Two wrongs don't make a right

This is not exactly word for word, but a very close retelling of a conversation that actually happened at my workplace today.  Mind you all of my coworkers are both right-leaning and Trump supporters.  Coworker 1 is a single dad with majority custody of his son, and coworker 2 has two sons. 

CoWorker1:  I think that Amy Barrett is a religious nut.  I don't think they should do anything to Roe v. Wade and they will if she's confirmed.  So my son will be screwed if he has sex and the girl doesn't want it [the baby]?  What happens then?  She cries rape so she can still have the abortion and my son is fucked.

Me:  Don't fuck until you're married then.

CoWorker2:  Nah...   I tell 'em you've gotta try it before you buy it.

Me:  I could never give my kids advice that would make them statistically more likely to get a divorce

CoWorker2:  [Incredulously, knowing I have a hot wife] So you didn't have sex before you were married?

Me:  No.

CoWorker2:  Oh, well uh...good for you man.

Me on the inside:

Two things here, the first being is that the assumption of coworker 1 is specifically that the only thing you can do to prevent your son from falsely being accused of rape is to allow child murder in your society.  Instead of allowing murder to prevent rape, how about teach your son some self control.  Second, coworker 2 would knowingly give his sons bad advice to prevent having to face his own past misdeeds.  It is literally making the truth anathema to yourself in the same way that the god of this world made the Truth anathema to himself.  

This is why Jesus reminds us that the world hates us.  The world will hate truth and it's adherents the same way Satan hates God.

Lies are typically not interesting

Politico reports that Democrats are denouncing Facebook as right-wing content draws more engagement on the platform.

But Facebook says there's a reason why right-wing figures are driving more engagement. It's not that its algorithm favors conservatives — the company has long maintained that its platform is neutral. Instead, the right is better at connecting with people on a visceral level, the company says.

“Right-wing populism is always more engaging," a Facebook executive said in a recent interview with POLITICO reporters, when pressed why the pages of conservatives drive such high interactions. The person said the content speaks to "an incredibly strong, primitive emotion" by touching on such topics as "nation, protection, the other, anger, fear."

This is because truth is more engaging than lies.  Lies are usually bland, in order to cover up for some astounding truth.  Take for example Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  She lied several times about why she was in the hospital.  Turns out though, that she was undergoing massive chemotherapy treatments for cancer on her liver.  

The truth can sometimes be scary, embarrassing, or anger inducing.  But truth will always be more engaging because it points us towards the Truth, as opposed to lies that ensure the strength of our shackles.  

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

A promethean kind of freedom

This is truly the freedom that libertarians and liberals have been fighting for, and I want none of it.  Over at the Huffington Post a woman writes this about joining the Satanic Temple after RBG's death.

In the hours after Justice Ginsburg’s death, I sat wondering what the future would hold for my daughters. Their ability to live in a country where the religious beliefs of others would not play a role in their right to assert autonomy over their own bodies was suddenly, starkly, in danger. Traditional means of keeping abortion safe and legal seemed woefully inadequate to protect the rights that women in the generation before me had fought so hard to secure. 

Almost immediately I sought strength in the Satanic Temple’s efforts to turn religious arguments on their head by pushing for religious liberty for their members on an equal basis with believers in the dominant Christian faiths.

...

There is a real chance that the Supreme Court will be lost for a generation or more to justices appointed for their religious beliefs rather than a deep understanding of the Constitution or a desire for justice to be carried out on an impartial basis. Because of this, I believe that the Satanic Temple ― and its members’ dedication to fighting for true freedom ― represents our best, last defense against anti-choice lawmakers who are seeking to assert power over women’s bodies and take away our right to choose. 

All she ever wanted was to live in a world where her daughters kill their daughters without those pesky moralists getting in the way.  They say they don't actually worship Satan, but they're sure doing damnedest to make sure that he gets his child sacrifices.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Pedo Joe are thankfully a part of the faction that has already lost. 

When truth lacks an absolute source

It is difficult to grasp how far away from Truth someone must be to to come up with such ridiculous conjecture.  

We no longer hold these truths to be self-evident:

—A U.S. presidential election will be held every four years in November.

—The armed forces will not be involved in those elections.

—Nor in domestic protests.

—Medicine will be approved when science says it’s safe and effective, not because a politician wants it approved before Election Day.

—The United States is an example to the world in managing a peaceful transfer of power.

—You’ll get your checks, bills, letters, junk mail — and ballots — on time in your mailbox. Because: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

That unofficial post office creed is carved in granite. The other verities of American democracy and public service might as well be. But that doesn’t make them eternal.

Later, the author goes on to say "It's a country...where common purpose is sidelined in tribal argument between the masked and unmasked."  Tribal lines always take precedence over 'common purpose'.  But even if it were true that we did have common purpose, it still takes a willful ignorance to believe such common purpose is a better glue than tribe. 

Since when is "truth" supplied by the post office?  To hold any of these as "truth" is a gross misuse of the word truth, in historical American language and in Western Christian tradition.  I think that even willful ignorance is probably too much credit, however.  It is probably safe to say it's a blind devotion to the father of lies.