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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   31473 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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Criticism of the movie itself is weak, with the arguments boiling down to "it's not realistic" and "the plot doesn't always make sense", things that could be leveled at any summer blockbuster.

Yes, and those exact criticisms ARE levied by critics at summer blockbusters, all the time. I see that the film has a 74% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the same as Elemental and Asteroid City, and better than the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Fast X. Are you sure there is a culture war angle here?

There is actually a summer action thriller out in theaters right now starring an actor known for his membership (and not simply membership - in many ways he's been the mascot) in a controversial organization that's been accused of being a cult, and has been tied to various crimes including fraud, embezzlement, racketeering, stalking, harassment, rape, and abetment of suicide. But have you noticed that the reviews for the latest Mission Impossible film don't bring up Tom Cruise's membership in the Church of Scientology, or his endorsement of Scientology's many anti-medical claims about the field of psychiatry? Why do you think critics prefer to discuss Jim Caviezel's association with QAnon instead?

I don’t have an opinion on that, because I try not to make generalizations based on n=2. And, given that Scientology is a religion, whereas QAnon is a political organization, I would certainly want to control for that. I would also want to control for the fact that QAnon has very much been in the news of late, whereas Scientology has not.

  • -21

I don’t think most people think of Scientology as a religion, more as a hybrid cult and a scam.

But you repeat yourself, waaaaHEY!

I feel the spirit of the fedora returning from the 00's!

(But for real, I do feel the spirt coming back. I would bet a small amount that religion is going to renter the culture ware space as a real target in the next couple years.)

(But for real, I do feel the spirt coming back. I would bet a small amount that religion is going to renter the culture ware space as a real target in the next couple years.)

As a veteran Internet Atheist, I sure hope you're wrong. In retrospect the whole enterprise was somewhat undignified in it's heyday, at this point it would be downright perverse.

Then there's the small inconvenient fact that atheists have been proven absolutely wrong about the impact of religion on society, and about what secularization would bring about.

Then there's the small inconvenient fact that atheists have been proven absolutely wrong about the impact of religion on society, and about what secularization would bring about.

EDIT: I'd argue they were wrong about what religion did, but the people arguing in favor of religion are also wrong about what religion does. It might have done that in the past, and it might still do it if you are a goat herd in the Hindukush or a dirt farmer in the Indus valley, but not so for a western capitalist. I forgot to include this though so you get it as a weird edit instead lol.

Yes, but nowadays we've moved further along the Nietzschean path and there are new angles to attack religion from kinda percolating out there in gen z and gen alpha; mainly that people who claim to believe it don't actually believe it, because they don't act like they believe it.

Think about all these Johnny come lately statue profile pic dudes shopping which trad version of religion to choose; and realize that is how young people are going to experience popular religion; jut like we experienced religion like a kubrik film of incredibly venal mega churches and 9/11 and such.

We are in the Reaction phase right now; soon we will be in the counter-reaction phase.

but not so for a western capitalist

Huh? They're admittedly thinned out, but there still are religious communities in the west, and you can actually observe they're getting something out of it.

mainly that people who claim to believe it don't actually believe it, because they don't act like they believe it.

So? This applies to anyone as far as I can tell, even nihilists.

We are in the Reaction phase right now; soon we will be in the counter-reaction phase.

This is what I meant when I said it's going from undignified to perverse. As misguided as it was, I can understand "counter-reacting" to Alabama hicks teaching creationism in public schools because you think it will bring about a new age of peace, science, and freedom from dogma, but "counter-reacting" to dudes on Twitter trying to LARP themselves into finding some meaning in their life because something, something, muh Nietscheanism feels like a parody of itself.

You place too much importance on causes and not enough on people being cringe.

The reaction to new atheism had nothing to do with it's program; and everything to do with the spirit of the fedora.

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