“In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.” (p. 1108)

We have antitrust laws. Republicans and neoliberals have de-funded the agencies that would enforce those laws to the extent that they can’t take action on 99% of what’s happening.

It’s exactly what Republicans would do if they didn’t like a company. Playing nice with these people is what got us to this point.

This is what 35 years of right-wing talk radio turning any cultural event into a political crusade has gotten us. The right wing echo chamber has brain-poisoned so many Americans, that they no longer have any non-political schemata for interpersonal interaction on any topic.

Want to talk about how to keep the Internet fast and secure? That’s political now.

Want to talk about the science behind the causes of climate change? That’s political now.

Want to talk about making anyone’s life better in any material way, other than a blood-sucking c-suite executive? That’s political now.

Want to talk about medicine? Oh you betcha that’s political now.

Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, and Fox News have caused this. And I have no problem calling them out for it. Think saying-so is “political?” Screw off. I don’t care if your politics get in the way of everything that’s interesting to discuss. Deal with it, or move to Saudi Arabia where conservatives would be happiest.

They need to start paying taxes too. Church is a business of graft.

Or, you know, we could just ditch the church part entirely. Playing pretend about your favorite book is okay as a hobby I guess, but it doesn’t deserve government sanction or protection.

I say this as someone who went to religious school until 9th grade, and was deeply involved in church through 12th grade.

Read charitably, the Christian Bible is a bunch of fantasy role-playing bullshit. Read realistically, anything not attributed directly to Jesus is a bunch of pedantic repressive bullshit, with the occasional nice axiom thrown in (“grey hair is the splendor of the old” etc). The Apostle Paul, for example, was the original TCOT, and would be a megachurch pastor today. He just loved telling everyone how to live.

Jesus - if he actually existed - went into temples with a whip and literally started flipping tables. Today, he’d be exiled from the church his followers founded because he’s too “liberal” and “weak.”

Religion, and in particular the vast cult of that is American Evangelical Christianity, has no place in the modern world. If there is a God, they only take us further from him. It’s a tax-free business built on graft and hatred, which they relabel as “tolerance” and “love.”

Cut off the tax-exempt status of any church or ministry that speaks to a political end (e.g. “Julie Green Ministries”). If they’re really that altruistic and pure of heart with clarity of purpose, it shouldn’t stop their mission.

There is nothing special about expert knowledge in the fantasy world of the 1st and 2nd centuries. Theology is strictly a study of invented bullshit, with the aim of subjugating others. Even majoring in Harry Potter or the Star Wars Expanded Universe would be of greater benefit to society.

Religion has no positive use.

If you couldn’t afford to pay for it in the first place, then they’re not losing any money.