From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 15:42:34 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
      
   >On 2/9/2026 2:53 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >> On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:37:17 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 2/9/2026 10:15 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>>> On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 09:43:13 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> On 2/9/2026 5:59 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>>>>> On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 12:36:19 +0000, Julian    
   >>>>>> wrote:   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> There’s something very religious about nihilism. For proof, look to the   
   >>>>>>> new capital of American nihilism, Minneapolis. A callousness toward   
   >>>>>>> death and danger has fallen over the city. Of the many disturbing   
   videos   
   >>>>>>> to come out of Minnesota’s anti-ICE protests, one of the stranger   
   >>>>>>> examples shows a white man walking up to a line of heavily armed   
   >>>>>>> law-enforcement officers, shouting: “Shoot us in the fucking face!   
   Shoot   
   >>>>>>> me in the fucking head!”   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> What possesses someone to do that?   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> You do not understand.  You do not understand his moral outrage.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> I understand being against Donald   
   >>>>>>> Trump and Stephen Miller’s blitzkrieg deportation policy. And it’s not   
   >>>>>>> irrational, in the viral age, to protest theatrically. But this is   
   >>>>>>> psychotic. It is the death drive in overdrive. Suicidality is spread   
   >>>>>>> across these demonstrations, just as it was during 2020’s George Floyd   
   >>>>>>> riots.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> The fervor of this behavior is religious, but the end goal is simply   
   >>>>>>> destruction. This is Christian nihilism.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> And here you show how a person can completely misunderstand the   
   >>>>>> situation.  If that is what they wish to do.  If their politics   
   >>>>>> requires them to have no understanding.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>> We studied theories of Christian nihilism in Bible School:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> The one name to remember is Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, 1743–1819.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Apparently, he introduced the term "nihilism" into philosophy. He was   
   >>>>> critical of the Enlightenment for reducing knowledge to nothingness.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Jacobi coined the term to argue that all rational philosophy leads to a   
   >>>>> total lack of meaning, urging a return to faith.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> The death of that ICU nurse and that lady named Good was meaningless in   
   >>>>> the final analysis. It was suicide.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> So say those who understand nothing.   
   >>>>   
   >>> It's a perfect example of self-destruction: lives given up for a   
   >>> religious cause. Wasted lives now with a cult following, into nothingness.   
   >>   
   >> Moral indignation does not need religion.  It only needs a conscience.   
   >> No conscience, you think protesting bad shit is a wasted life.  The   
   >> rest of us think that life counted for something.   
   >>   
   >Morality is a religion.   
      
   And then what is immorality?   
      
   >That's the point. Otherwise, it's just nihilistic posturing without a   
   >higher cause. The whole point of protesting is based on moral outrage.   
      
   Usually something less than that.  ice has brought us to that point in   
   the first time ever, probably.   
      
   >>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Say this screaming protester really were to be shot. What would his   
   >>>>>>> death bring about? It wouldn’t stop any Venezuelan or Somali immigrant   
   >>>>>> >from being detained. I suspect someone might argue that his taking a   
   >>>>>>> bullet would call attention to what ICE is doing in Minnesota. But ICE   
   –   
   >>>>>>> whatever else it is doing – isn’t opening fire at random on large   
   >>>>>>> crowds, so the protester would be asking ICE to start doing the very   
   >>>>>>> thing he supposedly wants it to stop doing. This man’s death would   
   bring   
   >>>>>>> about no practical, material gains for anyone.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> It seems some spiritual motive is compelling him to beg for   
   destruction.   
   >>>>>>> Is he looking to be martyred? If he were to be killed, it wouldn’t have   
   >>>>>>> been for committing any specific crime. As an innocent man, then, his   
   >>>>>>> murder would be analogous to the death of a scapegoat – or to Christ’s.   
   >>>>>>> And presumably he’d be spiritually rewarded for taking on the wrath of   
   a   
   >>>>>>> wicked society, or something.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> His cry for the grave is like a twisted wish to fulfill Christ’s   
   promise   
   >>>>>>> that “whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” But the   
   >>>>>>> Christian God would never ask someone to throw their life away like   
   >>>>>>> this. A saint isn’t supposed to ask to be martyred. The rioter must be   
   >>>>>>> serving some other Christian-esque divinity, one who promises   
   redemption   
   >>>>>>> via revolution. What he and the many, many ideology-obsessed Americans   
   >>>>>>> have done is adopt the self-sacrificing form of Christianity, but empty   
   >>>>>>> it of its contents.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Violence serves a central role in Christianity: the hinge of history,   
   >>>>>>> the Crucifixion, is bloody. Christ endures the Cross to purify mankind,   
   >>>>>>> because he knows we crave purity. Revolutionary leaders have stolen   
   this   
   >>>>>>> idea, given it a godless twist and sold it to their followers to   
   >>>>>>> encourage them to sacrifice themselves for whatever cause demands it.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Examples of this abound. Frantz Fanon: “At the level of individuals,   
   >>>>>>> violence is a cleansing force.” Mao Zedong: “Revolutionary war is an   
   >>>>>>> antitoxin that not only eliminates the enemy’s poison but also purges   
   us   
   >>>>>>> of our own filth.” Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: “We will glorify war –   
   the   
   >>>>>>> world’s only hygiene.” The upshot is obvious: lay yourself (and others)   
   >>>>>>> on the altar of revolution, and in exchange you get some abstract   
   >>>>>>> purifying shower.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> At least in the case of Christianity the bargain is clear. Dying for   
   the   
   >>>>>>> church earns you a nice mansion in the afterlife. Today’s bloodthirsty   
   >>>>>>> rioters expect no such reward. When they undergo their deadly purifying   
   >>>>>>> action, they expect to be made into nothing.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> This revolution-as-salvation fantasy has a strong grip on the   
   >>>>>>> imagination – certainly among the American elite, which remains   
   >>>>>>> permanently nostalgic for the political violence of the 1960s. Proof of   
   >>>>>>> this came last year in the glossy form of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One   
   >>>>>>> Battle After Another. Approaching three hours in runtime, this bulky   
   >>>>>>> film is about the supposed virtue of the French 75, a group of   
   >>>>>>> revolutionaries reminiscent of various 1960s terrorist cells such as   
   the   
   >>>>>>> Weather Underground.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Anderson’s villain is the loathsome Colonel Lockjaw, who leads a cruel   
   >>>>>>> anti-immigration campaign in the American streets. The French 75   
   resists   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)