Glad to hear you stating things as you did, I largely agree with you.

The trick playing out in Canada now is that because we've expanded the definition of protected classes more quickly than the US, the protected classes rights are interfering more and more.

I do not believe that religion should be a protected class in the same way as race, gender or ethnicity. Similarly sexual orientation and gender identity shouldn't be either. Race, Gender and ethnicity are all assigned at birth and can largely be determined by blood test and demonstrated to be something entirely outside an individuals control, choice and behaviour.

Religion is the most easily demonstrated as deserving a different status of protection than the others in that most religions ALL hold the others as heretical. Declaring other faiths immoral is necessary to religious freedom and I take as the very positive basis of America's freedom of religion notion being a wonderful agreement between Catholics and Protestants to agree to disagree over war.

More controversially, I would also class your sexual preferences and identity in with religion as a different degree of protected class. There is an element of behaviour and choice here that can not be determined at birth with any manner of blood test or parental bloodline.

More simply, the right to discriminate should not exist for immutable things people are born to and remain beyond their choice or control, while the right to discriminate based upon behaviours is entirely necessary and important. If you want to believe Scientology can help you heal broken limbs and transcend the world your free to it, but I'm gonna treat you differently than a sane person. To similarly treat someone different based upon race or gender though is unacceptable.

What was important in this video was seeing someone doing some hard thinking, and making a decision that goes against a big part of his identity because he decided it was the right thing to do.

That's such a hard thing for a person to do, and it happens really rarely. I just watched someone change themselves for the better, and the first comment is a dipshit mocking him.

Um....
Pantheism-a doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.
Pantheism-the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god.

I do not grok her words. "Thou art god" always seemed to cover Pantheism nicely in my eyes.

American Christianity is extreme because it's a business. Is it any surprise that the US excels at selling the "Christianity" product? Lifestyle marketing is our specialty and religion provides the ultimate product for building Brand Identity.

Apple
Anthropologie
Urban Outfitters
Focus on the Family
Saddleback Church

Christianity in the US sells an identity to its followers. When done right, it's a carefully tuned brand that collects profits in both money and power.

In the finest tradition of religion.

*ban Self link. Identical yt account name.

Funny you should ask.....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/16/n-y-judge-could-rule-soon-next-month-trump-request-dismiss-sex-assault-lawsuit/768082001/

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/17/16483946/summer-zervos-donald-trump-defamation-lawsuit-subpoena

But this Trump [abuse] dates [back] decades - [and] what makes this truly bad is that beauty pageant, family, and business inside[r]s all knew about this and kept quiet. What's even worse is he didn't keep quiet, and instead bragged for decades about abusing his position to abuse women, including repeatedly and intentionally barging in on naked under age girls to ogle them, and instead of being shunned he is now president.

Typical PC culture reducing the issue to identity politics. Is it ever valid for a norm to criticize a furry, even when he's throwing his rainbow corn all over?

i think you guys are missing the point of this video.this video was not produced for YOU.

this is a dog whistle video for those who identify as "right" leaning politically,and may be on the fence in regards to the alt-right.they may adhere to more conservative and traditional values but find the alt-right a tad to extreme,a tad too racist and neo-fascist.

and they most likely already find "leftists" and "liberals" offensive to their political sensibilities.

and here we have a video showing "lefties" perpetrating violence on innocent,rightwing by-standers..you know..their peeps.

so you watch with indignation and disbelief,while the rightwingers watches in horror and fear.this video is meant to do just that:instill fear and prompt a person to action and to view this action as righteous self-defense.

this is identity politics,pure and simple.

and now we have TWO extremists groups growing,and BOTH are convinced of their righteous convictions that THEY have a RIGHT..no..a DUTY..to perpetrate violence in the name of their ideology.

well,it is not EVERYBODY..

yeah..no shit sherlock.we get that.
not everyone is a neo-fascist,racist,super white nationalist.

nor are they all communists and black bloc anarchists.

but it IS those two groups who have adopted extremist ideologies that in their little pea brains have given them the moral authority to fuck some people up.

and THIS fucking video is a goddamn recruitment video for the neo-fascists!

communists and black bloc anarchists on my left..
racist neo fascists on my right..
here i am...
stuck in the middle...

*related=https://videosift.com/video/ANTIFA-is-a-major-gift-to-the-right

@ChaosEngine

i am trying to unpack your comment.

so you AGREE that attacking people you disagree with ideologically is wrong,but only if they are not self-identified nazis?

because 90 years ago these guys kinda cornered the market in nazism? and well..we don't wanna see a repeat of THAT now do we? so let's punch them in the face....

and that somehow punching them in the face will somehow magically halt any further encroachment of those dirty nazis!!!!

because it was so effective in the 1930's?

ok..how about this...

how about we daydream about cockpunching these knuckleheads,because it brings a smile to our faces but NOT actually punch them?

instead...we allow these cunts..who came to this gig LOOKING for a fight..to bluster and foam at the mouth.to spew their vile and vulgar message of racism dressed up as nationalistic pride,so EVERYONE can see.

and i bet you dollars to donuts one of them knuckledragging retards,who came all gussied up for a rumble...is gonna make a mistake...that inbreeder is gonna just HAVE to use his home made mace,or his shiny new gopher poker on someone...

probably one of dem darn "libtards".

and in this age of cell phone vigilantism,this is gonna get caught on video,posted to youtube and KABOOM!

white nationalist racist nazi party is forced back underground.

because you CANNOT fight fascism with a different flavor of fascism.

fascism is fascism yo,just because one flavor may taste better to your buds don't change that very simple truth.

the problem in this setting is you have TWO groups who are addicted to identity politics,and BOTH are convinced of their own righteousness,and BOTH groups suffer from a horrid case of groupthink.

and this ideological stand has them both certain of their righteousness,and this gives them a moral certitude that violence is an acceptable answer.

because they are the righteous.

sound familiar?

you mentioned 100 years ago,
i will match your 100 years and counter with the previous 5,000.

ideology homie..
the cancer of the deluded.
just ask any fundamentalist christian,or muslim,or jew.....

they will be perfectly happy to tell you how RIGHT they are,and how WRONG you are.

and this shit?
^ this psycho shit?
this is just a puss pocket,erupting from the internal corruption feeding on my countries soul.

economic collapse ain't gonna bring my country down.
nope..
it is gonna be the polarized politics that finally takes this country out.

i hate this..i seriously hate this...

It's easy to agree with you, because your not wrong.

I would add the caution though that oversimplifying things risks underestimating this threat to us all. This level of hatred, division, anger and violence doesn't cease to exist if we could go back and make Clinton president. It might move it down a notch, but just as good of odds it would have set it off sooner and stronger.

The threat from identity politics, nationalism and hatred is much worse than just Trumps failures as a president. The divide between people has been growing for long before even Obama was in office. It used to be that a push from the extreme left or extreme right was met by a push to more centrist ideas. Lately though the political parties and media have started taking the opposite approach and it's destroying our society.

The Republicans pushed in the direction of the extreme right with the tea party. The left push back though wasn't to woo moderate right-leaning folks, but instead pushed out to the extreme left with SJW movements like BLM. The right then pushed back again not wooing the moderate left, but doubling down the tea partiers. Then the pinnacle of this insanity was Hillary Clinton's campaign arrogantly believing she could win without wooing the moderates because who in their right minds would follow the extreme right leanings that Trump represented?

The end result has become not only less choice for all us moderates on election dates. The sinister part is it has bled off the number of moderates and made them more extreme.

The Nazi's used the brutal reparations against Germany to rise to power. The Neo-Nazi's and nationalists in america are able to similarly use the SJW policies of the left, even affirmative action, to similarly expand their base. A former coal mining town filled with young, unemployed white people that start feeling like affirmative action is making them second pick for what few jobs remain is BAD.

The situation is MUCH worse than anybody is giving credit to. The problem isn't this crowd of neo-nazis that we can outnumber, push into a corner and beat up or throw behind bars. The real threat is the tipping point were a dangerously meaningful number of folks decide joining the likes of them is in their own self interest. It ALREADY went as far as that number voting Trump. The fact the democratic party and members still don't see this threat and still don't realise they need to stop chasing this base of people away and start trying to reach out and appeal to them is baffling, and terrifying.

Understatement on requesting the officer's ID not being an offence...

Without officer's being required to present proof of identity, what's stopping this 'officer' from being a white KKK nut that decided to keep a uniform around to harass kids.

Not cool leaving his full name and dob unedited. I hope he doesn't have identity theft problems.
Cop needs training, and an official reprimand on his permanent record. Not having ID is not an arrestable offence, neither is requesting the officer's ID.

@harlequinn

Okay, now you're devolving into personal attacks and completely baseless assumptions (ironically something you accused me of earlier). So, I'm just going to wish you the best and move on.

For what it's worth, I don't blame you getting defensive. I understand challenges to your beliefs can be disorienting, especially when they are so deeply held as part of your identity like religious ones are. You seem to think I'm being sarcastic or something, but in all honesty: good luck to you.

The Bible can't even figure out what the Ten Commandments are.

I bet you can't find a single Christian walking down the street who can quote the ACTUAL Ten Commandments. There were two lists of "shall nots" and while it says they're identical, they clearly are not. The first, Moses destroyed, and the second is the only list referred to as "Commandments".

The Bible is wildly inconsistent, as anyone who actually read the stupid thing would know.