Archive of ‘personal’ category

03
May
2020

Not like I didn’t actually see that coming.

categories: personal; word count: 322 words

“I wonder what I’ll write about in my blog today—”

Check the local section of my Facebook and see that people are talking about how a cult is apparently operating here under the “guise” of a local church. You literally could not make this up if you tried. What seems to be the most hilarious about all of this is the fact that they have “enough” of a Facebook presence that people are leaving them negative reviews on Facebook about the cult’s interactions with various people as they attempt to recruit. So this is essentially helping them blow up on social media. I suppose this is actually something good about the reach that Facebook has, for all the negative things that you can say about it. (And this is the guy that I’m talking about, by the way. This is allegedly the founder of the cult or something. I am just now reading about it.) I just now saw all of this begin to “cross” my Facebook timeline.

In the interim, I’ve been looking for things to “pad” our gaming collection, especially since Bub’s birthday is at the very end of next month. So stumbling across this information was actually very surprising, if not a bit flabbergasting, because who honestly expects an actual cult to spring up in their town, regardless of the size? I know that I’ve joked that the hold that theistic religions have on some people is akin to the holds that cults have on some people, but now there seems to be an actual cult… in my city. Sure, it may not be geographically close to me since my city is not small, but now there seems to be an actual cult in my city.

You don’t ever see cults spring up in Satanism, although theists would probably actually regard Satanism as a cult (even though it is atheistic satanism, the complete rejection of theism, particularly Abrahamic theism).

01
May
2020

Branching off from Hexennacht: moving forward.

categories: personal; word count: 498 words

In case you need to know what Satanic Panic is: here
In case you need to know what Hexennacht is: here

One of the things that I wanted to take the time to touch on, as someone who gradually “came out” in her blog as a Satanist (affiliated with The Satanic Temple, at that), is that even though we may have, comparatively speaking, made strides toward being more safely and easily being able to declare our religious affiliations in some places — or lack thereof, depending on how you want to word them — it can still be dangerous to “out” yourself as a religion that is not the majority religion, especially under the Trump Administration (and especially if it becomes clear through whatever means that you are LBGT, or as I have sometimes worded it, “not an able-bodied, white-passing man”). Outing yourself as a Satanist is perhaps the diciest of all, and it can potentially have repercussions in child custody cases and job applications if it is revealed in the former or disclosed in the latter. One word of advice, though: you do not have to disclose your religious affiliation on a job application, even if the interviewer asks… and for them to “require” that is illegal.

However, plenty of divorced or separated parents — and I mean plenty — have fought over the most banal of religious issues as they pertain to their child or children, so for one parent to be outed as a Satanist, or volunteer the information that they are one, is pretty much analogous to throwing a hand grenade into the proceedings if you ask me… at least assuming that both parents are active participants in their children’s lives and are litigating with the intent to be able to have an equal say in the upbringing of said children’s lives. Sometimes it is actually court-ordered that one parent is to be the parent that has “final decision-making say” in the religious instruction of the children (or, conversely, if this becomes something that it is clear that the parents will never agree on, that both parents are forbidden from making their children “active, registered participants” in their religious denomination… which basically means that they can not baptize them or enroll them). However, for one parent to be the individual that is granted that final decision-making say is only generally done when the child (or children) have had a history of being brought up in that religion so that they can continue to be brought up in it to give them the continued regularity of that religion’s influence, especially when their lives will be shifted with the divorce or separation of their parents. Unless, of course, it’s Satanism. And then it’s, like I’ve said, like throwing a really judgmental hand grenade into the proceedings nearly all of the time because of nearly everyone’s misconceptions as to what Satanism entails.

And yet perhaps it is the most ironic of all that Satanists are generally the least judgmental and pushy.

30
Apr
2020

Why are there no good games to pre-order now?

categories: personal; word count: 177 words

I’ve pre-ordered everything that I want to pre-order Bub, especially for his birthday.

Looking for some games to “top off” what I’ve already pre-ordered, I can’t find anything additional to get him that he would like, which is just ironic. And in the interim, I’ve been blocked from posting or commenting to Facebook for a week (which technically started a few days ago) because someone weaponized Facebook’s reporting algorithm and had his friends report comments of mine because they did not like what I had to say during discussion on his Facebook wall. This is actually something that I do not like on Facebook, how it seems like Christian or Republican white men can “game” the algorithm to silence their dissidents, but you can never report them back for valid reasons. It bothers me that sometimes they can say the most profane, worst things, and “it is never a violation of Community Rules/Standards”, but I can simply call someone a stupid Christian man and that’s suddenly an automatic violation of the rule against “hate speech”. Alright.

27
Apr
2020

What you can do, I can do… better, or weirder.

categories: personal; word count: 279 words

One would think that merely ascribing to the tenets of atheistic satanism would be enough to make most people happy, but apparently it’s not. It’s as though there are competing factions, and getting more people to “pledge loyalty” to one or the other is a “prize to be won”, and that’s not something that I want very much (if anything at all) to do with. I chose the one that fell the most in line with the views that I already had, which I thought you were supposed to do with religion anyway, which is ironic because I didn’t choose an Abrahamic, theistic religion for that reason… you know, ones where you sometimes “have” to follow rules that you don’t agree with or see eye-to-eye on, and in some cases you have to confess your “sins” to a priest before you can be allowed to take the Eucharist, at least if you want to retain good standing within that denomination. So far, atheistic satanism just works with me because that is how I live my life anyway. There literally is no extra effort. And the fact that The Satanic Temple is so left-leaning is just an added bonus, heh.

One of the things that continues to bother me about religion is the fact that the one “character” in it that literally questions things is the one that is literally demonized in it. You are supposed to fear and rebuke this character. Very few people seem to put the pieces together on this due to an almost blind allegiance to it…

Not being allowed to question your deity, especially the Old Testament God, doesn’t sit right with me at all.

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