When Liberals Make Me Facepalm Part 2: The Dark Vein Of Hate That's Poisoning The Left

We’re supposed to be the sane team, right? We’re also supposed to be the party of acceptance, right? We’re the people who embrace disparate points of view and cobble together a coalition as opposed to Conservatives who value conformity over equality. Or did I miss a memo?

Assuming I didn’t miss a memo, I have a question. When did we become such intolerant assholes about religion and religious people? More importantly, when did we stop calling out egregious hate when we see it?

Why am I seeing stuff like this roll across my Twitter feed?

Fuck all pastors

If you believe in god, someone should fucking punch you.

Fucking morons and their fucking religion.

Everybody needs to hit the pause button because that shit is NOT OK! We don’t accept that sort of prejudice when it is directed at anyone else, protected class or not. We call that shit out in the moment as racist or sexist or irrationally hateful against people who happen to disagree with whoever is speaking. Why is this acceptable.

Some people are so magnanimous as to allow for some good believers but make clear that religion itself is evil and should be destroyed. Sigh. Do I really have to make clear the fundamental historical problem of prefacing any specific class with the words “a good?”

I guess I do because it keeps happening.

A good nigger.

A good girl.

A good gay person.

I’m avoiding the most obvious example so as to not Godwin myself.

If you’re making the case that certain members of any group are exceptions and thus “good,” you’re implicitly justifying  the concept that most members of that group are not good and are thus valid targets for hate.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot about organized religion that is problematic. There are any number of specific denominations or whole religions that are dogmatically hateful and, in many cases they lead to splinter groups that become violent terrorists. And, you know these people.

But here’s the thing, religion has already done stuff like this.

That guy up front there? Yeah, he’s a minister.

 

and this

And these ladies? They’re nuns.

And let’s be honest, there is no fundamental difference between the sentence:

I know there is a God.

and

I know there is no God.

The response to both of these statements should be “Prove it.” They can’t.

Believers who are stuck in that mindset will generally go to personal anecdotes or their holy book, neither of which is, you know, proof.

Ironically, non-believers generally point to the parts of holy books that science has disproved. Guess what! Still. Not. Proof.

The most honest statement would be “I believe,” one way or the other. For a believer, that is where faith comes in. For a non-believer, the fundamental lack of proof one way or the other makes that the only scientifically correct, rational answer.

There’s also no fundamental difference between the statements

My religion gives me permission to be hateful toward you.

and

My lack of religion gives me permission to be hateful toward you.

Both are wrong. Both should be called out but we are far more likely to call out the first and let the second slide right by.Call out the irrationality and the hate when it comes from religious people. Fine. Not just fine, good. but if you don’t call it out when it comes from our team too, then you’re a massive hypocrite.

The thing that so few seem to notice or care about, is that there are a huge number of religious liberal and the longer the GOP spends hating on everyone they can think of the more of those people we will draw to our side. That is, unless we continue making it clear that a not small portion of our team hates them and the rest of us are largely content to sit quietly while that hate is spewed at length and volume.

There are a lot of problems going on right now. There are a lot of things that need a chorus of voices to provide solutions, even the voices of people who believe in some sort of deity. That needs to be OK. If it isn’t we should probably stop vilifying the other team for being “the party of intolerance.”