so the thing you have to keep in mind about conservative political thought is, uh... a lot of the time they do not actually abide by what the bible teaches. 

you can get just about any stance out of the bible if you try hard enough. everything from “kings are the only stable form of government” vs. “all people are equal in the sight of god”, “slavery is an abomination” vs. “slavery is the moral and correct thing to do”, “vengeance is the Lord’s” vs. “it’s okay to order bears to tear children to death if they mock you for being bald...”

conservatives are all about social power and appeals to authority. the bible has been an authority in western culture for donkey’s years. they naturally take it as authoritative, but a lot of conservatives haven’t actually read the entire thing cover to cover, and a lot more have only read it with their preacher’s ... interesting interpretations in mind.

most conservatives intuitively believe that the death penalty is Right and Good, because people should get what they deserve. if someone is Gross, they deserve to be punished. if someone is sufficiently evil, they deserve to die. this is a core part of their belief system and would be such regardless of their religion-- alt-righters often share this belief, for example, and they’re mostly atheists.*

and since religious conservatives look at the bible more as a source of authority/a justification for their own social power, rather than a work of literature that deserves to be analysed on its own merits, most of them believe that the bible confirms the things they believe. 

if they believe, for example, that slavery is bad, they expect the bible to say that slavery is bad, regardless of what the book of philemon would tell you. if they believe that abortion is murder, they expect the bible to say that abortion is murder, and would be shocked to learn that the bible gives you instructions on how to perform an abortion under certain circumstances.

if you tell an ultra-christian conservative that, actually, the bible is suuuuper anti-death penalty, they will look at you as if you’ve sprouted an extra head. the bible is their Authority. it exists to confirm the things they already believe. if they believe it, it’s in the bible, and vice versa.

Wait, what the hell? "Deboer knowingly makes false claims about rape to defame someone" didnt even make it onto my radar. That is way more intense than I expected that link to be.

You’re not the first person I’ve seen to have this reaction, but I can’t say that’s mine. deBoer repeatedly described his mental health situation in very dire terms. If you ever read him on twitter, he was extremely antagonistic and personal (and took things personally.) He once wrote a really good blog post in response to someone he knew favorited a tweet that was mean to him.

I made peace that I could appreciate his abstract writing and cultural commentary, while finding him personally very unhinged (and also I could have sympathy for the pain and anxiety he was constantly in.)

I have never stopped struggling with this, and its sort of a relief to see someone state the issue so clearly.

i think the biggest thing is that you can’t.. tell someone I didn’t fail you

sometimes there’s nothing you can do.  sometimes every action you can take may have a worse result.  but however someone wants to judge you, personally, that is their right.  and that’s.. okay.  

"When a house is both hungry and awake, every room becomes a mouth."

Alexi doesn't seem to have been a rat, though. Afaik, he's religious and found rationalists through Lea?

NB: mobile display sometimes eats hyperlinks while retaining text. It didn’t for me here, but it’s a thing to consider if they subvert your overall meaning.

That Is Mean And Bad Of Tumblr

Isn't this a fairly universal state for protest movements? It's not like Jack Weinberg and Abbie Hoffman thought they would never turn 30, but they said "don't trust..." anyway.