Chastity cages and Christianity

Although I believe in a God, I'd say this view of vastness and entropy is likely correct. Even so, vastness and entropy, and the system that allows the universe to form and sentient humans (most of us, anyway) to ponder, and feel does appear to be guided. It leverages that entropy as part of the plan. Sure, it's ok for folks to think whatever. Someone believing in a plan has no more or less right to that opinion than someone who doesn't. I believe it's more how we use the opportunity we have. Mocking, ridiculing, and putting people down for a particular view isn't taking advantage of our opportunities. I don't say that to you, Muppet (which one? Kermit?). but to people, in general, who feel threatened. Which brings up the whole notion of the devil, which hasn't gotten any air time in this thread.

 

I do wish that folks would differentiate between the old and new testament. The old testament is a bunch of stories meant to communicate a message in a form that the listeners could understand. The old testament was also meant to lead, not really meant as philosphy for the intellect. In the old testament, Eve was created as a companion, and that was easier for people of the time to understand. I do not believe it's productive to debate whether that should be interpreted literally. The New Testament, on the other hand, portrays women with much more complexity. Yes, humble, submissive, and loyal, but also, powerful, influential, and important. Women are not presented as less, rather as equals. Folks may not embrace the role of women in the New Testament, but what you disagree with is more the role of women in the time of Christ, not the role of women in the New Testament. It is important to read the bible in the context of the time in which it was written, otherwise you reject history. Which is fine, some folks believe the only thing that matters is the present. But there is much to be learned from history.

For more on women in the New Testament, you can read: Women and the World of the New Testament | Religious Studies Center (byu.edu). You will find, women are highly respected and valued, loved, and cherished.

 

I see you are working your way through a list of fallacious arguments.

 

Oh I don't know... I've said quite a lot.

 

No. I've just spent a fair bit of time all around the world. It is possible that what I said is a well known narrative because it's actually visible to people who have been there.

Health care has a limited supply. Far more limited than people have health concerns and problems. Therefore, we ration health care. Some countries do that more efficiently and effectively through a universal health care system, but it's still rationing. The USA rations it using an oligopoly (the insurance industry), plus Medicare for old people and Medicaid for poor people. This leaves working people (not old enough for Medicare, not poor enough for Medicaid, and not rich enough to not care) completely screwed and at the mercy of the oligopoly. You may like that situation, but that's probably explained by never experiencing any alternatives.

That's good to hear. Forty years ago, people often did travel to the US for leading medical care. Now, more Americans travel abroad for medical care, than foreigners come here for medical care. Things have changed in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

What I hear (and I acknowledge that “what I hear” is not a strong evidence base), in the USA it’s not just a problem of cost being prohibitive to many people. It’s also that the profit motive and avoidance of litigation leads to defensive practice and unnecessary interventions because the markup is high and the damages from being sued are absurdly high.

 

In the UK if the choice is between giving someone liposuction and giving them a leaflet on eating less bacon, it’s the leaflet every time. And you don’t get sent for a CT scan every damn time you have a stomach ache, or given drugs when watching a mindfulness video works better.

 

That can be true. It certainly is a complicating factor.

The other problem is that our doctors are really, really good. Like way too good. They all go through a long and expensive program, and very few doctors come out the other end. (The doctor's union is also the accrediting board for medical schools, so the system is purposefully rigged to keep the number of doctors limited well below the demand.)

So the doctors who come out of that often have $600k in school debts, and so they go into specialized medicine that pays upwards of $1m/year within a few years of graduation. Very few doctors go into "family practice", which is our term for the doctor you can actually go see when you aren't feeling well. The shortage of doctors is acute, particularly in rural areas.

On top of that, the doctor's union (called the American Medical Association) does not allow foreign trained doctors to practice in the USA without going back through the entire US educate-a-new-doctor process. I know doctors from other countries who work at petrol stations and drive taxis here.

 

Don't know what the discussion of health care has to do with Chastity and Christianity but I'll chime in. In the US, everything associated with the government is corrupt. You pay more, get less. Every time, doesn't matter if it's a toll road, health care, public bathroom. Because everyone needs to be paid off and there's no competition. Politicians lie, come up with catchy phrases like "affordable health care", or "inflation reduction act" and it's just not affordable and it's doesn't reduce shit. The problem is, it takes each generation to figure out for themselves they are being had, in the meantime, the government just gets bigger. Health insurance for me tripled after Obama care and my deductible went through the roof and the quality of care went down. Now someone may be getting more affordable or free health care, but not the folks paying for it. And devious things came in as a result. Now, physicians report what they've done to/for you to a clearing house. They get incentive pay for recommending/not recommending something. My physician got $5K for every patient of his that got the covid non-vax. Everytime I saw my physician he asked if I got it yet. Was he interested in my health or the $5K? Sadly, I believe everything that government touches becomes a scam.

 

It’s always difficult to introduce something into a culture that hasn’t been there before. So for example, in the rest of Europe alcohol can be sold pretty much round the clock. In the uk there were decades of “licensing laws” that meant pubs closed at 11:00. People ordered as much alcohol as possible at 10:30, guzzled it down then poured into the streets, fighting and vomitting. When the licensing laws were relaxed we didn’t become like other Europeans and just drink sensibly. We still drank crazy fast, then carried on drinking and fighting and vomitting until dawn.
If people in the UK were given a right to bear arms, we would definitely all kill each other pretty much immediately.
So it doesn’t surprise me that attempts to provide socialised medicine in the USA do not prevent everyone involved from milking it for all they’re worth.

 

It's shit, but it's how god wants it, it's part of the grand plan of god.

Anyway, I live ina country with a fabulous social health care, and I have private health care which speeds me and my family through it. Go me! haha

 

And you pay in €?

 

I was hit by the car 16 years ago. I doubt it has changed much since.

 

Private health care. That isn't fair.

 

I would agree with that assessment. I don't advocate for gun rights in other countries. In the US guns have always been part of society. In fact they were easier and cheaper to get 30 years ago. Something has changed in the last 20 years. I put a lot of blame on the first person shooter games that have gotten so real looking. I think a borderline mental person who would have lived a normal life before can get triggered by these games. That is my opinion but it is strange how the gaming industry just gets a pass.
I also agree that government meddling never e ds up well.

 

Preach it!

 

Is fallacious another word for true? We have all come to the conclusion that I am not very smart, so these large words should be used sparingly.
I am pretty sure I saw that you only can stand to be locked for just two days. Gee I hope I am not mixing up the yes men again.

 

Communism may have some similar traits, but it is the other traits that make it unacceptable. In a perfect world communis, may work, but in our world absolute power curropts absolutely.

 

Oh boy, this is fun. A Christianity thread on a Chastity web site talking about health care and gun rights. Anyway, it may be video games. I don't think so though. And I don't think we'll ever get really honest answers. There'll always be someone trying to twist the reason for their own agendas. In which case, my agenda is mental health. So you're right about that. But it's not mental health issues brought on by video games. Our culture is getting f*ck*ed up big time. Broken familes, job insecurity, professional stress, are huge. 20 years ago, the situation was not ideal but it has gotten significantly worse. Our culture (the US) has gotten almost impossible to navigate. Seriously. I'd say I know what I'm doing, and I've had years of experience, but it gets harder and harder. I really don't understand how someone a bit challenged could possible navigate things. Think about it. A person in the US needs to pretty much be an expert in:

- Doing taxes
- Their job
- A Home
- A relationship
- Children
- Possible Day Care
- Their Car
- Health Care
- Technology (phones/internet)
- Friends
- Other family members

Just successfully navigating those challenges is worthy of a badge of honor. That alone requires the equivalent of a masters degree in general life skills. And no one will teach it to you. You need to learn it yourself. And all throughout, there are roadblocks getting thrown in your way. Divorce, layoffs, bankruptcy, car accidents, fights. Bottom line, I believe we've reached a breaking point. Our culture needs to find a way to simplify. And as individuals, we need to prioritize simple. Just one example, a stay at home spouse. That is looked down on. Why? Managing a household, particularly with kids, is a full time job. They tell you, oh, you can have day care. Yeah, that costs almost as much as a salary. And how does all the other stuff get addressed. And, I bet if you look at divorce rates of families with kids where both parents work and the kids go to day care, you'll find they are probably 5 times more frequent than not. Can't say for sure, I don't know, but I do know I had 3 kids and my wife and I worked, and our kids were in daycare and we were stressed out in crazy ways and we got divorced. My life sucked big time. It was barely worth living, but I had everything. Everything but happiness. Not that I was going to shoot up a school, but I began to see how people loose it. Not that hard.

 

Man do I agree with you there. I'm not against communism as an ideal. We essentially build our families as little communism havens. We provide to our kids, we share work and expenses, we do what we have to do and prioritize as a group and if we're lucky, we get by. You can scale that a little. a wider family, a faith community that shares. But as it grows, human nature gets in the way. Someone says, I can live better, I can take more.

The fact that there really aren't examples of communistic countries that are successful is telling. Some get close sometimes. I think Cuba tries, but is pretty poor. Venezuela is pretty corrupt, China is pretty tyranical. Russia is pretty corrupt. None of them is really free. So sure, as an ideal it is nice to think about. But I don't think humans have what it takes to make it work.

 

This is where the small devolved communities bit comes in. Human beings can only function well in situations where they’re in a state of interdependence with people they count as kith and kin. That is what has broken down. We have globalisation, and we have streets where no one knows their neighbours. We simply can’t properly care about people in the abstract. This is why a news item about one child getting sick can provoke tears (we relate to his face and connect it in our hearts to some kid we know); but “5000 die in earthquake” - if we’re honest, it doesn’t touch us. Also if the material things that sustain us are produced by technologies we don’t understand and sourced from places we can’t locate on a map, it makes us as powerless as spoonfed infants. This is why bureaucrats in both capitalist and socialist countries can merrily skim wealth for themselves - it all seems so abstract. It’s also why someone can direct a drone to incinerate a school in Afghanistan and then go home to watch their own kids play sports.

 

Yeah but that “left” is the new, fake, middle class liberal woke left - not the real, collectivist left that is primarily concerned with who owns and controls the forces of production. I am totally happy to be ostracised by liberal leftists because it means I don’t have to listen to any more of their bullshit.

 

Im not any particular muppet. In the UK “muppet” is simply a term of affectionate abuse meaning basically an idiot. “Stop talking bollocks you muppet..!”

 

I totally agree on your mental health points.

 

You are right about all of that, but most of the school shootings we have had have been committed by young people who haven't experienced a lot of those stresses.
What if you are right and those stresses bring someone's stress level and mental health to the breaking point? And an ultra realistic video game that glorifies killing sends them over the edge. I think normal sane people know the difference between reality and fantasy, but someone right on the edge may not.