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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • In Catholic school in the nineties and early 2000’s, we were all told that the sex abuse scandal was serious but that it was also “a small number of incidents.” That we needed to pray for the victims and the souls of the perpetrators.

    Then I went to college. Come to find out not only was the child rape widespread, not only did the church actively hide monsters from legal scrutiny, not only was this all directly effecting the local arch diocese (not my school specifically, but church leaders were forced to quickly rename another high school when allegations against a dead bishop proved too numerous to ignore)… not only all that but that it’s still going on, just not in first world countries with robust networks of journalists and legal systems. That an alleged pedophile was (while I was in college) living in the Vatican, being directly sheltered from extradition by South American authorities.

    I guess the lie was that it was all over. That it was a small problem. That the church was a safe place people could turn to. I left the church at 18 over it, became an atheist by 19, and that’s where I’m at now at 35.








  • I mean, I could add to it…

    • Pay reparations to victims of Jim Crow/Segregation and descendants of those bound by the practice of Chattle Slavery.
    • Nationalize the telecom corporations. Use the profits to fund a Bell Laboratories type research institute as well as public college departments in the relevant fields.
    • Nationalize the freight railroads. Use the profits to fund a high quality bus system in rural areas, an “Interstate-style” 110-125 mph regional/commuter passenger rail system nationwide, and develop 155-200+ mph HSR corridors between appropriate city pairs.
    • Initiate planning for metro/light rail systems in every city with a population of 250k or higher.
    • End the Embargo on Cuba and fully normalize relations. Shutter and remove the facilities at Guantanamo Bay; return the land to the Cuban government and pay reparation for it’s theft.
    • End NATO while helping the EU organize it’s own native unified defense force. Form a new treaty with the EU for common defense.
    • Forgive all debt the US holds from co-called “third world” nations.
    • Remove all “NeoLiberal” stipulations and restrictions the IMF has placed on so-called “third world” nations.
    • Pass a federal law ending so-called “Right to Work” at the state level and triple the NLRB’s budget.
    • End the funding of public schools through local property tax and replace it with a Federal tax on corporations.
    • Bust up Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet into their viable constituent parts.
    • Formally recognize the nation of Palestine at the UN.
    • Join the International Criminal Court.

  • I left the Catholic Church shortly after leaving Catholic school. Like, in Catholic high school, they taught us about the “issues” (read: CA scandal) the church was “going through” and how we all need to “pray for the victims” of these “isolated incidents.” You then step into the real world and learn that the church protected monsters from the law for DECADES (and continues to do so), it really fucks with your head. In college, I went “spiritual but not religious” for a while and then landed squarely into atheism town… been a resident there now for more time than I was ever Catholic.



  • Left Samsung’s ever more expensive Note and Galaxy S lines for Motorola’s cheap ass G series like three or four years ago and haven’t looked back. I buy a new phone once a year on my tax return for like $200-250. I gift my previous device to my younger cousins, nieces, nephews, and mother. Keeps everyone from having to pay off devices on their phone plans and the phones are still running rather well year over year. The only hold out, claiming to “need” the latest and greatest, is my older sister who insists she needs the new iPhone every two years.