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Because the rich control an overwhelming amount of the media we consume. They are capable of shaping the narrative to their benefit.
They also successfully killed public education, so literally the citizens are too stupid to understand they're being conned.
This is the most important part.
And also they push religion hard which is inherently a system of control for the uneducated and exploited.
Not just control, but Christianity specifically (as well as a few others) is really good because it promises a paradise after you die.
You can get idiot plebes to spend their whole lives dreaming about it all being better after they die, because they were pious and accepted abuse during life.
So, control through fear and hope.
EDIT: Also Christianity is inherently misogynistic and that's very appealing to disaffected young men who hate that women won't fuck them. Angry young men with no direction or group to belong to are one of the most dangerous and destabilizing groups a country can have.
Exactly. The "love thy enemy" nonsense always got me too:
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
- Mathew 5:44
Think about slavery in history. Christianity was forced upon slaves in US history. Think about current era people working horrible conditions, factories, sweatshops, whatever. What a CONVENIENT verse for the slave owners.
Just be good, do what you're told, don't fight back, and love your enemy (exploiter/persecuter). If you do, promise of heaven like you said.
But if you disobey (commit murder, dare I say of the person exploiting you), infinite and eternal torture and suffering in hell.
Also don't commit suicide, that's a sin too so straight to hell if you do.
Its just so fucking obvious.
What a CONVENIENT verse for the slave owners.
reminds me of the joke that in another two thousand years, future archeologists will have no idea what is the difference between butt dial and booty call.
and yet here we are with piece of shitty fiction written two thousand years ago, being passed in oral tradition and rewritten and retranslated multiple times, and some morons are trying to use it and force it upon others as a guideline how to live a life in 21st century...
It's just as good as any modern piety. Mormons, scientology, or any other weird sect or cult that's emerged in the last 100 years isn't more substantial to the modern person. I do hold a special place in my heart* for the love has won people.
*this was a joke if you are affiliated with love has won take your crazy ass mother god and stay the fuck away from me
i had to google love has won, but this is funny:
Leader: Amy Carlson ("Mother God")
i imagine mother god must have pissed lot of people, so yay for feminism 😂
Oh my god, please look into this more. The story is incredible.
I was an atheist for the last 20 years and recently converted to Unitarian Universalist.
I would say that in the west, this characterization tends to be true. But I do think there are honest faith communities acting with good intent. Unfortunately, there are few.
I must've fallen through the cracks, because I went through the American education system and I'm not completely stupid.
It's more that the system itself just leaves more and more children behind, as passing kids who aren't actually making the grade has become the norm because parents are abusive and more apt to harass/harangue and schools are pressured with funding to make sure enough kids are graduating. Teachers themselves are left with few options and there's still bright kids, they're just waaaaay in the minority compared to the apparently teeming masses of absolute fuckwits.
Also, I'm in my 40's and when I think of the quality and intelligence of the people I graduated with? Well, maybe it hasn't gotten that much worse, actually. Because I remember thinking everyone around me was a fucking idiot, tempering that thought as I got older, but now I've come back full fucking circle to these people are fucking idiots, raising other idiots.
If kids are dumb today, millennials are on the hook for it, boomers didn't do this one.
I always think of the George Carlin saying...
"imagine how stupid the average person is... then realize half of all people are stupider than that. "
Hey, not ALL millennials are on the hook for this one!
For instance, I never found anyone to love me, and have kids with. So THERE! You can't blame ME for idiots today!
.....but also yes. Kids in the 90s, that I went to school with were fucking idiots. Including me.
If kids are dumb today, millennials are on the hook for it, boomers didn't do this one.
The bulk of older teenagers/college kids are from Gen X, not so much from millennials.
"There's no educating a smart boy."
— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time (Discworld, #26)
GNU Sir Terry
Probably the exception to the rule. I did as well, and constantly find myself at a loss for how it simply doesn't occur to most people to stop and think about something for a split second as opposed to just impulsively doing whatever.
.......well......
And, social media, these days nearly as important, if not more important.
You (very understandably) hear a lot about state-sponsored (especially Russian) astroturfing, but very little about billionaire and company sponsored astroturing, which is very much a thing.