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bladesparkI keep having thoughts and feels about this, of course, as it's a huge thing for me. "Mormon" was the utter core of my identity in so many ways for so long (I mean, I was a "nice Mormon girl" and Mormon held out longer of those three than "nice" or "girl" did!) So finding a new spiritual home is a big deal. I'm trying to not "fall in love" too fast here, but it's hard not to, every week has another flavor of "Oh god, this is how it should be!"
Anyhow, today was fascinating to me, because the sermon was centered around emancipation, liberation, the Black Lives movement, and spent some time on an attempt by a white male rationalist philosopher pastor to split and/or change the UU faith to be less feels and more reals.
The thing that fascinated me was that when our pastor started to describe the guy and his book and his movement, the more words she put out, the more I went "I know him!"
I do not literally know him, of course. Never met him, never read about him, never heard his name or heard of his book. But I know him all the same, because a lot of the similarly-non-mainstream spaces I lurk in around the net are infested with him. He's definitely a man, definitely cis. (He probably thinks that "cis" is a ridiculous term and he has no problem with trans people, they can get on with their lives, but really, cis is practically a slur and I wouldn't call you a tranny, so don't call me cis.) He considers himself an intellectual, and a rational being. His opinions are all founded on logic and reason, and are objective. He may admit to having feelings (especially male-appropriate, non-vulnerable feelings such as anger) but they don't affect his judgment. He probably thinks SCIENCE is great and if his focus isn't philosophy, it's one of the "hard" sciences and he's therefore quite dismissive of the soft sciences as less "real". If his focus is philosophy, he probably pushes the notion that it's based on math and on the works of "genius" thinkers and that one can come to a "true" or right conclusion about philosophical matters if one is only properly rational about them. He may really like Jordan Peterson. He may actually know jack and squat about huge swathes of past philosophical thought. Or present philosophical thought. He isn't a racist, and of course he's all for things like "equality of opportunities, but not equality of outcomes" and for some reason he knows a lot of lists of statistics about IQ and race. (Oh and he definitely thinks IQ is a meaningful number and his is at least one standard deviation above the norm. I've never met one of these guys who didn't have that particular trait. An aside on that: So's mine, guy, and I'm an idiot. IQ is not really meaningful.) He's probably straight. He has no problem with gay people (any more than with trans people, or people of color, or women) but Pride really needs to tone it down, and why are there all these kinky people at Pride, anyway? Nice, "normal" gay couples are wonderful, but this BDSM shit is just making things harder for gay people. Not that he judges you for that, either! He doesn't kink-shame! Just keep it private, right? It's not something to be proud of, come on. Anyway, why are we still having Pride, homophobia ended when gay marriage was legalized in America. Also on the subject of his straightness, he's very likely to be single, he's very likely to have some "controversial" opinions that are actually dead mainstream about rape culture and the Me Too movement and women in general. He's not sexist, but, you know, women are kinda all bitches, aren't they? He's "as liberal as they come." He's not Republican! He's insulted by the very thought that he might be towards the right politically! He either has a "both sides suck" view of politics and describes himself as a centrist or a moderate or something along those lines, or he's a libertarian. (Or both!)
You get the picture. If you're a nerd, or in any male-majority fandom, or have ever been around the skeptical or humanist movements you definitely know this guy. Any individual "this guy" may not have the full package (I know one who's gay) but they're all generally the same. They're appalled at the idea that you could consider them right-wing, or racist, or any other -ist, but when you look at the assumptions beneath the things they espouse, they're -ist as hell, and it's all based in an intense egomania and sense of superiority. (Which may or may not overlay an even more intense insecurity and feeling of inadequacy.)
And apparently one of them is trying to form a "no SJWs" version of the Unitarian Universalist church. Good luck with that, buddy! (Actually no, no good luck. Take a long walk off a short pier.)
Anyway, it was a delight to hear "my" pastor take this guy's racist nonsense to pieces. <3
I really am liking this church.
Anyhow, today was fascinating to me, because the sermon was centered around emancipation, liberation, the Black Lives movement, and spent some time on an attempt by a white male rationalist philosopher pastor to split and/or change the UU faith to be less feels and more reals.
The thing that fascinated me was that when our pastor started to describe the guy and his book and his movement, the more words she put out, the more I went "I know him!"
I do not literally know him, of course. Never met him, never read about him, never heard his name or heard of his book. But I know him all the same, because a lot of the similarly-non-mainstream spaces I lurk in around the net are infested with him. He's definitely a man, definitely cis. (He probably thinks that "cis" is a ridiculous term and he has no problem with trans people, they can get on with their lives, but really, cis is practically a slur and I wouldn't call you a tranny, so don't call me cis.) He considers himself an intellectual, and a rational being. His opinions are all founded on logic and reason, and are objective. He may admit to having feelings (especially male-appropriate, non-vulnerable feelings such as anger) but they don't affect his judgment. He probably thinks SCIENCE is great and if his focus isn't philosophy, it's one of the "hard" sciences and he's therefore quite dismissive of the soft sciences as less "real". If his focus is philosophy, he probably pushes the notion that it's based on math and on the works of "genius" thinkers and that one can come to a "true" or right conclusion about philosophical matters if one is only properly rational about them. He may really like Jordan Peterson. He may actually know jack and squat about huge swathes of past philosophical thought. Or present philosophical thought. He isn't a racist, and of course he's all for things like "equality of opportunities, but not equality of outcomes" and for some reason he knows a lot of lists of statistics about IQ and race. (Oh and he definitely thinks IQ is a meaningful number and his is at least one standard deviation above the norm. I've never met one of these guys who didn't have that particular trait. An aside on that: So's mine, guy, and I'm an idiot. IQ is not really meaningful.) He's probably straight. He has no problem with gay people (any more than with trans people, or people of color, or women) but Pride really needs to tone it down, and why are there all these kinky people at Pride, anyway? Nice, "normal" gay couples are wonderful, but this BDSM shit is just making things harder for gay people. Not that he judges you for that, either! He doesn't kink-shame! Just keep it private, right? It's not something to be proud of, come on. Anyway, why are we still having Pride, homophobia ended when gay marriage was legalized in America. Also on the subject of his straightness, he's very likely to be single, he's very likely to have some "controversial" opinions that are actually dead mainstream about rape culture and the Me Too movement and women in general. He's not sexist, but, you know, women are kinda all bitches, aren't they? He's "as liberal as they come." He's not Republican! He's insulted by the very thought that he might be towards the right politically! He either has a "both sides suck" view of politics and describes himself as a centrist or a moderate or something along those lines, or he's a libertarian. (Or both!)
You get the picture. If you're a nerd, or in any male-majority fandom, or have ever been around the skeptical or humanist movements you definitely know this guy. Any individual "this guy" may not have the full package (I know one who's gay) but they're all generally the same. They're appalled at the idea that you could consider them right-wing, or racist, or any other -ist, but when you look at the assumptions beneath the things they espouse, they're -ist as hell, and it's all based in an intense egomania and sense of superiority. (Which may or may not overlay an even more intense insecurity and feeling of inadequacy.)
And apparently one of them is trying to form a "no SJWs" version of the Unitarian Universalist church. Good luck with that, buddy! (Actually no, no good luck. Take a long walk off a short pier.)
Anyway, it was a delight to hear "my" pastor take this guy's racist nonsense to pieces. <3
I really am liking this church.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 08:11 pm (UTC)*doubles over laughing*
no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 08:20 pm (UTC)But I've actually tripped lately over a number of humanist-leaning UU folks kinda like this. The most common I've personally seen so far are the ones who really sneer at things like "hippie woo" (they'd hate my local congregation, who tend to self-describe as hippies) or anything that's perceived as fluffy, emotional, and (to be honest) feminine. They'd like a church based on intellectual philosophy and really, isn't that what the all-embracing creed of the UU is really about, about using your own intellect to find The Truth? I ran into a lot of this, very highly upvoted, on the reddit UU community, which is one reason why I decided to not participate there, I don't need any more of That Guy in my life!
I guess when you welcome "everyone" you get some odd ones.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-23 08:25 pm (UTC)this is the religious institution where "we believe in one god, more or less" is funny because it accurately describes the institution
like
what?
(I am just...not even touching the rest)
no subject
Date: 2019-06-24 04:25 am (UTC)And apparently one of them is trying to form a "no SJWs" version of the Unitarian Universalist church.
o.0
no subject
Date: 2019-06-24 07:22 am (UTC)