Christians and defenders of Christianity who haven't thought it through like to point to the New Testament as where God finally decided to be a nice guy. (Which is antisemitic, btw. But that aside.)

Sometimes I revisit various stories from the New Testament and realize what an asshole Jesus was.

Today my feed reminded me of the walking on water story, in which Jesus was particularly dickish. It goes like this:

Jesus sends his pals out in a boat and he's like, "You go on boys I'll catch you up later." And he goes on a mountain to pray for the rest of the day because he's SO HOLY. When he's done, he heads back to the ship, which by now is way out to sea. So he just walks out there as if states of matter are nothing to him.

The dudes on the ship, they're like holy shit boys, there's a ghooost! (idk why but everybody was always mistaking The Christ for a ghost back then.)

Jesus is like "hey guys, lol naw it's just me, walking on water!! Check this out!"

Peter is like "I don't fucking believe you, SCARY GHOST! If it IS you, then tell me to come out there and get you!" (wtf Pete??)

So The Christ is like, "ok bru, come on out here."

Peter is like "boys, hold my beer, don't you go drinking it Judas, it's my last one!" and he jumps out of the boat and is walking on water, just like his buddy Jesus!!

But it's a bit windy and this one huge wave is like "ooooohhh I'm the ghost now! Boo!" and Peter is thinking "Shit this was really stupid, I'm way too drunk for this." So Peter starts sinking, right?

Then Jesus, god what a dick, he goes, "Pete you motherfucker, you didn't have enough faith and now I've got to save your ass AGAIN!" And he saved Peter from drowning, even though this whole thing was a setup from the beginning to make him look like some sort of savior.

And just to prove it, the weather calms right back down when Jesus gets into the boat, and they all has a good laugh.

Just kidding. What really happened is, in fact, everyone started worshiping him then and there with his smug-ass grin.

The version they tell in Sunday school has all of these same beats, but is told in a different tone, where Jesus is awesome and Peter should be ashamed of himself for not believing hard enough that he could only walk *a little way* on stormy water.

That, my friends, is what I call #AbuseCulture and why you should decolonize your mind.

#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #decolonization

The scientist in this video, at the end, asks why scientists are so quick to assume animals don't have language, and my immediate answer was, "colonization."

My ancestors knew animals could speak. They used a spiritual model to convey this idea, that animals and humans aren't different, and that everything has a spirit. They told stories about things animals had said to them and others.

This type of religious view is known as "animism," which is shared by many pre-colonized societies, including my own European pre-colonized ancestors.

But both Christian and scientific colonizers labeled these people "primitives" and their ways as "backward." Then they systematically obliterated these cultures wherever they found them until this idea became a religious element, taken on faith, within science.

Strict categorization is a tool of colonizers. These researchers concluded that language exists on a spectrum. Spectrum-thinking is decolonization. As the scientific method decolonizes, the scientific model becomes closer to understanding reality.

And if you want some tears, read some of the animal interaction stories in the comments. I've been learning to talk to animals and it is incredibly rewarding.

https://youtu.be/xZllWiKKPHk

#AbuseCulture #decolonization #rewilding #ReligiousTrauma

I first got online in 1992. This gives me quite the view of internet history.

When I wonder why there are hardly any successful, popular, creative internet projects anymore, I always circle back around to how much less money there is at the lower tiers of the economy (anything below $1b).

It's always money.

Those without any money are extremely stressed, sick, and/or dying, and don't have time to contribute to projects or explore the work of others.

Those with jobs are working more hours to make ends meet, and have less time to spend on exploring other people's projects or making their own.

Those with small investment capital at the low-end are far more rare than they were. The filtering process for investing big is warped into being all about whatever the hype trend of the day is, which is always a finely honed grift.

In 1997, when I was just starting my tech career, poor single parent, my rent was $500/mo. Even as a single parent of a special needs child, I could make rent on my $7/hr. I had enough breathing room to chase the next thing online, which was always free of cost and almost always just some website made by some guy in Notepad. I could make my own little website or server that did this or that on old hardware that was cheap or free.

In spite of the spell Facebook has cast on the population, there are still plenty of people with ideas and willingness to make and use cool new things, and old unenshittiified technology to built it on. There is, in fact, a thriving indieweb out there that I have not had energy to explore.

I've got plenty of my own ideas, too, really cool things I want to contribute. But you know what I'm doing instead? I'm using my last sick, exhausted breath looking for freelance editing work from a pool of other writers who are just as broke as me.

Money equals time. It all comes down to a lack of money circulating at our layer of economy.

#IndieWeb #AbuseCulture #enshittification

RE: https://mastodon.social/@ChrisJagged/116346728020760075

Not only that, but historically, abuse culture will promote assholes to top scholar positions who will then write the history books. Just as we all were raised, in the future everyone will be tricked into singing their praises.

Unless we do something to change this dynamic.

#AbuseCulture

Christianity primed white people to feel guilty when certain Pavlovian bells ring.

Accused? Wrongdoing even subtly implied? Guilt! Shame!

Then, if it's a respected authority doing the implying (be it parent or priest), we're primed to submit.

If we don't respect the authority of the "accuser," well, were primed to see them as the enemy in the all-or-nothing good vs evil war. "My authorities haven't called that a sin so who is this person anyway??" And we lash out. At women, POC, queers, disabled, and often, even ourselves.

What, you're white but never were Christian? Sorry, but you were programmed this way, too. (If you feel mad at me, that's the programming.)

Christianity's way out from guilt and shame is impossible. It doesn't work. It's designed to make you feel forever ashamed and in debt to Jesus — or rather, the religious authorities who represent him. That's how they get you.

We aren't allowed to emotionally mature to know how to handle our own feelings when we've done wrong. We're forever dependent children on the religion. We go to confession, do the penitence, feel a few days of relief, then go back to feeling guilty. No matter how well-meaning any particular clergy, this is by design.

Now suddenly here's these people I don't respect out of unexamined implicit bias dumping more crap on me.

Aren't I bad enough? Haven't I submitted enough? What am I supposed to do about it?

I'm hamstringed. My white brain has been lobotomized wrt how to handle this. But also, I've been told by trusted authorities that I'm not a racist, so I'm not!!! Out comes the Karen.

Colonialism=Christianity=Corporatism

It's all the same system.

Freeing ourselves from this system means freeing those whose oppression we enable.

Because it's all the same thing.

#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #antiracism #antifa

A LOT of the times that people treated me like I was crazy was when I resisted oppression they had normalised. They saw me "making a fuss" about "nothing" and punished me with everything from judgemental looks to death threats. Often, I couldn't articulate why I was acting out. No one would have listened anyway.

But looking back, it's just so clear that in this society, and in my family, having instinctual reactions against things that feel off, that feel oppressive or that violate boundaries, was considered crazy and was punished.

#ableism #sanism #AbuseCulture #SocialJustice

A characteristic of abuse that I want to see more emphasised is the abuser's feeling of being entitled to dish out consequences (punishment) to others.

I say this because sometimes lists of red flags or abuser characteristics or descriptions of abusive personality traits either leave it out or throw it in as a side sentence, easily overlooked.

But that's where the line of abuse is!

Being triggered by someone wearing a green shirt? Not abusive!
Yelling at someone for wearing a green shirt? Overstepping and can be part of a pattern of abuse!

Believing that God put you on earth to teach heathens the gospel of bruschetta brunch? Not abusive!
Taking people's phones away until they learn and recite your favourite bruschetta recipe? Abusive!

Or, for a less absurd example:

Being triggered when your child doesn't obey because you have trauma around that and your nervous system turns on the alarm sirens? Not abusive!
Making your child feel guilty for not obeying or for triggering you? Abusive!

🧵

#abuse #AbuseCulture #RedFags #entitlement #MentalHealth #MentaIlness