"Political noise" is completely subjective. There was a time within the last 10 years when claiming "White supremacists are a serious problem" got you branded as a SJW.
Does Texas really need to flip blue if the country transitions away from the electoral college? The arguments being made for doing so recently have quite a bit of sense when you think about it.
In general, it hasn't. Unless there are at least competing interests with similar sized bank accounts or a _very_ strong and _very_ vocal preference from voters, lobbying wins.
We've legalized bribery in America, we just call it something else.
I don’t think that’s true. Covid is dangerous precisely because healthcare systems can be overwhelmed.
If you receive care and have nocomorbid conditions, Covid for most won’t be dangerous, certainly not as dangerous as the 1918 pandemic, which killed young people.
I think that there is a solid argument that the 1918 epidemic would have killed far fewer people if they had had modern treatments for respiratory distress.
> You dont quit an addiction, you replace it with something else
Not true. Some things are habit forming, like cigarettes or really fun books or games. The same is true for social media. All addictions must start at some point.
The only alternative to religious thinking is misery? That sounds very much like religion insisting upon itself, like when they claim that without the fear of god we would all be savage and immoral. It's nonsense, really.
But there were a few absurd reductions in what you said, including the idea that the prevention of suffering is tenable yet somehow nihilistic.
Would it not be more sustainable to focus on spreading joy instead of preventing suffering? That way you won't drive yourself crazy focusing on the negative aspects of humanity.
Or any other philosophy, where nihilism is the absence of either.
In other words, religion is wonderful for those for whom it works; the same goes for existentialism (our meaning comes from within) or really literally anything else that gets you through the day.
Every morning we wake up and the vast majority of us decide to not jump off a tall building. Why?
For various reasons. But without our individual reason, the alternative is not misery. We can come up with other reasons. Or just do without reason (such as when we satisfy natural drives).
People growing up indoctrinated in a religion are way more prone to having problem with meaning of life.
They grow up having meaning of life, and all the rules to follow to get to the better place. You don't think you just follow.
When you break out of shackles of religion you are faced with reality, you are responsible for finding the meaning, you are responsible for creating rules for your life and to follow them.
Its my pet peeve when I hear 'atheists are just lazy and left the religion because its easier'. When its the opposite. A godless person that understands that concept of god (more precisely any god that people claim exists and talked to them via various means) doesn't make sense, is burdened with all complexity of life without mental shortcuts religion provides.
All that said, de-converting into atheistism doesn't automatically translate into lifelong misery.
