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.
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.
This is PRECISELY the kind of history which I am sure Trump wants to expunge from American education ... which is why we need to fight like hell to keep it IN American education!
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.
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).
None of the people murdered by religious fanatics at Salem were actually witches. Another delicate snowflake who saw the world witch and lost what little bit of a mind he has.
I suspect a LOT of the victims were midwives, who paid a horrible price for their understanding of what a woman goes through in childbirth. I have to wonder what the fallout was from those stupid executions in terms of infant mortality.
And I'll bet that story isn't any prettier than the trials were.
Many were women who had property the leaders wanted. It was also women (and a few men) who spoke up, said things the men in control didn't like, or that weren't liked for some other reason.
"We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid."
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.
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.
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.
Ignorance begets confidence far more than knowledge.
Have you ever been to an Assembly of God service? Volume and ignorance are about all they have to offer.
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!
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.
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.
They're upset about students learning.
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.
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.
Here is a list of the victims:
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/salem-witch-trials-victims/
This is PRECISELY the kind of history which I am sure Trump wants to expunge from American education ... which is why we need to fight like hell to keep it IN American education!
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.
Christians don't like anyone to spotlight their many crimes against humanity, across the centuries, since the inception of the christer cult.
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).
None of the people murdered by religious fanatics at Salem were actually witches. Another delicate snowflake who saw the world witch and lost what little bit of a mind he has.
I suspect a LOT of the victims were midwives, who paid a horrible price for their understanding of what a woman goes through in childbirth. I have to wonder what the fallout was from those stupid executions in terms of infant mortality.
And I'll bet that story isn't any prettier than the trials were.
Many were women who had property the leaders wanted. It was also women (and a few men) who spoke up, said things the men in control didn't like, or that weren't liked for some other reason.
Yep, greed and misogyny. The hallmarks of Christianity.
Oh, jeez, uppity women! Tsk-tsk-tsk! What to do, what to do? 🤪
At best, religion can make people more insightful and compassionate. At worst, it's tyrannical and soul crushing.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, "to religion: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."
Here's Christopher Hitchens' take on religion:
"We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid."
And yet another goodie from the Hitch:
𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛, 𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒃𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍. [emphasis mine]
-- Christopher Hitchens
If Schmidt like preaches like he talks, then his sermons must be like excruciating.
Jesus isn't sending us his best.
“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.
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.