Charity place I was at yesterday.

[Brian37]

Another example of how the rich and the right get people to vote against their own self interests and the hypocrisy of the religious right.

Ok, so I need to get some new shorts and shirts, I never buy new cloths from department stores. A lot of the used cloths you get at charity places are donate, at least in a golf resort town, are quality anyway and dirt cheap. Having said that, and this is  not the first time I went to this place, the two women there I could tell were right wingers.

They complained about taxes and I always want to bitch slap people who pull this crap. Anything you buy in life, the price you pay the tax on it constitutes the SMALLEST COST! The other thing they bitched about while I was there were the poor, WHILE RUNNING A CHARITY! What the fuck? If you hate the poor so much why the fuck are you running a charity? Ok so I picked out some used shoes, again, likely donated by a upper middle class or rich golfer type. Dress shoes so I could do a job interview, and when they looked at the $2 marking price on it they flipped out saying it was priced too low. Again, all I could think was "YOU'RE A FUCKING CHARITY!"

Ok, so on top of that an old military vet handicap was there, and he mentioned he couldn't get medical transport to a VA hospital in Virginia to get a procedure done. These same stupid ladies complained about government spending, and it was all I could do not to scream at them. It isn't government spending it is LACK OF INVESTMENT! 

Tax breaks for the rich, not food stamps, not money spent on the VA, but corporate welfare. On top of having big oil and the weapons industry fueled by needless wars to make the few on all sides at the top richer. 

I am so sick of the top and the right fleecing the country and convincing their gullible followers to allow them to hold everyone hostage. But this is what the rich and the religious right do, pit the classes, party and races against each other so they can keep their special privilege.

[Dystopia]

I agree with most of what you've said and congrats on using used clothes - I always go to a low cost store now and clothes are great and simple. I disagree with the religious part but that may be an American problem - From my view the problem isn't religion, it's capitalist leaders (when it comes to class and money), and they are not a homogeneous religion or race. In fact, I think if Christians really followed Jesus they'd have to be anti-capitalism and against the rich, but I guess it's not convenient.

[Brian37]

NO it is religion. If they were not religious they would not be easily lead by the nose. Now again, not saying you can end it by force. But you buy into a utopia and those in power can use it to lead you.

Religion, in human history, all of them, is what I am talking about. It isn't a matter of humans being bad, but the concept itself being bad. It is gap filling based on false perceptions.

I hate the arguments from any religion when a liberal(could be a Christian or Muslim or Jew or whatever)

I hate it when liberals say "that is not a true" pointing to the right. No, both left and right use the exact same books to come to different conclusions and BOTH believe in the same characters of those books.

Now specifically with Christians, liberals love to point out the NT Jesus as being anti greed, non violent. But no, sorry, it sounds nice and well intended. But you cannot separate the NT character from the head leader of the entire book, whom from the beginning of that book is at best, only kind to outsiders when they submit and know their place, but most of the time are murdered by god for dissent and or murdered by his fans. NT also has Jesus demanding you abandon your family and friends if they don't kiss his ass. Then at the end of the book the God goes right back to being a violent prick condemning everyone who didn't kiss his ass.

The reality of why liberal Christians pointing out the gentile Jesus motif they want to be true, isn't coming from that book, it is coming from our species evolutionary compassion. The book itself is not required to believe in to do that.

Liberals unwittingly allow the right wingers as mentioned above the cover by ignoring this reality. It is literally religion doing this. They are not different books the left and right use, different versions still can have both right and left using those different versions.

My point is that religion poisons humans perceptions of reality, that placebo kaleidoscope thinking is gap filling when humans would do better by losing their fear of accepting reality.

If a liberal believer of any religion can accept that others of other religions or no religion can be good, then they need to consider that it is not the concept of religion, or a holy book doing it, but their natural evolutionary empathy doing it.

[Minimalist]

It's both.  Remember what Barry Goldwater said:

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”