Unreasonable People (Parable Of The Ten Virgins, Nine.)

I had a soft spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth, and also because his wife gave the best head in Hollywood. ~Hunter S. Thompson, Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness (2004)

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Every morning Nancy and I turn to see what he has to say about people of our respective birth signs. ~Ronald Reagan, Regarding his friend Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter

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There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.

For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. ~Deuteronomy 18:10-14

I saw this a few hours ago while I was on break at work.

I was raised both Christian and conservative.

I was a kid in the 1980's. When I was on the cusp of becoming a young teenager. I remember there was a big damn scandal that the Reagans were practicing Astrology in the White House. I remember it, more than anything...because the Priest of the Catholic Church my family was attending at the time took the opportunity to use it as a teaching point and preached against Astrology and Occult woo woo. But, see, I didn't need religion to tell me that crap was wrong...I'd already been taught that things like Astrology, fortune-telling, psychic readings, Tarot cards etc. were (Besides being a Sin, in Biblical terms) for dumb superstitious people (or for entertaining or manipulating morons) and they shouldn't be taken seriously. And I was taught they were actively bad when used...like Fox News is using that shit here. 

(Also, my actual lived experience is that Pagans and Witches do not use this stuff this way. This is like, a serious rule.)

It's one thing to use it to make a few bucks at the fair, or whatever. That was still bad, but harmless. It's completely another to *Checks Notes* use the Occult to try to manipulate national policy and politics.

Hell, I remember (because I took every possible opportunity to sneak staying up late and watching stuff like the Tonight Show back in Johnny Carson's day) that the late-night comedians had a goddamn field day with that silly bullshit, even legit conservative comedians like the piano-playing Mark Russell, whose savage bit on Reagan's cabinet huddled over an Ouija board I still remember from watching PBS one night at the time. Nothing would get you mocked by everybody like Unga Bunga bullshit.

I remember when conspiracy bullshit, petty fear and hatred were looked down upon, by Conservatives. Fuck, I remember when conservatives hated Fascism, too.

What the fuck even happened??

I'll tell you what happened. Goldwater and Nixon and goons like Lee Atwater let the racists into the Republican coalition. Reagan let the Evangelicals in, Newt Gingrich adopted a philosophy of "Total War" and an ethic of The End Justifies The Means, George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin all sought to actively degrade the value of intelligence. They succeeded.

Trump took all that, ran away with it and then threw open all the doors to absolutely anyone who would worship him and while no Permanent Republican Majority has yet materialized, I believe we may have reached Peak Republican in that the only people left are some combination of bad actors, evil motherfuckers, shitty little fascists and idiots who want to be lied to by all of the above because they think they'll get something for it.

I know the next step is wannabe Genocidaires, but as a gamer myself...I guess I just never thought these fucking people would cite a gaming world as their inspiration...particularly a gaming world that's loaded with disclaimers saying "This is actually bad."

Christ-less Christianity and the purposeless revivalism thereof...even as evilly reimagined by the cold, calculating Russian Orthodox Jihadism of Vladimir Putin...was obviously not enough for these sons of bitches. But, I have to admit...I didn't see it coming that they'd get rid of the shouty guy in the big tent and replace him with *Checks Notes Again* a nebbish loser like Ian Miles Cheong, who doesn't even live in America. 

Ian lives in Malaysia...and while none of the people I've met from Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore are like he is, they for the most part...whatever their beliefs or religion...have certain things about which they do not play. You have to be serious about something other than Gamergate sexual harassment and shit. Life is not a damned game.

I'd imagine he cosplays as an American far-rightist because he doesn't want to be whatever he actually is in real life. I'm honestly surprised Ian hasn't been arrested and caned for blaspheming Islam. I don't think that's right, either, but I'll have no sympathy when he finds out the hard way what they soak the cane in before it whoops that ass.

I'm here to tell you (and I was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Southern Watch as an Air Force Security Police troop going on 30 years ago now) that there's few better ways to meet one's maker real damn early than promoting Christian Nationalism while being physically present in a Muslim country and not being protected by either Diplomatic Immunity or a Status Of Forces Agreement and a government willing to ship your ass home (and here's a Nonjudicial Punishment, Airman) in a hurry  for fucking up that bad.

You cannot reason with this kind of bad-faith, willful, on-purpose stupidity...which is exactly why these fucking people do it and have encouraged that kind of mentality. Modern "Conservatism" is an Idiocracy.

You cannot reason with Unreasonable people.

But what you can do about this shit, is fight it.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And here's the thing; Freedom requires Truth as a floor to stand on to push back against Power. If you want to be free, something you want to hear must be able to be false or something you don't want to hear must be able to be true...and more to the point, you yourself have to be willing to do the work to figure out what is true and have the maturity to accept the fucking answer. 

We are not passive spectators in our own lives. God or the Universe or whatever gave you a brain, use it!

Remember that, because it's going to be on the test.

Eight

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Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. ~Matthew 25:1-13