• DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 days ago

      Well, the antagonist of the story at least.

      The Israelites genocided the Philistines every chance they got… Whose name Palestine is descended from btw.

  • Etterra@discuss.online
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    No they don’t. “Christians” don’t read, especially their own handbooks. To the point where if you quote something from the bible that disagrees with their ignorant bullshit they get extra mad.

  • Breve@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    7 days ago

    Maybe he should blame the guy who last negotiated such a bad trade deal, which would be… checks notes… Donald Trump during his first term! 🤦

  • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    7 days ago

    I stopped reading Reddit entirely save for deshittifying search results, but I braced myself and looked at the conservative subreddit today, and even they think this is quite dumb.

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      7 days ago

      Hahaha I did the same, I was considering what rock I could turn to find them under and remembered Reddit.

      Can confirm, even they haven’t found a way of spinning this one. Their best shot was justifying this as an attempt of making Trudeau, who’s leaving, to look bad and ease up on the tariffs when the new guy comes in so he looks good and is more eager to work with Trump, but even then they see it as a shot in the foot.

      • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        7 days ago

        They all seem pretty bewildered by this iteration of the orange rapist from the little bit I looked. I got the feeling that he doesn’t have a lot of support there anymore. Idk I’m not digging around but it’s just a sense I have.

        • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          7 days ago

          I glanced around old Facebox and mostly saw them yammering about trans people today and pretty quiet on the tariffs. It’s interesting.

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          5 days ago

          I’d have to create an account, too much of a hassle.

          Edit: sorry about your family bro, it’s a tragedy that they got the US to chew itself inside out. I’m sure deep down they’re decent, normal people, who just got picked up in a vicious web of misinformation, hate and mistrust. Stay strong!

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    7 days ago

    Bitch, the “unfair treatment” you are going on about was the one proposed by Trump in 2018.

  • iamnotme@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    7 days ago

    This has very much the feeling of ‘they need us more than we need them’

    I’m in the UK and some people voted for Brexit saying the same. Look how that turned out for us over the last five years.

    • Pofski@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      I know this is sidetracking a bit, but i just wanted the chance to ask somebody who is actually from Great Britain, how is it there.? Without having to look for information online that could be propaganda as we don’t really know which information source is reliable or not. How are you guys holding up?

      • eyes@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        7 days ago

        Bad, I’m lucky and live in a fairly afluent area of the south (but outside of London) but decades of conservative cuts have left our local government councils broke. My best friends moved to Europe because one of them worked in the arts and there’s not enough jobs to support them in just the UK. The new Labour government is an improvement but has shifted significantly to the right in their policies and feels like Conservative Light and is actively persecuting Trans and immigrant people through it’s policies to appeal to ex-conservatives. They’re starting to seek closer ties to Europe again but everything feels pretty hopeless.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          I’ve been watching labour’s right turn from over here in antagonismland, and I’m baffled by it. Like first of all, they won because the Tories were a parade of buffoons at best and actively destroying the UK whenever they managed to do anything. Like, all you have to do is say “these decisions have been bad for the British people, it’s going to take some time to get results from us actually attempting to govern, but we promise we won’t do what they did”

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        7 days ago

        Bit chilly today, otherwise fine.

        Imports and exports have largely been the same before and after Brexit, with a dip as people figured out the bureaucratic mountains of paperwork involved that wasn’t needed before.

        Source: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf

        Section 3 for the graphs.

        I dare say we’ve lost a lot of influence across Europe over it. We didn’t get any of the supposed “benefits”, but trade didn’t just drop off a cliff either. For all the bluster over the hardness of the Brexit we’d like, it mostly seems to be business as usual.

  • dantheclamman@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    7 days ago

    I find the average atheist seems to be more familiar with the messages of the Bible than many of these people who claim to spend their Sundays studying it.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      7 days ago

      Teenage me went into reading the Bible expecting to learn more about my religion and become one of those well-versed scholars.

      And then I kept reading, and the terrible truth eventually dawned on me. It really is just a bunch of silly stories from farmers thousands of years ago. It’s nearly impossible to actually read it and remain neutral about this; yet another one of life’s “emperors new clothes” situations.

      • TurtleSoup@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        6 days ago

        The more I read the Bible (having read multiple versions) as a teen the more I realized that people who claim to walk as Christ did, in fact do not walk as Christ did. There are exceptions, such as the pastor who I met volunteering at a soup kitchen, but a vast majority only prove my point.

        Christ walked among sinners, the down and destitute, tax collectors, sex workers and the “unclean”. The same people these self proclaimed men and women of Christ will rebuke and spit on.

        I always think back to that scene from Castlevania between the Bishop and the Demon: “my life’s work is in his name!” “Your life’s work. Makes him puke.”

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 days ago

          Yeah but some of the worst Christians are the ones who do walk with the wretches. They come in with their ideas of sin and salvation and don’t bother to notice when they’ve found pockets of paradise among the damned because they’re too busy trying to convert people away from the things they like

      • btaf45@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        7 days ago

        It really is just a bunch of silly stories from farmers thousands of years ago

        Can you imagine how twisted the guy who wrote Revelations was? Why did he just make all that shit up? Why did he try to pass off his own shit as Yahweh’s shit? Since he knew that Revelations was his own made up bullshit, he must have known that the entire bible was made up bullshit too. Why did he think it was okay to be a gigantic liar and for him to contribute to the mountain of bullshit started by others?

        • nickiwest@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          7 days ago

          If you’re actually curious about this, Elaine Pagels has a really great book about this. The book of Revelation was just a thinly-veiled series of jabs at specific people and the politics of the time.

          Her interpretation is that it would have been blatantly obvious to John’s contemporaries, but it’s opaque to us now because we’re so far removed from that time period.

          • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            6 days ago

            huh. Interesting.

            so something similar to Dante’s Inferno, which is basically a long shitpost about contemporary politics that over time diffused into religious culture?

            • Taleya@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              6 days ago

              Yup. It’s a big fat rant propaganda against nero. And it worked - our perception of nero has been viewed through that lens for centuries

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 days ago

          A friend who grew up an atheist recently read the Bible as part of her reading a bunch of religious texts. Her take on revelations is that she’s had fever dreams like that.

    • Out of curiosity I went to one once, I am not Christian and I never believed in the Bible.

      I don’t know if this how all churches do it but the one church I went to read the Bible in a manipulative way. Regardless of the book or its content, you cannot construct a narrative by selecting one or two verses from one book and another one or two verses from another book of the Bible. Sometimes the books aren’t even from the same testament.

      Any book should be read in whole, and any verse has a context that explains it.

      The same technique applied to anything be it a research paper or a comic will produce a false narrative.

      • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        Here’s a fun one: tell a conservative that rich people are doomed to go to hell. If they ask how you figure that, quote:

        It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God

        Without fail their programming will kick in and you will get some lengthy blog post with stupid reasoning about how what Jesus was actually talking about was some rock formation and some other dumb shit. Meanwhile you can just read the verses before and after for context and it’s pretty damn clear what was meant: greed is a form of evil.

        This is the difference between reading the Bible and having it explained to you.

        Another fun one: tell them God prefers atheists to vague believers. Prepare for another programmed blog post about how Jesus was actually referring to the taste of the water at some town that completely ignores the context of the book itself.

      • WagyuSneakers@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        7 days ago

        The point is that whatever verses are picked out agrees with what the pulpit wants to believe. It makes their hate righteous.

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        7 days ago

        I don’t know about other churches, but the Methodist Church I used to go to with my grandma never had a pastor out of the 2 I witnessed that did stuff like that. Maybe it depends on the region, but I’ve never heard of those type of manipulative strategies where I live, so I’d say I’m pretty lucky on that front. Closest I’ve probably heard of something like that in my area are the Mormons, but that’s a whole nother can of worms that I don’t wanna touch.

        Regardless, that doesn’t sound right or like a very Christian thing to do. Even if the verses tell of similar things, context for those verses are real important, just like with any other readings (religious or otherwise).

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          It’s also a thing based on denomination. Quakers are unlikely to pull that shit, meanwhile baptists are infamous for it.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    Yeah! Prepare yourselves! You’re going up against Cobra Kai!

    This is your end game and you’re up against Thanos is what I mean!

    You’re like that Mexican “Chapulin Colorado!”

    You’re like those blue people fighting Gargamel and his cat! You’ll never succeed! Never!

    Have you guys ever seen voltron, the thunder cats, robotech, ghost in the shell, the power rangers, you Canadians are just like that going up against all their archnesises! Yeah!

  • Rooty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    You’re assuming that these people give a fuck about Christianity other than as a cudgel for beating people up.

  • Stegget@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    7 days ago

    I always find this imagery amusing. David is touted as this weak shepherd boy who is nearly defenseless in the face of this giant opponent. In reality, you’ve got someone who has trained to sling rocks with deadly accuracy. He’s basically the bronze age equivalent of a sniper, bro can send a 2 inch projectile at mach jesus straight for your dome.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 days ago

      Prior to Goliath David was using that sling to defend his flock from wolves. I imagine it’s much harder to bullseye a running wolf than human with acromegaly like Goliath.

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      6 days ago

      Slings (no NOT slingshots) are actually awesome. It is very fun to learn to throw tennis balls. The average physically active adult can with learn to throw without hurting their bodies at speeds only a fairly professional baseball pitcher could rival with arm alone. The “lever action” you get from the slings length translates to a much slower (angular rotation) and less violent acceleration necessary at the base of the rotation (your body) for a vigorous throw, it doesn’t hurt to throw even fairly heavy things because it is like you have gone to a really low gear on a mountain bike.

      I really like this guy’s paracord slings, might be expensive but you are also basically buying a template and a tool that will last for years and years of throwing.

      https://www.practicalparacord.com/

      https://www.etsy.com/shop/PracticalParacorded?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1400323503&from_page=listing#items

      https://youtube.com/@practicalparacord

      Montage of normal people slinging and the crazy variety of body types and throwing styles, I have never seen a sport/throwing implement with such variety of body mechanics, it is clearly in our bones after all, to make a sling simply requires cordage of some kind, time and a pile of rocks!

      https://youtu.be/qVrWk557reU

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    The US has strategically used tariffs with great success over the last decades to get favorable pricing from Canada on everything from energy, softwood, potash, you name it. One item at a time, slowly, methodically they were able to bring down pricing. We have been giving the US extremely good prices, and now, because of Trump he has just flipped the board over and it’s time to restart.

    America will be far worse off than before this started, and this has leveled off the playing field again with Canada.

    As a Canadian I am thrilled.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      7 days ago

      Could you or someone explain this a bit further? You’re saying tariffs were used to bring down prices, but now tariffs are bringing prices back up again? What’s different this time?

      Thanks for any help.

      (I’m also thrilled for Canada, especially if it means shit in Donald lap.)

      • derfunkatron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        6 days ago

        I think strategically used tariffs (i.e. used in trade negotiations for specific sectors or items, not unilateral tariffs) can convince a country to export items at a price that benefits one country more than the other, usually in tandem with an agreement to reciprocate. Basically, countries agree to trade at certain rates or exclusively sell. Tariffs are the “bad cop” of trade negotiations.

        The tariff isn’t what lowers the price, it’s the threat of the tariff that lowers the price or keeps it stable.

        Imagine Canada exports maple widgets at $10 a piece to reflect the true cost of manufacture. The US says that is too high, our people can’t afford that price once it’s on the shelves, so how about you export them for $8? To sweeten the deal, we’ll export freedom widgets to you at reduced cost.

        Canada responds saying $8 for maple widgets is too low, $10 is firm and we’ll deal with the current cost of freedom widgets. The US threatens a targeted tariff on maple widgets at 25% which doesn’t affect the price of maple widgets in Canada or their sale price to importers in the US, but importers in the US have to pay $2.50 in tax on top of the purchase cost for maple widgets which drives up the cost for US consumers.

        This results in the price of the item increasing in the US $4.50 over the price determined to be “affordable” which will result in reduced imports and reduced purchases of maple widgets by consumers. Canada now has to find somewhere else to sell their maple widgets since the US isn’t buying at the same rate which drives down the value of maple widgets in Canada.

        And if the US was feeling particularly vengeful at being denied their cheap steady supply of maple widgets, they could convince other countries to not buy Canadian widgets at all or impose a blanket ban on all Canadian goods (see: how the US obliterated the economy of Cuba because of “communism” which was really just Cuba not wanting to be the US’s sugar plantation anymore).

        Canada will evaluate this and determine that selling maple widgets is essential to their economy and less profit for their maple widget industry is an agreeable trade compared to the US not buying at all.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          6 days ago

          Ah, man, thank you for this. I became just a little bit wiser today. Love you.

          how the US obliterated the economy of Cuba because of “communism” which was really just Cuba not wanting to be the US’s sugar plantation anymore

          Oof. I did not know this. That’s scummy af.

          • LePoisson@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            6 days ago

            Think that’s scummy, take a look at what happened with Haiti when they fought for and gained their independence.

            There’s a reason one half of the same island is way worse off than the other when it comes to living conditions for their people.

            • Victor@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              5 days ago

              I barely want to know. Nothing I can change, and I’m sure it’ll be triggering af 🫨

              • LePoisson@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 days ago

                Short version: after gaining their independence in a slave rebellion France (in particular since they were a colony of them) was pissed and our for revenge. They got the other European powers and the USA to enforce an embargo on Haiti. They’re still poor af because they had many years of basically being isolated from international trade of many things.