Alabama Justice Who Ruled That Embryos Are ‘Children’ Appeared On QAnon Conspiracist's Show

Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker indicated on the show he was a proponent of the “Seven Mountains Mandate,” an explicitly theocratic doctrine at the heart of Christian nationalism.

Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker, who wrote the concurring opinion in last week’s explosive Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos have the same rights as living children, recently appeared on a show hosted by self-anointed “prophet” and QAnon conspiracy theorist.

Parker was the featured guest on “Someone You Should Know,” hosted by Johnny Enlow, a Christian nationalist influencer and devoted supporter of former President Donald Trump. Over the course of an 11-minute interview, Parker articulated a theocratic worldview at odds with a functioning, pluralistic society.

“God created government,” he told Enlow, adding that it’s “heartbreaking” that “we have let it go into the possession of others.”

SkyezOpen,

Hear me out.

  1. Buy a massive freezer.
  2. Adopt every single frozen embryo you can. There should be a bunch available in Alabama.
  3. Move to Alabama.
  4. Claim every single one for tax credit.
  5. Bankrupt the state government.

If that doesn’t work, keep going.

  1. Register every fetus that’s been frozen for at least 18 years to vote. They can’t speak for themselves, so someone has to.
  2. Elect sane people to office.
RunningInRVA,

When your freezer conks out and all of your “children” are dead, then you are now liable.

This is why people doing IVF are so terrified. They could be held liable if their embryos become non-viable.

Zink,

I’d definitely get redundant generators and batteries to protect my income-I MEAN, my family.

SupraMario,

It’s an act of God that the power went out.

tacosplease,

Except in TX

RizzRustbolt,

Ar wants your [frozen] children!

TurtleJoe,
@TurtleJoe@lemmy.world avatar

You can also draw a straight line between “embryos are children” and “all embryos must be implanted.”

RunningInRVA,

Yes

AutistoMephisto,
@AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world avatar

Exactly. They would probably force implant embryos into women, and then arrest them for murder if the embryo fails to take hold.

olympicyes,

Can embryos inherit property? Could they be an end around on inheritance tax? The mobile children of the donors could be guardians of the inheriting embryo?

RunningInRVA,

Why are you asking me? Ask the judge in Alabama who figured this all out before making his shortsighted and dickhole decision.

olympicyes,

Fine I’ll restate it as a statement. I doubt that the judge who decided that embryos are children has considered whether embryos can inherit property. A cynical person might seek to use their embryonic “children” as an end around on inheritance tax. They might treat the personhood status of the embryo like a corporation, enabling their children and dependents to control assets by becoming a guardian of the embryo in question. It’s clear that you don’t have the interest to consider such issues, so if I have the ability to ask someone I’ll wait until I can ask the dickhole and shortsighted Alabama judge directly. Enjoy your weekend.

theUnlikely,

How much is a frozen fetus going for these days?

ikidd,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Ima need about tree-fitty.

Flumpkin,

Wow that guy looks evil

RizzRustbolt,

He looks like the guy that gets bitten but tries to hide it in zombie movies.

moitoi,

Kamoulox

MonsiuerPatEBrown, (edited )

If they are children in Alabama then why aren’t they working in a coal mine or slaughter house ?

Q.E.D.

and get jobs you lazy hippy fetuses

Telorand,

Because there’s no coal in Alabama. You’re thinking West Virginia. It’s cotton fields in AL!

/s

ShaggySnacks,

The embryos yearn for the cotton fields.

ColeSloth,

If embryos are children, then every month a woman doesn’t fertilize an embryo from puberty to menopause, she’s killing a child.

I mean, that’s correct, right? That’s what this Judge is claiming. I say we roll with that narrative. Any unpregnant woman is killing a baby. LOCK HER UP! But of course the state will have to impregnate the jailed women. Otherwise they’ll be an accessory to even more murders every month, so all women in prison will also need to be pregnant.

theyCallMePhlegm,

You need to go back to HS biology. An unfertilized egg is exactly that an egg.

You need both an egg and sperm to make an embryo.

Menstruation happens BECAUSE there isn’t an embryo.

I don’t agree with the ruling any more than the next guy but this take is just dumb.

halferect,

They seem to understand that a embryo is a fertilized egg, I think they are just pointing out the next logical step would be to arrest any woman who doesn’t get her eggs fertilized and any man who spills his sperm on the ground because that’s children being murdered…

Telorand,

Agreed. There’s plenty to be upset about without also inventing things the way conservatives often do.

And getting things wrong just gives them the opportunity to dismiss everything you say based upon a single flaw they can latch upon: “Oh, clearly you haven’t done enough research into the topic to be taken seriously.”

Ghostalmedia,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Comments like the one above, and upvotes on those comments, are shocking common in threads about this ruling. I wonder how many people in America don’t remember their grade school biology, or didn’t get taught this.

I also wonder how much this is playing into America’s abortion laws. If people don’t understand the grade school biology, how can they possibly make an informed decision at the ballot box?

Ghostalmedia,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Embryos are the stage of development after fertilization.

CharlesDarwin,
@CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world avatar

WTAF is a theocrat like this even doing in our government in the first place? He apparently cannot separate his little book club’s narratives from his role in a secular government and now we learn he is a conspiracy theorist?

Uglyhead,
@Uglyhead@lemmy.world avatar

What book club?

I don’t think he,…reads

CharlesDarwin,
@CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world avatar

A lot of members of that little book club don’t even read the book they claim is sacred to them. One doesn’t have to be a reader to be a member of that book club.

Kaput,

Is that a Y’all-Quaeda branch?

OldWoodFrame,

7 Mountains Dominionism is literally Sharia law but Christianity instead of Islam.

LocoOhNo,

I’ve started referring to MTG as “Sharia Twain.”

RedditReject,

It is funny how similar they are. Only the name is different

unphazed,

So Sharia wants to perpetuate the apocalypse, too?

Hylactor,

Just being extremely generous and assuming for the sake of argument that every crime that Trump has been proven to have committed was somehow a conspiratorial hit job perpetrated by some massive shadowy leftist cabal. I’ll never understand how the “grab em by the pussy” guy is the Christian choice. How the guy who cultivated the image of ruthless businessman, and who fired people for the sake of entertainment is the Christian choice. The man who famously cited second Corinthians as “two Corinthians” to a room full of evangelical Christians is the Christian choice. How the guy who insults people so regularly and often that there is a whole wikipedia article dedicated to it is the Christian choice. And finally, how the Wharton grad, billionaire New York real estate tycoon somehow doesn’t represent the “coastal elite” which is supposedly the enemy he is fighting against to restore “true Christian values”.

thisisnotgoingwell,

Honestly, I’ll never understand how Christianity has become ingrained with right wing politics. Modern day conservative churches are at odds with everything that Christ taught and stood for.

Got_Bent,

Christianity as a governing body has pretty much always been oppressive and against anything progressive.

Then you take your puritans, who were so far off the horizon of extremities that even established Christian governments in Europe were all like, “dude, you guys are cray-cray,” dump them on the shores of an entirely new continent populated by brown people who don’t speak Jesus, sprinkle in a bunch of beer and guns, add some African slaves, and you’ve got the foundation of the land of the free

OldWoodFrame,

They’re just showing what wins when their politics conflict with their religion.

rottingleaf,

Christian nationalism

You really have these things upside down in the New World.

Jaysyn,
Jaysyn avatar

Partisan judges are automatically unqualified.

hglman,

Who defines what makes you partisan?

CharlesDarwin,
@CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world avatar

Well, if someone’s chosen lifestyle compels them to start quoting things like “the” bible on the job and endorsing xtian nationalism, even if they have such a powerful role in a secular government, then it’s cut and dry, isn’t it?

CraigeryTheKid,

Well, the judge saying God created government is a strong clue.

ElleChaise,

Merriam-Webster.

hglman,

You really failed to understand my question if you think the dictionary definition is all you need.

TurtleJoe,
@TurtleJoe@lemmy.world avatar

This man is unable to make decisions based on the evidence put before him in a case. He instead refers to religious doctrine.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Wrong

We need partisan leftist judges to crack down on cops, slumlords, union busting, discrimination, and other vile expressions of rightist ideology.

Fapper_McFapper,

To me, the things you mentioned lean more towards basic human rights. I don’t think it would be fair to call a judge partisan if he or she rules to preserve those. But I’m just a dude on the internet. Happy Friday friend!

goferking0,

The issue is those on the right believe that’s what makes judges partisan.

Fapper_McFapper,

Ah, that’s a perspective I was not seeing. Thank you!

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

You aren’t wrong, and and yet all those things I mentioned fall on partisan lines anyway. The problem isn’t partisanship, it’s right-wingers. If we got rid of those judges and replaced them with leftist partisans instead we could actually start fixing things. Justice is political, you can’t escape that!

But I’m just a girl with a dream. 😏

Fapper_McFapper,

I don’t think you are wrong either. I just think that the word partisan might be too strong? Ideally, I’d like my judges neutral, but where do you find those nowadays right?

Stay safe sis.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

I think that’s a trick the right played on us, to convince us that we should be apolitical and stop us from getting politically organized. Meanwhile, they’re explicitly partisan and that’s why they keep winning. Basic human rights aren’t neutral and we shouldn’t be either.

Reject idealism. Embrace politics. Solidarity forever. ✊

dezmd,
@dezmd@lemmy.world avatar

Everything is about perspectives and everything has nuance that must be taken into account. Yes, that can be really fucking annoying and sometimes works against our hopeful outcomes and does cause our good soundbite moments to be tarnished. There is not a singular universal argument in favor or against every single possible concept we create as a thinking society. To some extent, everything as we conceptualize it is malleable.

Your whole argument looks wholesale more about rejecting politics to embrace idealism. Which is a good thing in my estimation, and seems better situated to have outcomes more inline with what you, and we all, may be looking for out of life in general. Basic human rights aren’t political, they’re an ideal that goes beyond the limitations of politics.

So in that way, the following works exactly the same towards your preferential outcomes:

Reject politics. Embrace Idealism. Solidarity forever.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Okay so if you reject politics you literally can’t get judges appointed. 👀

With that out of the way-

“Rights”, as a concept, are inherently political. A right is literally a political carve-out that enshrines a mandate and creates a political obligation to uphold it. Idealism can be employed to support certain rights, but rights themselves can only exist through politics.

dezmd,
@dezmd@lemmy.world avatar

I can appreciate the logic and the fervor behind your positions.

I will argue a step further zooming out that Basic Human Rights are inherent without politics at all. Knowledge comes before politics.

If anything, politics demotes rights from inherent to defined and limited. Which, simply put, sucks.

Politics is a game, don’t ever forget that. We are all in the game and have to keep playing as long as everyone else keeps playing. It’s all bullshit layered on top of bullshit, rules laid out by someone that came before with rules added by someone after that, and later again someone else to make up more rules.

Some of the bullshit works great and helps overcome life’s struggles and adversities. Some bullshit brings us all down together and is ruinous to us as a species. Some bullshit even tends to be ruinous to the entire ecology of life on our tiny blue dot in the universe.

Just be careful to not get too caught up in the bullshit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve voted in every election since I was old enough to vote and I do have a certain feeling of responsibility towards civic duty for the sake of a civilized society (and more-so now, for my children, which does help reinforce that ideal). I also try to engage with the news of world and am generally self aware enough to be thoughtful, rational, and capable of compromise.

I don’t vote for politics, I vote for ideals.

Cheers.

Fapper_McFapper,

I am thoroughly enjoying this conversation and topic, both of you. Thank you.

CosmicCleric,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t think you are wrong either. I just think that the word partisan might be too strong? Ideally, I’d like my judges neutral, but where do you find those nowadays right?

I think that’s a trick the right played on us, to convince us that we should be apolitical and stop us from getting politically organized.

The core belief system of the United States of America has always been to have fair and impartial judges. It’s not a conspiracy theory from either side.

Having said that, either side would love to stack the court system in their favor, and the conservatives especially have been actively working on that for quite a while now.

As Americans, we shouldn’t allow that to happen (FFS vote smart on judges!), either way. There’s a reason why Justice is always shown with a scale.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

The core belief system of the United States of America has always been to have fair and impartial judges. It’s not a conspiracy theory from either side.

The bipartisan consensus is right-wing because America is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

LocoOhNo,

One need only look at the state to realize it’s a shit show. Nothing in the Bible belt is worth saving.

ElleChaise,

Lotta good people you're throwing out with the bathwater there, but fuck 'em, I guess. You're stoking the flames whose destruction you condemn.

RGB3x3,

Super-liberal here who moved to Alabama because the jobs were too good and the cost of living is great; I’m going to do my best to vote these fuckers out and try to get more liberals moving into the state. The conservatives are doing their fucking best to disincentivize liberals to move here, but GA is a good example that liberals can flip a state.

CharlesDarwin,
@CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve said this before, but if I was a billionaire like Soros, I’d spend some time on trying to get people to relocate with direct financial incentives. Form some kind of foundation/not for profit that sets up places in red states for people most likely to vote Democratic to move there, have jobs, and have a decent quality of life. Often it’s going to be cheaper, too.

It’s only due to the way we are dispersed in this country that we keep getting too many cons in office. Someone with the money could hire people to make this happen…

It would not even take that many people moving to the right states and the Republican Party would be nearly powerless.

LocoOhNo,

I don’t know where you’re seeing “good people” in the South. I live in Tennessee and I have to endure hearing people every goddamn day talking about destroying the country just to get back at the “left.”

It’s the only place I’ve ever seen “Trump Stores.” And these people are ravenous about a second civil war. I just refuse to engage in trying to save people who don’t want to be saved. Fuck the lot of them.

assassin_aragorn,

Well, I presume you’re one of the good people, aren’t you? I don’t want to burn you to the ground along with the rest of Tennessee, even if you’re a willing sacrifice. Any scorched earth tactic has to be preceded by getting people like you out of harm’s way first.

LocoOhNo,

I’m all for an LGBTQ “Underground Railroad”-esque method of getting us out of harm’s way. What I’m against is the notion by another commenter that I should have to stay here and help the people who, for whatever reason, are so poor that they can’t pack stuff in boxes and leave. The goalpost can’t just move that much. If your life is in danger, you don’t just stay put because you might not financially recover. That’s bullshit. And no one should stick around, under consequence of death, to help me. What kind of person just folds their arms as days “I’m not leaving until someone else risks their life to help me.”

Also, my initial comment was that nothing in the Bible belt is worth saving. As in putting in effort to try and change their minds or shitty attitudes. Someone replied with something about nukes. I never insinuated anything of the sort. Granted, the entirety of the Bible belt could be hit by tornadoes and the Country would only be out by a can of Skoal, a pack of Marlboro Reds, and the entirety of the incest category on Pornhub.

Almost every front yard in Tennessee looks like a landfill and in one city, the county was discussing starting a code enforcement program and several people threatened to attack the city council. One guy even mentioned using a tank do do it. You cannot even legislate these people to have a modicum of class. These people are trashy and they aim to stay that way. It’s all they know or care to know.

I had a coworker bring up the border situation a week ago and I asked him, a guy who could to be “super religious” (his words, not mine) what Jesus would want him to do, and he said, and I quote, “Jesus would want me to help the national guard shoot the ones that are trying to get here illegally.” He and our boss, who is Catholic, got into a very heated debate about that. Guns are their solution to everything here, including the LGBTQ.

For as bad as you’ve read that it is here in the news and online, it’s actually worse.

assassin_aragorn,

Oh absolutely, there is no expectation at all that you should have to stay and fix the place. It’s admirable of those who want to try, but I’m a firm proponent of saving your own ass first. If you’re LGBT in a red state, I’d honestly prefer you get the hell out of dodge than stay and try to fix it.

I grew up in Missouri and I lived in Houston for a couple years. I feel no obligation to fix Texas. I don’t feel obligated to fix Missouri, although I want to. If laws come out targeting me and my loved ones though, then I’m heading out.

I greatly respect martyrs because I don’t think anyone should ever try to be one. I care way too much about saving my skin, selfish as it sounds.

braxy29,

i don’t expect you to sacrifice yourself. i just think it’s likely you’re not the sole “good people” in bama.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Imagine a gay woman living in Alabama. There’s certainly a lot of them, we’re everywhere after all. Do you think she’s going to say what she really thinks while around strangers? Or is she going to keep her head down and try to avoid getting hate crimed?

You are in the bible belt. Should we abandon you too?

tygerprints,

I live in baboon-butt red UTAH where they're trying to eradicate gays from existence as much as possible. So whenever I'm out in public, I make sure I loudly state something about how attracted I am to the other men in the room. I love getting under people's skin. And I love pissing off the conservitard monsters who are ruining this country - it gives me great happiness to be able to do so.

LocoOhNo,

I’m not staying here. I’ve been planning my exit from this shit hole and the people here for a few months. I’m a gay man who has simply had enough.

There’s no saving these people. The good ones are leaving, the rest are some of the worst people in the country; they either are dismissive of what’s going on or indifferent.

Why would I waste my time voting here when my vote literally means nothing? This is a traitor enclave.

These people don’t give a shit about anyone who doesn’t go to their church, which is very denomination exclusive. You can’t make them be civilized.

tygerprints,

Yeah I wouldn't live in Alabama or Kentucky or Texas if I were paid to. I already have it bad enough living in baboon-ass red UTAH. I hate it here, but I'm a caretaker for an elderly parent and forced to live here at the moment. Still - I do what I can to annoy the legislative body.

I keep writing very acid letters to the editor about the idiots who run our state and the conservitard shitheads who believe their religious nutjobbery supercedes everyone else's right to exist.

What I don't get though, is why should I be riled up about this "embryos are children" thing. I mean, the media is making it sound like we on the left and liberal side of things should be outraged. But i'm not at all. The whole reason I'm so pro-abortion is that I believe people shouldnt' have as many kids as they do, especiallyy here in Utah were child abuse is the #1 hobby.

So IVF becomes even more restrictive. Frankly, that aligns perfectly with my goals and ideals. I do feel bad for people really wanting IVF, but if it means LESS kids in the world, I can't be unhappy about it.

LocoOhNo,

I’ll put it this way; I’m a gay man, so I’m about as far removed from the abortion issue as anyone can get. But I have a sister and nieces. Call me old-fashioned, but I want them to have rights to do whatever the fuck they want without a crusty old bastard in DC telling them that they can’t. I’ve always said “I don’t have a uterus, so it’s none of my damn business” but since the Christians and their political operatives, the Republicans, have forced my hand, then I feel like it’s my duty to rain on their parade about it.

That said, the IVF debate, to me, just seems like more of the same from the Christians, whose entire mission statement is to take over the whole of the earth so Jesus can give them a present for being the biggest cunts to ever walk. Instead of making life easier for the exact people who are responsible for bringing life into the world, they attack them while simultaneously getting rid of child labor laws and school lunches.

This issue was never about being “Pro-Life.” This has always been about Christians wanting to be in control. If this were a “pro-life” movement, Christians would be adopting kids from orphanages and foster care, where they are being abused. But abusing kids is a Christian staple. They mentally and sexually abuse them and have for about 2000 years.

So when I get a chance to piss in the Cheerios of the right wing Christian propaganda machine, I do it, because frankly, they can all eat shit.

tygerprints,

I totally get that and don't get me wrong, I'm all for freedom of reproductive choice to the max. I'm so far left and liberal, I actually scare people who are liberal and find my ideas even too radical for them. I agree that the "crusty old bastards" are so removed from the reality of what women go through that they are the LAST people who should be making laws about their bodies.

And I totally agree that the IVF debate seems like more Christian nonsense and stupidity, which is why I simply can't give them any kind of victory here. They are not just cunts, they're abysmal monsters that should be wiped off the earth, in my view.

And you're right, the real issue is these conservative twits want to take over the world and control everyone and everything. And that's something I just won't let them have. I refuse to be riled up into a froth over this IVF debacle, because it's such a ridiculous ruling in the first place.

But dont' get wrong, I totally feel horrible for the women affected by it. And I stand by them no matter what. And if it means illegal IFV has to happen, I would totally support that. Like you, I'm a pisser into the Cheerios bowl of the christian right wing every chance I can get!!

I recent sent a scathing letter about Utah's hateful anti-trans bills this session, and the paper nearly refused to publish it - but surprisingly, they finally did. And it caused a lot of conservative bigotry to come out in the open. And I love getting under their skin!!!

LocoOhNo,

I tell people that I’m so far left that I make Bernie Sanders look like Ronald Regan. If you go far enough left, you get your guns back.

Joking aside, the Christians are coming after the LGBTQ next. I wish them the best of luck. I’m not the “friendly atheist” they think I am. They’re gonna have a very hard time loading me into the train car.

I will protect the women I care about though, and I simply will not be nice about it.

tygerprints,

I love that, at least there's a few of us good weirdoes in the world on the far far left.

In Utah the so called "christians" (i.e. hypocritical monsters) are trying their best to eradicate LGBTQ completely, pulling all books that mention such an "abomination" off school shelves, and now disallowing any mention of such things in public.

So I wrote to the legislatures asking them to come clean and admit the reason they don't care that Utah has the highest teen suicide rate in the nation is because so many of the teens who commit suicide are LGBTQ.

Of course they never responded, and the silence was deafening. I obviously said something truthful.

I'm a Taurus, so I fiercely protect everyone I care about, to the point of hurting others in any way I have to. And often the truth does hurt them and expose them for who these monsters really are.

LocoOhNo,

Utah has the highest teen suicide rate in the nation

That’s a terrifying statistic. I’m gay and I only barely made it out of my Christian family. I knew it was bad out there, but I hoped it was getting better…

These Christians have got to be dealt with. Talk about an enemy at the gates…

tygerprints,

Well I'm glad you made it out of your family situation, I know so many gay people in Utah who have been through that. And it's sad to see families "disown" their own children, which strikes me as the most un-christian thing anyone could ever do.

Sadly Utah's fearful right-wing legislators are doing everything they can to march us back into the dark ages. This current legislative session alone, they passed a bill forbidding trans people to use public bathrooms (And I mean, there's like possibly two trans people in the state!) and requiring all schools to remove any books about sexuality from schools.

And the new bill being signed is to demand that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public schools. And here I had the bizarre idea that church and state were supposed to be separate......how naive of me.

LocoOhNo,

Thank you. I was far more fortunate than a lot of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters. My dad tried to talk to me about it once when I was about 12, but he decided to take me on a fishing trip with one of his friends. I felt cornered, so I just avoided their questions. They were both vocally anti-gay, so it was a moot point regardless.

I feel you on the separation of church and state, though. I live in Tennessee and apart from there being giant crosses that get used as landmarks, but the whole state may as well just be a huge billboard for the Christians. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Christians graffiti under bridges and post signs there that say “Repent: The Lord is coming” and other little Jesus catchphrases. Last I checked, spray painting government property was a crime and so is littering (I consider the signs the same as dumping trash).

Nothing gets done about it because, at this point, Christianity is state sponsored terrorism. I don’t know what else to call it.

tygerprints,

I hate to say it but your dad is an old school uneducated bigot. And has no right to talk to you about any of this. You cannot expect someone without morality to love you as you deserve to be loved.

Sorry to be so blunt, but it must be stated out in the open. Nothing makes me angrier than parents thinking they have some god-given right to control their kids' sexuality. Nothing is further from the truth.

I live in Utah not by choice, but circumstance. And frankly, I feel bad for you having to live in Tennessee, another state I consider an open sewer of immoral bigotry.

If it is true that "the Lord is coming," all these so-called Christian haters should be the ones repenting. They are the ones who will burn in hell. Not us, my friend; I guarantee you that. It was never us who were in the wrong.

Jesus if he were ever real would hate these so called christian filth mongers and their homophobia. And he would never allow them any access to salvation; they've already committed the most unforgivable sin of not loving their fellow man, the worst possible sin.

LocoOhNo,

your dad is an old school uneducated bigot.

You’re not wrong. The ordeal was basically him saying to his friend “You know (friend’s name), if I had a son that was ‘queer’ I don’t think I’d mind.” His friend tried to basically just agree with him, but it was awkward, mostly because the conversation was apropos of nothing; just brought up out of nowhere.

To this day, I struggle with hearing the word ‘queer’ as something other than a slur and I feel bad even saying it just because of the negative connotation in which my dad used it. I know that it isn’t and that people who identify as such use the word proudly, as well they should, but I’ve had to hear it as a word that meant something bad my whole life. I’m working on changing that way of thinking, but it’s been tough.

To your other point, if Jesus were real, he wouldn’t take a single Christian (Save for maybe Dolly Parton) to “heaven.”

My boss is a hard core “Christian” that has hot-take opinions on things like immigration. I asked him if “Jesus” would approve of his opinion on that and his exact words were “I don’t care what Jesus said.” None of them actually believe a word of what they hear at church. They just recite what they hear, a la “bros” that quote ESPN. It’s all one big act that they’re all in on, but no one wants to break the fourth wall, so to speak.

tygerprints,

Well that's not too bad, about what your dad said I mean. I know it must be hard for old school people to accept all the radical differences about the world these days.

I have the EXACT same opinion as you - I hate the word "QUEER." I've heard it all my life in reference to gay people. And I am definitely someone who meets every definition of the word queer in terms of being different, weird, and unusual in every way. Yet I have achieved a lot in my life and do not believe I am any weirder than anyone else.

So I don't use that term about myself or my gay friends. I don't want a negative slur to define me, it simply doesn't.

I don't happen to believe in Jesus myself, but I do care about what that ideas "he" supposedly espoused; love they neighor, treat others equally and with respect. That's ALL it takes for everybody on earth to have a happy life -- that is the whole recipe for happiness, complete and total.

I just can't sympathize with people who are bigoted and non-empathetic. It's like they are born without the part of their brain that is intelligent enough to understand humans without needing to speak. We're all alike - no one is queerer than anyone else. And we all are, so why be upset by it.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Not everyone can afford to leave. Should we leave them to die?

You, yourself, haven’t left yet. What if we abandoned the south before you had time to move? Oh, maybe you’re the Last Good Person in the south, and once you’re gone we can leave the rest to suffer! It’s their fault for being born in the wrong states, after all. Especially the ones that are going to be born because their mothers were forced to give birth. They deserve it.

LocoOhNo,

I’m not saying anything about whether or not I’m a good person. I’m saying that the number of good people here is a lot lower than you imagine. Pull up the draw bridge, IDGAF, I’ll swim if I have to, but the American South is a shit hole that didn’t deserve the reconstruction. They’ve not learned a goddamn thing.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Not everyone can escape. Do they deserve to suffer and die?

And maybe we won’t just blow up the bridge. Maybe we build a wall! Why not? You’re all evil, we don’t need that blight on our society. In fact, why not declare war? Why not kill literally everyone! D o n t y o u a l l d e s e r v e i t? 🙄

LocoOhNo,

Jesus Christ, you must be fun at parties…

The writing has been on the wall for quite a long time. Anybody that stays behind does so at their own risk. I’m not being lynched here. I’ll take in others who want to leave when I get to where I’m going.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

This isn’t a fun topic. You’re basically saying “everyone who gets lynched deserves it”.

LocoOhNo,

No, I’m not “basically” saying that, but nice strawman attempt.

I have no interest in being a white knight. I’m fucking leaving. I don’t have any obligation to financially cover people who can’t leave; they have to make that decision.

What I’m saying is that the rest of the people here, the ones actively calling for the deaths of the LGBTQ+ are as useful as taste buds on an asshole.

I will not waste another breath on trying to convince them that they’re horrible people. Not even within my own family. When the South inevitably attempts a second civil war, I’ll help my LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters should they get to where I am. But they have to find the impetus to do so.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Vibe check

Do you think I’m telling you to stay in the south? I never said that. I just specifically am pissed off by you saying “Nothing in the Bible belt is worth saving.” That’s it. You’re free to leave, it isn’t your job to sacrifice your life for voting lol

LocoOhNo,

And it isn’t your job to defend the shittiest people on the planet, who by the way want you dead just as much as they do me. The difference is you want to defend the South.

This is an abusive relationship; the first time I get beat is the other person’s fault. Every time after that is mine. I’m simply choosing to leave, and you want to victim shame. Bravo.

I got jumped in Daytona Beach in 2021. Three dudes in a pickup truck hopped out and beat the fuck out of me because I was wearing a pride bracelet. I was just able to recall enough of the truck to identify it, but because I didn’t get the tag, they never caught the guys. The cops refused to treat it as a hate crime.

I left, even though I couldn’t afford to do so. So your description of people not being able to leave doesn’t pass the smell test.

Are there places in the North where I won’t be safe? Of course. I’m not going to Boston. But I’m leaving the South because of the aforementioned abusive relationship analogy.

Again, I’m in no way obligated to get lynched because other people decide to stay. And believe you me, staying in a place full of people who jerk it at night thinking about killing the LGBTQ is a choice.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

I literally never told you to stay. You’ve been arguing against a strawman of your own creation this entire time.

I don’t want to defend “the South”, it’s a rotten culture that grew out of the Confederacy and there should have been a cultural revolution during Reconstruction. I want to defend the people in the South who are going to get lynched. People like you! You’re literally one of the people that you’re saying are the shittiest people on the planet. How many millions are just like you?

This broad “they” you keep using is a lot of people and you’re just condemning millions of people to death because a lot of them are Christian nationalist crackers.

LocoOhNo,

The fuck are you even taking to me for, then? Hit the bricks. Your opinion is diminishing in value with every reply. I don’t have the time to sit and argue with an SJW with a shitty attitude who has done nothing but strawman me to death with hypotheticals.

Someone else responded to my initial comment with something about nukes, do you, for some reason, think that was me? I’ve not “condemned” anybody. I think you’ve got me fucked up with somebody else, so take that delightful attitude of yours and direct the vitriol elsewhere.

And, to be very clear, the South is 99% Christian nationalists, particularly in the Bible belt. Zero percent of them are worth saving. None.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

And, to be very clear, the South is 99% Christian nationalists, particularly in the Bible belt. Zero percent of them are worth saving. None.

This is why I’m talking to you. This is just made a percentage you made up. The politics are so much more complicated and you’re writing off innocent people out of your - justified - personal grievances. Hating your enemies is good (they hate us after all!) but you need to make sure you’re correctly identifying your enemies.

The religious affiliations of adult people in Alabama are as follows: Christian – 86%, Non-Christian Faiths – 1%, Other faiths – 1%, Unaffiliated (religious “nones”) – 12%

Yikes, right? However, we can subdivide this further. Of those Christians, Evangelicals (the ones chiefly associated with the Christian Nationalist political movement) represent 49% of all Christians. Yikes again! They’re almost a majority of all Christians, and Christians are the extremely dominant majority of all people in Alabama. Those are our enemies.

Instead of just giving up on the South we need to unite all the disparate groups against Christian Nationalism and crush them like the cockroaches they are. We can defeat them and we can’t just give up and let them win the South.

We need a new Reconstruction.

LocoOhNo,

Those percentages are meaningless. If I walk into a restaurant and see a guy at a table with 9 Nazis, I see a table with 10 Nazis.

Christianity has 2 groups left; the people who are fascist motherfuckers and the people that condone fascist motherfuckers because they get what they want out of it. That’s 99% of the South. That other 1% are people who need to leave.

I don’t have any inclination whatsoever to engage with the Christians. None. They want to start shit, I’ll be glad to finish it with a fucking smile on my face, but I’m not into fighting the American Al-Qaeda alone and I damn sure don’t have any reason to live amongst them in the meantime because you think I have a duty to do so.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Again, when did I ask you to fight Y’all Qaeda alone? In fact I literally said you’re free to leave and it isn’t your job to stay in the South to fight them in the first place! You keep building up strawmen to attack and I don’t know why.

As to the legitimate point that “If I walk into a restaurant and see a guy at a table with 9 Nazis, I see a table with 10 Nazis.” I think it’s worth pointing out they aren’t at the same table. They don’t go to the same churches, they aren’t in the same social groups, they’re literally different.

I’m comfortable saying all the Evangelicals are enemies but not literally all Christians when some denominations literally have queer pastors and do same sex weddings and the like. There’s clearly different factions and we need to drive deeper wedges between them instead of lumping them together.

Don’t go around making more enemies - we have enough of them.

LocoOhNo,

Let me say this unequivocally so there’s no way to get it twisted; Christians are my enemy. I don’t have a single reason to break them down by denomination to figure out which lunatic sect is better or worse than the others. They are all equally worthless.

Just exactly what are you saying? Because you’ve been trying to guilt trip me about leaving this den of shit bags for the entire thread… Saying I’m “leaving people behind to die” which is incredibly dramatic seeing as I’m still here at present.

And keep in mind, I’ve been behind enemy lines doing my fucking part my entire adult life. There’s nothing else I can do. Not that my vote in a red state did much of anything at all. Exactly what do you expect me to do? Have you never been to Tennessee? They threaten to attack city council members for just asking them to clean up their yards. We’re not talking about some idyllic Southern caricature here. This is a place full of “God Hates Fags” bumper stickers and even the police are scared to pull over people in pickup trucks because they know those people are carrying weapons. This isn’t going to be a boastful march out of town for me. It’s sneaking out under the cover of darkness.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Just exactly what are you saying? Because you’ve been trying to guilt trip me about leaving this den of shit bags for the entire thread… Saying I’m “leaving people behind to die” which is incredibly dramatic seeing as I’m still here at present.

Then let me say this unequivocally so there’s no way to get it twisted. I was objecting, specifically, to when you said “nothing in the bible belt is worth saving”. That’s an incredibly fucked up thing to say and we shouldn’t abandon the innocent people who can’t escape. We should do what we can to save the people worth saving. We should try to find Christian allies that can be aligned against the Christian Nationalists. That doesn’t mean I expect you to personally live in the South, that’d be stupid, I live in Iowa and I’d be a huge hypocrite to demand that of you.

Not you. Us.

But when you say “nothing in the Bible belt is worth saving” you are ignoring the fact that there are people down there that need our help and it’s in our own best interests to help them, because they will be crucial allies against Christian Nationalism. Nothing means no one. Fuck that. There are people in the South worth saving from the South. They’re not all monsters and we need all the help we can get, and they need us too because with the way politics in this country are going the mass lynch mobs and race riots are going to be starting up again very soon.

I understand hating Christians. I did too for many years (I was born in Kentucky) but they’re not all monsters. Christians are literally the majority in the US. You have to grapple with this if you want to win when this cold culture war goes hot. I have not, at all, been guilt tripping you about leaving. Get the hell out of there. I am only angry that you’re saying we should give up on the South entirely.

At the very least, we’re going to need allies for when we reinvade them and force them to go through a new Reconstruction period.

SinningStromgald,

I agree. Please send nukes south. Amen.

Pistcow,

I’d be claiming a shitload of dependants on my state taxes.

Zron,

1 ovulation a month.

12 months a year.

Some basic math shows that my wife and I have well over 100 children according to Alabama, a good chunk from before I even met her.

Most couples with at least one female in it will have similar or higher numbers.

And all this just in time for tax season. It’s gonna be like Christmas for women, and hell for state tax officials.

ickplant,
@ickplant@lemmy.world avatar

They’d have to be fertilized embryos, not just eggs, so not quite. But pretty damn close.

Zron,

Maybe I’m ignorant of how IVF works, but I thought as soon as the embryo was made it had to be implanted. The freezer is just for the eggs.

I could be wrong, I’ve been fortunate enough not to have to deal with IVF.

plantedworld,

IVF has a lot of frozen embryos that don’t get used. Fertilized. They get extra because it can be tricky for it to take, so it often takes several tries

Zron,

Fascinating.

I thought it would be quite risky to freeze an embryo, as they start dividing extremely rapidly once fertilization takes place.

Man, science is so cool.

RizzRustbolt,

God’s stepchildren.

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