Notes on Reality
(1) This doesn't work. Ask Muslims about the unresolved issues troubling the sex segregation justified by assertions of Islamic law occurring in many communities. Indeed, there are somewhere between several and many Christian-identifying religious groups in this country, of small number and influence, that seem nothing more than rape cults, which depend in part on separate spheres for males and females, which are then recombined according to the will of the authority (males) and resultant obligatiations of the subjects (females). Given the number of times and places we can observe such ill outcomes,
(2) This sort of segregation still speaks nothing of equality under the law, and for a reason—it is not necessarily ignorant of nor apathetic toward the iniquity, but, rather, belligerently hostile in service to vested interest.
(3) Falling in love is a wonderful feeling indeed; our minds have diverse criteria, and the rewarding sensations are, indeed, heady. But our brains, when we are in love, function more in response to those issues as if we were, according to various descriptions of the observable electrochemistry and behavior, psychotic, delusional, or addicted. Simply put, falling in love, in terms of brain function, looks like mental illness.
And then there is this:
G. B. Trudeau. Doonesbury. October 17, 1972.
(via GoComics.com)
Wellwisher said:
(1) This doesn't work. Ask Muslims about the unresolved issues troubling the sex segregation justified by assertions of Islamic law occurring in many communities. Indeed, there are somewhere between several and many Christian-identifying religious groups in this country, of small number and influence, that seem nothing more than rape cults, which depend in part on separate spheres for males and females, which are then recombined according to the will of the authority (males) and resultant obligatiations of the subjects (females). Given the number of times and places we can observe such ill outcomes,
(2) This sort of segregation still speaks nothing of equality under the law, and for a reason—it is not necessarily ignorant of nor apathetic toward the iniquity, but, rather, belligerently hostile in service to vested interest.
(3) Falling in love is a wonderful feeling indeed; our minds have diverse criteria, and the rewarding sensations are, indeed, heady. But our brains, when we are in love, function more in response to those issues as if we were, according to various descriptions of the observable electrochemistry and behavior, psychotic, delusional, or addicted. Simply put, falling in love, in terms of brain function, looks like mental illness.
―Considering point (2) above, I would simply remind that we need not merely imagine the results when adiction and injustice commingle; the outcome is never good, and any larger personal psychoemotional redemption or progress occurring in its wake is measured by redefining the baseline, so that the starting point, square zero, is in concept a zero compared to a deficit figure—we revise downward. We might wonder, rhetorically speaking, which side of the vested interest we are on, except circumstance reminds that we don't really need to wonder. The problem is that it's one of those points society really doesn't like to discuss. And there is a psychopathology to why, but the fact that we can identify significant aspects of the psychopathology does not translate to any assertion that the way it is represents a healthy behavior for or within society.
And then there is this:
G. B. Trudeau. Doonesbury. October 17, 1972.
(via GoComics.com)
However: it is socially banal to phrase a criticism in such a broad way, as we've seen elsewhere on the forum and which has been enforced previously. There is no reason to diverge from such a standard now - and a reasonable standard, at that - in order to assuage any lingering doubts you might have about your own direction: no one is puncturing that direction, for the obvious reason of the outrage committed against this girl. What is not acceptable is a broad labeling of a community of believers or unbelievers simply because it fits some presumably labile dynamic. That is not acceptable at SF. I hate to be the one to remind the thread users of this - or, if you like, the user committing the specific infraction - but as adults it is simply possible to direct such criticisms in a responsible way. In fact, on reconsideration, it really is part of the dynamic. Catholics are not Nazis, such that group attacks on them are somehow vindicated. There is no overriding social framework that universally endorses such attacks based on special conditions. They're typically thinking, moral people, whatever their extraordinary cases. In the wider view, I might suggest a kind of political rapprochement that could promote better understanding of their community without the need to colour people's view of Catholics generally. 