https://www.statista.com/statistics/1411923/share-of-americans-who-would-not-vote-for-a-president-due-to-their-religion-2022/

There’s so much more to it, but the short version is that a huge portion of this country doesn’t consider atheists trustworthy or even properly “American”. God is on our money, the bible is used for official government ceremony, most of our public holidays are Christian, the word holiday and tons of others are explicitly rooted in religious culture. In-n-Out has a little bible passage on their cups.

Being openly atheist is a radical position in this country, one that will limit you professionally and socially.

I would like to normalize non-belief though.

To be fair, we sorta knew it was possible because birds. I think it’s more impressive when we don’t know what can happen, like breaking the sound barrier or putting people in space.

I don’t need ignorance to feel wonder. I think things are cooler when I can marvel at the complex mechanics behind it all.

We keep living next to rivers because reliable water is the single most important consideration. Flooding happens. Most parts of the world independently developed sun and moon worship as well, and name colors in roughly the same order.

We’ve been a deeply racist and violent country for longer than we’ve been a country. Built on genocide and slavery. We didn’t properly address our failures when we had the chance (Civil War should have ended with a new constitution and drastically different political structure to keep militant bigots from gaining power) and now we have this.

Remote start of any kind is a luxury and it’s wild to me that someone would defend internet car controls as any way important or even desirable. That’s what I’m talking about. Physical keys work totally fine and add like two seconds of time to the process.

It’s a good thing we invented remote start at the same time as the car itself, I can’t imagine the horror of only operating a motor vehicle I’m next to (let alone touching)

Why stop there?

They have to believe in meritocracy, that wealth isn’t intrinsically tied to exploitation and a long history of classism.

I live on top of a hill that drains directly into the ocean. If my house floods I have different problems.

I also won’t live on the side of hills without a very clear understanding of the local watershed, soil stability, nearby land rights… I took a lot of Earth science classes and honestly it’s kinda traumatizing to peek behind the curtain. Shit is fucked.

We don’t respect rivers enough. I would never live in a floodplain.

Some of us never left.

Our whole-ass society is structured around Christian norms. Holidays, liquor laws, businesses closing on Sunday, loads of idioms and turns-of-phrase, it is pervasive and so normalized that any deviance is seen as shocking. (At least we aren’t one of the countries where heresy is still an actual crime)

Dude’s a Christian Zionist.

Or. Or. And hear me out on this: participate in society.

Off power grid maybe, imagine the nightmare of urban well-digging or apartment septic tanks.

What, and take any responsibility for the Commons?

You should never expect privacy in someone else’s car.

This is what religion does to a brain.