Do Christian conservatives practise intolerance, hatred, oppression, torture, greed, racism, classism, etc?
yes, most of the 'Christians' today don't practice the things Christ was about. cons are big supporters of abstinence only education and one of the biggest providers of that 'education' is called Sex Respect. which has been criticized for racist and derogatory remarks against poor people. I'm not a part of organized religion. too often the members of those religions say god agrees with everything they believe- I tend to think its not them following god, but them shaping god in their image.
What's it like living in a liberal state? How are the social attitudes in a liberal state?
I lived in Vermont for 22 years before moving to the Florida Panhandle (Pensacola).I guess I never really appreciated the generally liberal attitude Vermont has until I moved here.My first week at my job, a guy came up behind me while I was with a black co-worker and said “hey, can you help me? i don’t want to talk to any black people.” It ended up being that he was joking and knew my coworker, but that wasn’t the kind of joke I ever grew up hearing. It wasn’t funny to me, at all.Racism is deeply ingrained here. It’s an unmentioned and unquestioned part of life, that many minorities either don’t bother to confront in public or just simply don’t notice.When Dylann Roof shot nine people in Charleston and sparked a debate about what the Confederate flag represents, Pensacola residents went to the Pensacola Graffiti Bridge to paint the flag and attempt to educate their fellow citizens on what they believed it meant. I learned that night that, as one person put it to me, “that flag means n*****s sit at the back of the bus.” I still want to believe I was being trolled, but sadly I cannot. That was never something I had ever imagined happening, much less hearing, growing up in Vermont.I remember growing up in a state that legalized gay marriage early, I remember race not being much of an issue to anybody, at least as a white person. I never heard anybody spitting racist garbage about a minority group growing up in a liberal state. In the panhandle it seems like it’s hard to go a week with such a thing.I was asked once if I believed in guns, because I’d need them when the refugees came here to wage jihad. That was just last winter.But as I learn more about racial disparities and racial boundaries, I learn my own liberal state dislikes the Sudanese refugees we house and employ. I have seen comments on local cititzen swear in ceremonies in VT that complain about the lack of legitimate immigrants, something these very people were finishing up the process of.I think in liberal states, Vermont at least, racism is less overt. I cannot recall a single homophobic experience in Vermont. Racism ails the entire country, everywhere you go, however. Seeing it in it’s unchallenged state has only enabled me to more accurately identify the hidden kind I thought didn’t exist in a liberal place.
Michael Moore: American Hero or Traitor?
In a society that is rapidly loosing any of its remaining objectivity, he is a voice that balances the media bias toward the status quo. Keep in mind most media are supported by advertising. That means the stake holders are the car companies, the pharmaceutical companies, oil companies and banks. They are the big advertisers - they have a vested interest in the content of the channel on which they air. Therefore the news outlets have little choice but to sing a song that their stakeholders approve of. There's few stories of FDA incompetence (though there's plenty of it) in news reporting, because the FDA plays along so well with the large pharmaceutical companies. Only whent he FDA is lining up to bash the small producers of organic supplements do we hear them hit the news - with claims that vitimins are dangerous and that the pharmaceutical companies know best. This, from a pharmaceutical companys point of view, is a god news story. And because the network gets lots of advertising from the pharmaceutical company, they play along and air the story. Moore provides an alternate view. His viewpoint, whether you agree or not, is one that needs to be aired. He is certainly not a traitor. He was, after all, right on 9/11... Where are those WMD's anyway, Mr. Bush? With a President that uses the veto as an automatic panacea for his problems, we need the balance Moore provides. Pity there are not more like him.