Lime Tonics posted:

jfk has to be declassified in 10 days

unless trump takes a dump

Prester Jane posted:

There is an actual serious but complicated answer to your questions here.

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

Either you've never read the actual e-mail, or you're intentionally mischaracterizing it as you have pretty much every other factual claim you've made here.


This is specifically proposing actions to try and hurt Sanders' standing with certain demographics. Actions, not opinions. And not just random "staffers" are in this message chain, it includes the Chief Executive Officer of the DNC, who says "amen".

Lime Tonics posted:

Lots Of Cities Have The Same Lead Pipes That Poisoned Flint
And there’s no plan to dig them up.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lead-pipes-everywhere_us_56a8e916e4b0f71799288f54

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

Hillary was a Goldwater Girl lol

Boof Bonser posted:

Right but this is a real issue. Actual known facts can show us why this is a problem. And it's not a conspiracy so much as local governmental entities being cheap and lovely. That's pretty drat distinguishable from wild-eyed nonsense about fluoride being put in the tap water for mind control.

Boof Bonser posted:

1.) What inaccurate factual statements have I made and how are they inaccurate?
2.) Do you actually believe in any conspiracies or are you just a pissed off Bernie diehard?
3.) Is there an iota of evidence that Bernie's campaign was hurt by people asking questions about his religion to which everyone who was even moderately informed already knew the answer?

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

So now you're moving the goalposts again from "it was just harmless opinions" to "yes they were proposing improper actions but can you prove actual harm?"

Pretty much every factual statement you've made so far has been inaccurate to the point where misremembering is almost less likely than just being intentionally deceitful about every single thing lol

Boof Bonser posted:

2.) Do you actually believe in any conspiracies or are you just a pissed off Bernie diehard?

Boof Bonser posted:

You know what's kinda funny though?

How Bernie Sanders is going to die pretty soon without ever having been President of the United States.

We have Trump, which really sucks, so there's that running against me. But it'll still be fun when Bernie dies having never been president.

Suck my balls.

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

Tell me the truth: did you cry on election night when Hillary lost?

lol

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

So that's a yes then

Boof Bonser posted:

This is a good post I love Hofstander. Also you'll probably like Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen finishing that was basically my inspiration for this thread.

Boof Bonser posted:

You know what's kinda funny though?

How Bernie Sanders is going to die pretty soon without ever having been President of the United States.

We have Trump, which really sucks, so there's that running against me. But it'll still be fun when Bernie dies having never been president.

Suck my balls.

Prester Jane posted:

gimme the GOD drat candy posted:

hey, you know who else is gonna die without ever having been president of the united states?

Boof Bonser posted:

If me, well, yeah, no poo poo.

If HRC, I don't give a poo poo about her personally (that being the chief difference between Bernie cultists and mainstream Democrats). I just want a generally moderate but left of center executive who believes in the social safety net and the general *cue evil music* consensus in favor of internationalism and neoliberal capitalism.

Prester Jane posted:

You might be interested in my own work on this subject. To shorten a great deal of personal history I was raised in a network of cult-schools that the Council for National Policy (secretive GOP thinktank founded by the same assholes who created ALEC) has been using to churn out radicalized Christian office drones to take over the GOP from the inside out. I understand just how absurd that claim sounds, so let me just hit you with an actual advertisement for the system in question. (Be forewarned- this video is a look directly into an authoritarian hell wherein children are cheerily likened to livestock that must be very forcefully taught exactly what to think.)

maskenfreiheit posted:

Hillary doesn’t believe in a social safety net but at least she does want to blow up browns

Boof Bonser posted:

I'll check out vid. Those comics are hilarious and terrifying. Religion will never not be a mystery to me.

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

Oh good, it's about time people started posting more retarded conspiracies

Fornits article on Rebekah Home posted:

• Licks: Being spanked with a wood paddle. Other times, whatever was handy was used. (i.e. the rod from a set of blinds)
  
  
• Confinement: Spending weeks hanging her head without speaking or making eye contact with anyone. This punishment was called "red shirt" or "discipline". The former name being due to the fact that these "deviant" girls were given only red and white checkered shirts to wear. They were only allowed to wear any other shirt when they went to bed. They were also made to stand with their nose to the wall and their arms at their sides all day. A 10 minute break allowed if they complied to the Helper's satisfaction. Many times the Helper would forget to give them a break. In this instance, the Red Shirts just had to remain silent and hope for a break to be given. Or, the Red Shirt could take a demerit (or three) for raising their hand to remind the helper or taking their nose off the wall-- no matter what, the Red Shirt will be in trouble for the Helper's oversight. More often than not, the Helper was sitting at a desk with nothing better to do than critique them.
  
  
• Sitting on the wall: Being required sitting (suspended above the floor, as if there was a chair beneath them) with the back against a wall and without the support of a chair, arms outstretched with the palms flat against the wall. Helpers would come around to each girl and place a book on their thighs, if the book slipped off, they would push the girl's hips down. If they failed twice, they might have to start over.
  
  
• Kneeling: Being ordered to kneel, while either have two bibles resting on each outstretched palm or with pencils wedged between the legs.
  
  
• The lockup: An isolation room used as solitary confinement. During the stay in the lockup the intercom piped in hourlong prayers from the pastor (Lester Roloff or Wiley B. Cameron) that would play in loops 24 hours a day. The detained girl could use a toilet but there was no possibility to wash or bathe. Girls have told of terrible smelling survivors of the lockup when they were released after a month of isolation.
  
  
• Calesthenics:* Girls would do laps (1 lap run + 1 lap walk = 1 lap) for first 5 demerits, and then 100 of chosen exercise for every demerit after that up to 10. "cherry pickers", "calf lifts", "jumping jacks", "squats", "arm cirles", "lunges", "leg lifts", "kills" (10 slow "calf lifts", 10 fast "calf lifts", jumping 10 times, 10 "scissor jumps", 10 half jumping jacks, 10 whole jumping jacks, and then going back through the exercises finishing with the 10 slow "calf lifts"= 1 Kill= 1 demerit worked off) etc. No matter how hot it was, you would do the exercise outside. When it would sleet or was below freezing, they would let the girls do their exercises either on the enclosed patio or inside. As mentioned, after 10 demerits, it was one lick for every 2 demerits. If you had 20+ demerits, your licks would be transferred to the next day. If you recieved demerits the next day and you ended up with 20+ again (that day's demerits PLUS the rollovers), they would continue to roll over until Sunday. Being the day of rest, you didn't have to work off demerits. You attended church twice a day and rested. Demerits started at 0 on Monday, unless you were on someone's bad side. Although it may seem like it would be easy to avoid getting to that point, it wasn't. Helpers were rewarded for giving out the most demerits. Not with an award, but Bro. Mac would verbalize his admiration for their righteousness or begin to give them extra privileges or leniencies.

Washington Post posted:

A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urges the dismantling of the Education Department and bringing God into American classrooms.

The five-page document produced by the Council for National Policy calls for a “restoration of education in America” that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools and home schooling and enshrine “historic Judeo-Christian principles” as a basis for instruction.

Names of the council’s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing that Stephen K. Bannon — now chief White House strategist for President Trump — was a member and that Kellyanne Conway — now counselor to the president — served on the council’s executive committee.

DeVos was not listed as a member, but her mother, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, was named on the council’s board of governors. Her father-in-law, Amway founder Richard DeVos Sr., twice served as president, most recently from 1990 to 1993. And she and her husband have given money to the council as recently as 2007 through their family foundation, according to federal tax records.

quote:

With every sentence of writing this I have felt guilty but have come to understand that this feeling is familiar as long as I’m doing anything I know ‘they’ would not like. So, I carry this guilt, and have already decided that if this can save one person from the struggle that I have had to face then it’s worth it.

As someone who attended an Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) school from the ages of 3 – 15 I learned not to question and not to ask questions, because you must be obedient and “obey them that have the rule over you.”

As with most faith schools my parents attended the church which had services held on both days of the weekend. This meant that unless I was ill, I simply attended that building 7 days a week. I had no external life and didn’t know what living was. All I knew was to work as diligently as possible and be completely passive. When I look back on my school life I wonder how I survived.

The majority of ACE schools seem to be linked to churches. Every subject taught is infused with religion and a perception of the way one ought to behave. There was constant segregation between the boys and girls and healthy friendships between the sexes were quickly put a stop to. Mobile phones had to be turned in at the beginning of the day and were returned at the end. There was a lot of unfairness, which was especially evident when you consider that every authority figure had their own children in the school and there was no way they were going to let anyone be better than their kids. If you had talent, it would be hidden. You could get through the workbooks, or PACEs (Packets of Accelerate Christian Education), as long as you were not catching up to their kids. When I did, my literature PACE was taken away.

From 11 years old you were considered a ‘homeschooler’ which meant no more music or art classes. It was just devotions and PACE work (in your ‘office’ with dividers to ensure you had no contact with the other children) until I was finally able to leave. If it sounds like a prison or is reminiscent of the film Matilda, I also made that connection.

Upon leaving, I had no respect for education and found it pointless. I had spent years in school and I felt like I knew nothing. I was extremely anti-social with no idea how to make friends. The people I knew, I had known forever, and I was desperate to be free from my cult-like surrounding. Only I wasn’t able to fly.

To say I had a culture shock when I left and went to college is an understatement. Here I was free to be like other teens, free to socialise, and explore the outside world that I longed to get into. But I struggled to adapt. I soon realised that I was not as incredibly smart as the A-star student that was depicted from my ACE grades. The reason for that is because the ACE curriculum does not actually teach you, you teach yourself. You do not have to learn and all that is required are memorisation skills. You memorise so you can pass the test and then you very quickly forget the rest. My grades had fooled me, my student convention medals had duped me, and nothing I had meant anything in the real world.

When I dropped out of college my spirit was broken. I had no idea what to do or what I was good at or who I was. I felt disabled in every way and fell into a deep depression. I barely left my house for two years and remember being so low that it was a struggle to say my name if there were more than two people in a room. I only wanted to disappear. The effects couldn’t be denied on one trip when I remember travelling in a car with someone and they unexpectedly turned down the school road. I literally climbed into the car boot just in case someone from there was walking by. At this point I knew I was experiencing some type of trauma but I had no idea how to deal with it. I wanted to be fixed. It seemed there was no cure from the anxiety that would have me on edge constantly because I would need to be prepared just in case the head teacher had an outburst that she would direct towards me.

There was so much public humiliation and slandering of children for such menial and ridiculous things. The whole system of merits and demerits, talking in class, and the dreaded ‘vestry’ that you would be called into if you were in trouble or if they felt like you were developing a mind of your own and they wanted to put a stop to it. This room was mostly used to intimidate and instil fear into children as they were interrogated for periods of time; it also occasionally meant the paddle.


The head teacher and pastor genuinely seemed to get a high from breaking children’s spirits. It was as if your fears and tears recharged their batteries. The head teacher also thought of herself as one of God’s prophets. There were plenty of occasions where she felt she could predict our futures . For the girls in the room, the prediction was almost always a teen mum. One instance she went around the room inflicting her predictions: ‘do you wanna have a baby at 15’, ‘do you wanna be a shoplifter’, ‘do you wanna grow up and be a rapist’, all whilst reinforcing a message that unless you follow my rules this is how you will end up.
It seems far-fetched and outrageous that this could go on. An Ofsted inspection gave a good report. Of course they would because these people were master manipulators. They knew how to make things appear. Inspectors were given the schoolwork of the teachers’ children. They spoke to the prefects who were all part of the family also.

One of the hardest things is how alone you feel. It’s an abuse that is so strategic that it can’t be pinpointed down to one thing. You can try and explain but it is something that you have to have experienced to really understand. I just wanted to avoid people because they would never understand how I felt, or they might be evil. I thought people outside were evil because in my mind if the leaders and teachers are the most righteous and they deliberately crush beautiful potential out of children how much worse must the others be. I grow weary of trying to explain the gaps on my CV – time after I left that was utilised on catching-up and learning things I should have had the opportunity to learn about in school. An interview means questions and that takes me right back to the child in a vestry.

Lost and hopeless seems to be a recurring theme from attending these schools. They are intentional in their propagandist messages (through the comics) that there is only one way to live and that is their way. Submit to their will or be punished and doomed to hell. They use religion as a form of slavery, making it seem that they are directly linked to God and to oppose them makes you anti-Godly.

With this belief imposed upon you when you’re barely out of nappies you can only imagine how difficult it is to reprogram your mind and reconstruct a puzzle for which there are no pieces. To sum up my experience, the ACE curriculum, along with the types of people that seem to gravitate towards it, is a dictatorship which does not aim to teach but rather to control. The ACE system provides them with a way to legally abuse children and render them useless outside of their school gates.

I have since tried many things to help my recovery, but now realise that I can’t recover. It would mean going back to who I was previously, which was a toddler. Now, I can only try to become the adult I want to be. It’s a daily journey that I take literally one hour at a time, on a learning process that has meant going back to start over in a world that is decades ahead of you.

Anonymous

P.S. To any parents who think this is a good system where their child/children will learn Biblical principles (I understand you wanting your kids to have a firm spiritual foundation if that is your belief), please realise that your child/children do not leave school and immediately enter Heaven’s pearly gates. They will then have a life to live for which they will be gravely unprepared.

i like that posted:

A godless lawyer attempting to call out others for how they think and live their lives. That's a spicy meatball!

OXBALLS DOT COM posted:

I believe that there are multiple conspiracies to cover up rapists and pedophiles in Hollywood.