General Discussion

meaning the self righteous hatred of anyone "other" so they don't have to focus on their own massive shortcomings. Besides, there's always a sick little thrill that comes with self righteous hate, it's hard wired into the most primitive parts of our brains, all of us.

At its best, religion provides cohesion, community, positive reinforcement for treating each other decently, and an override to the hate-reward circuitry. At its worst, it's what we're seeing on the loony right, especially those totally out of control bunches who think they really do speak for god (who can't speak for himself, oh well) and have a perfect right to dictate to non believers in their shit and kill anyone they don't like because apparently god makes a lot of mistakes that only they are wise enough to correct.

Know your enemy and make sure people around you know who they are, too, and maybe they'll find fewer suckers avaailable to them in the future.