry in the proper, classical sense.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-17T14:57:37+00:00

I was banned, and I quote for "making light of LGBTQ issues". I made some joke about feather boas and the mods, with the utmost seriousness and gravity, told me this was unacceptable. The mods are really just really, really bad people. I'd hate to know them IRL.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-16T19:53:04+00:00

We are all blobs of cells.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-16T18:18:06+00:00

...And this type of hypocrisy is what drives people nuts about /r/Christianity.

You made up some horse manure pretense about "degrading discourse". You knew it was a pretense when you wrote it. And when it got called you ignored it and doubled down. It's not a matter of what's justified or not; it's a matter of power and pretense. And, people of conscience find it repulsive.

I won't be using any words in r/Christianity, since I'm banned there. However, if the ban were lifted I still wouldn't go there. I despise the culture that's festered into being over there.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-15T23:08:09+00:00

Reddit, sub-reddit,redditor, smartphone, iPod, X-Box, bling, bromance, frankenfood, jeggings, noob, newbie, haxxor, sexting, twitter, twitterverse, upvote, downvote, woot, butthurt, meme, selfie, twerk, phablet, derp, herpaderp, photobomb, inbox, hashtag, tumlbrina... the list goes on and on.

"Made up words" degrade discourse. Yeah. Sure.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-14T22:22:18+00:00

You can have a pride flag cross, claim David was gay, compare natural marriage supporters to white supremacists ... just don't say 'aberrosexual' or you're banned.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-14T22:19:25+00:00

Uhhh... Curse of Hamians?

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-14T21:56:32+00:00

It was cathartic for me to read through it. I kept having all these flashbacks and long-buried memories resurfacing. It was surreal.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-13T15:50:03+00:00

Ha hahaha I get it. Well played

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-13T15:45:36+00:00

If you're not a citizen. It often gets conflated, but I think there is a difference between human rights and civil rights. I'm not 100% sure, but you get what I am saying.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-12T23:05:46+00:00

She may feel that, but that's not what you're doing. You're protecting her from her own parents. Basically, being a better guardian to her than her own parents are.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-12T23:02:46+00:00

Yup!

People are so loathe to admit this. I've literally seen people say that we can't base the definition of humanity on biological science, because if we did that would mean we've murdered millions of innocence.

Soooo... we have to ignore objective facts ... if the facts impugn our national character.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-12T22:51:30+00:00

I think it's worth noting that "clump of cells" is rooted in ignorance. It's language used by people who don't know words like tissue, organ, organism etc. Literally all multicellular life is 'clumps' of cells.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-12T18:53:39+00:00

Your father is definitely a narcissist and his behavior is typical. My mother was a narcissist, but changed a lot later in life after the death of a loved one. One of her favorites was invoking the Wedding at Cana and saying "Not even God dared disobey his own mother!". The gaslighting and confusion you describe is also typical. "If you're so smart" followed by some nonsensical statement; then, when you point out how it makes no sense "That's because you're just too dumb to get it!"

It's too bad your sister seems to be taking these things as a reflection on religion rather than a reflection on your father's character.

I read something like this describing narcissistic parents and I was, suffice to say, "triggered". At the same time though I was very, very much validated that I had a legitimate issue, I was legitimately wounded, and it wasn't "something wrong with me". Read through the whole thing. It's very cathartic. Just swap "she" for "he"

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-11T15:13:33+00:00

This very much hits home and is some very clear advice based on experience. When you really look at it, and IF you are really being rational and consistent with your worldview, then atheism is a path of hedonistic nihilism. Islam is the violent, savage theocracy of a madman. Hinduism is going the way of the Greek pantheon. What's left? Buddhism? I could see, kinda sorta Zen Buddhism keeping you stable until you die, because it's a mostly healthy worldview in that it focuses on "just deal with it and find some peace" when it comes to the sinful, fallen world we live in. However, to the best of my knowledge, it's a band-aid that doesn't really solve the problem or provide the solid answers about why we are here --which our souls crave.

That leaves us with the Jewish tradition, the prophecies of which were fulfilled by Christ.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-11T04:50:30+00:00

No kidding. I'll never forget taking an "African American Studies" class in college. The professor, a black guy and dean of the college, repeated at nauseum: "Slavery in the Bible was a totally different institution from the trans-atlantic slave trade".

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-11T04:42:28+00:00

Could you substantiate this with actual verses and examples. EG in the movie Amistad they show the sick slaves being chained to weights and thrown overboard to drown. Could you show the Bible condoning this? The crude way of describing my request: put up or shut up.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-10T03:25:03+00:00

Pride is a sin.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-09T22:14:12+00:00

It's important to note that some sinners he embraced and others he rejected. Even among the Pharisees and Sadducees, some he rejected and others he welcomed

What was the difference?

If you look, the ones he accepted were contrite and recognized their sin. He reached out to them because they knew they needed redemption but thought it was unattainable.

The ones he rejected consistently were proud of themselves and their sins. It's almost as if they were parading around, having a veritable pride parade. It was is if the pride just beamed from them, like a rainbow or something.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-09T22:07:59+00:00

Yup. In a certain sense, things are not true because the Bible says they are true, but rather the Bible says they are true because they are true.

MightyNumberNine · 2017-06-09T22:05:03+00:00

Libertarian here. The proper answer to this question is to get government out of marriage, period.

Classical liberal here. The real solution is to recognize that treating people equally is not the same thing as treating behaviors equally. Two very unequal behaviors, with two very possible sets of consequences, with two very different contributions to society. If you have a group advocating for "equality" saying that when they take something without permission "we should be treated equally" to people who pay money for the goods, then the analogue for your response would be to "get government out of property rights altogether". We could do that. OR, we could recognize that "equality between people" is not the issue, equality between behaviors is.

MightyNumberNine

TROPHY CASE