Letters to the Editor
DurianJoe
Published Letters: 1494 Editor's Choice: 69
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Fetboy, beware the worshippers of the Sky Gods.
[Read the article: Burqini creator hearts "Opus"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm an atheist, but if I were to adopt a religion, it would be Buddhism, no doubt about it.
That said, I do think that most of the world's other religions are not just engines of superstition and ignorance (with some compassion thrown in), but in the case of those religions domineered by sky gods (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism), they are downright dangerous. They foster an authoritarianism based on a hierarchy with the Big Dude at top, whom you'd best obey if you don't want to suffer eternally. You know the rest of the story.
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No, dammit! Some fantasies are beyond the pale.
[Read the article: These SS boots are made for walking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I cannot accept porn fantasies based on goddamn concentration camps. The young Israelis who jerk off to thoughts of Nazi dominatrixes can be excused due to their youth, but people who know better cannot condone it as a live and let live issue.
If you know the true nature of the camps, either from personal experience or simply educating yourself, you can't shrug this stuff off. That principle applies across the board to any atrocity.
I'm not for outlawing this sort of porn, but I am for condemning it in the strongest possible terms, if for no other reason than respect for the millions who really did suffer and die under those hellish conditions.
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They are an American Christian version of the Taliban.
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Taliban were a bunch of students, too. What they share in common with these zombies is an indoctrination into a hard-right version of an authoritarian religion. The Patrick Henries might not chop your hands off if they ever got into power, but if they had their way it would still be horrendous.
Let's not coddle this movement. Let's expose it to sunlight and reason and crush it.
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Comparisons versus Equations: Animal and Human Slavery.
[Read the article: Feminist blog goes to the dogs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Carol, it is perfectly valid to compare pet stores and the treatment of animals in general to human slavery. Animals are considered chattel, to be bought and sold as property, and as you know, property has few if any rights. If you want to pour caustic chemicals into the eyes of the animal you own for the sake of testing out the newest hair coloring product, you have that right. If you forget to put water in the hamsters' cages when you close down the pet store for a few days, and they die of thirst while trapped in their cages, nothing happens to you except for some lost profit. Animals are our slaves.
Making this comparison to the human slave trade is not the same as equating it. However, you cannot ignore the fact that humans believe they have the right to own other living creatures and do with them what they will (where the law allows, and if you step into any cosmetics lab or military chemical weapons lab or fur farm or factory farm, you'll see that the law allows just about anything, not matter how hideous).
Though the term "animal rights" is most often used, I prefer Peter Singer's term for the movement to free animals from human exploitation and cruelty: Animal Liberation.
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TrudyB, it's a matter of weapons technology and population density.
[Read the article: Burqini creator hearts "Opus"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hitler and Stalin were able to kill so many people because they enjoyed the weapons technology of the 20th century, and used it on very densely populated areas.
If the religious sects througout history had access to poison gas and aerial bombardment, they would have used it with gusto to kill every last heathen and blasphemer they could find.
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Slavery
[Read the article: Feminist blog goes to the dogs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Judgemental, nice of you to toss around terms like "white folks." The more important matter, which you might want to ponder, is that human slavery has not been limited to African Americans. It's been done by everyone, to everyone, throughout history.
As a matter of fact, my own Jewish ancestors were once enslaved by black folks.
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Liz212, I understand what you're saying, but...
[Read the article: These SS boots are made for walking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If some fat corporate raper-of-the-world wants to lick your boots or have you kick him in the balls, that's one thing, and understandable in a certain kind of way. No problem there. I guess I draw the line at fantasies which involve actual atrocities of the worst kind. The Holocaust, Chilean torture dungeons under Pinochet, the Khmer Rouge. Some crimes are so atrocious that they should never be exploited, especially for sex or money.
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Response to Janice78
[Read the article: Feminist blog goes to the dogs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You asked, sarcastically, what would happen to all the "liberated" animals and speculated that they would rapidly overpopulate once they were set free. It's silly to assume that one day people are going to release all the animals like Pharaoh releasing the Hebrews. There won't be a mass exodus of animals from the factories and laboratories, etc. The process will be gradual, and just as, for example, McDonalds now imposes minimal animal welfare requirements on its suppliers, slowly but surely people will lessen their exploitation and systematically cruel treatment of animals. Remember, the industries which exploit animals, like the meat industry, all purposefully breed them at incredible rates. When they stop doing that, those animal populations will decrease, and not run wild in the streets as you imagine.
Second point: you and many others like to single out PETA when attacking the animal rights movement. However, this is a worldwide movement with thousands of groups both large and small, many of which pre-date PETA by decades or even centuries. PETA, in my opinion, does some very good things and some stupid things, but which organization or person can you put under intense scrutiny and not end up saying the same thing of?
As for Penn & Teller's show on PETA: they also did a show pointing out the "Bullshit" that is the human contribution to global warming, so I don't give them much credence. Penn is a self-confessed "asshole," but more importantly, he's a strident libertarian, i.e., a conservative who likes to get high and get laid and considers selfishness a human virtue. Don't expect him to treat progessive causes in any way approaching fairness.