Fundie stuff I do not get

[Guest Anonymous]

Good perspective Juniper, and one I can relate to in some ways. My father immigrated to the US from Poland. Growing up in the '50's in a town of immigrants, and first generation Americans it was easy to hold onto our parents tradition. We were acutely aware of the hardships our families suffered in Poland and Russia under the communists. I did have a good basic American education and was able to support utopian communism much to my parents chagrin. I was a CPUSA member for many years, and in my time with the party I met a few folks whose backgrounds were similar to mine, commies who came from very anticommie families.

I think there's a world of difference between rejecting communism as a philosophy based on real world history and one's own preferences, and running around screaming that "the commies are coming!" a la Chicken Little and the falling sky. ITOG is definitely engaging in the latter.

Heck, I'm not a communist. But I'm not afraid of JFC in her party hat, either.

[Shoobydoo]

My husband was born and raised barely on the English side of the Scotland/England border. His mother is from Scotland, and his father's parents were both born in Scotland, but he always says he is English and cheers for the English National Football team. Most of the time in the US he tells people he's Scottish, as that is what his accent sounds like to Americans...he just confuses Americans when he says he English, as it seems the average American associates the English accent with the Queen's English or Cockney.

What is interesting, is he has done a lot of geneology, and before moving to Scotland his family came from Ireland. His great great grandfather left his family and moved to America in the 1920's, and the US Census lists his grandfather as "Irish National" even though his family's roots in Scotland go back 3 or 4 generations before him. I always thought that was interesting.

In my experience, there tends to be an especially strong Irish identification in th US for those descended from Irish immigrants. It may seem funny CV, but really I think for most in the US it's paying Irish people a complement :-)

Though I think it's funny when I tell my fellow Americans that Irish truly don't eat corned beef and cabbage LOL.

As for myself, I'm such a Heinz 57 even if I didn't want to call myself American it's a laundry list of places my ancestors came from. I've got English, Czech, Belgian, French, Welsh, German, Jewish, and Irish ancestors.

Edited because I do know grammar y'all!

Yep! I'm what my family calls Northern European Stew. Take a dozen European countries and throw them in the blender and you get my genetics. I usually tell people I'm a bit of everything, or that I have English or Scots ancestors because I think we actually know we have those. I believe my uncle sent off to some registry or another to get an official Stuart tartan kilt. (Or maybe it was Stewart? I don't remember which.) And my last name is just a straight up English noun, so that part's pretty obivous. ;)

That said, I don't identify strongly with either of those cultures. It can be a very lonely feeling, not having a really strong heritage tradition as an American. It's kind of like...... if cultural traditions were fabrics, would you rather be plain muslin, or a beautiful batik or a novelty quilt fabric? If that makes sense. Sorry if it doesn't, metaphors do not appear to be my strong suite tonight.

[BayLee_10]

Jim Bob always brings up broom ball whenever anyone even hints that the Duggar kids aren't integrated with the local kids. Of course Jim Bob is right there every time they play.

[ladypuglover]

8wakJdXzu3Y

And just because this can also fit this topic too.

VaBCwwgrgoA

[JesusFightClub]

Lissar and Constance are making all my points better for me (and! kittens!) but I was meaning about fundies,that what is weird is that their dislike and fear of communism is irrational and frankly bizarre. Somebody like Juniper or emmiedahl has a reasonable, nuanced position as to why they don't agree with it, and that is not weird - although I wouldn't share their view, I doubt they are paranoidly worrying about the commie takeover and they have solid reasons to back their side. But the fundieblogs I was reading would pick something absolutely random (say, breakfast clubs in school or women in the workplace) and completely go off on one about it being a Commie plot. Katie Botkin gives an example of that in her very interesting blog. The smarter fundies stick in some out of context quotes from Marx or Lenin but the rest confine themselves to pointing and shouting. That attitude seems, well, it's not the Fifties any more, and now it is WEIRD.

I also very much doubt if any fundie ever met a real actual communist (contrary to popular belief amongst fundies this doesn't mean "somebody who voted for Obama"). We have a handful of people who have spent time on the organised Left on FJ (experiencedd can you start a ask thread for ex CPUSA? please?) and none of us are scary and devious like the fundies believe. I am the only one still currently practicing, as it were, I think. I'm unusual that I have been quite heavily influenced by anarchism, so I am not representative of the typical commie. Mostly they are just people with normal jobs and lives who go about their business and take a strong view on politics and attend a lot of very boring meetings, but to hear fundies you would think they were a band of diabolical plotters with horns and tail like Satan. That is kind of funny and sad at the same time.

Re national identity, peas n carrots, where your husband is from is practically Scotland, and come the revolution, it will be ;) Supporting England may be a bit of a hurdle, though...

It is good to celebrate one's family origins. What my complaint is about the VF lot is cultural appropriation. I don't like to see them wearing kilts and the like because it makes them feel "manly" when they are rude about my country now and its culture now. Scotland is a modern nation, not a historical Disneyland for Americans.

That is different from looking into your past. It's the difference between "wow, great granny was from Kirkcudbright" and "I AM WEARING A KILT AND O HAI I AM AMERICAN AND TOUGH BTW".

Incoherence due to strong meds, not stupidity (I hope)...

[JesusFightClub]

LPL, what adorable videos! Politically a bit troublesome, but generally with a great message and super catchy, where are they from?

Since I am rambling, I would also like to reiterate that my offer to VF interns is absolutely sincere. You can come and stay with me. Maybe a week or so. VF is doing alright, we can work something out about travel.

I am sorry, you do have to sleep on the couch. And we don't do McDonalds where I stay and we don't have a TV. We have unfiltered Internet though which might be interesting for you. Try it and see if you like!

I live kind of communally so you have to be a bit accommodating. Stuff like food isn't precisely "yours", it is everyone's. The books we have might look strange and weird. Not everyone has English (or Scots) as a first language. It helps if you have a bit of German or Russian.

We will cook you nice foods and you can come to work with me so you can see public sector workers are not evil agents of the Devil. I will take you to tenants' group meetings (held in a pub) and to meet loads of folk you wouldn't previously (atheists, poor people, communists, anarchists, activists of all types and just general Scots). We will go to a football match and to see the countryside. Might actually be interesting for you. I will teach you songs and tell you where you can and can't sing them, also translate from Scots for you and maybe you might like to hear a wee bit of the Gaelic (I do not speak it but I know people who do.)

Finally, sight seeing and a Scottish tradition...beer from the offlicence and kebab from the takeaway ;) I will buy you a fried Mars bar if you are good. Also chips wi' salt and sauce.

The offer is open...

[Renting with Raggles]

Lissar and Constance are making all my points better for me (and! kittens!) but I was meaning about fundies,that what is weird is that their dislike and fear of communism is irrational and frankly bizarre. Somebody like Juniper or emmiedahl has a reasonable, nuanced position as to why they don't agree with it, and that is not weird - although I wouldn't share their view, I doubt they are paranoidly worrying about the commie takeover and they have solid reasons to back their side. But the fundieblogs I was reading would pick something absolutely random (say, breakfast clubs in school or women in the workplace) and completely go off on one about it being a Commie plot. Katie Botkin gives an example of that in her very interesting blog. The smarter fundies stick in some out of context quotes from Marx or Lenin but the rest confine themselves to pointing and shouting. That attitude seems, well, it's not the Fifties any more, and now it is WEIRD.

I would like you to set a discursive essay question for itsthatonegirl on some aspect of communism - ideology or practise, it's up to you. You could sound her views and I would finally see if she is capable of constructing an argument and making citations.

[Shoobydoo]

LPL, what adorable videos! Politically a bit troublesome, but generally with a great message and super catchy, where are they from?

They're School House Rock videos. They're a series of educational cartoons form the 70's I think. Way, way before my time, but my mom loves the darn things and we have the DVD. They're great for if you ever need a song about pronouns stuck in your head. :dance: Very few of them cover political topics, they're mostly grammar, math, and some basic science.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FALhhGZRsos

[jenny_islander]

The frothing about commie plots makes sense within the culture. To be a U.S. fundamentalist Christian means to be engaged in a cosmic struggle against evil. But there's a problem. The one cosmic evil that Christians recognize (those of us who believe that Satan is a being and not an anthropomorphic personification like Lady Wisdom) works within the banal battleground of human hearts. The fruit of its works can be utter horror on a scale the human mind cannot truly grasp, but it begins with human decisions and human actions. But in the U.S. fundamentalist mindset, self-examination is Evil Psychology and right action is Works Righteousness. Plus, you are supposed to be saved after you say the special prayer (except for the continual nagging anxiety that you weren't really really REALLY saved) so you can't be part of the problem. Solution: Identify an enemy, propose a conspiracy theory, and blame the commies. The fact that no communist has attained any political or economic power in the U.S. in--what, a couple of generations, at least? Maybe since the '30s,--just proves that they are hiding really, really well.

Any enemy works for a conspiracy theory. If it isn't the commies, it's the feminists. If it isn't the feminists, it's the gays. Or the socialists, or the crypto-Muslims, or the people trying to steal away your children by getting them to play Dungeons and Dragons, or . . .

From the outside, the stories that these people tell each other look like ridiculous rumors that an afternoon at the library would dispel. But we don't need the stories because we don't need the cosmic enemy, our own screwups and hangups with a side order of standing up for the displaced and disenfranchised being trouble enough for one lifetime. This doesn't imply that the people sustaining the conspiracy theory are in fact taking on real trouble--except for the pointless anxiety that they are afflicted with by people who should put more charity into what they teach. Note the enemies listed above. When have you ever heard a fundamentalist preacher stand up against unbridled capitalism, pollution of the water table, lack of medical care for the poor, police brutality, human trafficking, or hate crimes? Those are real evils in the real world that require more of a response than assuring one another that They can't get us because we're Saved.

There is a certain point in adolescence when many--possibly most--people look around, blink, and say to themselves, "Why are we wasting our time on this crap over here when somebody is in real trouble over there? Why are we applying pat answers as if they worked? There has to be something more than this. It's time to put away childish things." It's no accident, IMO, that fundamentalists with pulpits strive to keep as many of their followers as possible from reaching that point, even as adults. Instead, they preach conspiracy theories and checklists of behaviors. Oh, yes, and fear.

[formergothardite]

Well, yes, I did acknowledge that I am subject to psychological fears. The fear of someday living in a dystopian, totalitarian state at some point in the future is one of them. Is it rational? Maybe not, but as I said, anxiety is something that I struggle with.

When I think of a fear of communism, though, I don't think of America itself becoming communist, I think more in terms of the possibility of a global government. I do not think this is a completely irrational or crazy thing to fear. It would be more than possible simply because of the level of technology that humanity has achieved. All it takes is a group of people who decide it's time for them to quench their thirst for power. Because of technology, it would be much harder for people to fight back than it has been in the past.

I'm more afraid of people like you who are activily voting and trying to get control over my body. You have decided that you want power over women's bodies and you are now trying to quench that thirst for power by attempting to make abortion illegal and (I get all the crazies mixed up so correct me if I am wrong) put women who had them in jail. It is more likely that people like you will get power than the communist.

And nice job on not answering question number 4. Why do you not see that banning things you don't like, like abortion, opens the door to banning things you do like?

Not that I expect a straight answer from you, you have a history of not giving them.

I predict that itsthatonegirl will never come back to this thread and will just post again on other thread like she never wrote any of this.

[Constance Vigilance]

I predict that itsthatonegirl will never come back to this thread and will just post again on other thread like she never wrote any of this.

Yup. We might get one more post, to "prove you wrong", then that'll be the end of that.

Man, people are crazy. It must be exhausting.

itsthatonegirl, how about you take the time you spend posting nonsense here and spend it working on cognitive behaviour therapies (or the psychological method of your choice) for the mental illness that makes it so easy for the preachers of hate and fear to control you? It would do you a lot better in the long run, and spare us any more ill-thought-out inanities.

[alba]

I believe my uncle sent off to some registry or another to get an official Stuart tartan kilt. (Or maybe it was Stewart? I don't remember which.)

Stewart's the Scottish spelling, Stuart's French/English. The royal family back in the day used to be the Stewarts until either Mary Queen of Scots (who grew up in France) or her son, James VI (who became King of England as well as Scotland). Then they were the Stuarts until the English parliament forced one of them to abdicate for being an ebul Catholic (James VIII?). Well, the family was still called Stuart, but the monarchs weren't anymore.

Anyway, it's probably Stewart rather than Stuart tartan.

And that was probably more than you'd ever wanted to know. I'm a history geek!

I will buy you a fried Mars bar if you are good. Also chips wi' salt and sauce.

The offer is open...

Are you from Edinburgh, by any chance? It's the only place I've ever heard of salt and sauce for chips. If you are, you can bring your guests to the takeaway that serves deep-fried salad.

I also have a noob question: What does VF stand for?

[Constance Vigilance]

I also have a noob question: What does VF stand for?

Vision Forum.

[Peas n carrots]

Lissar and Constance are making all my points better for me (and! kittens!) but I was meaning about fundies,that what is weird is that their dislike and fear of communism is irrational and frankly bizarre. Somebody like Juniper or emmiedahl has a reasonable, nuanced position as to why they don't agree with it, and that is not weird - although I wouldn't share their view, I doubt they are paranoidly worrying about the commie takeover and they have solid reasons to back their side. But the fundieblogs I was reading would pick something absolutely random (say, breakfast clubs in school or women in the workplace) and completely go off on one about it being a Commie plot. Katie Botkin gives an example of that in her very interesting blog. The smarter fundies stick in some out of context quotes from Marx or Lenin but the rest confine themselves to pointing and shouting. That attitude seems, well, it's not the Fifties any more, and now it is WEIRD.

I also very much doubt if any fundie ever met a real actual communist (contrary to popular belief amongst fundies this doesn't mean "somebody who voted for Obama"). We have a handful of people who have spent time on the organised Left on FJ (experiencedd can you start a ask thread for ex CPUSA? please?) and none of us are scary and devious like the fundies believe. I am the only one still currently practicing, as it were, I think. I'm unusual that I have been quite heavily influenced by anarchism, so I am not representative of the typical commie. Mostly they are just people with normal jobs and lives who go about their business and take a strong view on politics and attend a lot of very boring meetings, but to hear fundies you would think they were a band of diabolical plotters with horns and tail like Satan. That is kind of funny and sad at the same time.

Re national identity, peas n carrots, where your husband is from is practically Scotland, and come the revolution, it will be ;) Supporting England may be a bit of a hurdle, though...

It is good to celebrate one's family origins. What my complaint is about the VF lot is cultural appropriation. I don't like to see them wearing kilts and the like because it makes them feel "manly" when they are rude about my country now and its culture now. Scotland is a modern nation, not a historical Disneyland for Americans.

That is different from looking into your past. It's the difference between "wow, great granny was from Kirkcudbright" and "I AM WEARING A KILT AND O HAI I AM AMERICAN AND TOUGH BTW".

Incoherence due to strong meds, not stupidity (I hope)...

Commies are everywhere you know! Anything they deem remotely liberal must mean it's socialist (especially if it involves helping disadvantaged people), and socialists are commies. It's utterly laughable, but at the same time I immediately have no respect for anyone who calls Obama a socialist. Not because I'm an Obama fan, but because obviously they are an idiot and choose to be an idiot and I just don't want to waste my breath on them.

Ancedotally from my experience in Berwick I think a greater number want to go over to Scotland. I think a) most people there have Scottish roots to begin with, and b) the benefits are better (as in OAP's get their medication for free, transit for the elderly is free etc).

As for football teams, DH has said one of the other reasons he cheers for England in football is because Alan Shearer was his idol growing up. Also the Scottish team isn't as dominant internationally year in and year out, and England is usually makes it to the world cup on a consistent basis.

Oooo...I think you should take those VF interns to a Celtic Rangers game. That is, if you want them to experience real terror!

[alba]

Vision Forum.

Oh god, that looks terrifying.

[Daenerys]

LPL, what adorable videos! Politically a bit troublesome, but generally with a great message and super catchy, where are they from?

Since I am rambling, I would also like to reiterate that my offer to VF interns is absolutely sincere. You can come and stay with me. Maybe a week or so. VF is doing alright, we can work something out about travel.

I am sorry, you do have to sleep on the couch. And we don't do McDonalds where I stay and we don't have a TV. We have unfiltered Internet though which might be interesting for you. Try it and see if you like!

I live kind of communally so you have to be a bit accommodating. Stuff like food isn't precisely "yours", it is everyone's. The books we have might look strange and weird. Not everyone has English (or Scots) as a first language. It helps if you have a bit of German or Russian.

We will cook you nice foods and you can come to work with me so you can see public sector workers are not evil agents of the Devil. I will take you to tenants' group meetings (held in a pub) and to meet loads of folk you wouldn't previously (atheists, poor people, communists, anarchists, activists of all types and just general Scots). We will go to a football match and to see the countryside. Might actually be interesting for you. I will teach you songs and tell you where you can and can't sing them, also translate from Scots for you and maybe you might like to hear a wee bit of the Gaelic (I do not speak it but I know people who do.)

Finally, sight seeing and a Scottish tradition...beer from the offlicence and kebab from the takeaway ;) I will buy you a fried Mars bar if you are good. Also chips wi' salt and sauce.

The offer is open...

They probably wouldn't understand you though, I mean Susan Boyle had to be subtitled on US TV. I've come across a few weegie accents I couldn't make sense of but hers seems so easy?

[lilwriter85]

Everywhere I have lived, soccer has been huge. In my current town, it is as big or bigger than football. But sports are expensive and they require parent chauffeurs. I think the real reason fundies are against sports and other extracurricular activities is that they just cannot do it with so many children and such little income. So they either have admit that there is a drawback to quiverfull or claim that soccer etc is not important, even bad.

As far as communism goes, I am not afraid of Communists or the Communist party, but I can see some reticence toward communism in general. It just has not worked out well in the countries where it has been used. I would not want to live that way. But I think the fundies use it as a rallying cry--it's the opposite of Christianity to them, and therefore something that must be feared. There is not really any chance of Communism taking off in the US in the near future, so it is not really something to worry about. I personally am more worried about fundamentalism, because I see it as bringing a similar end result (totalitarianism, economic tragedy, etc) and it is much more likely to affect American politics.

Fundies have some congenital inability to grasp that socialism =/= communism. I used to dislike socialism as a concept, I don't really know why. Countries like Sweden certainly seem more compassionate and "Christian" to me, I would love to see the US move in that direction. My husband has some objections, but he is not *afraid*, it's just another political preference to him.

I think finances are also a reason some fundies are against sports. Most of the fundie families we discuss here probably can't afford to have their kids in sports. Some youth sports leagues can be expensive because they some sports leagues don't reuse uniforms year after year. Also someone like Boob would hate paying money for expensive cleats or any other equipment. My boyfriend and I watched a 19KAC rerun several months when we were both home during the day. In that rerun, Boob put up a basketball court in the yard for the kids and Mullet talked about how excised Boob was for the kids to play basketball. My boyfriend said that the Duggars should have their kids in youth sports league and I said that part of the reason the Duggars likely don't have their kids in sports is because of money. I also think the Duggars like other fundies like having complete control over their kids. Boob and Mullet are probably ok the kids doing broomball because other homeschooling fundie families participate in it too.

In a lot of areas, there are youth basketball leagues and even churches sponsor teams. I had a co-worker whose son played for a Baptist church team. Some youth basketball leagues are somewhat cheap to join, because some teams don't have expensive uniforms and some team's uniforms are usually just cheap shorts and screen printed t-shirt rather than a jersey. My co-worker said that her son's involvement in youth basketball was cheaper than little league and hockey. I also think scheduling would be difficult for fundie families to have their kids involved in sports or other hobbies.

[itsthatonegirl]

What no one seems to realize is that on this particular thread, I'm not sharing what I fear in order to convince people that it's a valid fear. I know better than anyone here that many of my fears are ridiculous. I share with very few people about my anxiety, because I know most people will not understand/think less of me/think I'm crazy, etc. I've dealt with anxiety for 12 years, and it's really, really effed up. I really wish I did not have to deal with it. I was just in a convo w/my husband the other day about how it has been particularly bad for me lately. My anxiety (sometimes accompanied by depression) has always flared up after the birth of my babies... with the exception of my 2nd baby, as I was on an antidepressant at that time. Over the holidays I miscarried, and I noticed the anxiety rising after the miscarriage as it had done after births.

I have more fears than I can count, but they all pretty much revolve around chaos and the world spinning out of control... or my own personal world spinning out of control. Trust me, I would love to sit for hours and hours in a psychologist's chair, spill my life story from beginning to now, and try to figure out some of the roots of this crap. I don't know why other fundies fear stuff like communism. I don't even know if they really "fear" it, or if they just see it as a viable future possibility. I think with many of them, it's more an attitude of, "whatever happens, we'll face it with God's strength." Man I wish I could be courageous like that!

[pomology]

Lissar and Constance are making all my points better for me (and! kittens!) but I was meaning about fundies,that what is weird is that their dislike and fear of communism is irrational and frankly bizarre. Somebody like Juniper or emmiedahl has a reasonable, nuanced position as to why they don't agree with it, and that is not weird - although I wouldn't share their view, I doubt they are paranoidly worrying about the commie takeover and they have solid reasons to back their side. But the fundieblogs I was reading would pick something absolutely random (say, breakfast clubs in school or women in the workplace) and completely go off on one about it being a Commie plot. Katie Botkin gives an example of that in her very interesting blog. The smarter fundies stick in some out of context quotes from Marx or Lenin but the rest confine themselves to pointing and shouting. That attitude seems, well, it's not the Fifties any more, and now it is WEIRD.

I also very much doubt if any fundie ever met a real actual communist (contrary to popular belief amongst fundies this doesn't mean "somebody who voted for Obama"). We have a handful of people who have spent time on the organised Left on FJ (experiencedd can you start a ask thread for ex CPUSA? please?) and none of us are scary and devious like the fundies believe. I am the only one still currently practicing, as it were, I think. I'm unusual that I have been quite heavily influenced by anarchism, so I am not representative of the typical commie. Mostly they are just people with normal jobs and lives who go about their business and take a strong view on politics and attend a lot of very boring meetings, but to hear fundies you would think they were a band of diabolical plotters with horns and tail like Satan. That is kind of funny and sad at the same time.

Re national identity, peas n carrots, where your husband is from is practically Scotland, and come the revolution, it will be ;) Supporting England may be a bit of a hurdle, though...

It is good to celebrate one's family origins. What my complaint is about the VF lot is cultural appropriation. I don't like to see them wearing kilts and the like because it makes them feel "manly" when they are rude about my country now and its culture now. Scotland is a modern nation, not a historical Disneyland for Americans.

That is different from looking into your past. It's the difference between "wow, great granny was from Kirkcudbright" and "I AM WEARING A KILT AND O HAI I AM AMERICAN AND TOUGH BTW".

Incoherence due to strong meds, not stupidity (I hope)...

I think this is an important an accurate distinction to make.

Seriously, JFC, you go on about how everyone else makes your points better than you do, but in my opinion, you are very eloquent!

But I totally agree with the bolded statement.

[Guest Anonymous]

What no one seems to realize is that on this particular thread, I'm not sharing what I fear in order to convince people that it's a valid fear. I know better than anyone here that many of my fears are ridiculous. I share with very few people about my anxiety, because I know most people will not understand/think less of me/think I'm crazy, etc. I've dealt with anxiety for 12 years, and it's really, really effed up. I really wish I did not have to deal with it. I was just in a convo w/my husband the other day about how it has been particularly bad for me lately. My anxiety (sometimes accompanied by depression) has always flared up after the birth of my babies... with the exception of my 2nd baby, as I was on an antidepressant at that time. Over the holidays I miscarried, and I noticed the anxiety rising after the miscarriage as it had done after births.

I have more fears than I can count, but they all pretty much revolve around chaos and the world spinning out of control... or my own personal world spinning out of control. Trust me, I would love to sit for hours and hours in a psychologist's chair, spill my life story from beginning to now, and try to figure out some of the roots of this crap. I don't know why other fundies fear stuff like communism. I don't even know if they really "fear" it, or if they just see it as a viable future possibility. I think with many of them, it's more an attitude of, "whatever happens, we'll face it with God's strength." Man I wish I could be courageous like that!

You are such a dishonest, slimy person. You're backpeddling because people showed you how wrong you are.

Lissar, I don't think that it's unreasonable to fear communism, when communism is real. It's not as though it isn't real. It's not as though there aren't plenty of horror stories from communist countries. Why would it be so hard to believe that it could happen in this country?

When I think of a fear of communism, though, I don't think of America itself becoming communist, I think more in terms of the possibility of a global government. I do not think this is a completely irrational or crazy thing to fear. It would be more than possible simply because of the level of technology that humanity has achieved. All it takes is a group of people who decide it's time for them to quench their thirst for power. Because of technology, it would be much harder for people to fight back than it has been in the past.

What the fuck is this, if not trying to convince us that your fear is valid? People might have a little respect for you if you would admit that you were wrong instead of pretending that you never held a position that you clearly did.

If you're such a mess you need to get off the internet and go get some help. This is not a support group. I think you're trying to manipulate people into feeling sorry for you so they'll be nice to you and stop calling you out when you say something stupid. It's not going to happen. Grow the hell up or shut the fuck up. Maybe try to use the brain that God gave you. And don't homeschool your freaking kids. You're not equipped.

[jenny_islander]

Anxiety disorders can make all kinds of cockamamie things seem real emotionally even though the sufferer knows intellectually that they are nonsense. I know someone who suffers in that way--they get mad at themselves because they understand that the thing they worry about is impossible, but they also know that it's just waiting for a chance to happen. It's like dream logic.

That said, ITOG, this is not a therapy group. Please find a therapist who can help you. Someone who does not put their religion in their advertising would be best; IME those who bill themselves as "Christian" will push for agreement with their particular agenda regardless of the patient's own needs.

[Peas n carrots]

They probably wouldn't understand you though, I mean Susan Boyle had to be subtitled on US TV. I've come across a few weegie accents I couldn't make sense of but hers seems so easy?

She's from outside Edinburgh, that is why she's a bit easier to understand.

Now THIS is a weegie accent!

[Constance Vigilance]

Anxiety disorders can make all kinds of cockamamie things seem real emotionally even though the sufferer knows intellectually that they are nonsense. I know someone who suffers in that way--they get mad at themselves because they understand that the thing they worry about is impossible, but they also know that it's just waiting for a chance to happen. It's like dream logic.

Yes. However, when you cross into aligning yourself with religious bigotry, suppression of women, etc I don't actually care what's wrong with you that's making you do it. It is fucked up. Also, if itog hadn't posted all her previous mountain of crazy this might be a benefit of the doubt situation but she has, it isn't, and I totes agree with Lissar that she's trying to make it seem like you can't attack her fuckery without attacking her disorder. Not the case.

As a fellow sufferer I get to be as brusque as I like about this so she can't play me :D. If I told you some of the irrational things I was terrified of a while ago you'd fall over yourself laughing. The difference is I didn't turn up on message boards arguing that they were anything to do with the failings of the world, or what God wanted me and others to do with my life. Sort that out, itog.

Edited for fuck you.

[Wolfie]

I've said it before- It isn't just fundies who see anything liberal as socialist, and socialism=communism. I have a couple of people on my facebook friends list who are like this, but totally not religious at all. These are the conservatives who just refuse to learn for themselves. LIke the one who complained about "obamacare" and how everybody just wanted something for nothing, yet his kids are on the state low income health care plan. Then his next post was about "where is my unemployment check?" Which he never would even say is socialism, because "I pay for it." Um yeah, you pay into the government, we all do, that's socialism.

His FIL has also gone off on how people depend too much on WIC and subsidized health care for their kids. Does he not see that his own daughter is using it?

[O Latin]

I know the thread seems to have moved on a bit, but, regarding Americans and soccer, I think in the U.S. soccer is seen as mostly a kids sport. Sure, there are high school and college and professional teams but those are for people who are very, very good (obviously) and most people don't follow them. In contrast, practically every elementary school child plays soccer at some point (especially if you life in a middle class/suburban area) and it's a family event. Some families spend entire weekends at the soccer field if there is more than one game or they have more than one kid playing. But the vast majority of those mini soccer players get a little older and move on to a different sport or they join the marching band or the drama department or whatever. So when most Americans think of soccer, they think of a bunch of third-graders chasing a ball, coached by somebody's dad. That's why we have the name "soccer mom," because most suburban moms end up schleping the kids to soccer at some point in their lives.

Like others have said, I think the fascination with family heritage come from the fact that, IMO, American culture is kind of boring. I think part of that comes from being a young country, but there are so few cultural things that are distinctly American, I think people often end up searching for something to fill that void, and they start with their own family tree. I remember when I was a young teenager we learned about coming of age rituals in different cultures and I was pissed that I was stuck in boring America where we didn't get anything like that.