Comments were gratifying as well. I take a bit of comfort when I find that I'm not quite as alone is it usually appears.
Some of my favorites:
Kirk
4 days 21 hours ago
Want to know a little secret?
We’re not ever going to get respect from these people until they fear us. Not a casual, generalized oikophobic sort of fear, but a deep, visceral certainty that if they make their little “Piss Christ” artworks, or desecrate our monuments, we’re going to make them die horribly. They’re going to respect us only when they have the moral certainty that if they mock our faith, our service, our religion… We’ll kill them.
That’s the lesson here, being laid out before the world. You want space for your religion? Want it to be granted respect, and not to have your beliefs mocked or blasphemed? Kill for it. See how the little freaks kow-tow to Islam, and never dare to mock it or its tenets. Think the left would be mocking the prayers of Islam, were they offered up in this case? Oh, no… They might actually get hurt, if they did that…
They’re creating an environment where the only way for a religion or way of life to survive, or be respected is if it reliably and predictably kills those who question, mock, or blaspheme it. So, guess what?
That’s what they’re going to get. Something will evolve to answer the brutality, the disrespect, the blasphemy against the Christian faith, just as the Crusades were responses to Islamic barbarism against Christians resident in the holy lands and pilgrims traveling there. Those who mock and denigrate would do well to remember that. What was once, can be again. The next time ’round, the equivalents to the Hospitaliers and Templars are probably going to be a lot less tolerant of those here in the West that denigrate their faiths. They might even be, I dare say, intolerant. Quelle horreur…
The freaks are storing up wrath, in the vinyards of our Lord. When the time comes, I suspect the resultant vintage is going to have distinct flavor of their blood.
Contemplating the future, I fear more the counter-reaction to Islamic barbarism like ISIS more than I do ISIS and the like themselves. In the final analysis, ISIS has a recruiting base with an inbred average intelligence of around 84. They’re not all that bright, in other words. The ones who should scare the crap out of you are all those sorts with the higher intelligence quotients that the inbred idiots are pissing off. It won’t happen quickly, but it will happen, and when it does…?
and the thread degenerates for a bit as everyone jumps on this guy for pointing out that treating people like sh*t, consistently over time, inevitably results in hatred and that the pandering to Islam sets up a system of incentives that demonstrates that respect is only earned by fighting back -- and people accuse him of some sort of advocacy of Christian Terrorism. And then he responds
Kirk
3 days 7 hours ago
Were it possible, I’d be laughing even harder at you, and taking you even less seriously than I already am. You’re a caricature, a stereotype, and you lack even the barest self-awareness necessary to comprehend your own state.
For one thing, fool, I am not even Christian, except in the broadest of senses. I doubt even the most tolerant of modern sects would have me, let alone meet my spiritual needs.
In terms of where I lie, in that realm, I would more accurately be termed a cold Dieist, like many of our founding fathers. Christian? It is to laugh, although I respect and honor the faith in broad and general terms, if only for its aspirations.
I’m not going to be the guy skinning you alive for your blasphemy, in other words. I am, however, also not the guy who will lift a finger to stop it from happening, when it inevitably does. I’ll happily let nature take its course, as the fanatics you so carefully train up and nurture have their way with you and yours. I’m pretty much done with saving others from the folly of their own actions, to tell the truth. You’ll learn, I suppose, but you’ll have no other school than experience, being the consummate fool that you are.
You and yours have established the incentive structure. All that remains is for people to notice, grasp the outlines of it, and become tired enough of your incessant bullsh*t in all regards to overcome their reluctance to sink into barbarism. Then, you’ll learn the true nature of your folly, only it will be too late to turn back the clock.
Another thing you and yours are missing is that you’re sending the wrong lessons to the Islamic community here in the US. By shielding these people from the consequences of their actions as a group, you’re making it easier and easier for her extremists among them to go further and further, while simultaneously signalling the rest of us that there is no justice to be had, because Islam is protected by authority. Only the foolish could imagine that that state of affairs could be imposed or sustained against the will of the masses, who are also the bulk of the victims. I’d spell out the likely end-state for this situation, but you’re likely not intelligent enough to grasp it, and will reduce your arguments and dismissal to my imagined Christian fanatacism. By such means do your ilk comfort yourselves, on the way to the abattoir. You’ll still be whining about “Muslim Backlash” as ISIS hauls your daughters off for sale, or some other religious extremist fostered through your folly has their way with them. Such a fine legacy, to leave our children.
Oh, yeah–Fair warning to you and the rest of your cloddish ilk: While I won’t kill you for offending my spiritual beliefs, they being broad and somewhat immune to offense, I will happily start the killing over purely secular matters, like my Constitution. I swore an oath to defend that institution, and I still hold by it. All of it. There are a lot of people like you who are only a few steps away from making yourselves fit the definition of enemy, domestic, for citizens like myself. You’re not going to like what happens after you step over that line.
Followed by a number of eloquent agreements
Greg "Blotto" Garrett
2 days 22 hours ago
“I’m not going to be the guy skinning you alive for your blasphemy, in other words. I am, however, also not the guy who will lift a finger to stop it from happening, when it inevitably does.”
Reminds me of John Winger’s response to St. Hulka in “Stripes”:
“Lighten up, Francis. We’re all in this together. One of these men may save your life one of these days, you understand that?” – Warren Oates (as Sergeant Hulka in Stripes)
“Then again, maybe one of us won’t.” – Bill Murray (as John Winger)
The hypocrisy of the progressives is well pointed out, thank you for that. They use the word “tolerance” frequently, but always in the third person; “YOU must be tolerant of US. We are under no compulsion to be tolerant of you, your religion or your gun ownership. Those run counter to our beliefs, and what WE believe is the truth, otherwise why would we believe it? Therefore, what you believe is false, evil and bad, and should not be tolerated.” A neatly circular argument that insulates them from fact and critical thought.
DaveP.
2 days 12 hours ago
“I’m not going to be the guy skinning you alive for your blasphemy, in other words. I am, however, also not the guy who will lift a finger to stop it from happening, when it inevitably does.”
I’ll be the guy pointing and laughing. It’s amazing how the Left’s behavior has eroded my empathy over the years.
And let’s face it: if y’all enlightened sophisticated types really are a different nation than us cishet jingoistic Christian bitter-clingers… we don’t really owe you much, do we.
The Liberals for Good or Ill have broken the trust in our society, and other comments pointed out that broken trust is when the civilization becomes weak and unable to defend itself against Barbarians . Kirk is unfortunately correct, that when open hostilities begin there will be Fundamentalist Christian Sects, Race-Base Sects, etc that will be seeking power in the vacuum and will want to kill everyone not like them..
One of Kirk's detractors suggested
if we as a society decide that suppressing “bad” ideas, and silencing the people who hold them, is perfectly cool — then who gets to decide what counts as “bad” ? Today, it’s you, and everything is fine. Tomorrow, it’s your ideological opponents, and now you’re basically their slave..
to which there is the reply
Think macro here. Replace “bad ideas” with, I dunno, “messy freedoms” or “problematic liberties”, and read the result. Nodding from the sidelines while a freedom you don’t care for is threatened? That’s nuts. They WILL come for yours eventually. And you will have emboldened them.
Its the most fundamental of Sowell's questions - At what cost? As compared to What? Do you have hard evidence of that? Who is to decide?
Suppressing the Freedoms of others is always a bad idea. Because doing so leads to resentment and hatred, and that inevitably leads to war. That is the Cost
The alternative is giving up freedom and liberty to gain security and stability. Its a trade off. Its a society of Freemen compared to a police state - any point in the middle is moving towards one or the other - for one declares the individual paramount, and the other the society of which the individual are possesions of the controlling body. As for hard evidence , History will provide example after example. Who is to decide which is more important? Apparently it will be men with guns - the same as it ever was. And those men will have to see to it that the "bad ideas" promoted by the other side can never again have control of the guns. And that is true of whichever side wins.
