can't believe, frankly, that in this epoch of all epochs, people are still doing the whole "we're going to fix the world and build the kingdom of god on earth by working hard" thing

like, how can people not see how utterly fucked we are? how impossible this is for us to repair?

sorry to be a downer on a sunday, just don't understand optimism at all ever - I don't know any way forward that isn't apocalyptic

like, I guess what I'm saying is, I can understand why a purely social gospel seemed plausible and tenable in the early 1900s. absolutely don't get it in the year of our lord 2020

everybody hates this and says it makes people not worry about doing the justice they *can* do now, to which I say: only if you're not concerned with doing justice for its own sake, not because we can win the game on the merits via justice

also, even if it *were* true that pretending things are less bad than they are would be more inspirational, I'm not convinced that lying to people to change their behavior from what it would be if they knew the truth is ethical

nowhere is this clearer than in re: the climate apocalypse. of course we need radical action at the national and global levels, like, yesterday. but that's to mitigate. that's to slow, and to stave off suffering where we can. the climate disaster ship has fucking sailed.

of course it would be better if this weren't true. of course it would be better if we could still pull the bus back from the cliff ledge. the problem is, truth isn't actually bound up with which option would be preferable.

I've seen people say apocalyptic eschatology can't be true because it doesn't motivate people to save the planet, and I'm like... that's not how this works, though.

but even if we were just judging the truth of ideas based on how pleasant we find their implications and consequences, I don't see how "God's sitting up on heaven, fingers crossed, hoping that we don't screw things up and permanently ruin the plan of salvation" isn't worse

someone (other than bailey) tell me to go wash dishes