The lone MAGA guy in my poker group is also the loudest when we are having a friendly disagreement, even about cards. A misdeal was discovered about two-thirds of the way thru a hand and he kept getting louder and louder in the discussion of how to resolve it.
Because shouting down everyone else works all too often. Other people get tired of arguing with the loudmouth, and decide to let them have their way because it's easier. Ergo, the dummy with the megaphone gets his way, which is what he/she wanted the entire time.
Further Thought: Dan Schmidt is an unfortunate example of how religion infantilizes people. Rather than having an adult reaction to the opportunity those students had to learn about the Salem Witch Trials and how they figured into early American history, he hears the word, "witch," couples that internally with the supposed satanic nature of witchcraft, and instantly loses his shit. Meanwhile, the rest of the Batavia school board were probably listening to him and going, "What the actual [expletive-deleted]?"
Thankfully, there were actual grownups in the room in this instance. In SOME school boards, that isn't always the case.
Maybe, but I don't think he has that level of understanding yet. He still at the level of witches are real. If he does figure out what the witch trials were really about, he'll probably come down on the side of the puritians.
Schmidt's reaction was clearly NOT an adult reaction to what should have been the proposal of an important learning opportunity. His religion got in the way of his duty as a school board member.
Next time, try educating yourself beforehand and not speak with the jawbone of an ass. You sit there judging and condemning. What did your Jesus tell you about that? Why do you disobey him?
Dan? You need to GET something. The Salem Witch Trials were absolutely a part of American history. They were a tragic and horrid part of not just American history but CHRISTIAN history, because those were Christian men (and entirely men!) who accused those women of witchcraft and who ultimately tortured and killed them. We need our kids to know that story, ugly though it may be, and for a damned valid reason:
Schmidt sounds to me like a scared little kid who was brought up with Satan and demons and imps (oh, wow!) and never grew out of the fear of them. He is yet one more child in a man-suit who can't face what frightened him and STILL frightens him.
The type who believes that the devil is literally standing behind every corner, gleefully rubbing his hands together, waiting to tempt him into sinning.
And stole their property after they killed them. That was always an invisible factor they didn't mention aloud, "How much property does this person have that we can commandeer for the benefit of the church?"
Mr. Schmidt possesses the usual "memory" of the deluded religious class. He doesn't know anything about the Salem Witch Trials? That to me is incredulous and he needs to go back to school.
I do, however, want to inform him that those poor women, men, and dogs (yes, that correct dogs! There were four or five dogs that were hung by the neck for their implication in the witch trials!) were accused, tried, and executed by CHRISTIANS! It was the Puritans - you remember the Puritans, they were the ones that left England over religious persecution - that perpetrated the entire trial period.
These were adults, leaders of the community, etc., that KNEW that what they were doing was bogus malarkey. In some cases they put their phony baloney "tests" knowing they were manipulating the false tests, i.e., using awls with retracting tips to find the "Devils Teat" on the bodies of the accused, and water "dunking" to see if they float or not, since witches supposedly weren't able to float! These are tests they put elderly women and men to determine if they were pawns of the devil after which they put them to death. Very nice.
Before an ignoramus like Mr Schmidt opens his ignorant mouth, he should try and learn what the hell he is talking about.
Just more proof of the abysmal level of ignorance of the religious class that now wants to run the country!
These kids might start making connections to the modern day witch trials going on right now. Surely feminists, immigrants, and trans people are to blame for the state of things.
The museum isn't about Satanic witches. It's about imaginary witches that your forefathers falsely blamed for bad stuff happening. It paints your forefathers in a bad light, but that's reality. Your ignorance paints you in a bad light, but that's reality, too.
And that is EXACTLY why states like Florida and Texas go so far in whitewashing the history of this country. And why MAGA has declared the teaching of slavery to be "anti-American".
And anytime some bigot brings up the historical crimes of Muslims it's important to point out that Christians were no better, and in many cases, FAR worse.
He wants to interfere on total ignorance, when someone tries to educate him on what the museum actually is, he can’t receive it. Religions constraints on education is what turned me away from Catholicism. I loved to read and learn but I was punished for it, always reading the “wrong” things.
Christianity has always been very interested in witches. Very. Just check with the Inquisition, trials, burnings, or Kramer & Sprenger, who wrote the Malleus Maleficarum (Hexenhammer).
A bit OT, but interesting historical tidbit. We all know (or should) that the first book printed on the new printing press was the Bible. Does anybody know what the second was? Hint: it was about how to hunt witches. (Yup. Malleus Maleficarum.)
I’m gonna stop you right there. Being a pastor in the school board does not give you the right to insert your religious views on anything. In fact, it is the least relevant part of your resume because the school board is a secular organization and needs to remain completely neutral regarding religion.
“Like, why would we want to exclude somebody that would feel like this is kind of going against what… what they… their core values in their life, you know?”
No one is excluding anyone, in fact they would be the folks who needed to visit this museum the most. If they can’t handle that, that’s on them and they exclude themselves, no need to rain on everyone else’s parade.
“Right. But. Just think, just thinking about the voice of the kids, how about the people that don’t maybe have a voice, right?…”
Ironic, that.
He goes on to say, think about the Christians, the christians who burned women they couldn’t control as witches, silencing their voices. Here he is complaining that the perpetrators in the story don’t have a voice since they might, that’s right might, not wish to visit this museum (and have the right to opt out of that stop) a museum highlighting the silencing of women during a time when women had very little voice to begin with. And here he is silencing the students themselves because he is ignorant and knee jerking big feelings because of a word he doesn’t understand. The word witch was created to literally demonize women for non compliance in their own oppression. He wants to continue to perpetuate the weaponization of witch. Maybe because he’s part of the movement to rob us women of our humanity, autonomy, and independence from abusive men. Ain’t gonna happen, buddy.
ETA I am aware that burning wasn’t actually used during the Salem Witch Trials, execution is bad enough. I just used burning because that’s the level of understanding he would have about the witch hunts. Working on his level, here.
There's Christian privilege talking again, as though they are the one and only arbiter of any kind of societal value and MUST be listened to. I'll say it again: Schmidt reacted to the suggestion of the witches' museum the way a child reacts to the possibility of the boogieman.
It is difficult though. The local races rarely note the party affiliation of the candidates, and there is very little to no coverage of their stances. The interviews and Q&As the candidates fill out are so generic, the answers are so mealymouthed, that there’s very little valuable information on how the candidate will actually vote. Is it because we don’t pay attention to the local races, or is it that because there’s nothing of value in the candidate portfolios we can’t pay attention? Then there’s the big churches in areas fronting a candidate, and pressuring their congregations to vote for the candidate, while the rest of the community are uninformed there’s even a race. Yeah, individuals should be responsible for their vote, and yet the system is setup to keep folks ignorant unless you are in the in group (mega church, usually).
Yes, we need to pay attention to the local races, but there needs to be more information of value provided by the candidates and the locality even the media of the area. And that is not happening. I bet this guy ran on his position as a pastor and nothing more, nothing about his stance on book banning, or teacher salaries, or anything of value.
Being from the New England area, I grew up frequenting Salem, MA. It’s wicked fun and also terribly sad. Yes, education is what these fools are afraid of.
It’s about time to rewatch The VVitch by Robert Eggers. A folk horror movie, but also quite an accurate portrayal of what it might have been like for a Puritan family cast out by their town and when fear and desperation take over deep in the woods.
Great! I am from Providence... till I got my draft notice. How could any reasonable person not know about the Salem Witch Trials? Just watch the "History" channel. BTW... Thomas Jefferson is frequently accredited with the concept of separation of church and state... he was actually quoting Roger Williams of Rhode Island. And... don't forget "Freethought" day/week/month, predicated on the remembrance of the horror of the Salem Witch Trials. If this clown was there...he would be tying the noose.
He would definitely tie the noose. Sorry to hear of your draft notice. I did not know about Roger Williams, thank you for sharing. I think most everyone has heard of the Salem Witch Trials, but too many didn’t learn anything from it. 1 in 4 Americans believe in witches, yikes!?
A Gallup poll indicates that roughly 25% of U.S. adults believe witches are real, while another 15% are unsure, meaning about 40% are open to or convinced of their existence. The remaining 60% do not believe in them.
Exodus 22:18 in the KJV reads, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” so those that believe should be out there killing them. Boss says you got to do it!!
My wife and I visited NE a few years ago. While there, we took a tour of the Sale witch trials that included the monuments to the victims. It was pretty sobering.
As always, the question must be asked: How long will it be before we see this guy's name in connection with child sexual abuse/possession of csa material?
Why are the most ignorant ones always the loudest ones?
They think their narrow interpretation of on ancient book makes them 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, and being the loudest will drown out all other voices.
The lone MAGA guy in my poker group is also the loudest when we are having a friendly disagreement, even about cards. A misdeal was discovered about two-thirds of the way thru a hand and he kept getting louder and louder in the discussion of how to resolve it.
Smart people think before they speak.
Worse, they think after they speak.
When they bother to think at all.
Thinking are hard.
Ignorance begets confidence far more than knowledge.
The essence of Dunning-Kruger.
Have you ever been to an Assembly of God service? Volume and ignorance are about all they have to offer.
And they and the JWs seem to want churches without windows... what's with that?
No voice speaks louder than that of the uninformed!
Sad but true.
Because shouting down everyone else works all too often. Other people get tired of arguing with the loudmouth, and decide to let them have their way because it's easier. Ergo, the dummy with the megaphone gets his way, which is what he/she wanted the entire time.
Shit floats?
Because violence sadly works far too often.
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑢𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑧𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔, 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎, 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒.
There's the problem. If students don't get to 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 what overzealous men can do to them, they won't 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 when overzealous men are doing it.
Education is not a Christian value these days.
Not a governmental value either, especially with Ms. McMahon as Secretary of Education!
Secretary of Mis-Education
Ms Education.
And many with Schizophrenia were labeled as demon-possessed if men and witches if women.
Further Thought: Dan Schmidt is an unfortunate example of how religion infantilizes people. Rather than having an adult reaction to the opportunity those students had to learn about the Salem Witch Trials and how they figured into early American history, he hears the word, "witch," couples that internally with the supposed satanic nature of witchcraft, and instantly loses his shit. Meanwhile, the rest of the Batavia school board were probably listening to him and going, "What the actual [expletive-deleted]?"
Thankfully, there were actual grownups in the room in this instance. In SOME school boards, that isn't always the case.
You hit the nail on the head. "Infantilized" is the perfect description for these people.
I learned that word and the phrase that follows here from a brilliant young YouTube producer:
𝐼𝑓 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑤𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑢𝑠.
-- TheraminTrees
The fool even ADMITTED he doesn't know what he's talking about yet still doubled down.
Excellent comment.
And, Schmidt being an elected school board member would perhaps feel some pull to enlarge the educational experience provided.
"Witch", "devil", "trump" what's the difference?
"early American history" Starting with Amerigo Vespucci long before the United States. 🙄
Ha ha! That one always makes me laugh when I see a map of America.
I guess that if the New Gilead gets ushered in, he'll be at the head of the mob burning uncooperative women?
I think they're more upset about students learning about the evil things their faith did.
Maybe, but I don't think he has that level of understanding yet. He still at the level of witches are real. If he does figure out what the witch trials were really about, he'll probably come down on the side of the puritians.
Schmidt's reaction was clearly NOT an adult reaction to what should have been the proposal of an important learning opportunity. His religion got in the way of his duty as a school board member.
And that was NOT a good look.
And what is such a religious ZEALOT doing sitting on the board of a PUBLIC school system in the first place?
It's part of a long standing effort to get a Board with a Christian majority. From there, the goal is to influence what the kids are taught.
Like the parasitic wasp, they infect their prey in order to guide it towards its eventual death.
Diversity. You need at least one person who hates education on a school board to ensure diversity.
👆🎯
There’s your problem: you used the words “learning opportunity”.
They’re Christians! They don’t NEED no stinkin’ learning!
Just got to love Cotton Mather and his ilk!
They're upset about students learning.
Always have been.
Bingo!
To Pastor Schmidt...
twainquotes.com/Witches.html
Next time, try educating yourself beforehand and not speak with the jawbone of an ass. You sit there judging and condemning. What did your Jesus tell you about that? Why do you disobey him?
(had to retype this to satisfy our nanny)
Dan? You need to GET something. The Salem Witch Trials were absolutely a part of American history. They were a tragic and horrid part of not just American history but CHRISTIAN history, because those were Christian men (and entirely men!) who accused those women of witchcraft and who ultimately tortured and killed them. We need our kids to know that story, ugly though it may be, and for a damned valid reason:
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡.
-- George Santayana
Maybe he doesn't want the kids to learn about the history of witch hangings because he might want to repeat the witch hangings.
My thoughts exactly. Keep him away from it. Otherwise he might start getting ideas.
Schmidt sounds to me like a scared little kid who was brought up with Satan and demons and imps (oh, wow!) and never grew out of the fear of them. He is yet one more child in a man-suit who can't face what frightened him and STILL frightens him.
That describes a significant percentage of this country.
Satan and demons and imps
Oh my!
Satan and demons and imps
Oh my!
Satan and demons and imps
Oh my!
The type who believes that the devil is literally standing behind every corner, gleefully rubbing his hands together, waiting to tempt him into sinning.
Yeah ... there's always THAT, isn't there?
He probably thinks witches were burned in America, actually.
That's why he bought a gallon of gas and a Zippo.
And stole their property after they killed them. That was always an invisible factor they didn't mention aloud, "How much property does this person have that we can commandeer for the benefit of the church?"
These people forbid teaching the past because they want to repeat it.
And those who erase the past are 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 to.
👆🎯White-washers, always do.
There were men put to torture and on trial, too.
Good point, thanks for bringing it!
Mr. Schmidt possesses the usual "memory" of the deluded religious class. He doesn't know anything about the Salem Witch Trials? That to me is incredulous and he needs to go back to school.
I do, however, want to inform him that those poor women, men, and dogs (yes, that correct dogs! There were four or five dogs that were hung by the neck for their implication in the witch trials!) were accused, tried, and executed by CHRISTIANS! It was the Puritans - you remember the Puritans, they were the ones that left England over religious persecution - that perpetrated the entire trial period.
These were adults, leaders of the community, etc., that KNEW that what they were doing was bogus malarkey. In some cases they put their phony baloney "tests" knowing they were manipulating the false tests, i.e., using awls with retracting tips to find the "Devils Teat" on the bodies of the accused, and water "dunking" to see if they float or not, since witches supposedly weren't able to float! These are tests they put elderly women and men to determine if they were pawns of the devil after which they put them to death. Very nice.
Before an ignoramus like Mr Schmidt opens his ignorant mouth, he should try and learn what the hell he is talking about.
Just more proof of the abysmal level of ignorance of the religious class that now wants to run the country!
I mean how the fuck does someone go through life without ever hearing about the Salem Witch Trials?
Reason visits only those who welcome it.
Very deliberately.
“So, if she weighs as much as a duck, she’s made out of wood…and therefore: a witch!”
These kids might start making connections to the modern day witch trials going on right now. Surely feminists, immigrants, and trans people are to blame for the state of things.
If Schmidt like preaches like he talks, then his sermons must be like excruciating.
Jesus isn't sending us his best.
Like really!!
The museum isn't about Satanic witches. It's about imaginary witches that your forefathers falsely blamed for bad stuff happening. It paints your forefathers in a bad light, but that's reality. Your ignorance paints you in a bad light, but that's reality, too.
And that is EXACTLY why states like Florida and Texas go so far in whitewashing the history of this country. And why MAGA has declared the teaching of slavery to be "anti-American".
Christians don't like anyone to spotlight their many crimes against humanity, across the centuries, since the inception of the christer cult.
And anytime some bigot brings up the historical crimes of Muslims it's important to point out that Christians were no better, and in many cases, FAR worse.
He wants to interfere on total ignorance, when someone tries to educate him on what the museum actually is, he can’t receive it. Religions constraints on education is what turned me away from Catholicism. I loved to read and learn but I was punished for it, always reading the “wrong” things.
Christianity has always been very interested in witches. Very. Just check with the Inquisition, trials, burnings, or Kramer & Sprenger, who wrote the Malleus Maleficarum (Hexenhammer).
A bit OT, but interesting historical tidbit. We all know (or should) that the first book printed on the new printing press was the Bible. Does anybody know what the second was? Hint: it was about how to hunt witches. (Yup. Malleus Maleficarum.)
“Just thinking, like, I’m a pastor in the room…”
I’m gonna stop you right there. Being a pastor in the school board does not give you the right to insert your religious views on anything. In fact, it is the least relevant part of your resume because the school board is a secular organization and needs to remain completely neutral regarding religion.
“Like, why would we want to exclude somebody that would feel like this is kind of going against what… what they… their core values in their life, you know?”
No one is excluding anyone, in fact they would be the folks who needed to visit this museum the most. If they can’t handle that, that’s on them and they exclude themselves, no need to rain on everyone else’s parade.
“Right. But. Just think, just thinking about the voice of the kids, how about the people that don’t maybe have a voice, right?…”
Ironic, that.
He goes on to say, think about the Christians, the christians who burned women they couldn’t control as witches, silencing their voices. Here he is complaining that the perpetrators in the story don’t have a voice since they might, that’s right might, not wish to visit this museum (and have the right to opt out of that stop) a museum highlighting the silencing of women during a time when women had very little voice to begin with. And here he is silencing the students themselves because he is ignorant and knee jerking big feelings because of a word he doesn’t understand. The word witch was created to literally demonize women for non compliance in their own oppression. He wants to continue to perpetuate the weaponization of witch. Maybe because he’s part of the movement to rob us women of our humanity, autonomy, and independence from abusive men. Ain’t gonna happen, buddy.
ETA I am aware that burning wasn’t actually used during the Salem Witch Trials, execution is bad enough. I just used burning because that’s the level of understanding he would have about the witch hunts. Working on his level, here.
“Just thinking, like, I’m a pastor in the room…”
There's Christian privilege talking again, as though they are the one and only arbiter of any kind of societal value and MUST be listened to. I'll say it again: Schmidt reacted to the suggestion of the witches' museum the way a child reacts to the possibility of the boogieman.
PA-THE-TIC.
What the hell is an xtian pastor even doing occupying a seat on a public school board? Public schools teach facts, which are Kryponite to religion.
I blame voters for not paying enough attention to local races.
It is difficult though. The local races rarely note the party affiliation of the candidates, and there is very little to no coverage of their stances. The interviews and Q&As the candidates fill out are so generic, the answers are so mealymouthed, that there’s very little valuable information on how the candidate will actually vote. Is it because we don’t pay attention to the local races, or is it that because there’s nothing of value in the candidate portfolios we can’t pay attention? Then there’s the big churches in areas fronting a candidate, and pressuring their congregations to vote for the candidate, while the rest of the community are uninformed there’s even a race. Yeah, individuals should be responsible for their vote, and yet the system is setup to keep folks ignorant unless you are in the in group (mega church, usually).
Yes, we need to pay attention to the local races, but there needs to be more information of value provided by the candidates and the locality even the media of the area. And that is not happening. I bet this guy ran on his position as a pastor and nothing more, nothing about his stance on book banning, or teacher salaries, or anything of value.
Being from the New England area, I grew up frequenting Salem, MA. It’s wicked fun and also terribly sad. Yes, education is what these fools are afraid of.
It’s about time to rewatch The VVitch by Robert Eggers. A folk horror movie, but also quite an accurate portrayal of what it might have been like for a Puritan family cast out by their town and when fear and desperation take over deep in the woods.
Great! I am from Providence... till I got my draft notice. How could any reasonable person not know about the Salem Witch Trials? Just watch the "History" channel. BTW... Thomas Jefferson is frequently accredited with the concept of separation of church and state... he was actually quoting Roger Williams of Rhode Island. And... don't forget "Freethought" day/week/month, predicated on the remembrance of the horror of the Salem Witch Trials. If this clown was there...he would be tying the noose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freethought_Day
He would definitely tie the noose. Sorry to hear of your draft notice. I did not know about Roger Williams, thank you for sharing. I think most everyone has heard of the Salem Witch Trials, but too many didn’t learn anything from it. 1 in 4 Americans believe in witches, yikes!?
A Gallup poll indicates that roughly 25% of U.S. adults believe witches are real, while another 15% are unsure, meaning about 40% are open to or convinced of their existence. The remaining 60% do not believe in them.
Exodus 22:18 in the KJV reads, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” so those that believe should be out there killing them. Boss says you got to do it!!
My wife and I visited NE a few years ago. While there, we took a tour of the Sale witch trials that included the monuments to the victims. It was pretty sobering.
As always, the question must be asked: How long will it be before we see this guy's name in connection with child sexual abuse/possession of csa material?