Dear Justin, Assertions Are Not Facts

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9 responses to “Dear Justin, Assertions Are Not Facts”

1. 

   May 5, 2022

   dale m.

   And these are the people who back and/ or run the G.O.P. ?!? Arrogant, self-righteous, Soviet-styled Americans. Always looking for a leader to bow down to.

   Reply
   1. 

      May 5, 2022

      Karen the rock whisperer

      Yes.

      I’m 62 years old, born and lived my life in the US. I remember a time when I was old enough to vote, and it was possible to find (at least on the local level) conservatives who were not hypocrites, who were not into “for me but not for thee”, who respected individuals who had different faith traditions (well, up to a point, it was a White and insular political world). My father was one such person. We never really agreed on politics–I attended Catholic schools run by nuns who taught the basics of social justice, and absorbed the lessons–but he was mostly concerned with the effect of government regulation on small business (since he was a small business owner). He was also an accountant, and during the 1970s and 1980s, the number of ill-considered “investments” in things like alternative power were huge tax shelters. Liberals had pushed for those tax shelters, and Dad’s clients made good use of them. Not that he was against alternative energy, he was upset that the government powers-that-be were running on hope rather than science, and the investments were wasteful. I suspect that if Dad was alive today, he’d be pushing for distributed solar power, which works well here in California and is least environmentally hazardous.

      In 2006, Dad was 92, and for the first time in his life, registered as a Democrat. The party of fiscal conservatism had become the party of reactionary far-right social control, even then. My father staunchly believed in people keeping their noses out of other people’s business, and that it was proper to evaluate others by their behavior rather than what religious verbiage they spewed. Alas, he died before he could vote in the fall.

      Reply
2. 

   May 5, 2022

   BJW

   This is the kill shot:

   “The evidence suggests that we are on our own and that we alone can affect change. Evangelicals as much admitted this much when they abandoned preaching the gospel and winning souls for raw, naked political power.”

   Evangelicals are pretty much power mad, and there is nothing about it that is godly.

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3. 

   May 5, 2022

   MJ Lisbeth

   BJW—If the fact that four out of five Evangelicals voted for Trump isn’t proof that power is their real goal, I don’t know what is.

   Reply
   1. 

      May 5, 2022

      BJW

      MJ, the worst part is I now know too much about too many people, how prejudiced, how unkind, and how unsympathetic they are to others not like them. They like Trump because he gets away with shit, he sleeps around and winks about it, he’s willing to cheat to get what he wants! Trump supporters by and large are quite happy with this, and figure they can revel in being part of MAGA. They admire him because he frankly pursues power and money, and is happy to stab people in the back. I’m guessing that most of MAGAs want to be just like him. It is sickening.

      Reply
4. 

   May 5, 2022

   Karen the rock whisperer

   Part of the blame lies with the US education system, although I gather that religious conservatives attempt to insulate their young from it. We do a really crappy job of teaching even the basics of critical thinking. No US student ought to graduate from high school without understanding the need for evaluating sources of information, and at least some basic skills for doing that. Citation needed. Trust but verify. Acknowledging that fellow humans can make mistakes, and it’s okay to double check their information without blaming them if they’re wrong. High school graduates are old enough to understand the nuances behind those concepts, but we don’t bother to teach them.

   Reply
5. 

   May 5, 2022

   MJ Lisbeth

   Karen —What you say about the US education system is so true. When I taught college freshmen and sophomores, I tried everything I knew to show them that they could respectfully disagree as long as they had evidence to back up what they asserted. Some could only “argue “ in the manner of an Evangelical apologist. The only difference was that instead of the Bible they would insist that some statistic or other piece of information “proved” their opinion without explaining why. (I never forbade students from referring to the Bible. But they’d stop quoting it when I asked how they could prove to a non-believer—or even, say, a Hindu—that the Bible was an irrefutable source.) Or they would try to second-guess me and tell me what they thought I wanted to hear. I’d shock them by asking, “What leads you to think that?” even when they expressed something I wholeheartedly agreed with.

   At least a few students were raised in fundamentalist or evangelical churches. But some others could just as well have been. Really, too many schools cripple kids intellectually and emotionally strait-jacket them in the same ways churches do because both share at least one goal: to turn out mentally docile, obedient people who will pose no threat to the powers-that-be.

   Reply
6. 

   May 6, 2022

   ObstacleChick

   My kids were in honors and AP classes that stressed analyzing sources critically, learning how statistics can be used in a biased manner, etc. Their peers in lower level courses weren’t taught the same way. My husband teaches math to students (at that same high school) who are at high risk of not graduating, and what they all have in common is not understanding basic skills that are taught in late elementary and middle school and automatically saying “I don’t know” instead of trying to think through a problem. Too many kids are graduating with an automatic “I don’t know” response which leads to them accepting whatever answer they are told, good or bad, without analyzing what they are told.

   Combine that with politicians making concerted efforts to further strip down public education and denigrating education in general, and it’s no wonder we have congress members who literally believe QAnon conspiracy theories.

   As for Justin and others raised in fundamentalism, they are expressly taught NOT to use critical thinking skills in regard to their religion. I know some people who apply critical thinking skills to other aspects of their lives, but they compartmentalize religion to exclude those same examinations. Instead, they believe they have the TRUTH.

   Reply
7. 

   May 6, 2022

   Laine

   “You see, when you live in the Evangelical bubble, and even more so in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) bubble, you are walled off from any and all “truth” but your own. Certain that you are right, you see no need to engage beliefs contrary to your own. As I have said numerous times before, certainty breeds arrogance.”

   I so wish I had found this blog while we were being kicked out of our church. I needed to hear these words. I couldn’t understand why our “friends” were treating us this way. How they could just abandon years of “friendship” and kick us to the curb so coldly. All because we said gay people were not going to hell. They parroted so many bible verses at us to explain their behavior (and I believe justify their treatment because some of them considered us friends also). Having read your blog for several years now, and having read those or similar words many times, I just shake my head when I hear some new bullshit coming out of that church. And I hear a lot — it’s a small town! Now, we are both so glad we are gone, no matter how hard the break was for us and our kids. We left before Trump, and they are all huge Trumpers. We know we never would’ve made it through the 2016 election and remained members. I’m certain there were calls from the pulpit to vote for him. Quite frankly, I don’t want anything to do with those assholes anymore.

   Reply

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