(September 9, 2023 at 2:26 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: A wall of separation is also an attempt to lean into the control of the expression of faith. This is immediately obvious with our nutters here, as the expression of their faith...they keep telling us... is theocracy. They cannot live out their religious values so long as some girl named margaret insists on being called mike, or vv. They cannot live out their religious values if babbies are bein borted by bitches. They cannot live out their religious values if their kids dress bad. They cannot, to put it bluntly, live out their religious values if there's even the slightest suspicion that anyone, anywhere, is having any fun that their god would not approve of.
France has had a law on the books since 04 stating that religious symbols or clothing in schools is a no go. I return to my own opinion on clothing bans being ridiculous, but the law is very much an attempt at the separation of church and state, and it may be obnoxious for any number of reasons (such as disparate enforcement, that ones been brought up), but if we don't believe that a separation of church and state is obnoxious even though it's an attempt to control religious expression - then this would not be the reason that the clothing ban is obnoxious. This is the light in which I considered Anoms comment...and in which I think he's correct.
This issue is a convenient passive aggressive flex for the faithful. They insist that they are being persecuted while demanding that they be exempt from or separate to rules and laws which they support strongly insomuch as they suppress some other person doing some other thing they think their god doesn't like. IMO, the utility of this issue to (weak or strong) theocrats lies exclusively in it's ability to generate a friendly reaction from outside allies that often does not, upon close inspection, match the ideological viewpoint of those well meaning actors. I, ofc, believe that these religions are filth and that they are manipulating our societies - taking advantage of and perverting our best impulses in an opportunistic bid to secure perpetual minority control. So, that colors my view, lol.
Right, and others draw the line at a different spot. I just don't care if someone dresses funny, because it doesn't harm me; so I'm not wanting to use the gub'mint to defend my precious little feelings.
In the meantime, it does aggravate a sense of persecution in some religious folk that pushes them away from compromise. It also forces others to violate their own beliefs, though that doesn't radicalize them. In either case, I don't my legislators worried about penny-ante shit when there's bigger issues to solve. And France has plenty of bigger issues. This has the stink of distraction, to me.
