231–240 of 323 posts
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It's also something more tangible for non-geeks than other revelations so more likely to provoke a public reaction. "GHCQ has pics of your teenage daughter ..."
Dear lord, wait until the Daily Mail cops on to that one.
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I'd wager that this is one reason homosexuality has been held as taboo for so long: it can be weaponized against your enemies for leverage and power.
It is no accident that socially conservative ideologies are correlated with right-wing / authoritarian politics. It is such an age-old instrument of manipulation and control that I am tempted to believe that it is innate and ingrained into our biology.
yes, it is part of our species favoring r-selection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory
(progressives are the ones who favor K-selection)
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How do you propose? Political action has been ineffective so far.
Has there been any political action in the UK yet? I'm American and hadn't heard of any British politicians speaking out against GCHQ.
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Jesus' ministry replaced all previous commandments. Something Christians have forgotten and an agnostic has to constantly remind them of.
That. As an atheist from an "orthodox Christian" background (as opposed to protestant, baptist or the catholic church), I cannot really understand why people who call themselves Christians even quote the Bible, and seemingly only awful anachronistic parts, as opposed to the New Tastement. Perhaps they should call themselves "Mosians"?
That wasn't what I was taught in my particular brand of Christianity, but having read the book I can totally see where other denominations pick it up. They aren't hallucinating or imagining hateful things in that book, it's all in there, ready to be reinforced or erased and excused, depending on which particular interpretation you take.
I think that reading the bible and coming to the conclusion that the god described in it hates homosexuality (among any number of other things) and that Jesus did not reverse those prejudices is perfectly reasonable. It's also somewhat reasonable (though far less so I think) to take away the idea that the Christian god is genuinely all loving and that Jesus absolved that god of all of it's sins (wasn't he suppose to do that for humanity instead? But it seems like he is most often invoked to absolve the christian god of his sins...).
(That of course isn't to say that I believe the sort of hateful Christianity seen prominently in certain parts of America (and other parts of the world) is acceptable. While I think their interpretation of the Bible is reasonable, I think it is _unreasonable_ for them to believe the Bible is divinely inspired, or that the god they read from those pages is worthy of being worshiped.)
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Jesus' ministry replaced all previous commandments. Something Christians have forgotten and an agnostic has to constantly remind them of.
Matthew 5:17. The Bible can be made to say anything.
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I don't know, that seems like a tautology - the only reason it can be weaponized against your enemies is because it's taboo.
Charlie Stross features a gay couple in one of his novels, and one of the conditions of their employment for a top secret government office is that they must be explicitly out about their homosexuality - one attends a Pride Parade once a year in order to comply with these regulations. I thought it was a pretty clever idea.
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Jesus' ministry replaced all previous commandments. Something Christians have forgotten and an agnostic has to constantly remind them of.
To be more accurate, Jesus' ministry and teaching was a fulfillment of the law (the previous commandments) and the Old Testament, not a replacement. The law is still a valuable resource for Christians in understanding the character and holiness of God, among other things. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Jesus speaking in Matthew…
-- Top comment on Reddit [0]: 'This clearly violates both EU and British law. It's simple: Parliament and the CPS can no longer ignore GCHQ's abuses and the entirely inadequate 'oversight' regime of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Brooks et al. go on trial for allegedly hacking celebrities' voicemail messages, but Cabinet ministers walk free after approving secret suspicion-less dragnet recording of millions…
I just wanted to point out that (from their mobile sites) I couldn't find a single story about this on CNN, FoxNews or MSNBC. (4:36pm CST)
Last time I made a fuss about the media I had Godwin's law and Occam's Razor cited in replies/counters as why bias in the press is purely organic in nature. As this story has 1800+ comments on the Guardian, reached the top of Reddit (before it was removed) and is here at the top of HN, I would say that the fact that there is barely (or 'no') coverage of this story points to an invisible hand. To clarify: I didn't say "reporting" I said "coverage."
To not milk what is the most sensational story of the year is against the very link-baity nature of these companies. While I don't watch cable news - I might be VERY wrong in that arena, but something tells me I'm not. I can't attempt to understand the forces at play, but they are there.
In other related (under-covered) news: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/24/what-was-fcc-news...
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Dear lord, wait until the Daily Mail cops on to that one.
They'd love it; Any opportunity to print borderline inappropriate pictures of scantily clad teenage girls.
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I'd wager that this is one reason homosexuality has been held as taboo for so long: it can be weaponized against your enemies for leverage and power.
It is no accident that socially conservative ideologies are correlated with right-wing / authoritarian politics. It is such an age-old instrument of manipulation and control that I am tempted to believe that it is innate and ingrained into our biology.
Now you are just being silly. The USSR sent homosexuals to the gulags. China considered homosexuality to be a mental illness up 'til 2002, it is only when they started to become capitalist that they relaxed! In the UK it is the right-wing Tories that are bringing in gay marriage.
Attitudes towards homosexuality are simply not correlated with left-right politics.