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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
To start off the weekend with a little humor, GOP leaders assure Rubio the party split is not his fault
.
Is the establishment the mom, or the dad, in this divorce with the Trumplicans?
I don't know how it is in the other Nordic countries, but in Iceland you can not actually get out of paying religious taxes. You can choose which religious institution or humanist organization gets your taxes, but you can not get out of paying the fee altogether — the most you can do is register as "outside of organized faith", in which case you still have to pay the tax, which is just gobbled up by the state with no specific purpose. I don't know what the exact situation with this is in Scandinavia, but considering that Iceland inherited its original constitution from Denmark, I could believe it's something similar.
We're talking about religion's involvement in politics.
But keep things IN AMERICA okay?
edited 19th Mar '16 10:21:02 AM by flameboy21th
Non Indicative UsernameLatin America worries about "Trumpismo" (WSJ)
. As an Argentine, I agree with this opinion piece.
edited 19th Mar '16 11:06:12 AM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVedited 19th Mar '16 11:37:46 AM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.@ Religious Taxes: In Britain, we don't have them. The CoE is self-supporting.
@ Terminus:
And for those, a Presidential Finding
does the Job.
I think he was having a chuckle.
edited 19th Mar '16 1:37:35 PM by optimusjamie
Direct all enquiries to Jamie B GoodI don't think that was the point of the article. The insinuation was that Trump is a "caudillo," a sort of personality cult politician familiar to Latin Americans, and that this is how they're explaining him down there. Whether the latter's true or not, I cannot say. I know enough Spanish to take orders like a child, not enough to make a cogent analysis of Latin perceptions of Anglo America. That said, we probably shouldn't worry about them turning fourth reich-y if that's what a caudillo does: It's happened, it's happening, it will happen again. What's seemingly new is an American iteration of the same. Even then, at least one commentator stoked the fires of American exceptionalism and speculated that our checks and balances would prevent him from doing as much as Hispanic caudillos have done in their own countries in the unlikely event he was elected.
edited 19th Mar '16 2:04:05 PM by Artificius
"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."edited 19th Mar '16 2:06:57 PM by darksidevoid
GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.The thing with "separation of church and state" is that it's not a concept that will have any effect on people who believe that their religion is or should be a higher authority than the state.
@math792d: Simple: in Europe, churches (especially established churches) have quite often been associated with power and oppression. In America, religion has been associated with freedom.
And most of Europe has some degree of religious establishment. Germany collects church tax for all the churches, while Italy has the otto per mille which applies to everyone full stop (but is given to whichever church, or the State, the taxpayer wants). Seen in that light, there's no difference between that and the established churches of Scandinavia.
edited 19th Mar '16 2:17:43 PM by Ramidel
x7: It's more of a commentary that the way Trump is doing politics is very similar to the way Latin American popullists have done so over here. The thing is, most of our populist caudillos use far-left rethoric rather than the far right one Trump uses (although there's some overlap anyway).
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More accurately (IMHO), with the corrupt shitheads hiding behind far-left "we are defenders of the poor" rethoric while selling our countries among themselves and their cronies.
edited 19th Mar '16 2:17:47 PM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVIt will just be transfered from one set of oligarchs to the next.

The thing is, though, that a lot of state religions kind of beget a population that...isn't very religious at all? Like, looking at Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, they're amongst some of the most progressive states in the world, and all four of them have a religion that's sponsored by the state. Granted, you can opt out of paying religious taxes if it goes against your personal beliefs or you just plain don't want to, and there's also (some) state support for other, officially recognized religions (I believe.)
Every function the Church is responsible for is religious in nature, and if there's a civil benefit at all (such as in the case of marriage), the state can perform the same function, so opting out is becoming very popular amongst the younger generation.
edited 19th Mar '16 9:54:42 AM by math792d
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.