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I don't think even an outbreak will necessarily bust people out of their shells. What is going on now is a propaganda apparatus like we have never seen. You mentioned reading through stuff during the mid-00s... and that brought back a memory I had of that time as well, but it more related to religion than medicine (but the topic related). A lot of Islamophobic people (and I am highly convinced that a lot of the people who wrote online about that stuff on line were happily huffing on their own farts) that while the 'rational' West does have its share of kooks and fools, they are a tiny minority, while the Islamic world has those people in charge (they don't... as a general rule anyway).
The one thing I wish I could go back and say is that it is actually irrelevant if the number of stupid people is tiny or not. What really matters is their proximity to power. I should point out a video by knowing better that showed how even the smallest religious minority influencing policy can have ruinous consequences for generations. In that video towards the 2 hour mark, you'll see that one of the biggest reasons why the US didn't enact universal healthcare when many developed countries were doing so is because of the influence of one person belonging to a Christian denomination that didn't believe in going to the doctor's office.
In today's world you're also seeing the same shit happening. RFK Jr. is certifiably insane. His beliefs are extreme beyond extremes, but he is the one who is fully in charge of US healthcare, and we are already going to see millions of people die as a result of his actions and who knows if it will be undone.
Another example is one that happened during Covid-19. South Korea had its lockdowns go well and the pandemic was about to be fully contained... but a small Christian sect in the country refused to abide by any of the regulations... and they were responsible behind most of the outbreak (I need to get the source on that), and I think they might be the ones who mourned Charlie Kirk after he got shot (Also I need to research it).
I think it's fine to take strong issue with fundamentalist strains of Islam as being a threat to any hope of continuing the Enlightenment. Much like my feelings about the other two Abrahamic religions and their fundamentalists - I really don't have much patience for any of them meddling in the American experiment. It's one of history's ironies that Islam actually preserved a lot of Western culture, though. Another irony is that you'll find extreme right wing xtians here concern-trolling about extreme right wing Muslims being homophobic, misogynist, etc. The reality, as you point out, though, is that they don't really pose a threat to our way of life in the United States, but the fundamentalist xtians operating under plots like the Seven Mountains Mandate do.
Watching this now. I didn't know Christian Science was more than just a fringe even among xtians...
Couldn't agree more, including what you said about the numbers of kooks. The hardcore antivaccine fringe don't have a whole lot of numbers (yet), and no one voted for this jackass to be in that position, but here we are...
Sigh. Assuming this is true.
Ya Christian Science appears in many different sects and churches. They all have weird rules about health somewhere, some don’t abide by them, but you will find a lot of strange, religious views mixed in with healthcare across this country and world