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oraxx's avatar

In my experience, the people who blame mental illness on demons tend to be under the influence of demonic possession. /S

This man's mind is so saturated by magical thinking as to render his every opinion worthless. He clearly does not believe in genuine education and sees his brand of religious indoctrination as a viable substitute. There was a time I thought this country was moving in the right direction, but that was before Reagan invited in the preachers and gave them the idea their dearly held beliefs were just as good as objective evidence. Now, I'm mostly filled with despair.

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Joe King's avatar

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”

― Barry Goldwater

Goldwater: perhaps one of the last decent Republicans.

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oraxx's avatar

+++ I didn't often agree with Goldwater, but he was absolutely right about this one. He was also someone who would have never sold his country out under any circumstances. Donald Trump would do so in a heartbeat, and probably already has.

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Matri's avatar

Closed door meeting with Putin, without any cameras or aides present?

He DEFINITELY has already.

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xenubarb's avatar

And considered a horrendously right wing politician in his day. Hell, these days he'd be rejected by the GOP for being a raving librul!

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oraxx's avatar

They would be calling him a RINO. Today, it isn't enough to be conservative, you also need to be crazy.

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Matri's avatar

Anyone even SLIGHTLY LESS racist and facist than them would be accused of being “far left”.

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Hall, Eric Wayne's avatar

Reagan was the beginning of the end for me. Actually it all began with Nixon calling Tim Leary public enemy #1. He definitely was the enemy of manmade social constructs as was his LSD use.

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oraxx's avatar

Reagan didn't have a problem with the Apartheid government in South Africa and called Nelson Mandela a terrorist. He made lots of jokes about the AIDS epidemic using all the putrid old gay stereotypes and refused to take the problem seriously. He also tripled the national debt in eight years and had nothing to show for it but a bloated military and some very wealthy billionaires.

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Hall, Eric Wayne's avatar

He literally took forever to even mention the word “AIDS” resulting in more deaths because of his inaction, which I hypothesize was due to his religious ideology which I’m sure told him this was all justified as it was simply god’s wrath being poured out upon those who, well quite frankly, had it coming! Very very evil person.

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oraxx's avatar

He invited Jerry Falwell to sit in on meetings of the National Security Council, and Falwell was telling anyone who would listen that AIDS was God's judgment on gay people.

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cdbunch's avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW5-IErNxuM

This still resonates with me 35 years later.

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Hall, Eric Wayne's avatar

Sadly not much has changed for the church crowd. I am amazed at christians that support trump. As far as mind fucking goes it has to be one of the best!

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oraxx's avatar

+++

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Matri's avatar

Wasn’t he also the one who gutted mental healthcare so thoroughly that now the inmates are running the asylum and renamed it the Republican Party?

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oraxx's avatar

Yes he was, but he was this really great guy you'd want to have a beer with. Reagan made my skin crawl.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

And his weird voice too!

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

Yes, among his many other atrocities.

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ericc's avatar

Nixon proposed universal health care, IIRC to include mental health care. So on this specific issue, he was pretty good. Though obviously a product of the 'reefer madness' generation when it came to drug use.

Anyway, we'd all be in a much better spot now if we had a more Nixonian mental health system rather than the Reagan mental health system we actually got.

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Hall, Eric Wayne's avatar

I will take any and all improvements we can get in mental health. Nixon was a criminal and a major part of the problem and I will prolly never see him in any other light. He had no problem with young men and women dying and murdering innocents all for god and country. To each their own but my issues with him preclude me from applauding any good he may have achieved

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Matri's avatar

Well, it has been said that religion is a mental illness too…

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NOGODZ20's avatar

If I said I believed in an ageless magical being that brought me gifts because I was good, Christians might think I was talking their god and would agree with me...until I told them I believed in Santa Claus. Then I'd get weird looks from them, them not realizing the irony of those weird looks.

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Toni Denton's avatar

And just what culture of those who 'wrote the bible' had the words 'mental health' in their vocabulary, let alone a , a whole 'book'?

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Hall, Eric Wayne's avatar

The only rarer than books themselves, in biblical days, were people who could read them! Now add that to all the copying, bias changing of words/statements and it is easy to see god, who appears to be nonexistent, had nothing to do with any bible writing

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Old Man Shadow's avatar

Been there. Done that.

Was told my depression was simply me not allowing the Spirit of God to give me joy. That I should have the joy of the Lord. That there was something wrong with me if I didn't. I just needed to Jesus more: prayers, church, bible reading, etc.

Which of course, made me feel guilty, which made me more depressed, which made me feel more guilty and shame and question if I was even saved at all.

Suffered over twenty years, and became suicidal, before I got real help.

Pro tip: Do not take mental health advice from a pastor whose only degree is from an unaccredited bible college in make believe.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

For the record, I'm glad you came through it intact. [fist-bump!]

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cdbunch's avatar

A-woman brother.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 – 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒.

SERIOUSLY??? Of COURSE, not one was diagnosed with a mental illness, you fatuous fool. The concept of mental illness and indeed the idea of objective diagnosis, based in medical science, was unheard of, 2000 years ago. You want to treat demon possession as though it is a genuine phenomenon, yet I defy you to cite a single instance where such possession was demonstrably the case in any given patient. Somehow, I think you'll come up empty.

This is genuinely scary: that people like Nicola seem to want to live in the first century, CE, rather than join the rest of us in the 21st. What may be even scarier is that there are still people who will listen to him and back his position.

And those who actually suffer from mental illness will be the worse off for it.

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xenubarb's avatar

Apparently a whole herd of pigs was infected by demons so (was it Jesus?) they were made to run off a cliff. Let's hope this ignorant preacher man doesn't make that a law if he gets elected. And in Missouri, he has a chance of winning. Horrible thought, I know!

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Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

"was it Jesus?"

Strangely, I heard that in Dana Carvey's voice.

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Connor Emsley's avatar

If they really wanna live in the first century that badly, put them on a remote island somewhere and let them LARP it out. I’m sure they won’t be begging to be brought back into the rest of society, oh, no, no.

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Crowscage's avatar

I'm good with that. And delete the GPS coordinates.

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Matri's avatar

Better yet, erase the island.

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

Nuke it from orbit, only way to be sure.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

My theory is it should be in the tip of Texas, land-locked up against the Mexican border. You know that area with all the desiccated dead deer. Throw a wall around it, and pull all their passports. let any escaped women and children back in, they can ask for asylum. Men too, as long as they seem sincere.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

This guy is advertising his ignorance with neon lettering.

He’s not a doctor, I’m not going to listen to him regarding mental health. But to claim that no one Jesus dealt with was diagnosed with mental illness is asinine. I mean, when the Bible was written they thought a cold was demons, this was even before they did leeches and blood letting, what the fuck would they know about mental illness.

In regards to equating tolerant churches to Nazi churches in WWII, flying flags had very little to do with it. So what are the churches who fly the Stars and Stripes? That is a closer comparison than flying the LGBTQ flag. It’s the nationalism that was the problem. And the Nazis were exclusive, they murdered people for being the slightest bit different, like they murdered a lot of people, including people who were LGBTQ. That is the complete opposite of what the rainbow flag stands for. And you know damned well that you cannot twist it enough to claim Christian’s are being murdered over the rainbow flag, no matter how hard you try.

The crap about Jan 6 being ANTIFA is just projection writ large. The BLM movement was infiltrated throughout with right wing terrorists instigating violence along with the police escalating the situations. There were many times where someone was caught being violent and vandalizing, and when it came to prosecuting them they turned out to be right wingers, and there to make the protests violent so the BLM groups looked bad. So him saying Jan 6was the other side, not supporters of Trump, he’s admitting that he knows the right has been doing this tactic all along and assumed the left does it too.

His ignorance about the separation of church and state is highlighted best by the ignorance of the English language when he calls it a misnomer. It is exactly what it is called. The state is not part of the church and the church is not part of the state, but the people who are religious are allowed to participate in the governance of the country, no one has ever said they couldn’t. (The JWs don’t want to be involved, but that’s a restriction they put on themselves, no one outside of their religion would give a good goddamn if they voted.). He truly is just ignorant, which makes him completely unqualified for the position he’s running for.

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Walt Svirsky's avatar

Well stated, Val.

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Alverant's avatar

When I lived in Dubuque, IA in the late 90s there was a billboard saying epileptic seizures weren't caused by demon possession. I was sad that such a billboard was needed. Now I'm sad what we needed was more billboards.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

"Demon possession" is a simplistic answer to a complex problem, sought by people who can't deal with those sorts of complexities. They run scared from them, mostly because they want an easy solution that doesn't cost them in terms of effort or intellect.

What truly astonishes me is how many of them are still around in the here and now.

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Alverant's avatar

If I had a dime for every time I heard someone blame "demon possession" for things ranging from playing D&D to being gay to voting for a Democrat, I could visit a fancy restaurant.

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Joe King's avatar

You could probably host a large group of friends at that fancy restaurant and leave a gigantic tip. And have plenty of cash left.

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Connor Emsley's avatar

You'd probably be richer than Elon Musk at that rate.

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Matri's avatar

We’d ALL be richer than Elon Musk.

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oraxx's avatar

Offering up simplistic solutions to complex problems is one of the cornerstones of conservatism in general.

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xenubarb's avatar

It's body thetans, I tells ya!

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

My husband explained it to me as: they just don't have the band-width to understand.

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Stephen Brady's avatar

This is what you get when you overvalue religion. He starts with the absolute and unshakable belief that the bible is 100% true and then figures out how to justify his statements. Of course nobody in the bible was diagnosed with mental illness. It wasn't until the early 20th century that people slowly began to acknowledge it had organic roots. But, it is still embedded in our national psyche: that any kind of mental illness is an embarrassing condition which needs to be avoided at all costs. One can only imagine the kind of nation we would have if these religionists had control. Folks, you need to vote by November 5th, like our nation's fate depended on it - because it really does.

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Matri's avatar

Not JUST this November 5th, but EVERY election.

Never let a single one of them have ANY power every again!

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

Yes, I am not taking advice from people who didn't know where the sun went at night.

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Joe King's avatar

Get out and vote, folks! Mr Nicola, using all the buzzwords that currently frighten his base, shows zero understanding of any of those things. Leaving aside the supernatural claim that demons are responsible, his claim that most mental illness is caused by trauma is ALSO wrong. As far as I know, the most common mental illness in the US is depression. While trauma can exacerbate the condition, it most certainly does not cause it.

A Christian Nationalist politician being wrong about everything, and lying to cover that up? Must be a day ending in "y".

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

And it's one more Christian, trying to make his atavistic belief system relevant in a milieu where, to anyone with even the slightest skills in critical thought, he looks ridiculous and foolish.

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xenubarb's avatar

Ya think that's why they're trying to destroy the quality of education in this country?

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Connor Emsley's avatar

Ding ding ding ding, that’s the correct answer!

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Matri's avatar

The ignorance is the point.

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Lynn Veit's avatar

The leaders want mindless sheep.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

same as it ever was!

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NOGODZ20's avatar

"Scriptural truth." Right off the bat, Nicola offers up an oxymoron.

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xenubarb's avatar

It's true because there's proof.

Only, the proof is in a 2000 year old book written by ignorant men and endlessly edited for political gain.

Their circular logic is like Ouroboros! Nothing but a snake devouring it's own tail...

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cdbunch's avatar

Fucker. They didn't know anything of mental illness in Jesus' time or even in King James time when he took a translation of the Bible from a dubious source, and modified it to justify his feudal society. Casting out demons didn't send my 30 years of suicidal thoughts into remission, a scientific device did that through a fairly new procedure called TMS. (I highly recommend anyone suffering from depression, bipolar depression (even with medication), and anxiety, ask your doctor and insurance company about TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation). If I believed in miracles, I would call it miraculous. Okay shameless (and unpaid) plug over with)

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Bagen Onuts's avatar

I overrcame depression and suicide with electrodes to the brain. I also learned to accept myself as a Gay/Bi and trans wannabe. I grew up in the 1950's and forced by a religious Mother to watch bishop fulton j sheen every Sunday as he spouted right-wing nazi "hate queers" venom.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Demon possession was another way to explain why 1/5th of the population in Jesus day were mentally ill. Not everybody is mentally ill to the point of " demon posssion" so that's how they explained it then. Must be demon possession if you can't figure out why somebody seems a little off. I am gifted with a mentally ill brain. Oh so that's what's wrong with me I have demons? Demons. Yup. Demons. All this time I thought I was mentally ill. Joe Nicola why don't you get exercised and tell us all about it. I like my brain as is. 😈 -- yah demons.

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xenubarb's avatar

I have demons. I like them. Much better than those sanctimonious angels with too many eyes and wings! Hell, those things aren't even aerodynamic, so why the wings?

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

I have learned to deal with my "demons". They know when I won't take their sht and when they feel like being jerks. We all have them, mentally ill or not.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Thanks for the link. They get it.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

I hope mine look like David Tenant as Crowley.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Fun fact I met David Tennant at a con. Put his arm around me for a photo. But yah his Crowley in those pants?🔥

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

oh god *pant pant* that’s my screen saver.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Yah 👖

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Connor Emsley's avatar

Demons really are the best. 😈

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ericc's avatar

Given the massive tolerance of violence, the (relative) poverty, lack of medical care, etc. in the Roman era, I am (1) frightened to think of what *they* considered mentally problematic, because you know it had to be *really* off the charts in a society where the Emperor marries a horse, and (2) amazed the number isn't higher.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

And 3) women who wouldn't submit to their husbands in everything back then? Probably half of all women then were regarded as demon possessed. No women's lib. I'm not the submissive kind of woman.

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Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

You should be frightened to think that a former member of Italia's parliament appeared in a scene in an "art film" were a woman had carnal relations with a horse.

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Poor horse.

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Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

All you need is to have a fundagelical profit 𝗕𝗢𝗣 you on your forehead to cure you. 😇

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Barbara Ackerman's avatar

And by demon possession he means trump....right? 🤡

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Straw's avatar

Well, that would explain a lot actually. But then I remember I don't believe in stupid things like that. But I do believe in stupidity. And he got it.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

"That is how Jesus handled it and He gave us the authority to do it as well."

An imaginary figure from the Middle East in the 1st Century has NO authority over anything in 21st Century America, Jojo.

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Louise Pattison's avatar

The consensus is that Jesus wasn't imaginary. He was a real rabbi in a tiny Jewish sect that happened to develop into the world's largest religion. A lot of the stuff written about him is imaginary.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Yup. A common man with a common name making a common claim in that region of the world at that time.

Christians who advocate for a 'Historical Jesus' are shooting themselves in the foot. A Middle Eastern man with the common name of Jesus was born, lived and died. That does not make him the son of an imaginary deity. 'Historical Jesus ' is self-defeating.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

I always figured he was a compilation character like you said. If he ever existed.

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Hank Long's avatar

"Gotta be dem dang Demicratik debils and demems a-causin' all de problums in de wurld!"

Or as the vegan Church Lady might ask: "Could it be... seitan?"

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

How dare you quote a heaten ?! Soy on you for being tempeh by her false words !

Signed Team tofu 😁

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Hank Long's avatar

I veg to differ... 😏

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Karola Spring's avatar

Cheeses, cheeses! Camembert witness!

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Runfastandwin's avatar

"I'm not a mental illness expert" then stfu you evil assclown.

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Lynn Veit's avatar

This is roughly the same shit I heard off and on as I was growing up, except mostly without the demon part. This was a Baptist church, and demons were kept in the background in favor of "evil spirits" and "principalities of the air" whatever that was. Demons were often mentioned in connection with hell, but "demon *possession*" I guess was too Catholic.

I was in kindergarten the first time I heard the phrase "mental illness is the result of SIN in the world, and no amount of psychiatrists or what-have-you will cure it! The only cure is getting right with the Lord!" I remember staring at the minister and wondering what the heck a psychiatrist was, and what did mental illness mean; was it something you could catch, like the mumps?

Since I already knew that questions were frowned upon by the church, and that mom would only tell me that it was nothing I needed to know or worry about, I asked my Kindergarten teacher and she explained it the best she could. At least she made it less mysterious. But when she asked me where I had heard these terms, I panicked, thinking she might tell my mom about our conversation, so I told her it was something I had seen on "The Edge of Night."

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Psittacus Ebrius's avatar

I firmly support there not being a religious test for holding public office. I would on the other hand, strongly support a literacy test for those seeking to hold public office. It would certainly apply to this fool.

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Bensnewlogin's avatar

This is certainly a case of his left brain not knowing what his right brain is doing, or that there is even a brain to do something. This is one seriously sick puppy

"Not one person that Jesus dealt with was diagnosed mental illness – not one." Maybe because that concept did not existed that time? Naw, too easy.

"I'm not a mental illness expert, but I have helped many people find healing over the years in my ministry. " yes, counseling can work, and yes, you are not a mental illness expert by any means.

"churches in 1930s Germany used to display “a picture of Hitler and a Nazi flag,” but now “some churches are flying a different flag, a rainbow flag.” I'm sure he has a list of the millions of people gay people have killed for the sake of the rainbow flag, the world war that was started for the sake of the rainbow flag, and the extreme racism and religious bigotry that the rainbow flag represents. That list will be forthcoming any year now.

"The ANTIFA and Anarchists that were the instigators in this breach into D.C. And obviously, it's blamed on Trump supporters." There might be a reason why it is obviously blamed on Trump supporters. Maybe it was all the Trump signs, all the guilty pleas.

I Can see why he wants to gut public education in Missouri.

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cdbunch's avatar

The gallows for Mike Pence. I think I resent that more than trying to destroy democracy. Making me feel sympathy for Mike Fucking Pence.

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Bagen Onuts's avatar

The guy that did away with the clean needles program in INdennessee? The anti-Gay bigot? I would shit in his coffin if I could.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

I K, R? Charles Koch's favorite politician!

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Straw's avatar

People knowing things are dangerous you know. You got to get rid of public education.

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