This has officially become slapstick.

True. I guess the distinction, though semantically redundant, seems to be contextually necessary nowadays…

I have to disagree with the idea that the world has always been a terrible place. Actually building upon what you’ve said subsequently, the world itself isn’t terrible, it’s just a rock with some moss and critters on it, the systems we’ve created for ourselves are terrible. That’s exactly the nuance to which I was referring in my initial comment, Antinatalism isn’t universally applicable to all existing and potential existential contexts.

The world as it is now, yes. But this is far from the only option, thus the world is not an inevitable soup of suffering. So, no.

This is an overgeneralisation which completely misses the nuance. Antinatalism does not postulate that it’s morally wrong to procreate, only that it is morally wrong to bring another human consciousness into a soup of suffering, which… yeah, kinda’! I mean, is the world not presently a soup of suffering, with extra helpings on the way?

Personally, I doubt most people who subscribe to Antinatalism would do so if society weren’t literally a hell hole right now.

I… I don’t even know what to say anymore.

Eeexactly! That ‘dynasty’s’ been going on for so long, it’s narratively ridiculous and boring.

Don’t get me wrong, despite what my initial comment may indicate, I would LOVE to see something which goes in depth into The Force’s philosophy, its spirituality, but that foregoes Skywalker Lightsaber Fight™ by its very nature… Actually, no, acceptable Skywalker Lightsaber Fight™ in the original episodes, because those moments were used to punctuate.

Honestly, I always thought Star Wars would work as a Tales From the Crypt-style anthology, just pump out interesting happenings from across the galaxy as self-contained, 40-minute long episodes and put the meat on them massive bones! I bet one could pull off at least 3-4 12-episode series without even touching The Force.

But I don’t want to be a Juggalo for the Revolution!😭

You are right in that I tried to keep well and far away from any form of organised religion for pretty much my entire life, yes.

However, the resurgence which I’ve mentioned seems, to me at least, to have started once the Feminist and LGBTQIA+ movements gained enough mass to be able to significantly influence the policy-making areas of society. At least from personal experience, the Church (speaking primarily about Orthodox and various Catholic denominations, which are more prevalent in our area) mostly kept out of your business as long as you didn’t “shout it out” too loudly and kept out of theirs, so to speak - sure, a lot of people have always muttered stuff under their breath when faced with the reality of things, but I honestly believe that most people aligned with said organisations were in a sort of denial about these aspects and chose not to interact with them, in a way.

In addition, people in our area seemed to pragmatically drift away from the cismale-centric view of organised religions, anyway. Domestic violence and sexual abuse have still been fairly prevalent, not going to deny that, but they seemed to stem from how the men have been raised more aggressively on principle around these parts, rather than any concrete religious foundation. People mostly accepted that men and women are essentially equal from, as I’ve said, a pragmatic standpoint, as men and women have pretty much always worked side-by-side here. May be a result of the fairly agrarian and subsequent “Communist”/“Socialist” tendencies which have been prevalent up until relatively recently - couldn’t exactly deny that women are as capable as men when they were openly and constantly doing mostly the same things and just as well.

But as soon as the aforementioned actionable progressive mass had been reached, the counter-action started. Again, not saying it’s ever been significantly better just because the Church kept its mouth shut so far, but it’s definitely getting worse than it has been in, say, the past two or three decades - case in point, we didn’t see Advisory Councils on Biblical Womanhood (Jesus Christ…) being established, because, I believe, they didn’t think they should have taken things seriously enough to do it until now. And while we’re not seeing such councils popping up around here, we are seeing the Church going berserk and shoving its way into politics in a much more active and aggressive manner than the passive influence they were convinced they had - which they did, in a way, but nowhere near what they now want.

This may just be a difference in what levels we’re analysing, as I see this recent uptick, even if present on a relatively smaller timescale, is indicative of a fresh sort of panic, which I believe is and will continue to be more aggressive and thus more dangerous than just ignoring the problem and hoping it’ll go away by praying. It’s a ‘knowing there’s a sleeping bear in the nearby caves’ vs. ‘waking it up by making too much noise’ situation (I’m all for the noise in this case, just to be clear).

Just said they seemed to have kept their heads down, which tracks with what you’re saying, too. You can’t possibly mean that the ebullience with which they’re now coming out of the woodwork is “better…”

Oh, no, believe you me, it’s global… I’m at the far end of Europe and Right Wing nutsos and religious zealots are goin’ crazy over here, too…

Not at all, it’s just that… dunno, they kept their heads down until relatively recently, it seemed. Now they’re going berserk trying to protect Wholesome Values™… And it’s not just them, knee-jerks are going off like fireworks in general… This’ll only get worse before it gets any better…

Tell me the world isn’t going completely insane one more goddamned time…

“Twist-o Eyeball-o!”

Paper lids obviously threaten traditional family values! Lobsters sure wouldn’t stand for this atrocity!

Hell, that may actually cancel out my tinnitus, sign me up!

Stale bread, musty ketchup, and tap water it is!

Gawd damn it, can’t ever be simple, can it…

Hahaa, Chaotic Good Human Monk! Guess I’m stayin’ single, babyyy!