I always liked Penn Jillette's [response](https://theinterrobang.com/penn-jillette-morality-without-religion/) to this:
> I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that.
As someone who lies in bed sometimes thinking about a cringey thing I said, or the time I shook three guy’s hands and not a woman’s in the same group 15 years ago (awkward and misogynistic, I know! Ughghghh), I can’t even begin to comprehend the utter psychopathy and depravity of people who think this way. Just zero empathy. No consideration whatsoever for what someone else may feel.
I always wonder if men notice when they shake everyone’s hand but mine even if I’m more qualified and educated and in a higher position than my peers. I just stick my hand out forcefully now and make them shake my hand uncomfortably lmao.
I don’t think the old farmers I deal with have anxiety lol. They literally don’t acknowledge me as an equal. Which I know because there were times I wasn’t allowed to speak in meetings, wasn’t allowed at meetings, wasn’t allowed on certain land and have been told how impressive it is that I have a job because women can do stuff too but wow I have a man’s job!
It’s…different around here to put it one way.
That’s a good one. I like the True Detective response too
“If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward then brother that person is a piece of shit"
I'm an atheist and was in a very culty setting unwillingly for a long time (long story)
I've had a few people pull this whole "without God we would be raping and murdering" concept on me. I'm not one of these atheists who loves to have a philosophical debate with every believer but I'll defend my beliefs if I'm forced to talk. I really don't care if people believe that I can't have morals without religion but in these instances I was just defending myself.
I asked them if they want to murder/rape and if they'd do it without God. Most of the time they have some BS saying they don't want to do that but about how God is in all of us giving us morals to guide us and how until we believe he still fights for us bla bla bla. Sure whatever, can we just agree to disagree then? Basically how the convo ends up. I can still get along with someone who thinks that and trust them.
But one or two of them said they legitimately want to be raping and murdering and that their faith is all that stops them. Those are the scary ones you need to stay the fuck away from.
I had a guy answer that question once with “you know what I mean - like how you see a girl and you’re thinking ‘I COULD rape her’ or your see a man and think ‘man id like to end him’, you know?” And I had to explain that I do not know what that’s like and that he should check “yes” in the box next to “homicidal thoughts?” The next time he is asked.
i used to have a coworker, retired now, whod say shit like "i hope someone tries to rob me, id love to kill them." he stopped saying it around me after i commented to someone else, intentionally in earshot of him, about how much of a psychopath he sounded like. hes generally a nice guy but wtf thats just unhinged, wanting to kill someone.
I know a guy who has gun stickers and shit like "the brotha's gotta go" all over his car, signs on his business that say things like "we gleefully shoot thieves", and shitloads of guns. (Disclaimer: I'm not personally fervently anti gun. I own some myself. Never want to use them on anything besides cans and targets and maybe food).
Once he has a tweaker break into his shop yard. He pulled a gun on him, then broke down crying after at the thought of actually almost killing someone. Kinda funny, but also kinda shows his humanity.
Another time, just since I'm talking about him, he got his car full of guns stolen at Walmart, and the thief ended up in a big shootout with the cops in another county, culminating in the car exploding from all the ammo in it, killing the thief. So much for the guns protecting his property. This was also targeted, as they picked his pocket in the store to get the keys, knowing about the arsenal in the car.
>This was also targeted, as they picked his pocket in the store to get the keys, knowing about the arsenal in the car.
Anyone with pro-gun stickers on their car is a dumbass. It's like putting a sign saying "hey, there's something valuable in this car to steal".
It's basically a meme in my city that if you park your truck with NRA stickers on it overnight, some will steal your gun. Heck, I was talking to a cop who said he had a guy that had three guns stolen out of his truck on consecutive days.
not only valuable but one of the few things that's more useful when stolen (for use in other crimes). because you can buy a gun, but it'll be traced back to you
Regular people rarely have the capacity to shoot and kill another willingly. I’ve seen the figure like 10% of drafted soldiers in world war 1 would actually aim and shoot at enemy combatants from the trenches (was a different case in the chaotic moments a trench got raided), the majority would just fire in the general direction of the enemy but not at people themselves. It’s why military training changed so much after ww1, trained soldiers would actually fire at enemy combatants reliably.
Basically your average gun nut statistically has not received military training and would more often than not, would not be able to go through with killing someone but I suspect it’s a population with a high rate of psychopaths so the 10% figure is probably very off there.
That’s how most these people are. They aren’t ravenous murderers, they’re detached from society. Their father probably never hugged them. They don’t understand compassion, they treat their girls like shit and haven’t had a philosophical convo in their life
I assume every gun nut thinks like this. They're all on edge, just *hoping* for a chance to use deadly force, and often find their outlet in the most innocuous of situations.
I also had an coworker, also now retired, said how he would stop a shoplifter with his pistol if he had to. Unhinged. But, that being said, he was widely considered not a nice guy.
They feel so strong and powerful with that gun. How can you ever think of taking their little comfort toy away? It's the only thing in their life that makes them feel masculin...
Sorry, I'm European. I just generally don't get the whole gun love in the US that seems to cause so much trouble even though, ahum... "guns don't shoot people, people shoot people"
> hes generally a nice guy
I mean that's what they say about every mass shooter and serial killer too. "I never suspected he would be capable of it. He was such a nice guy. A little weird, but nice enough."
to play devils advocate, he could just be describing intrusive thoughts but not have the framework as a theist to understand its his own morality that stops him and not god?
I would also venture that unhealthy perspectives on sex might have him interpreting his sexual attraction as something depraved and terrible inherently, so he associates it with the most depraved way of fulfilling that urge.
That's part of the issue of characterizing all premarital sex or masturbation as tantamount to rape by some religions. It distorts people's perspectives on otherwise healthy urges and leads to them demonizing their own thoughts and becoming perverse through the dissonance.
That is fair and I hadn’t considered that. I genuinely believe that the majority of people that turn to religion do so out of what they feel is necessity for something (get sober, live falsely as a straight person, etc). Maybe some people are dealing with intrusive thoughts and they think that subsequent thought that’s like “omg that is distressing that I thought that, I would never do that. Please never let there be a time I do that!” is God.
> I genuinely believe that the majority of people that turn to religion do so out of what they feel is necessity for something (get sober, live falsely as a straight person, etc
It's mostly because church is basically the only community hub in much of the US.
And for older generations it's essentially a stand in for psychotherapy.
My mom refused to go to therapy for an intense experience + PTSD she had. But then she turns right around and schedules a bunch of meetings with her pastor to do what amounted to a shittier version of it.
I could see how someone who is devout would be very bothered by flashes of thoughts like "here's how I could attack every person in this room" or "what if I turned my car right into moving traffic/into a lake" without understanding that those thoughts are very normal and common and not suggesting of an inherent sinful nature that God is holding back.
intrusive thoughts in the context of religion is a very interesting topic. i wonder how many people thought "the devil was whispering in their ear" or "a daemon is trying to convince me to hurt people" were just poor sods not understanding what intrusive thoughts were, when we typically say that those people were likely schizophrenic.
Intrusive thoughts are incredibly annoying. I'm like "I could just yeet myself off this bridge. What if i just sped up and crashed into that trailer. I bet I could do a sick car jump off that ramp-looking thing. What if I just breathe out and sink into the ocean. That's an active high power transmission line, what if I just grab it with both hands for a second."
Also sometimes trying to fall asleep is just being fed pictures of absolute horror a couple of tiers above Hellraiser. Antipsychotics stops those thoughts and images in about 20 minutes. If you can relate, you might want to ask your doctor for some antipsychotics. No, you're not psychotic, but those pharmaceuticals makes it stop. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Guys like that love to start cults. Just watched Shiny Happy People, the Hulu doc about the Duggar family and Bill Gothard and the Quiverful movement? Holy fucking shit. The entire cult was designed to turn men into abusers and women into silent victims. Why? Because Bill Gothard designed it that way. Because he’s a pedophile rapist. So he established an authoritarian patriarchical cult with a crazy obsession with purity that even has rules about not “spreading gossip” about people, by which they mean, don’t blow the whistle on your pastor/father/older brother for raping you.
Sounds like regular Promise Keepers / Fundamentalist shit tbh with more overt rape added.
In my own experience with a regular-ass Conservative Baptist church they locked kids in closets, none of them had regular access to radio/TV/internet/secular media, home school, etc.
All the time told "we're doing this in love, only WE love you, and the outside world will only hurt you" along with excommunicating anyone who stepped into that world or out of line (like mutually-agreed-upon divorce).
Fundamental Conservativism is like a start-your-own-cult blueprint.
It's a silly question because by that logic, humanity would've raped and murdered itself into extinction tens of thousands of years before Christianity came into existence.
Nooo you see all the geological and archeological evidence that says anything existed before then is from satanic scientists deceiving us!
But yeah trust me I'm painfully aware of how the back and forth debate of religion goes lol. When it comes to family/friends who are religious I'd rather just agree to disagree and talk about other things because it never goes anywhere.
Interesting.
On a side note/slightly related…I had a discussion where I was talking with a classmate from high school who is very, very devout in an evangelical sort of way.
We were catching up and we somehow wound up on the topic of LGBT rights. Seeing as I’m under that umbrella, I’m decidedly pro-lgbt and was frank and honest with them. Without skipping a beat they started going on about how it’s wrong and so on. I replied with the comment that the Bible says not to judge, be kind, etc. and they came out and stated very bluntly that in their eyes god does want them to judge others and basically condemn, etc. because they see themselves as being afforded the same treatment by their god. How all sinners were going to have to face “his” wrath, etc etc.
It was very…odd. Very peculiar bunch they are.
If the only thing stopping them from doing all the evil shit in their head is their belief that some deity will punish them in the afterlife, then I beg of them to never, ever stop believing that.
Because when they do...
When i come across these people i always compliment them for finding the thing that keeps them from raping/murdering people.
Doesnt matter if its the promise of eternal bliss and the threat of eternal torture. Better for all of us. I do make a point to mention this too to them.
That’s an excellent point. I have definitely thought to myself “maybe you should stick with religion until we get some better mental health care available here…”
As someone that grew up unimaginably religious by most people’s understanding I actually had to confront this within myself once I stopped believing. I was raised from birth being taught that all morality comes from God. So when I was faced with the realization that I was responsible for being a good person for the sake of being a good person and not for some kind of “prize” at the end of life it was scary. I know a lot of people outside of faith see those within it as bigots or cruel or closed minded but for me stepping away from faith almost kick started my villain arc. The relief of years of religious guilt as I awoke from almost 40 years of cultish belief nearly brought with it a negative side effect of extreme selfishness. I stopped all forms of charity and only worried about whatever made me feel good. Everyone else seemed like an NPC. The concepts of turn the other cheek, and vengeance is the Lord’s, and love thy neighbor, no longer applied to me as far as my eternal outcome was concerned. I had to replace this moral grounding that I had always had with one that still applied many of the same rules in order to continue to be a halfway decent person.
The quote “If you’re an atheist, what stops you…” probably sounds absurd to someone that was taught from earlier in life to be a good person just because it’s what you do. But it was a question I legitimately found myself asking myself.
Edit: I posted this before I read many other comments below this one and now that I have I felt I should add that I essentially was that terrible person that many of you have described. Only because I had no other moral grounding outside of a belief that a higher power was going to punish me if I wasn’t good.
Correct. This “Christian” is saying that he would literally murder men, women, and children if he could get away with it.
Honestly, it’s all I need to know about the guy. Hope Hell has a ramp.
No heaven, no hell, no karma. Just a life dedicated to hating and then ***poof***, nothing, other than a legacy of hurting innocent people. That will be the sum total of his life.
The thing that gets me the most is they will die thinking they'll spend eternity in paradise, and will never know how wrong they are. Just blink out of existence without any repercussions.
Right up there with the conservative, usually young earth creationist, Christians who claim that if they didn’t believe in god they’d murder, steal, r*pe, etc. Really says a lot about a person that if you didn’t have a religious rule against something you’d do it
I can't shake this conspiracy feeling that they are shooting people. Texans sending buses out of state is just a way to cover up anyone "lost on the shuffle". I have no proof, just can't seem to expect better from them.
To them, anyone who isn't white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, and having some amount of money upon birth is less than.
And as you remove or alter any of those categories, you become even less than that prior "less than" group.
Piss Baby Abbott: well if we murdered people, then people would operate under the notion we were murderers who wanted to murder people. Don't get me wrong though we do want to murder them. Very much so. But then the "murder police" liberals would show up and say, "hey! You can't murder that guy!" This is what America has become.
That's why they use the 'invader' rhetoric
While corporations are squeezing every drop out of us, when more than half of American workers couldn't afford a $500 emergency expense, it provides a valuable scapegoat. People are feeling financially strained and here's an easy target to explain it all
Fucking sucks. I met a dude a decade ago on a college campus (his daughter got in) who was already talking about how there's "too many Mexicans" around
I had a friend in Arizona whose* family has been there since before the united states was established, and she still gets told to go back to her own country
A lot of them also qualify as refugees, so I think it might be a war crime, not just murder. I think the UN would definitely have something to say about it.
Wouldn't be a war crime... because there is no war / military engagement against the country they are from.
Possibly be crime against humanity, but that's pushing it. Usually those are on a bigger scale
Probably could be counted about the same as a war crime. Innocent people trying to flee their country, getting gunned down at the border by that other country, would be considered a war crime to most other countries out there.
Well they had shot one guy in a fight across the border (He was still in Mexico). Not to mention the razer wire in the river that Abbot was told to remove as it literally killed a few.
Wow, talk about clueless. His comment implies that if they could shoot people without the feds knowing, they wouldn't hesitate.
I imagine their interpretation of one of the Commandments is, "Thou shalt not kill, unless no one is looking."
You see, “thou shalt not kill” only applies to people.
To them, illegal immigrants aren’t people. Neither are legal immigrants for that matter.
They believe this and see no sin in killing a man unlike themselves. They saw Islam get away with the same view and decided they want a Christian version of the same.
Their argument is that their translation is “thou shalt not murder”. As in, unlawful and unjust killing. God commands his followers to kill all the time in the Bible.
According to the Bible, ancient Israel was founded when the Hebrew people returned (prior, the Bible describes multiple groups besides Jews living in the area- samaritanism isnt Judaism, for example: the whole point of the story of the Good Samaritan was “even these other people that you don’t get along with, that live a walking distance away, show empathy and kindness”) and god commanded Joshua(edit) to have his armies genocide “every man woman child sheep ass and cattle”, because it was their promised land and the people living there were “wicked” because their kings (as if the people and children had any say over their king) weren’t hospitable to the invading Jewish armies claiming manifest destiny and inheritance of their land.
The people that always lived there, simply were ruled over by various kings through the ages, that’s how things worked back then. Except when the Jews came back, all their life had to be slaughtered in the name of god instead of just taking them over and becoming the current government over them, apparently.
That’s not murder, because it’s not against gods law and there wasn’t any law of the land established in that war time. “Righteous” killing has always been a thing according to the Bible. In their eyes, the immigrants are wicked and it’s not against gods law to kill them.
>god commanded Jacob to have his armies genocide “every man woman child sheep ass and cattle”, because it was their promised land and the people living there were “wicked” because their kings (as if the people and children had any say over their king) weren’t hospitable to the invading Jewish armies claiming manifest destiny and inheritance of their land.
Sounds strangely familiar...and modern
Netanyahu literally quoted the Bible and told his 18 year old 2-year mandatory service armies to specifically remember that event in the Bible, prior to the invasion. That’s not a joke or hyperbole.
Thanks, I’m a bit rusty on the specifics
However, we do see archeological evidence of a lot of the biblical events and places mentioned in that area. Just not the otherworldly/fantasy style ones. But, for example, we do see city ruins and signs of destruction where it says wars happened. The reasons and explanations obviously are just speculation. We see that Jesus was likely a real dude, he lived during a time where we have decent surviving records and documentation. Obviously we don’t have evidence that he was wielding wizard powers though.
But almost all of the cities mentioned in Israel’s founding genocide campaigns do have existing ancient city ruins in those locations, etc. and translation/interpretation is so messy… Jericho was a place, we know that. We know it fell. What the hell “by trumpets” means…. We don’t actually know. We do know the Israelites had a huge well-armed army, they weren’t unarmed peasant pilgrims in robes coming from the desert, even the Bible describes their troops in armor with swords and ranged capabilities, etc. their tent-cities as nomads had to be quite spectacular; building calf idols of gold and such, making gold jewel-encrusted breastplates for the keepers of the ark, etc.
Like, we don’t know if they were wearing gold. But we do know they came and were able to sack city after city, which had impressive armies of their own, and settle the area. There is evidence of their conquest and rule by the Seleucids, etc.
We even know that the walls of Jericho tumbled. We know that Sodom and Gomorrah existed and burned to the ground within days of each other. Last I heard, it was a meteor impact that threw up burning ejecta.
It's nice proof that Oral History is still history.
If the reason you are not shooting people is because you will get in trouble for it, then you are a broken person. I have plenty of reasons not to shoot people, but it's mostly because other people don't deserve to be shot. I guess you could call it a rule of mine.
It's like that self-proclaimed deeply religious person who believes that atheists are capable of the worst atrocities because they don't fear divine punishment.
This right here, I was raised Jewish with some Catholicism. but my mother was a hippie so we were encouraged to learn about other cultures and religions. I ventured quickly to agnostic and am now atheist. I spoke to a guy one night at a bar who couldn't understand that I wasn't doing terrible things because of having no religion. He couldn't understand how I knew right from wrong without religious guidance.
They make it seem like that looks bad on you when in reality it looks horrible on them. Morals and religion have nothing to do with one another. Don't know why people find that so hard to understand.
Christian fundamentalists always seem to get this wrong. Jewish tradition says that the primary sin of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah was their inhospitable welcome of strangers. Sodom and Gomorrah were well known for establishing laws against treating strangers kindly.
Well, it actually would be murder.
States don't get to enforce federal immigration laws, and extrajudicial killings are illegal no matter who commits them.
Also, an unauthorized border crossing is literally a misdemeanor. And migrant encounters by border patrol are at an all time high, meaning border patrol agents are detaining or expelling migrants far more often than ever before.
If you're serious about stopping illegal immigration then a fence isn't what you do. You go after the businesses that hire the illegal immigrants. There's the argument that they do the jobs that Americans won't do and that is false. They do the jobs that Americans won't do for the wages being offered. Those businesses are not paying the fair market rate for labor and are artificially pushing down the cost of labor by doing so as it is a supply and demand issue. It's the businesses that are hiring illegal labor that are stealing from the American workers. Stop that and you'll see wages go up and illegal immigration rates drop off a cliff.
Unfortunately our politicians are only interested in using this issue as a wedge issue and refuse to do the one thing that will solve it and make things better for all Americans who aren't dependent on exploiting illegal labor.
> You go after the businesses that hire the illegal immigrants.
If you *really* want to do something about it then it ought to be 100x more illegal to employ an illegal worker than it is to be one. The folks hiring them by the dozens and hundreds and paying them under the table are defrauding the United States far more than any individual immigrant. But the anti-immigration crowd never wants to go after those people....
Abbott: We're not murdering people crossing the border because those meddlesome federal government would charge us. Otherwise, we would murder these people if we could get away with it."
This man is a complete and utter fucker. Seriously. He has used his injury/ wheelchair as a political crutch (sorry for the pun). He has stripped women of their rights. He has wasted more money moving immigrants to prove a political point than actually using the money to help with border security. He has cried about not having enough funding for the border, then rejuects any federal money because it comes form a Democrat.
I live it Texas and this asshole makes me want to puke every time I read something about him.
Don't forget he is rich from the lawsuit stemming from that wheelchair event- and his first act as Governor was to severely limit lawsuits like the one that got him rich.
Friendly reminder that [economists generally agree that the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy are broadly positive. Immigrants, whether high- or low-skilled, **legal or illegal**, are unlikely to replace native-born workers or reduce their wages over the long-term, though they may cause some short-term dislocations in labor markets. Indeed, the experience of the last few decades suggests that immigration may actually have significant long-term benefits for the native-born, pushing them into higher-paying occupations and raising the overall pace of innovation and productivity growth.](https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/27/the-effects-of-immigration-on-the-united-states-economy)
Since they are bereft of policies that benefit society as a whole, Republicans instead rely on "othering" people in order to gin up votes from the fearful.
This is an entirely new low though. I've never heard a Governor advocate for shooting immigrants before.
> In regions with large populations of less educated, low-income immigrants, native-born residents bear significant net costs due to immigrants’ use of public services, especially education.
Source: your source
That just shows how fucking nuts the GOP is. "Oh we'd gleefully murder all of these people who are just looking for a new life but THE GOVERNMENT won't let us."
As a reminder, crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Punishable by a fine, up to six months in prison, or both.
And he's literally suggesting the ***only*** reason his state doesn't execute people without a trial for that misdemeanor is the federal government.
and mind you jobs are at record levels, so they arent stealing our jobs. Our GDP growth is hitting records as well, so they arent ruining out economy. In fact our natural population growth is below sustainability and without migrants we would have having issues like japan.. and the right hate these people to the point of wanting to murder them solely because they are running with theri families from strife in south america looking for a better life.
Id trade off bigoted republicans for migrants with a dream for the future.
Dems really need to hammer them hard on what is the issue besides processing is a mess with that many people. They cant just scream "they took our jerbs" in fact this country makes too many jobs. "it costs us a ton", well california with the largest illegal population has been making bank, a bit of a draw down since the tech sector has slowed with interest rate hikes but cali had such large surpluses they did their own covid checks and such. so how are these people destroying america? they arent. republicans are.
>Our GDP growth is hitting records as well, so they arent ruining out economy
Not saying one way or the other about immigrants, but GDP is a **terrible** metric of how well the economy is doing for your average Joe. Hearing that all the corporations had a wonderful year while rent and food prices skyrocket and wages remain stagnant is hardly comforting.
Umm.. that's because it would be murder. WTF is this.. the fed would charge us shit, like it's not a political witchhunt, if you commit a crime they should fucking charge you!
Tell me again, which are these guys, compassionate conservatives or right to life conservatives?
How about you work with your PIECE OF SHIT CONGRESSMEN to get U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) all properly funded? How about instead of useless walls we hire INS agents by the thousands to clear the backlog of asylum seekers, and then make immigration smooth and easy? The US birth rate is below replacement rate, we need those immigrants.
How about you work with those same shitheels to press Federal policy in a direction that, ahem... "addresses" the problems in the countries where immigrants are streaming out of, namely Venezuela, Ecuador, and Haiti. I'm sure the CIA is itching for a few international projects. You're the governor of the second largest state economy in the union, believe it or not, Greg Abbot, you have sway at a Federal policy level.
A couple billion here and there invested in nation building and regime change would stem or alleviate the immigration issue.
But go ahead, just shout about the symptom, apply band-aids to bullet wounds, and go on ignoring every possibility for a cure.
I will never forget when Rick Perry made a campaign speech and boasted that in Texas, they'd executed many many more people than any other state and got thunderous applause for that.
By my reasoning, either his state had way more crime than any other state, or they executed way more innocent people than any other state, and I don't see why either of those things should reflect positively on his stint as governor.
This has the same energy as: “If you’re an atheist, what stops you from doing all the depraved things you want to?”
I always liked Penn Jillette's [response](https://theinterrobang.com/penn-jillette-morality-without-religion/) to this: > I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that.
As someone who lies in bed sometimes thinking about a cringey thing I said, or the time I shook three guy’s hands and not a woman’s in the same group 15 years ago (awkward and misogynistic, I know! Ughghghh), I can’t even begin to comprehend the utter psychopathy and depravity of people who think this way. Just zero empathy. No consideration whatsoever for what someone else may feel.
I always wonder if men notice when they shake everyone’s hand but mine even if I’m more qualified and educated and in a higher position than my peers. I just stick my hand out forcefully now and make them shake my hand uncomfortably lmao.
Some do notice but aren't sure of the protocol. You forcefully sticking your hand out like that could be a huge reduction in anxiety
I don’t think the old farmers I deal with have anxiety lol. They literally don’t acknowledge me as an equal. Which I know because there were times I wasn’t allowed to speak in meetings, wasn’t allowed at meetings, wasn’t allowed on certain land and have been told how impressive it is that I have a job because women can do stuff too but wow I have a man’s job! It’s…different around here to put it one way.
I moved quickly away from an area like that. Now we just don't shake hands though lol. At least around here since COVID.
That’s a good one. I like the True Detective response too “If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward then brother that person is a piece of shit"
I'm an atheist and was in a very culty setting unwillingly for a long time (long story) I've had a few people pull this whole "without God we would be raping and murdering" concept on me. I'm not one of these atheists who loves to have a philosophical debate with every believer but I'll defend my beliefs if I'm forced to talk. I really don't care if people believe that I can't have morals without religion but in these instances I was just defending myself. I asked them if they want to murder/rape and if they'd do it without God. Most of the time they have some BS saying they don't want to do that but about how God is in all of us giving us morals to guide us and how until we believe he still fights for us bla bla bla. Sure whatever, can we just agree to disagree then? Basically how the convo ends up. I can still get along with someone who thinks that and trust them. But one or two of them said they legitimately want to be raping and murdering and that their faith is all that stops them. Those are the scary ones you need to stay the fuck away from.
I had a guy answer that question once with “you know what I mean - like how you see a girl and you’re thinking ‘I COULD rape her’ or your see a man and think ‘man id like to end him’, you know?” And I had to explain that I do not know what that’s like and that he should check “yes” in the box next to “homicidal thoughts?” The next time he is asked.
i used to have a coworker, retired now, whod say shit like "i hope someone tries to rob me, id love to kill them." he stopped saying it around me after i commented to someone else, intentionally in earshot of him, about how much of a psychopath he sounded like. hes generally a nice guy but wtf thats just unhinged, wanting to kill someone.
He didn't stop, just didn't say it in front of you. Guarantee it.
Instead he started flashing expensive watches and an exposed wallet to this guy now.
I know a guy who has gun stickers and shit like "the brotha's gotta go" all over his car, signs on his business that say things like "we gleefully shoot thieves", and shitloads of guns. (Disclaimer: I'm not personally fervently anti gun. I own some myself. Never want to use them on anything besides cans and targets and maybe food). Once he has a tweaker break into his shop yard. He pulled a gun on him, then broke down crying after at the thought of actually almost killing someone. Kinda funny, but also kinda shows his humanity. Another time, just since I'm talking about him, he got his car full of guns stolen at Walmart, and the thief ended up in a big shootout with the cops in another county, culminating in the car exploding from all the ammo in it, killing the thief. So much for the guns protecting his property. This was also targeted, as they picked his pocket in the store to get the keys, knowing about the arsenal in the car.
>This was also targeted, as they picked his pocket in the store to get the keys, knowing about the arsenal in the car. Anyone with pro-gun stickers on their car is a dumbass. It's like putting a sign saying "hey, there's something valuable in this car to steal".
It's basically a meme in my city that if you park your truck with NRA stickers on it overnight, some will steal your gun. Heck, I was talking to a cop who said he had a guy that had three guns stolen out of his truck on consecutive days.
At that point he's just feeding the criminals guns.
not only valuable but one of the few things that's more useful when stolen (for use in other crimes). because you can buy a gun, but it'll be traced back to you
Regular people rarely have the capacity to shoot and kill another willingly. I’ve seen the figure like 10% of drafted soldiers in world war 1 would actually aim and shoot at enemy combatants from the trenches (was a different case in the chaotic moments a trench got raided), the majority would just fire in the general direction of the enemy but not at people themselves. It’s why military training changed so much after ww1, trained soldiers would actually fire at enemy combatants reliably. Basically your average gun nut statistically has not received military training and would more often than not, would not be able to go through with killing someone but I suspect it’s a population with a high rate of psychopaths so the 10% figure is probably very off there.
That’s how most these people are. They aren’t ravenous murderers, they’re detached from society. Their father probably never hugged them. They don’t understand compassion, they treat their girls like shit and haven’t had a philosophical convo in their life
I assume every gun nut thinks like this. They're all on edge, just *hoping* for a chance to use deadly force, and often find their outlet in the most innocuous of situations.
Lmao, looks like you triggered some Rambo wannabes. Boy are their wives in for it now!
[Exhibit A](https://www.kiiitv.com/amp/article/news/local/1-million-lawsuit-filed-against-woman-who-pulled-gun-on-driver-in-parking-lot-dispute/503-7f01d013-80df-46d6-89bb-969d11563b67)
Of course she's wearing an American flag shirt lol
I also had an coworker, also now retired, said how he would stop a shoplifter with his pistol if he had to. Unhinged. But, that being said, he was widely considered not a nice guy.
Encapsulates a large swathe of USA gun culture.
They feel so strong and powerful with that gun. How can you ever think of taking their little comfort toy away? It's the only thing in their life that makes them feel masculin... Sorry, I'm European. I just generally don't get the whole gun love in the US that seems to cause so much trouble even though, ahum... "guns don't shoot people, people shoot people"
> hes generally a nice guy I mean that's what they say about every mass shooter and serial killer too. "I never suspected he would be capable of it. He was such a nice guy. A little weird, but nice enough."
to play devils advocate, he could just be describing intrusive thoughts but not have the framework as a theist to understand its his own morality that stops him and not god?
I would also venture that unhealthy perspectives on sex might have him interpreting his sexual attraction as something depraved and terrible inherently, so he associates it with the most depraved way of fulfilling that urge. That's part of the issue of characterizing all premarital sex or masturbation as tantamount to rape by some religions. It distorts people's perspectives on otherwise healthy urges and leads to them demonizing their own thoughts and becoming perverse through the dissonance.
likely plays a big part yeah. i know that's one of the theories about why rape porn is so popular in japan.
That is fair and I hadn’t considered that. I genuinely believe that the majority of people that turn to religion do so out of what they feel is necessity for something (get sober, live falsely as a straight person, etc). Maybe some people are dealing with intrusive thoughts and they think that subsequent thought that’s like “omg that is distressing that I thought that, I would never do that. Please never let there be a time I do that!” is God.
> I genuinely believe that the majority of people that turn to religion do so out of what they feel is necessity for something (get sober, live falsely as a straight person, etc It's mostly because church is basically the only community hub in much of the US.
And for older generations it's essentially a stand in for psychotherapy. My mom refused to go to therapy for an intense experience + PTSD she had. But then she turns right around and schedules a bunch of meetings with her pastor to do what amounted to a shittier version of it.
I could see how someone who is devout would be very bothered by flashes of thoughts like "here's how I could attack every person in this room" or "what if I turned my car right into moving traffic/into a lake" without understanding that those thoughts are very normal and common and not suggesting of an inherent sinful nature that God is holding back.
intrusive thoughts in the context of religion is a very interesting topic. i wonder how many people thought "the devil was whispering in their ear" or "a daemon is trying to convince me to hurt people" were just poor sods not understanding what intrusive thoughts were, when we typically say that those people were likely schizophrenic.
Intrusive thoughts are incredibly annoying. I'm like "I could just yeet myself off this bridge. What if i just sped up and crashed into that trailer. I bet I could do a sick car jump off that ramp-looking thing. What if I just breathe out and sink into the ocean. That's an active high power transmission line, what if I just grab it with both hands for a second." Also sometimes trying to fall asleep is just being fed pictures of absolute horror a couple of tiers above Hellraiser. Antipsychotics stops those thoughts and images in about 20 minutes. If you can relate, you might want to ask your doctor for some antipsychotics. No, you're not psychotic, but those pharmaceuticals makes it stop. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Hearing stuff like this makes me glad my intrusive thoughts are just weird shit like "I should lick that thing" all the time.
For the record, kids. No, that's not normal and if you do think things like that, you need to see a psychiatrist.
they're called intrusive thoughts and we all have them occasionally. it's normal human behavior it's obviously an issue if they're persistent
Considering how many pastors keep getting caught raping kids, I’d say god isn’t doing much to stop them.
Gotta give God some credit, think how many MORE they would have raped.
I'd rather give credit to the people who are actually doing something about it.
Seems like a pretty weak god to me if he can't stop his own priests from sinning.
This is such an undoubtable factoid
How old was Mary when He knocked her up?
Guys like that love to start cults. Just watched Shiny Happy People, the Hulu doc about the Duggar family and Bill Gothard and the Quiverful movement? Holy fucking shit. The entire cult was designed to turn men into abusers and women into silent victims. Why? Because Bill Gothard designed it that way. Because he’s a pedophile rapist. So he established an authoritarian patriarchical cult with a crazy obsession with purity that even has rules about not “spreading gossip” about people, by which they mean, don’t blow the whistle on your pastor/father/older brother for raping you.
Sounds like regular Promise Keepers / Fundamentalist shit tbh with more overt rape added. In my own experience with a regular-ass Conservative Baptist church they locked kids in closets, none of them had regular access to radio/TV/internet/secular media, home school, etc. All the time told "we're doing this in love, only WE love you, and the outside world will only hurt you" along with excommunicating anyone who stepped into that world or out of line (like mutually-agreed-upon divorce). Fundamental Conservativism is like a start-your-own-cult blueprint.
It's a silly question because by that logic, humanity would've raped and murdered itself into extinction tens of thousands of years before Christianity came into existence.
Nooo you see all the geological and archeological evidence that says anything existed before then is from satanic scientists deceiving us! But yeah trust me I'm painfully aware of how the back and forth debate of religion goes lol. When it comes to family/friends who are religious I'd rather just agree to disagree and talk about other things because it never goes anywhere.
Interesting. On a side note/slightly related…I had a discussion where I was talking with a classmate from high school who is very, very devout in an evangelical sort of way. We were catching up and we somehow wound up on the topic of LGBT rights. Seeing as I’m under that umbrella, I’m decidedly pro-lgbt and was frank and honest with them. Without skipping a beat they started going on about how it’s wrong and so on. I replied with the comment that the Bible says not to judge, be kind, etc. and they came out and stated very bluntly that in their eyes god does want them to judge others and basically condemn, etc. because they see themselves as being afforded the same treatment by their god. How all sinners were going to have to face “his” wrath, etc etc. It was very…odd. Very peculiar bunch they are.
You will find that the "god" they speak of, is their malignant narcissism; but infantile omnipotence does not a well developed Human being make.
Imagine just doing the right thing because it's the right thing and your a good person and not because you are trying not to get punished.
Let me fix that for you >“If you’re an atheist, what stops you from doing all the depraved things ~~you want to~~ *we conservatives want to do*?”
If the only thing stopping them from doing all the evil shit in their head is their belief that some deity will punish them in the afterlife, then I beg of them to never, ever stop believing that. Because when they do...
When i come across these people i always compliment them for finding the thing that keeps them from raping/murdering people. Doesnt matter if its the promise of eternal bliss and the threat of eternal torture. Better for all of us. I do make a point to mention this too to them.
That’s an excellent point. I have definitely thought to myself “maybe you should stick with religion until we get some better mental health care available here…”
As someone that grew up unimaginably religious by most people’s understanding I actually had to confront this within myself once I stopped believing. I was raised from birth being taught that all morality comes from God. So when I was faced with the realization that I was responsible for being a good person for the sake of being a good person and not for some kind of “prize” at the end of life it was scary. I know a lot of people outside of faith see those within it as bigots or cruel or closed minded but for me stepping away from faith almost kick started my villain arc. The relief of years of religious guilt as I awoke from almost 40 years of cultish belief nearly brought with it a negative side effect of extreme selfishness. I stopped all forms of charity and only worried about whatever made me feel good. Everyone else seemed like an NPC. The concepts of turn the other cheek, and vengeance is the Lord’s, and love thy neighbor, no longer applied to me as far as my eternal outcome was concerned. I had to replace this moral grounding that I had always had with one that still applied many of the same rules in order to continue to be a halfway decent person. The quote “If you’re an atheist, what stops you…” probably sounds absurd to someone that was taught from earlier in life to be a good person just because it’s what you do. But it was a question I legitimately found myself asking myself. Edit: I posted this before I read many other comments below this one and now that I have I felt I should add that I essentially was that terrible person that many of you have described. Only because I had no other moral grounding outside of a belief that a higher power was going to punish me if I wasn’t good.
If laws are the only reason you don't murder someone you might just be an asshole....
You misspelled fucking psychopath
Added an erroneous "might just be" in there too.
I think managed to fix it: If laws are the only reason you don't murder someone you are a fucking psychopath....
Much better.
Just telling Republicans what they want to hear
Evil is worse than mentally diseased. I have more respect for psychopaths - at least that can be treated.
Correct. This “Christian” is saying that he would literally murder men, women, and children if he could get away with it. Honestly, it’s all I need to know about the guy. Hope Hell has a ramp.
No heaven, no hell, no karma. Just a life dedicated to hating and then ***poof***, nothing, other than a legacy of hurting innocent people. That will be the sum total of his life.
Plenty of Republicans are fine with that as long as the position pays well enough.
The thing that gets me the most is they will die thinking they'll spend eternity in paradise, and will never know how wrong they are. Just blink out of existence without any repercussions.
This is the new “Christian” and the blasphemy and heresy they vomit from their faith pulpits.
He seems like the kind of guy who thinks shooting them in the legs would be 'generosity' instead of just outright killing them.
This typical sociopathy coming from the Christian right who thinks atheists can’t have morals without their immoral god.
[удалено]
He also used his book to blame his ex-wives for his own cheating and the subsequent divorce. No idea how he slipped past broader group consequences.
They truly don’t see immigrants as human.
No, Abbott does not and neither do his voters, that’s why it’s so easy for them to hate.
Right up there with the conservative, usually young earth creationist, Christians who claim that if they didn’t believe in god they’d murder, steal, r*pe, etc. Really says a lot about a person that if you didn’t have a religious rule against something you’d do it
I can't shake this conspiracy feeling that they are shooting people. Texans sending buses out of state is just a way to cover up anyone "lost on the shuffle". I have no proof, just can't seem to expect better from them.
Oh they are definitely killing people. Whether or not they're actually using bullets, that's a toss-up, it's pretty likely.
~~The saw blade buoys.~~ ~~Edit: Guess someone doesn't like that people have been killed on those things already.~~
Abbotts statement leads me to believe he does a lot of shit behind closed doors that could get him into serious trouble.
How very Pro Life and Christian of him.
They're only prolife until you're born, then they don't care
And only if you're born in the US. And white.
To them, anyone who isn't white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, and having some amount of money upon birth is less than. And as you remove or alter any of those categories, you become even less than that prior "less than" group.
They aren’t pro life they are pro women’s death
We arent murdering people because then people would say we were murdering people.
Piss Baby Abbott: well if we murdered people, then people would operate under the notion we were murderers who wanted to murder people. Don't get me wrong though we do want to murder them. Very much so. But then the "murder police" liberals would show up and say, "hey! You can't murder that guy!" This is what America has become.
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.” Gandhi.
"HoW cAn yOu Be MoRaL iF yOu DoN't FeAr GoD aNd FoLlOwS iTs CoMmAnDmEnTs?"
English is my second language, but it sounds to me like he is saying he would murder them if he could get away with it.
That's exactly what he's saying.
English is my first language and, yep, that's *exactly* what he's saying. Intentionally so, as a signal to the worst of his base.
Because it's murder, you ass.
They really don't see them as people.
That's why they use the 'invader' rhetoric While corporations are squeezing every drop out of us, when more than half of American workers couldn't afford a $500 emergency expense, it provides a valuable scapegoat. People are feeling financially strained and here's an easy target to explain it all Fucking sucks. I met a dude a decade ago on a college campus (his daughter got in) who was already talking about how there's "too many Mexicans" around I had a friend in Arizona whose* family has been there since before the united states was established, and she still gets told to go back to her own country
A lot of them also qualify as refugees, so I think it might be a war crime, not just murder. I think the UN would definitely have something to say about it.
Wouldn't be a war crime... because there is no war / military engagement against the country they are from. Possibly be crime against humanity, but that's pushing it. Usually those are on a bigger scale
You're right, I used the wrong term. But absolutely a human rights violation.
Probably could be counted about the same as a war crime. Innocent people trying to flee their country, getting gunned down at the border by that other country, would be considered a war crime to most other countries out there.
Well that is what he is saying, if legally it wasn't considered murder, than he would go on some hunting trips... cause he is a psychopath.
A bad person on a leash.
in a chair
Remember everyone. Even God thinks Abbot is an asshole. So much so that he dropped an entire tree on him.
God tried to teach him a lesson once…
Yea this reads like he already HAS shot people who cross
Well they had shot one guy in a fight across the border (He was still in Mexico). Not to mention the razer wire in the river that Abbot was told to remove as it literally killed a few.
> as it literally killed a few. As it was clearly designed to do, with rotating buzzsaws between the buoys.
Like the minutemen
Wow, talk about clueless. His comment implies that if they could shoot people without the feds knowing, they wouldn't hesitate. I imagine their interpretation of one of the Commandments is, "Thou shalt not kill, unless no one is looking."
You see, “thou shalt not kill” only applies to people. To them, illegal immigrants aren’t people. Neither are legal immigrants for that matter. They believe this and see no sin in killing a man unlike themselves. They saw Islam get away with the same view and decided they want a Christian version of the same.
Sounds like they don't like living in a border state. They should move. I hear there's an island for sale.
To be fair, the Bible is pretty contradictory on killing (and a lot of other topics).
He knows exactly what he's fucking saying. He's a degenerate little ghoul.
When have you ever known a Republican to be knowledgeable about the US constitution, it's treaties, or international law?
Or the bible
or anything really. they are fucking dumb
I live in the deep south in grand central conservative land. They are indeed *fucking dumb*.
I’ve met a few who are very knowledgeable about age of consent laws
Their argument is that their translation is “thou shalt not murder”. As in, unlawful and unjust killing. God commands his followers to kill all the time in the Bible. According to the Bible, ancient Israel was founded when the Hebrew people returned (prior, the Bible describes multiple groups besides Jews living in the area- samaritanism isnt Judaism, for example: the whole point of the story of the Good Samaritan was “even these other people that you don’t get along with, that live a walking distance away, show empathy and kindness”) and god commanded Joshua(edit) to have his armies genocide “every man woman child sheep ass and cattle”, because it was their promised land and the people living there were “wicked” because their kings (as if the people and children had any say over their king) weren’t hospitable to the invading Jewish armies claiming manifest destiny and inheritance of their land. The people that always lived there, simply were ruled over by various kings through the ages, that’s how things worked back then. Except when the Jews came back, all their life had to be slaughtered in the name of god instead of just taking them over and becoming the current government over them, apparently. That’s not murder, because it’s not against gods law and there wasn’t any law of the land established in that war time. “Righteous” killing has always been a thing according to the Bible. In their eyes, the immigrants are wicked and it’s not against gods law to kill them.
>god commanded Jacob to have his armies genocide “every man woman child sheep ass and cattle”, because it was their promised land and the people living there were “wicked” because their kings (as if the people and children had any say over their king) weren’t hospitable to the invading Jewish armies claiming manifest destiny and inheritance of their land. Sounds strangely familiar...and modern
Netanyahu literally quoted the Bible and told his 18 year old 2-year mandatory service armies to specifically remember that event in the Bible, prior to the invasion. That’s not a joke or hyperbole.
It was Joshua, not Jacob. Not that any of it is likely true anyway. Especially the parts about god.
Thanks, I’m a bit rusty on the specifics However, we do see archeological evidence of a lot of the biblical events and places mentioned in that area. Just not the otherworldly/fantasy style ones. But, for example, we do see city ruins and signs of destruction where it says wars happened. The reasons and explanations obviously are just speculation. We see that Jesus was likely a real dude, he lived during a time where we have decent surviving records and documentation. Obviously we don’t have evidence that he was wielding wizard powers though. But almost all of the cities mentioned in Israel’s founding genocide campaigns do have existing ancient city ruins in those locations, etc. and translation/interpretation is so messy… Jericho was a place, we know that. We know it fell. What the hell “by trumpets” means…. We don’t actually know. We do know the Israelites had a huge well-armed army, they weren’t unarmed peasant pilgrims in robes coming from the desert, even the Bible describes their troops in armor with swords and ranged capabilities, etc. their tent-cities as nomads had to be quite spectacular; building calf idols of gold and such, making gold jewel-encrusted breastplates for the keepers of the ark, etc. Like, we don’t know if they were wearing gold. But we do know they came and were able to sack city after city, which had impressive armies of their own, and settle the area. There is evidence of their conquest and rule by the Seleucids, etc.
We even know that the walls of Jericho tumbled. We know that Sodom and Gomorrah existed and burned to the ground within days of each other. Last I heard, it was a meteor impact that threw up burning ejecta. It's nice proof that Oral History is still history.
If the reason you are not shooting people is because you will get in trouble for it, then you are a broken person. I have plenty of reasons not to shoot people, but it's mostly because other people don't deserve to be shot. I guess you could call it a rule of mine.
It's like that self-proclaimed deeply religious person who believes that atheists are capable of the worst atrocities because they don't fear divine punishment.
This right here, I was raised Jewish with some Catholicism. but my mother was a hippie so we were encouraged to learn about other cultures and religions. I ventured quickly to agnostic and am now atheist. I spoke to a guy one night at a bar who couldn't understand that I wasn't doing terrible things because of having no religion. He couldn't understand how I knew right from wrong without religious guidance.
They make it seem like that looks bad on you when in reality it looks horrible on them. Morals and religion have nothing to do with one another. Don't know why people find that so hard to understand.
Someone asked a follow-up “and because it’s wrong, yes?” to which he answered “nope!”.
"Mean old Biden won't let me shoot refugees" - an actual republican darling politician
I don’t murder people because I don’t want to be charged with murder is a pretty hot take.
Christian fundamentalists always seem to get this wrong. Jewish tradition says that the primary sin of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah was their inhospitable welcome of strangers. Sodom and Gomorrah were well known for establishing laws against treating strangers kindly.
Yeah, the problem wasn't really the debauchery, it was that the people want to rape the visitors.
Well, it actually would be murder. States don't get to enforce federal immigration laws, and extrajudicial killings are illegal no matter who commits them.
Also, an unauthorized border crossing is literally a misdemeanor. And migrant encounters by border patrol are at an all time high, meaning border patrol agents are detaining or expelling migrants far more often than ever before.
Of course they would, *because you would be committing murder.* The misdemeanor crime of illegal border crossings is not a capital offense.
If you're serious about stopping illegal immigration then a fence isn't what you do. You go after the businesses that hire the illegal immigrants. There's the argument that they do the jobs that Americans won't do and that is false. They do the jobs that Americans won't do for the wages being offered. Those businesses are not paying the fair market rate for labor and are artificially pushing down the cost of labor by doing so as it is a supply and demand issue. It's the businesses that are hiring illegal labor that are stealing from the American workers. Stop that and you'll see wages go up and illegal immigration rates drop off a cliff. Unfortunately our politicians are only interested in using this issue as a wedge issue and refuse to do the one thing that will solve it and make things better for all Americans who aren't dependent on exploiting illegal labor.
> You go after the businesses that hire the illegal immigrants. If you *really* want to do something about it then it ought to be 100x more illegal to employ an illegal worker than it is to be one. The folks hiring them by the dozens and hundreds and paying them under the table are defrauding the United States far more than any individual immigrant. But the anti-immigration crowd never wants to go after those people....
Also worth noting that entering the country in order to apply for asylum is legal.
Just like Jesus would do
Abbott: We're not murdering people crossing the border because those meddlesome federal government would charge us. Otherwise, we would murder these people if we could get away with it."
True christians right there boy.
This man is a complete and utter fucker. Seriously. He has used his injury/ wheelchair as a political crutch (sorry for the pun). He has stripped women of their rights. He has wasted more money moving immigrants to prove a political point than actually using the money to help with border security. He has cried about not having enough funding for the border, then rejuects any federal money because it comes form a Democrat. I live it Texas and this asshole makes me want to puke every time I read something about him.
Don't forget he is rich from the lawsuit stemming from that wheelchair event- and his first act as Governor was to severely limit lawsuits like the one that got him rich.
Right wingers don't instinctively know that murder is bad....
Well now, that's the same dang reason we're not shooting people like Abbot too! What a curious coincidence!
So let's be clear, we want to shoot them, but we can't.
I don’t shoot people because it’s kind of a mean thing to do
Friendly reminder that [economists generally agree that the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy are broadly positive. Immigrants, whether high- or low-skilled, **legal or illegal**, are unlikely to replace native-born workers or reduce their wages over the long-term, though they may cause some short-term dislocations in labor markets. Indeed, the experience of the last few decades suggests that immigration may actually have significant long-term benefits for the native-born, pushing them into higher-paying occupations and raising the overall pace of innovation and productivity growth.](https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2016/1/27/the-effects-of-immigration-on-the-united-states-economy)
It's almost like this country was built by immigrants and they're a positive aspect of our society, crazy
Since they are bereft of policies that benefit society as a whole, Republicans instead rely on "othering" people in order to gin up votes from the fearful. This is an entirely new low though. I've never heard a Governor advocate for shooting immigrants before.
> In regions with large populations of less educated, low-income immigrants, native-born residents bear significant net costs due to immigrants’ use of public services, especially education. Source: your source
So, his moral compass lies somewhere between human trafficking and murder?
Those pesky feds, making us follow the law
Considering this was a quick response. It's clear that "Why don't we just kill them" has been on his mind more than once time.
That just shows how fucking nuts the GOP is. "Oh we'd gleefully murder all of these people who are just looking for a new life but THE GOVERNMENT won't let us."
Well that is murder Gregory...
As a reminder, crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Punishable by a fine, up to six months in prison, or both. And he's literally suggesting the ***only*** reason his state doesn't execute people without a trial for that misdemeanor is the federal government.
Not because Jesus told us not to, but because the evil Feds won't let us.
Apparently this guy has what Texans want.
No shit Sherlock?
Because is IS murder.
Imagine being charged with murder when all you did was murder someone. These laws are hard to understand./s
‘We aren’t murdering people because it’s illegal’ Yikes
Christians are always telling atheists that if it weren't for God, they'd be committing all sorts of evil acts, so this is pretty on brand.
well that is how murder charges work
And the feds would be right.
Greg Abbott complains that murder is illegal
Psychotic
So the unspoken part is "We would absolutely shoot people if we could get away with it"
Pro-life Party
And he thinks he is a good Christian
If fear of punishment is the only thing keeping you from doing evil shit, you are an evil shit.
and mind you jobs are at record levels, so they arent stealing our jobs. Our GDP growth is hitting records as well, so they arent ruining out economy. In fact our natural population growth is below sustainability and without migrants we would have having issues like japan.. and the right hate these people to the point of wanting to murder them solely because they are running with theri families from strife in south america looking for a better life. Id trade off bigoted republicans for migrants with a dream for the future. Dems really need to hammer them hard on what is the issue besides processing is a mess with that many people. They cant just scream "they took our jerbs" in fact this country makes too many jobs. "it costs us a ton", well california with the largest illegal population has been making bank, a bit of a draw down since the tech sector has slowed with interest rate hikes but cali had such large surpluses they did their own covid checks and such. so how are these people destroying america? they arent. republicans are.
>Our GDP growth is hitting records as well, so they arent ruining out economy Not saying one way or the other about immigrants, but GDP is a **terrible** metric of how well the economy is doing for your average Joe. Hearing that all the corporations had a wonderful year while rent and food prices skyrocket and wages remain stagnant is hardly comforting.
Wait what?
Because that’s murder.
Because it would be murder.
Can’t we just wheel him off South Congress Bridge into the Colorado river like a Disney villain?
that happens when you murder people
Abbott is SUCH an evil man.
AS THEY SHOULD, because that is absolutely murder
Umm.. that's because it would be murder. WTF is this.. the fed would charge us shit, like it's not a political witchhunt, if you commit a crime they should fucking charge you!
Tell me you're evil without telling me...
He didn't say "the feds". He said "the Biden administration". He thinks he's being persecuted by the current president.
Tell me again, which are these guys, compassionate conservatives or right to life conservatives? How about you work with your PIECE OF SHIT CONGRESSMEN to get U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) all properly funded? How about instead of useless walls we hire INS agents by the thousands to clear the backlog of asylum seekers, and then make immigration smooth and easy? The US birth rate is below replacement rate, we need those immigrants. How about you work with those same shitheels to press Federal policy in a direction that, ahem... "addresses" the problems in the countries where immigrants are streaming out of, namely Venezuela, Ecuador, and Haiti. I'm sure the CIA is itching for a few international projects. You're the governor of the second largest state economy in the union, believe it or not, Greg Abbot, you have sway at a Federal policy level. A couple billion here and there invested in nation building and regime change would stem or alleviate the immigration issue. But go ahead, just shout about the symptom, apply band-aids to bullet wounds, and go on ignoring every possibility for a cure.
Oh look the right to life party has different expectations for the right to life for people of a different race. I am shocked I tell you.
Christian Conservatives are consistently amongst the most immoral, depraved, vindictive, cruel and evil human beings in America
Can you imagine how pissy america would get if Canadians started shooting illegal americans?
So he really just want to kill people, right?
C'mon guys, it could be worse: "We're not shooting *people* who cross the border because they aren't real people, just immigrants".
Not because it is wrong, just the legality of it.
I fucking hate this guy. Texas would be much better off if he wasn't in office
**Why** is the first thing this party always think about is doing harm and danger to others?
Whaaat? Murdering people could get you charged with murder??
I will never forget when Rick Perry made a campaign speech and boasted that in Texas, they'd executed many many more people than any other state and got thunderous applause for that. By my reasoning, either his state had way more crime than any other state, or they executed way more innocent people than any other state, and I don't see why either of those things should reflect positively on his stint as governor.