I used to be strictly materialist and atheist. Now I’m pretty spiritual. Don’t necessarily follow a religion and don’t support bigotry but yeah, I’m fairly spiritual now. This is a recent development and I never thought I’d be here like 5 years ago.

What do you mean by being spiritual? I'm an idealist so I think consciousness/subjective perception is the fundamental substrate of reality, and matter/the physical world is just an illusion, but I wouldn't consider myself spiritual...

Idk why we've reached the point where anyone saying they're anything but an atheist has to specify that they aren't a bigot. Being religious doesn't make you a bigot and being atheist doesn't mean you aren't one either.

I had a similar 180 though, I used to be an atheist but in the last year or so I pivoted into druidism. Turns out following a religion that focuses on spending time in nature helps to get you out of the house when you're going though a depressive episode.

In high school, I was pro-death penalty. As part of a class on politics, I was randomly assigned the anti-death penalty position to research and debate on. I very quickly changed my opinion when I learned about the systemic racism involved. Now I'm an anarchist

Idk why we’ve reached the point where anyone saying they’re anything but an atheist has to specify that they aren’t a bigot

Most "spiritual" people adhere to one of the big organized religions, and those kinda suck in general and are rarely content to leave nonbelievers in peace.

Before using AI for the first time: "Holy shit this is gonna be dope!"

Aftwr using AI: "Yo wtf? This is bullshit."

Forks with ice cream. Seemed stupid, tried it out, converted.

How does that work with the melted part?

I used to believe that owning a car was necessary.

Can't say it's a problem I encounter, but I might opt for one of them double wall bowls that you can freeze to prevent the melting altogether.

Depends on where you live, sadly.

I used to say not all men are abusers. Now I say all men are responsible for stopping abuse.

I had the opposite of you: I went from believing in mysticism and magic to being a materialist. All it took was talking to a friend and exploring our views.

Another one is believing in linear causality. I used to have hard stances on all kinds of subjects, but then I learned about Cynefin and functional contextualism. Now I am pragmatic.

If the ice cream is very hard, then the tines of the fork break it apart more easily, than the dull edge of a spoon.

Some people melt their ice cream in the microwave before eating it, though.

Idk depends where you're at. In the US some regions you're basically not a participating part of society without one particularly out west. On the East coast there are several cities where having a car becomes more of a liability than anything. Public transit is good enough with some caveats.

Having had a car in the bay area I literally would not have survived without it. I've since moved east and had my car break down a few weeks ago. Honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. Definitely had to cut some things out of my schedule that were on the opposite side of the city and get used to the occasional crackhead/tweaker but I'm honestly saving more money than expected. The convince of a car only really shows up with dating and cutting 10-30 minutes from most of my travel.

All that to say I mostly agree with you.

Cool, do you think the belief in physical reality can be harmful?

The biggest organised religion is realism.

If we're free to redefine "religion" as we see fit, I declare breathing a religion.

I grew up with this type of Toilet.

Seated toilets were harder to shit in and I didn't like them at first, but bidet is a formidable upgrade to hand so I like seated toilets more now.

Oh also I used to be a Matt Walsh fan in highschool and now I hate sexists and overall fascism supporters including my old self with disgust.

At one point I really, truly believed that the internet and social media would be a turning point in human interconnectivity and cultural understanding. The ability to just... talk to someone on the other side of the planet, at will? When we know that exposure to other beliefs and cultures is superb at punching holes in hatred and misunderstanding? Surely this would lead to great things!

Yeah, that was a miss.

Exposure to other is still a fantastic way to grow understanding. But the internet and social media were not a highway to it, and as the "wild west" era of the internet faded and we instead got corporate-governed, algorithm-driven siloization of views, my views on the value of social media changed sharply.

I used to believe in a woman's right to choose. Then I got married, and having my wife always pick what we do had gotten us into some really boring shit. I would like to choose from time to time.

New concept for me. I've just left it out on the counter before for someone that prefers it softened.

Do you find the softening consistent all throughout? Might give this a go next time a softer serve is needed.

I used to joke about eating two animals for every one a vegetarian didn't eat. I've been vegan for over a decade now, pulled a bit of an uno reverse in my early twenties.

I’ll usually put a pint in for 10 seconds or so. It softens the ice cream pretty uniformly, just a bit more on the edges than the center.

Yeah. I live in one of those places were everyone else thinks it's necessary to own a car.

I think some people can be overly smug about their lack of belief, but I don’t think that means it’s akin to a religion

Idk why we've reached the point where anyone saying they're anything but an atheist has to specify that they aren't a bigot

The main issue is that the cohort of people with megaphones broadcasting their spirituality is virtually entirely comprised of profiteers.

Like all such parasites they follow the pattern of establishing out groups for you to despise, simply because it drives engagement better. Same reason all major social media now attempts to shape you into a being of hatred and impulse. It keeps you stressed and activated so you jump at the opportunity when they offer to let you spend money to blow off some of the steam.

Bigotry as a phenomenon has many origins, but wherever it springs from it ultimately doubles as an inherently appealing strategy for those who wish wring dry their community.

At any rate, as we all sit here dying around the same poisoned watering hole, we see these profiteers dressing just like us while actively dumping the poison in. Ashamed, we feel compelled to proclaim, “I am not them! They only wear my clothes!”

Spirituality is an incredibly comfortable and practical “clothing” for many people. You’re absolutely correct in drawing attention to how bad it sucks that the people who embrace that comfort now feel pained to differentiate themselves from the abusers who pervert their fashion

The biggest organized religion is breathing

Oh great. Now I gotta eat four animals. I’m never gonna finish lunch.

"I'm making ice cream soup!"

When I was young and stupid I was more conservative, and I was pro gun. Then I became very anti gun. Now, as the world gets shittier and more dangerous, I am drifting more towards pro gun.

It's a funny thing. It's made me realize that being a pacifist or being anti gun is, in a way, almost a privileged position to take. It's easy to say "I'm anti violence" when your existence isn't being threatened, it's a lot harder to stomach as the threats get more real.

You weren't wrong on that. You just didn't realize that most people really suck, and sucky people being able to connect easily results in gestures widely.

Some people melt their ice cream in the microwave before eating it, though.

My dad used to put ice cream in a mug, and then place it on the metal plate of the biggest burner in the stove to melt it a little. This worked about a hundred times before the mug exploded in a lot of tiny pieces.

I was pro death penalty as a teenager, then anti death penalty as a young adult. The last few years have shown me that some people are so awful and so insulated from consequences that maybe killing them is the best outcome for society. I still have a lot of reservations about the state being able to kill, but I believe there are quite a few instances where individuals killing others are justified. Is it vigilantism? Yes. Has the US justice system been rigged to the point that vigilantism is the only way that the worst of the worst see justice? Also yes.

I once thought the Democratic Party in the US was liberal. Now I realize they're slightly right of center (with some exceptions), and there really isn't a truly liberal (or leftist) party of any note.

I took a really similar arc as you did, and now carry on a regular basis. I think you absolutely hit the nail on the head: it's easy to be anti gun when there isn't an imminent threat.

I agree. Though, I think it was less a case of a misguided or overly optimistic view, and more a case of unfettered capitalism driving the Internet into an ideological cesspool. Everything on the internet tends to get a lot shittier once people start making money off of it.

I used to think, every good meal needs meat. Now I'm convinced, you don't need meat in a meal at all.

I also underwent a shift from atheism and materialism (in reaction to my Christian upbringing) into a more syncretic form of personal spirituality. I've really taken to heart the idea (which i think I learned from Jodorowsky) that magic is a language which speaks to the unconscious, and so spirituality isn't just comforting woo, but actually can shift beliefs and ideas, impacting behaviors and outcomes. I also think spirituality is vital to community and buidling better societies.

That's actually the basis for Mahayana, which then transformed into multiple kinds of Buddhism. I'd consider it a pretty spiritual stance, if not only because it means that you've spent time thinking about what is "reality" and our role within it.

When you have the gun, you're the one bringing a gun to the party.

It’s a funny thing. It’s made me realize that being a pacifist or being anti gun is, in a way, almost a privileged position to take. It’s easy to say “I’m anti violence” when your existence isn’t being threatened, it’s a lot harder to stomach as the threats get more real.

Your existence was being threatened but now that you have a gun you're safe? Sounds like creative writing to me. What was the threat? How did you counter that threat with a gun? Was their a big confrontation? Did you have to put a motherfucker down?

Itd be fine if it was just useless slop that sat there. But then it gets shoved I to every last possible device, burning up water, and taking up valuable land resources to enrich billionaires, oh and outright stealing the works of others while telling us plebs "it's illegal to do that!" Thats the issues I have. If it was all locally ran, open source, trained in public data only, I'd maybe be OK with it being used for research or data purposes only (nothing to do with art or surveillance) but we will never have that.

I remember when scrolling through Facebook, all I saw was updates on my friends and family and pages I chose to follow. Now my feed is full of random posts from pages I didn't ask to see posts from but the algorithm decided I should.

Used to make fun of small cars and "ricers". Now I have like 3 of them and hate large vehicles.

Don't worry, when you graduate high school you'll drop the anarchist bit, too.

There are LGBT friendly churches run by LGBT Christians. Are they conveniently ignoring certain parts of the Bible? Sure but all Christians do that

Might want to flip back, because you've been bamboozled.

"In fact, a spokesperson at Henry Ford Health told journalists seeking comment on the study that it “was not published because it did not meet the rigorous scientific standards we demand as a premier medical research institution.”

The organization that actually did the study believed that it was flawed for multiple reasons:

"the study’s main comparisons are tilted. The follow-up time was short and uneven, kids had unequal chances for diagnosis, and the two groups were very different in ways that matter. The methods used did not adequately fix these problems. Because of this, the differences reported in the study do not show that vaccines cause chronic disease."