BevoAbyss

Lulz. I can't speak for all atheists, but: -- Team Christianity abandons ALL reason, logic, facts at Genesis 1:1. The entire edifice is built on an evidence-free myth from the very beginning, as are all theisms. -- Any ZERO evidence belief system inherently does cognitive violence to reason, logic, and evidence ... and will eventually do actual violence to other people.

Agree. Let's add in the 20th Century communists. Here is my take, based on reading/viewing tons of stuff on totalitarianism (in all its forms), across four decades. The massive danger arrives when any one group believes: A) They are channeling the thoughts/desires/vision of an Omnipotent Force that created the universe (The Creator and theism in whatever form) and has a blueprint for life on Earth. As detailed in their sacred text. Ex: Bible. B) They are surfing the Tidal Wave of History, as did the communists/socialists in the Soviet Union, China under Mao, and elsewhere. They believed that Marx/Engels (etc.) laid out the blueprint, as detailed in their sacred text Ex: Communist Manifesto or Das Kapital, yeah I read a bunch of both. Yes, resident Leftists, this is a broad brush and there are many details. When groups of people (A or B) think they are backed by Omnipotent Force or Tidal Wave of History, they then believe they have a mandate to remake society in the image of their vision/blueprint. -- For A and B, the evolutionary tribal instinct kicks into high gear and overwhelms their reason, humanity, empathy, compassion, etc. -- The targets and "enemies" are whoever is designated as: the outsiders, non-belongers, non-conformists, non true believers, etc. Thus, blessed by the Creator or atop the Tidal Wave, both groups believe they can justify in their own mind the necessary coercion and violence to fulfill their utopia on Earth. Sadly, massive bloodshed and horror follows. Utopia becomes dystopia. Rinse and repeat across history. I'm criticizing Christianity in Surly because we're in America at this MAGA moment in history. -- Permitting religious freedom, and preventing establishment of a State religion (both as mandated in the First Amendment) is one way the Founders sought to prevent religious warfare in the future America they imagined. For the record, I support both freedom of religious belief and freedom of atheist belief, and support the Establishment Clause, the first line in the First Amendment -- which mandates a separation of Church and State. The Establishment Clause is directly under attack in America now. Side note: When I got accepted to UT for grad school, my mom was super proud because my dad was an alum. But she was also super afraid I would be become a communist/atheist or ... get this... a punk rocker! The horror! I later found out my cousin told her he saw me in Dallas bar with a girl with a mohawk! LOL. The 80s, good times!

Sure, whatever. Try visiting some Native American art and history museums in the Southwest: you might find some books not on the approved reading list for Sunday School or the local megachurch. Heck, even try some libraries, before the unapproved history books are removed by Moms for Liberty. For your convenience, I provided a few. For a book specific to Texas, try The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land.

With all due respect. MAGA is not the strange anomaly amid a religion brimming with peace and charity. Times up for the apologia. Time's up for the unchallenged brainwash. MAGA is doing what centuries/millennia of Christians have done. Oppress, maim, torture, burn, and kill the sinners, the non-believers, or anyone who gets in the way of their endless Crusades and holy wars. That strategy worked well to seize South, Central, and North America via a genocide that killed at least 10 million indigenous peoples. Christians told me that it was "God's Will" necessary to found America. If anything, Christianity is brimming with God-ordained violence. No wonder they give the Pentagon whatever it wants. Nukes are God's tools. It always comes down to the three Cs -- colonize, conquer, convert. Only then are there a few moments of peace and love and charity for the converted and true believers. Soon enough there will another crusade and holy war. No surprise, the current targets are women, doctors, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQIA+, educators, librarians, and the list is growing. GTFO with this Christian peace and love BS. History clearly says otherwise.

Abbott, Paxton, MAGA, they are all fascists, patriarchs, and theocrats. Pain, humiliation, and violence is their game. What Paxton is doing is what a contemporary theocracy-patriarchy does. It unleashes medical violence (presented as following "The Law") upon women and their doctors and any science that verifies a women's right to bodily autonomy, free from the strictures of the Bible and its fact-free fables and unseen God. Make no mistake, the entire theocratic and anti-abortion movement is coming from the Bible thumpers and their idiotic unscientific beliefs. They are ignorant, they are arrogant, they are violent -- which makes them extremely dangerous. They will not stop with women. They will come after everyone who does not obey or conform to their little holy book of BS.

Part of my artsy-bohemian past was spent living in a old warehouse loft one block from Fair Park. 3 years in 1990s. -- Cheap rent, daily morning jogs through Fair Park and all that fantastic Art Deco, nearby coffeehouse with the artsy-leftist-intellectualist-bohemian chicks (think "Les Amis" in Austin), a decent cafe, some mostly lame art galleries, and Fletchers corn dogs whenever I want during the Fair, etc. etc etc. Good memories. The absolute worst day of the year was the Thursday before the UT-OU game. That's when the Okies arrive in the afternoon and proceed to totally clog the streets (and sidewalks) with their crappy RVs, all decked out in Sooner imagery. Thursday nights and most all day Fridays, streets/sidewalks packed with Okies and relatively few Longhorn fans (until Friday night or Saturday.) You could tell that coming to Big D and Fair Park was for Okies like going to New York City or LA. They were in the BIG TIME!! By sunset, many were drunk and doing Sooner cheers up and down the streets. Boomer! Lulz.

Spot on. 90% of MAGA leadership are the rich kids, frat boys, spoiled bullies, and pasty Bible thumpers who never got their f*cking ass kicked on a playground or behind the gym. Growing up in Texas, I saw several bullies taken behind the gym by the recipients of their bullying--who proceeded to kick the bully's ass. Bully was bully no more or far less of one. Same with Trump. Rich, frat, bully who never had his ass kicked. History might have been changed (slightly) with Trump getting his ass kicked a couple of times, especially with girls watching. Total humiliation. Hell, Biden should have decked him in one of the "debates" when Trump was lying and insulting him and his family. With that fat blob sprawling on the stage floor, Biden would have been elected in an all-time landslide. All-time.

It's obvious. Public executions after show trials. Standard fascist, theocratic playbook. Rome, barbarism, and medievalism for the 21st Century. JerryWorld and other stadia likely to be top sites. Anywhere there are lots of seats, beer, and big screens for the bloodshed.

The goal of the unscientific anti-abortion laws is not to save "a life" ... but to inflict upon women as much pain, anguish, humiliation, and anti-medical barbarism as possible. All backed by their Bible BS. Always has been with Christians and other theocrats. For thousands of years. Always will be.

Nicole has the perfect metaphor: UT exists "on our own island." Let me add: "... island in the middle of a vast swamp, a polluted and insect-infested backwater that is "SEC SEC SEC!" Never chant SEC, never care for any teams other than UT. By the way, Nicole, you are one of the very best posters on the site, imho.

I got a Star Trek USS Enterprise because my dad was very cool dude.

I'm just dropping in to say: -- Screw the SEC. UT joining SEC changes nothing. I don't give a crap about any of their teams. Never have, never will. Ever. -- Same with Big 12 or any other conferences. Never have. Never will. Ever. I only care if Longhorns win games and titles. In all sports. Forever. That is all.

Yep. Just like Ronnie Reagan and his "Morning in America," expressed in that TV ad dripping with nostalgia for the "good ole days" ... flag waving, gettin' hitched young people, picket fences, small town Americana .... Going backward into a mythic yesteryear. The entire Republican agenda is to get back to the 1950s culturally and the 1500s spiritually, in some dream world of an American capitalist theocracy under God. Before all that 1960s Leftist liberalism ... and hippies and sexual freedom ... and civli rights and gay rights and women's rights ... and taking prayer outta schools ... and ecology and environmentalism and ... NASA showing Earth as a tiny little planet floating in the cosmic void... Before all that stuff, America was great. Just Like Ronnie said.

With an 88% chance of beating Okie Lite, if Texas loses followed by FSU or Michigan losing, it will go down as one of the most EPIC losses and chokes in UT history. Better have some extra terabytes or something Immamac, because this board will meltdown through China, past the moon, and create a black hole out past Jupiter. A black hole with a burnt orange event horizon!

Or ... it could be that UT gave me a fucking education! Some great profs and smart students... learned so much.

What the hell is Texas? Texas is a 21st century Rome with: -- Endless gladiatorial spectacles for the masses. -- Grand architecture for people to work in and gather around. -- Conspicuous displays of wealth, privilege, and consumption ... along side soul-sucking poverty. -- Widespread worship of those with wealth. -- Chariots in the form of flashy cars, trucks, SUVs. -- Rampant corruption and conspiracy theories. -- Electronic versions of stone tablets and papyrus for mass media. -- etc etc etc. Only the Christians & fascists have seized political power and are busy: -- Throwing to the lions pregnant women, immigrants, poor people, people of color, LGBTQIA, and other groups in the future. -- Building megachurch temples and rewriting history with their creation museums, bible schools, book bans, anti-science, etc. -- Building walls to secure their glorious eternal empire. -- All supposedly for their unseen god's promise of a divine destiny. In other words, Texas is a giant mirror of America, a 21st century Rome.

Horns shoulda been racking up style points by blowing out Cougar High, TCU, KSU, and ISU, instead of letting them catch up and almost win.

Let me make that a bit more accurate: ".... when I repeatedly state my fascist beliefs and fact-free religious fanaticism out loud."

I can't speak for everyone in here.... but seeing UT at 10-1 and TCU back to the middle-of-the-pack means the college football universe is moving back to its proper alignment. F*ck the Toads. Hook'em!

Agree 100%. More of the Pac 12 schools align with UT as a research university or Austin with its general liberalism/blue-democratic-leaning populace. Plus, LA, San Fran/Bay, Seattle, Oregon are way cooler areas to visit than most of SEC, with crappy redneck, red state towns. Facebook, Google, Apple, Tesla are all California-based global tech firms with skyscrapers or factories in Austin. What big tech firms from SEC-Land are in Austin with skyscrapers or factories? None? (The move to SEC was orchestrated from top -- BOR, BMD, Abbott -- and was about way more than money and "big boy" football. Also about post-BLM, red state political alignment. No CR. Just saying... it is obvious.)

Some "libertarians" tried that in the early 1970s. It was called the Republic of Minerva. -- They claimed a small Pacific reef and planned to make it an full-fledged island for a libertarian utopia. They even minted some Minerva Dollars. -- But, alas, Tonga said "Nope, not in our part of the Pacific" and chased them off the reef. Apparently, some libertarians went back in 1980s and Tongans chased them off again. -- I first heard about this in 1990 from some rando dude at "Les Amis Cafe" (one-time Leftist hangout near UT on 24th, featured in Linklater's "Slacker"). Now replaced by a Starbucks. Said his dad was one of the people who tried to start Minerva. Somewhere in a box in my closet, I think I still have one of those Minerva dollars, which I bought for kicks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Minerva

Really, now. This is a mind-boggling statement in clear denial of what's happening right before our eyes. Are you suggesting that women's right to control their own bodies, or the Dobbs ruling, are not issues of substance? I have a feeling 100+ million women might disagree. Or endless mass shootings and the militarization America with millions of AR-15s are not issues of substance. Pretty sure there are many families with dead children who think mass murder/gun control are issues of substance. Or the denial of the climate catastrophe and massive ecological destruction are not issues of substance. Or the 1.2 million Americans dead from Covid and the Texas lege passing no mandated vaxxing for workplace safety. Or the clear efforts to smash down the Establishment Clause separating Church and State. Or the banning of books from libraries. Or the efforts to overthrow elections, purge voter rolls, make it harder to vote. Hell, Abbott just endorsed the fascist leader of an insurrection for President. MAGA-GQP have plenty of issues of substance. And, guess what, they are busy imposing them. Right before our eyes.

Let me correct that: the real terms are fascists and theocrats, which includes grifters and nutcases. As for MAGA-GQP, they have a clear platform and set of policies: To impose a violent fascist theocracy on America. Just look at Trump, Pence, Abbott, the new Speaker of the House, the Supreme Court in Dobbs, the politicalization of churches, Fox News, and endless other examples. I am so tired of this claim that "a bunch of grifters hijacked our GOP." That's complete BS. Y'all "former Republicans" can be "weirded out" all you want. But, you must had your head in the sand for 40 years. MAGA GQP fascism-theocracy has been building since Reagan-Falwell. If you voted for Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, Abbott, or Trump (or supported Perot, United We Stand, or the Tea Party), then you enabled where we are. Just f*cking own it.

No surprise, Elon Musk is a flat-out fascist. So are Abbott, Paxton, and so must be their entire governing staffs/attorneys. Intellectual fascists/theocrats (and their apologists) are at UT, at that Civitas Institute. Hiding behind Ivy League credentials and "prestigious" universities and publishers, plus that libertarian/conservative smoke screen propaganda of "civic virtue" and "a free society" at the website. Funded with millions of dollars from the Board of Regents. No doubt the BOR has its MAGA fascists, who also aligned UT with the SEC SEC SEC fascist south. Fascism is busy organizing, gaining economic and academic power, and ground zero is Texas, right smack in the middle of Austin, no less.

Abbott endorses Trump. So that means the Governor of Texas is a fascist. That's right, a flat-out f*cking fascist who does not care about facts, truth, violent insurrections, attempts to steal elections, or mass shootings. All right out of the fascist playbook. And Abbott rolls around on the UT football sideline, chats it up with McConaughey, Clemens, CDC, and other UT celebs. And then there is Musk, another fascist, with Tesla in Austin and rockets flying off the Texas coast. And not one media outlet, not one business exec, not one political leader, not one sports figure will call any these fascist f*ucks what they are: fascists! Fascists and fascism are being completely normalized in Texas and America. Right smack in the middle of Austin, no less.