I’m going to speak for them since I haven’t seen a reply, so this is just an assumption and should be taken as such until they reply. But, there’s plenty of positive aspects of local churches outside of faith. Many churches run community-based philanthropy efforts and provide a gathering space for members and nonmembers which is especially helpful in locations that don’t have much in the way of things to do or other places to gather. Humans are social creatures and whether gay or not, the church is a large community.

Hell, no one trusts the Internet, but still comes back to participate.

Going to bat for xbox or Microsoft right now is a death sentence on the internet so by internet law I have to downvote you. Sorry, it’s just the way things go…

That said, I agree. Being able to buy a $30 plug and play pack with rechargeable battery packs or being able to buy rechargeable AAs or just normal AA batteries is the best of all the current first party options.

Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

Why not move back to the country you emigrated from? Assuming you still hold valid citizenship there? I would love the help trying to turn this shit around, but its too dangerous for you here.

In the field. We already addressed that. Humans pick the food in 104° weather in late June/July/August when the wet bulb globe temperature is 95+

This is the most accurate no I’ve ever read in my life.

Maybe? But 122 is way different than 114 in this case.

Use SimpleX chat instead. It’s open source, verified secure by 3rd party cryptologists, and has features like self destruct where you can input a secondary passcode and it will seemingly “log you in” while simultaneously deleting all chat history and recreating an account with your name. That ensures that any attempts to capture group members and torture their way into the group could be mitigated.

My issue with this is that people work various hours. Not every single person in the world works 09:00-17:00(9-5). Some of their super heroes(cops) work 15:00-23:00 here in the United States. That leaves plenty of time in the morning and afternoon for a good ol fashioned protest.

I was annoyed that no one was answering this because I was tacitly curious too. For what its worth, it was kinda difficult to find a current figure, but in 2021 it was 11% of the global wealth or $51.81 trillion. The top .1% only has about $56 trillion from what I can tell.

So even in that bracket, the ultra-super pro max wealthy own 90%+ of the top .1% of global wealth if my numbers are even remotely correct. That list would be the world’s 810,000 most wealthy individuals.

Talk about a gross oversimplification. Venice grew out of mosquito infested lagoon due to necessity. The Venetian people were driven into the lagoon multiple times over centuries as a means of protection from Germanic invasions in the 7th century. They capitalized on shipping and trade just like any other population would do and used those riches to make their citizens lives better. What would you have expected them to do? Turn away from the money spice trading and Mediterranean shipping traffic brought them because it would make them too rich? Because again, they were a people used to fleeing into a mosquito infested lagoon when their farming population was invaded by multiple armies.

For that reason, comparing an entire cultural population like Venice to a singular person is a false equivalency. Bezos hasn’t used his shipping fortune to enrich anyone but himself, but at least Venetian royalty built buildings and public spaces for their population.

Allegedly

Its by design. If they have an unruly person they want to just get rid of every once in a while, kill them behind closed doors and dump the body in the swamp during a faux escape attempt. Then during the media circuit that surrounds the death you just claim the prisoner was killed by alligators in the surrounding swamp after an attempted escape.

Huh…sure enough. I assumed it was just whole grain wheat. Alright, carry on.

Wheat berries?

The children yearn for the mines

Look, I don’t even attend a church. I haven’t regularly attended a mass since I was a kid so about 2 decades ago. I grew up catholic and my personal beliefs about sexuality, abortion, and mandated attendance caused a separation from the church. I didn’t even get married in a church or by a priest. But core tenants of the Catholic faith still helped shape my altruistic nature and moral compass. And although I left the church out of convenience, I could just as easily stayed within the church and developed those same principles and convinced others.

We could ban all organized religion tomorrow and it wouldn’t have a significant effect on my life. I can tell you that it would have a significant negative impact on the direction politics would take afterwards though. Where do you then draw the line on what constitutes a religion and what other group gatherings you can ban? What happens to all the people that were a part of organized religion and poured all of their social needs into that basket? Do you think they would have some sort of eye opening experience or would they just devolve into a chaotic mess with a loss of purpose and self?

You’re conflating missionary messaging with publicly practicing faith and praying. The message there, presumably, is to bring philanthropy to every person on the planet to teach and recruit others to do good in the world. If your sticking point is “teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” then yes that’s every religion but also every government faction and moral think-tank in totality. People telling people what they can and can’t do.

What’s your end goal here? Ban all religion and tell people what they can and can’t believe in? If you and someone share philosophical beliefs you’re not allowed to meet up and talk about them?

I see the issue. You’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Obviously telling others what they can and can’t do or sowing violence while using your religion as justification is bad. But even the bible says that spirituality should be practiced in private. There’s nuance to the world and just because bad things happen due to corrupted religious teaching doesn’t mean that all religion or spirituality is bad.

Having grown up catholic in rural Illinois, it’s just a case of mixed messaging and infiltration. Think of it like this:

You inherited a chili recipe—representing your morality and culture—from your parents. Growing up, you helped make it every week, so you know the flavors well. In your family’s version of chili, beans—symbolizing religion—were always the most important ingredient. Peppers—representing politics—were known, but they were more of a background note, never central.

Fast forward a generation, and a certain group starts promoting the idea that chili must be spicy. They want to sell their own particular kind of pepper—a harsh, punishing version of God—and they push this idea aggressively. They use people your parents trust, who already like spicier chili, to reinforce the message.

Suddenly, everyone around you starts loading their chili with these peppers because they’re told it’s the only way to avoid bland chili—blandness, in this case, representing hell. The fear of tasteless chili becomes a powerful motivator.