Author | Lightnews

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 3d

Well, a (winged) dragon is a sort of bird, no? 😅

Other flags with non-bird animals include …

1. Andorra 🇦🇩 two bulls
2. Bhutan 🇧🇹 a wingless (!) dragon
3. Fiji 🇫🇯 a lion
4. Moldova 🇲🇩 an aurochs (and an eagle)
5. Montenegro 🇲🇪 a lion (and an eagle)
6. Paraguay 🇵🇾 a lion
7. Spain 🇪🇸 a (pink!) lion

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 3d

No time like the present! (And you probably could have done it in the time it took you to write your post. 😉)

I really like the app (we’re talking about NINA, right?) because I can select my parents’ town as a place to get warnings for, so I know if anything goes on in their hometown.

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 3d

Okay, now I’m curious. Give me some examples!

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 3d

I didn’t know gentrification meant “eat denser and darker bread.” 🤷

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

Catholic churches (even in the Boston suburbs) teach Trump was sent by Jesus to save us!?

Me thinks this calls for a “citation needed”, cause, if true, it would be huge news not only politically, but also because it so obviously violated Catholic doctrine.

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

I don’t think that’s true at all today for the vast majority of religious organizations in Europe and at least half of those in North America.

Sure, in theory, every worldview has “we’re right, others are therefore mistaken”, but that’s not what is emphasized by most today.

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

Unfortunately, this seems to come with any organization and value system. I’ve met more than my fair share of misanthropic humanists, extreme privileged communists, profiteers affiliated with charities …

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

That bloodwine is fake! Not a single live serpent worm was crushed for it, I bet!

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

Oder würdet ihr von Konzertbesucher:innen jetzt wirklich verlangen, in Abendgarderobe (und mit Stöckelschuhen!) über die Sternbrücke zu einem Parkplatz am Elbebahnhof zu laufen?

Das wäre dann genau die weltfremde Haltung, die seit Jahrzehnten dafür sorgt, dass 🌻 keine Volkspartei wird.

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

Wenn die Stadt endlich das wilde Parken im Stadtpark unterbinden würde, wäre ein großer Parkplatz genau das Richtige. Und den braucht man sowieso, denn ohne Parkmöglichkeit kann die Stadthalle nicht für Konzerte und andere feierliche Abendveranstaltungen genutzt werden (wenn kein 🚌 mehr fährt). ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 5d

Na wenn du das Katzengras auch auf den Schrank gestellt hast! 😘

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

EVERYWHERE there. So it doesn’t seem to come from religion.

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

It’s still not quite clear what came first. Sure, there are churches that cater to hateful people. But how much part do they have in creating the hate? I keep coming back to extremely irreligious East Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. MAGA-style (or worse) populism is thriving ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

And even in the U.S., that seems to apply to at least half the churches, temples, etc. Where’s the hate in that?

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

> Most, not all, organized religions absolutely preach hate.

I don’t think that’s true by a long shot. In most of Europe, churches are little more than senior centers anymore that offer life cycle celebrations and do a little charity. ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

religion. I think we simply don’t know if a world without (organized) religion would be any better.

I’d say, at a minimum, secular humanists (who include me) have utterly failed at replacing whatever good religious people and groups have been doing.

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

actively encouraged party member to leave the organized churches, because what little open resistance remained within Germany came mostly from pulpits.

The most brutal and murderous regimes in human history (the Nazis, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot) were all underpinned by ideologies not driven by ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

No Kings protests are mostly driven by the same white-haired church ladies who’ve organized almost every peace and social justice protest (at least in my area in the NE) since forever.

E 🇩🇪 is much less religious than W 🇩🇪, but Nazis are much stronger there.

Hitler talked about providence, but ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

Trump is clearly the least religious president in my lifetime.

And, interestingly enough, the most ethical and just president in my lifetime was a practicing, evangelical Baptist.

The main backers and most influential ideologues of MAGA (incl. the tech bros and natalists) are mostly irreligious. ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

I don’t know if things are quite as simple. Yes, of course some churches preach horrible things. High-demand religions put terribly abusive pressure on skeptics and members who consider leaving or being less orthodox.

But does this mean that we’d have a more just, peaceful world without religion? ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

S2: Unterstellen Sie allen Ausländern, kriminell zu sein?

S3: M P. ist rassistisch! »Alle Ausländer sind kriminell!«

etc. etc. Das ist ja das Toxische an solchen Dog Whistles. Es ist gar nicht so leicht, sie sicher zu entlarven.

Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

Und, wie isses gelaufen?

Hier aus den USA weiß ich, dass sowas schnell in die Hose gehen kann. Trump argumentiert ja ähnlich, und da könnte sich dann schnell etwa solch eine Dynamik entwickeln:

LK: [was du gesagt hast]

S1: Aber er meint doch nur kriminelle Ausländer! ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

church or temple. And, again, does it matter?

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

As for your question …

For those whose beliefs never changes, it’s nearly impossible to say?

I’d like to think I am a rational, irreligious person because I’m smart enough to recognize the fallacies in arguments for the supernatural. But maybe it’s just because my parents never took me to ↘️

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Der Deutscher 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @derdeutscher.bsky.social · 6d

Re indoctrination: Sure. Parents try to instill their values, likes, and dislikes in their children. I believe that Nazis are bad. Does it matter if this is something I learned from my parents?

Do you like Disney because you were taken there as a kid and “indoctrinated” into it? Would it matter? ↘️

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