Though I consider myself an individual my stance on things in the current day and age will get me lumped on the RIGHT with regard to the Overton window. In fact anyone that disagrees with me won't call me the right they will immediately call me the Alt-Right since that seems to be the default label they put anyone that disagrees with them. I don't hear them speak of the Right anymore. If you think about it the Right doesn't exist as far as the Leftists are concerned. Only the alternative right seems to exist. Yet if they view everyone that they don't like as alt-right then what exactly is it the alternative to? It is just more propaganda and social Marxist word and meaning destruction.
With that said I talk daily to a lot of people lumped in the same category. A large majority of them identify as Christians. I am okay with this as I think if people actually practiced the teachings proposed by Christ the world would be a pretty peaceful place. There is a problem though. That is dogma. It is also only following something when it is convenient.
Right now the Leftists are pushing great evil, after evil upon the people of the world. You don't have to be a Christian to see it. I know this because I am a Deist. I do believe in a creator. I simply don't view revelations, and books as the word of God. To me they are the word of man. Does that mean I do not see value in them? Absolutely not. There are great moral teachings, and there are great historical stories. For me the word of God is found in observing reality around us. That reality is vast. It is so vast we are constantly discovering new wonders. It transcends any ability to define it in simple human words. It also doesn't seem to change because we write down some words. Reality still keeps doing what it does. Kind of reality telling us "Facts don't care about your feelings." I don't have any priests to tell me what I should believe. I do not have any commandments. The recipe I follow is "Observe and use reason."
With that said. I am fine with people being Christian. Yet I say if you claim to be Christian then be one. Don't decide to be one only when it is convenient.
I am no racist.
I try not to be a bigot yet all of us have things we personally dislike. I simply try to keep from acting on them. In fact, I tend to hold the Golden Rule as one of my core operating principles.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
A lot of people seem to forget this one. I personally think it is one of the most important ones. It actually predates the bible with examples similar to it found going way back into ancient Egypt.
How do people typically fail with regard to this rule from my observation?
They instead tend to fall into "Treat people the way they are treating you."
That can easily be flipped by replacing an action with it as follows:
Treat people evil the way they are treating you evil.
That just results in more and more evil in the world. It is a very slippery slope. It is also not very Christian.
Why do I keep harping on the Christian thing?
So many people I interact with and view as on my side view themselves as Christians. Some of my close family members are Christians. I was raised Christian.
Though historically there have been horrible things done in the name of Christianity. We have it done by people that consider themselves Christians on the LEFT. We also had Christians on the RIGHT doing it in the lockdowns.
In the above tweet we have a Reverend pushing racism. This is not unusual. When we forget the Golden Rule this is often a path we will go down when we identify ourselves or our flock as the victim.
Yet, that is ignoring the teachings in the bible. Just in case you missed them in the references above. See Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 as reference.
We end up with Witch Hunts, Inquisitions, and Genocides when we begin the journey on this slippery slope.
Do you recall that example I provided above as "Treat people evil the way they are treating you evil?"
Well let's instead apply the Golden Rule here.
"Treat people good the way you want to be treated good."
This is a very different thing.
Now there have been particular narratives that keep coming up that I see as very dangerous and the so-called right getting ready to start barreling down that slippery slope.
Great evil
There is a great amount of evil in the world right now. Some very evil acts have been pushed and the perpetrators walk free. There are also a very large number of people that have been duped by some evil people. They have been coerced, and lied to. They often reacted in obedience and fear and did as they were told.
COVID-19, Climate Change, and so many other excuses are being used to push a great amount of evil upon people.
A lot of people have died due to these actions, and we know a very large amount of additional people are going to die. Among these people that will likely die there will be a lot of those that were duped and lied into the path they followed.
Some of them are asking to be forgiven...
This is where the slippery slope begins.
I see people on my side saying.
There will be no forgiveness.
That is not the golden rule.
I am also one of those innocent until proven guilty advocates. While I do certainly think there are some people that should be executed for their actions in this situation I do think everyone needs to be treated "innocent until proven guilty". There are some that their guilt is blatant and known by the world at large at this point.
Yet a person who is lied to, coerced, and driven by fear is in my mind innocent once they admit they are wrong. There are those that may admit it but will still push the same lies and forcing of other people on other issues. Those I do not consider innocent because their actions show they are not willing to change their ways.
On the right there is a label we like to use.
Red Pill
If a person is forever damned and cannot be forgiven then the red pill would not work.
If a person stops being a puppet and begins to think for themselves they often become a strong ally. They often act as the rock that leads to a rock slide as they wake up other people.
Without forgiveness we become evil.
Motivation not to forgive
I do understand why people might not want to forgive. They don't want to get stabbed in the back. They don't want their water and food supply to be poisoned by the trojan horse they naively chose to forgive.
Yes. It is a risk. Life is risky.
Safe spaces don't really exist. Reality doesn't care about our labels.
I know that turning the other cheek, and forgiveness are both a risk.
Yet what type of world would it be if we are on the slippery slope where anyone that achieved a little power could eradicate anyone that had some past transgression they disagreed with.
Do we condemn people for being lied to? Do we condemn people for acting in fear based upon lies?
I say people cannot be treated as forever damned.
If you go that route then ultimately you are no better than those you are condemning. For you are treating them the way they are treating you rather than following the golden rule.
You also are not much of a Christian if you profess to be as Christianity is big on the road to redemption and being forgiven. It simply requires that you truly repent and change.
Escape Hatch
I know a lot of so-called Christians will have stopped listening to me the moment I said I was not a Christian. I am not alone in my beliefs. Thomas Jefferson was a Deist. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was our 3rd President in the United States. He was a Vice President before that. Thomas Payne was a Deist. He wrote "Common Sense" which set fire to the minds of the people during the Revolutionary War. He was loved by all for awhile, including people in other nations. I say for awhile because when he wrote "Age of Reason" which was basically a writing on Deism a lot of people turned on him.
I don't view bibles as the word of God. I still view them as wise, and with value.
It is ironic that I often follow the teachings of Christ better than the majority of Christians I encounter and yet I do not consider myself a Christian.
I simply think the guidelines are wise, and a good way to live. I am particularly fond of the Golden Rule as is evidenced by this article.
I have one parting thing I want to add to this. It is the teeter totter image that keeps entering my head.
The Teeter Totter
There is a lot of US vs THEM mentality. It is putting the world into an inescapable dichotomy. It is putting people on a teeter totter with one person on one side and the other side on the other. The teeter totter goes up and down.
If we were to consider up as those perpetrating acts of evil/aggression, and down as those that are viewed as the victims in the situation I see a pattern.
Eventually those down push. Then they go up and the other side goes down.
This creates an unending cycle of attacker and victim. I think we need to view this as a false dichotomy and choose to get off of the teeter totter.
That is actually what the golden rule does. It allows you to step out of that cycle.
If you instead treat people the way you are being treated you are very much on that teeter totter and trapped in that cycle.
This applies to a lot of things... I gave some examples above.
Yet it also applies to racism.
I've said for years "You can't defeat racism with racism", "You can't defeat bigotry with bigotry".
You also can't really get off of that teeter totter if you always choose to view the world as US versus THEM.
If you want to escape this there is one simple rule that can help you avoid this entire mess. It is perhaps the most important rule I know of.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
If you don't understand that phrasing. It also can be said as.
Treat people the way you want to be treated.
Treat them how you WANT to be treated, NOT how they are actually treating you. If you treat them the way they treat you then if it is evil you will be adding more evil to the world.
