The Whack-Job Threshold

[Taiga Pagan]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

You should seek retaliation or retribution for thier past deeds.
Because everything must, in the end, be in balance. What was done for whatever purpose (good, evil, progress, Gods, women, any purpose) must be paid in equal punishment to continue to exist.

That's what happened to John Lennon, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy.... an eternal list....

[ChainLightning]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

You should seek retaliation or retribution for thier past deeds.
Because everything must, in the end, be in balance. What was done for whatever purpose (good, evil, progress, Gods, women, any purpose) must be paid in equal punishment to continue to exist.

Ahh, back on topic, finally!!! An epic example of my whack job threshold, right there!

Taiga? No. I will not seek retribution or retaliation for past misdeeds, by any group, race, gender, person or persons. DeseretRose is not going to be held responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I will not hold any modern Heathens [eta: or any other group] responsible for the deaths or abuses caused by my ancestors.

I will not hold anyone accountable for a crime they did not commit! Period.

[MaskedOne]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

Define retribution Taiga. If you're talking any form of armed conflict, well, I hope you're not insane enough to start down that road. The end results basically divide between WW3 and extermination depending on if any faction sizeable enough to matter cares enough to help rabid idiots. Christianity numbers at roughly 2.1 BILLION. Uniting them against the numerical insignificance that likes to call itself Neo-Paganism does NOT end well.

[Ophidia]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

See, this is why I put this in debates. From poking fun at crazier-than-myself folks to anti-Christian hate speech in just 5 easy pages.

I realized another whack-job movement that gets under my skin. It's people who, no matter how you break down the science, still fall for certain alternative medical treatments - like ear candling. Or who think Kevin Trudeau is some kind of miracle healer. They're almost as irritating to me as 'if it's organic it's good for you - bad things are created in labs, not in nature' people.

[DanieMarie]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

We are all of what our ancestors did... they did it, in our name. And it's a shame in some situations, gratification in other situations that we bear all the time. It's more honorable to say we have are all beasts to everyone (even children) than saying we are perfect and clean.

There is no way we can try to hide from this.

Wow then I'm really screwed. My ancestors are German....and my RECENT ancestors are German (only left in 1957). So sorry, no. I don't hold myself responsible for the holocaust. And saying modern Germans are still bad news because of what happened between 1933 and 1945 is also poor logic, so why should all modern Christians be responsible for past wrongs of the church?

[shadow1982]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

Nature has it's thresholds too, and it's by being forgiving about the errors of past people (now dead) that we will see history repeat until we kill all the bees or algae. (probably in the name of Progress or God)

Then we will ask ourselves, was it worth it to be lenient?

^This kind of thing, along with all the talk of retaliation and retribution for the things done to our ancestors, is way above my WJT. Refusing to forgive is irrelevant when talking about history repeating itself and is just, IMO, a convenient excuse for people to justify hatred of a group of people they have never actually had any personal problems from. History is meant to be understood from a point of non-judgment, this is how we recognize past mistakes and avoid repeating them.

You should seek retaliation or retribution for thier past deeds.

My ancestors right down to my parents and as far back as I am aware of are Scots and I live just outside of London. Are you honestly arguing that I should be out seeking some kind of revenge (you can call it retribution if that makes you feel better) for the things the English did to my ancestors?! Seriously?? I'm sure no one would be surprised by the fact I am surrounded by English people on a daily basis, when would I find the time to work, sleep, eat or, you know, just live my normal boring life?

[Raphaeline]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

So, what's your Whack-Job Threshold? How do you deal with it, or do you just let it all hang out?

First, I'm loving this term. Thank you, perz!

New Age-y types and ghost hunters rank highest on my list. I am friends with a couple of people who fit the latter category, and so end up smiling and nodding when the subjects come up, but New Age people tend to have something going on personality-wide in my experience.

Sometimes my own beliefs overlap with what I consider WJT territory, which is uncomfortable and awkward. For instance, I cast spells and so have a bit of belief in the concept of sending energy; however, when some of my friends do energy work in my presence, like sending out energy to each other through palms or such, I want to hide under the table. I worship gods, but there are times when people talk about some experiences they've had with them that make them sound nuts to my ears.

Sometimes Wiccans fall in the group, sometimes Christians. It depends on what's being said and how they act.

So long story short, it's not always the actual beliefs, but sometimes how they're expressed or what the person who says them is like.

[DanieMarie]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

Yeah I know Jewish people here, who are returning after their grandparents had to leave the country to save their lives, and they chose to move to Germany. I think if they went along that lines of thinking, they wouldn't manage. But this is 2011, not 1933. Different times, different people.

[Ananta Androscoggin]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

The man who eats meat cannot sneer at the butcher. The man who condones a sin because he enjoys the result of the sin is equally guilty of the sin.
-- Peter Van Eyck

You've got to expect spectacular endings for those whose ideology is so pure, whose doubts are thoroughly conquered, that they spend all of their time trying to shoehorn reality into the twisted realm of the fantasy-world their ideology demands they force on the rest of the Universe.

Mother nature has been receiving a lot of interference the last 1600 years or so from all of those human-invented "safety precautions." She used to have a much easier time removing the unfit by letting them win what we nowadays call "a Darwin Award."

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

Mother nature has been receiving a lot of interference the last 1600 years or so from all of those human-invented "safety precautions." She used to have a much easier time removing the unfit by letting them win what we nowadays call "a Darwin Award."

I don't think She's doing so badly. She's just taking a different tactic. A few well-placed torandos, tsunamis, earthquakes, & volcanos and we are all toast.

[LadyGarnetRose]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

We are all of what our ancestors did... they did it, in our name. And it's a shame in some situations, gratification in other situations that we bear all the time. It's more honorable to say we have are all beasts to everyone (even children) than saying we are perfect and clean.

There is no way we can try to hide from this.

Are you perchance German at all? Or maybe French? Got any Spanish in ya? Or how about English? Just a tad? Maybe a little Egyptian somewhere way back when?

Because if you are saying what I think you're saying... You have a lot of apologizing to do for your ancestors.

Oh and news flash, not every Abrahamic Faith proselytizes.

[Dez]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

Leniency? Seriously? Is that how you see NOT attacking DeseretRose for what happened at Mountain Meadows in 1857? That we're all being lenient with her?

Since Taiga hedged on this one I'd like to bring it around again.

If you're not familiar with this little snippet from American History, I'll synopsize: In 1857 a wagon train from Arkansas traveled through southern Utah on the way to California. Rumors sprouted that it was full of Missourians who drove the Mormons west, seeking to persecute them further. Under directions from church leadership, the local ward leaders gathered up the nearby Indians, had them attack the party, then after leaving them pinned without water for five days, came in to the "rescue". At that point they slaughtered around 120 men, women, and children in cold blood, auctioned off their belongings, and gave around 17 children(all under the age of seven years old) to Mormon families to raise.

Only one man was ever put in court for the event...and then over 20 years later.

I repeat Chain's question. This was a horrific atrocity, far more serious then someone getting their knuckles smacked in the name of God, and it happened less then 200 years ago, committed by the ancestors of people I know and am related to by blood. Should I be held responsible?

If no...then why should other Christians be held responsible for actions they did not themselves commit?

If yes, what exactly do you propose I do?

[Caelia]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

*jumps into the fray*

Why stop at ancestry? Should modern Pagans apologize to Christians for the atrocities Pagans committed early on? It goes both ways. The truth is the idea of apologizing for the far past turns quickly into a reductio ad absurdum argument. Everyone then must apologize for what others have done in the far past to a point where nothing gets done about the present.

It's like what my friend said in terms of past lives but I feel applies aptly to this conversation: everyone's been the hero, everyone's been the a-hole.

[Medusa]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

My blood carries German Jews in my background. I have no idea if I am supposed to pull my own teeth out...or save my pennies.....

Also as my ancestors were one sided Mexican and the other side Spanish...should I go ahead and both conquer and rebel against myself simultaneously?

[LuciaStar]

Re: The Whack-Job Threshold

You should seek retaliation or retribution for thier past deeds.
Because everything must, in the end, be in balance. What was done for whatever purpose (good, evil, progress, Gods, women, any purpose) must be paid in equal punishment to continue to exist.

That's what happened to John Lennon, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy.... an eternal list....

People shouldn't be held accountable for past actions their ancestors have done. You know why? They didn't do it. Why hold them accountable for it? It's not their fault what happened in the past. :| Let it go. Live and let live. You know?

To uh, get onto the topic. My WJT is... well, that above, fundamenalists, neo-Nazis and... Nazi anything, homophobes and racists. ... Wow that's kind of short.