Is Leftism a kind of Religion?

[TreeBeard]

5 hours ago, blackbird said:

You argument is with God then because that's how the Bible is.   Do you seriously think any serious King in history would approve the following of other would-be kings in his kingdom?  Or would they be considered as traitors or false kings?  Simple logic isn't it?

This is why we no longer tolerate kings.  It’s an unjust, immoral system.   Wouldn’t you agree?

[Americana Antifa]

10 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

Do you honestly need me to go through the laundry list of things that leftists believe in, or used to believe in, that were completely ludicrous? The things that they lied about, and then called people 'racists' or misogynists if they dared to 'misspeak' (tell the obvious truth)?

How about if you put together just a partial list of things that the majority of leftists were sucked in by but you weren't? Just so we can estblish that you were ahead of the pack. Otherwise we'll have to assume that you were sucked in by everything...

Whenever a conservative says this, the examples they give are always lies from right-wing media, like that the Left wanted to cancel Mr Potato head.

[Zeitgeist]

5 hours ago, Contrarian said:

Just because something has been done a certain way in the past or is based on religious texts, doesn't necessarily make it the right or only way to approach things, especially in 2023 where one needs to be focused on innovation to make it. 

and as we have seen, humans take the Bible and commit atrocities, "Dark Ages" , "Crusades" , even to this day at soccer matches, people fight over religion. Petrol bombs thrown in Northern Ireland on 25th anniversary of Good Friday peace accord

• In my opinion, both religion and leftism will never have true political power in North America.
• These systems are for a country like Peru, that had their President arrested, a leftist:
  https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-president-says-will-dissolve-congress-calls-elections-2022-12-07/

America is a religious country.  It’s constitutionally enshrined.  In God We Trust.  In my opinion, thank God for that.  You want to be on God’s team when shit gets real.   

[West]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:39 AM, blackbird said:

This article describes six ways leftism acts like a religion.

"Conservative commentators have been mocked for years for describing leftism as a new religion of sorts. Since 2016, it has become clear that the modern left was determined to prove us right.

What we have witnessed unfold in this country over the last few years, and have seen increase exponentially as the 2020 election comes near, especially with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement, is an expression of religious zealotry so widespread, unforgiving, and violent that it might have made the Puritan governors of 17th-century Massachusetts worry they were being outdone.

Leftism is not a political ideology anymore. It is a full-fledged religion complete with tithing, penance, forced confessions, iconoclasm, internet inquisitions, public rituals, excommunication, heavily policed virtues, sacred texts, seminaries, and online auto-de-fes.

The proof is too plentiful to ignore. 

Here are the signs that we’re truly confronting a theocracy of totalitarian religious extremists.

1. Conformity, Strictly Enforced Virtues, and Excommunication

Throughout history, religious nonconformists and dissenters of theocracies like the one we’re now confronting have been denied political and civil rights. Those who fail to express their undying loyalty to the Church of Leftism and participate in its public rituals are marked as heathens and “canceled” faster than you can say “due process.” Those who dissent publicly from their established doctrine are routinely censored, humiliated, shunned from certain schools or organizations, and even deprived of their livelihoods.

In this religious system, heretics and apostates are ruthlessly suppressed and denied the full benefits of participation in the body politic. Even if you’re silent, the media choir will call it violence and demand you be shamed and unfollowed. If that’s not enough puritan madness, the choir will also instruct you on how to be sufficiently woke. The New York Times recently ran a piece suggesting you must demand your family and friends donate to left-wing causes or threaten them with excommunication.

Other ways leftism demonstrates it is a religion:

2. Inquisition

To ensure the aforementioned conformity, the Church of Leftism has established a Tribunal of the Woke Office of the Inquisition. They police speech; launch vicious pressure campaigns against celebrities, schools, and corporations; and work to ruin the lives of those who dare dissent from established orthodoxy. Even those who commit only the most venial of sins face the wrath of the woke.

3. Sins

Speaking of sins, the Church of Leftism has a lot of them. Groupthink is required, or else dissidents will be smeared with an -ism, -ist, or -phobia. Once the church attaches those labels to you, you might lose your job and get a public shaming. Homophobe, racist, bigot, xenophobe — these accusations used to carry meaning, but the left has misused and misapplied them for so long, they have lost almost all weight outside the pseudo religion.

4. Penance

If you do find that you’ve committed a sin after the woke inquisitors have their way with you, you shall be forced to commit a humiliating public act of penance. Grown men have been forced to beg on their knees or prostrate themselves. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey did it willingly only to find that no amount of groveling or virtue signaling could ever satiate the most extreme members of the church.

5. Public Ritual

Some leftist church members are perfectly happy to humiliate themselves without coercion. Its political priestly class, for example, is incredibly fond of gaudy vestments, their favorite fabric choices being white and Kente. Lay members choose more lively rituals or synchronized chants.

They even have holy wars. Look no further than the riots waged in large part by the far left and remember the phrase they’ve been using during the riots: “By all means necessary.” In their jihad, the only possible redemption for infidels like you or me is to come on bended knee, groveling and ready to convert wholesale to their liturgy of insanity. Even that might not be enough to save you.

.6. Evangelization

The missionary zeal of the Church of Leftism is enough to make the Latter Day Saints envious. Its evangelists are everywhere, their efforts permeating all aspects of life: television shows, websites, social media, consumer bank landing pages, corporate advertising. Barely a single product, app, or promotion these days comes without a free leftist sermon.

  For more on this and the whole article go to:

6 Ways Leftism Acts Like A Religion (thefederalist.com)

Of course we see real life examples of the evangelization of the Leftist Religion on CBC, CTV, and even commercials.  

I agree. I call it the Religion of Woke. 

They even encourage children to mutilate their genitals in the name of their religion. Sick people

[WestCanMan]

22 minutes ago, Americana Antifa said:

Whenever a conservative says this, the examples they give are always lies from right-wing media, like that the Left wanted to cancel Mr Potato head.

What would a terrorist know about reality and lies? 

Did you really need to burn down buildings and loot businesses because M Brown was shot? Was his death really worth billions of dollars in damage? All those assaulted police? All of those assassinated officers? 

Admitting to being a member of Antifa is no better than admitting to being a Nazi. You're a loser who's being led around by the nose by other losers. 

[Zeitgeist]

5 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

I was talking about Theocracy. Not sure on the stats about religious people there. Do you have them?

Majority of country is religious, though atheism has grown.  It’s under 30%, though I can’t remember if that number includes agnostic.  If it does that’s changes everything, because some of the more religious people I know are agnostic.  I feel that way sometimes even as a Catholic, because I know our human measure of God gets it wrong   I think God is more than our limited depictions   

You mean places like Iran?

Edited April 11, 2023 by Zeitgeist

[Americana Antifa]

2 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

What would a terrorist know about reality and lies? 

Did you really need to burn down buildings and loot businesses because M Brown was shot? Was his death really worth billions of dollars in damage? All those assaulted police? All of those assassinated officers? 

Admitting to being a member of Antifa is no better than admitting to being a Nazi. You're a loser who's being led around by the nose by other losers. 

This is what I mean. In order to criticize Antifa, y'all have to talk about the fringe cases. Conservatives do the same thing during every civil rights movement. 

If I want to criticize the Right, I don't need to obsess over fringe cases. I can just point to their elected politicians and mainstream media pundits. Because while there are extremists on the Left, the Center, and the Right, it's only on the Right that the extremists are so common that they get elected to office or become mainstream pundits.

[WestCanMan]

8 hours ago, Contrarian said:

I just threw a view, could not resist to see what your low IQ delivered this time.

Covid-19?? Here, too? hahahahahaha ???

In my estimation -> You are the laziest, weakest poster on this board. Nobody is taking the award now from you.

Oh, and check my messages from today. I went and engaged with everyone that is willing to have a discussion within reason. 

• With people like you, always you will see me like this, call me "drunk" "not knowing English" all that you want, little troll in a hole. I am surprised on the 10th of April, still have the money to rant.
• You bring nothing of value to this board. You are helping, though, so I can respond to a manipulator like you, then people click on my ideas. Thank you. A lot of your brethren seem to be more open to discussion. Alone, you will remain. 

There's absolutely nothing in that whole part worth reading.

It's the angry, drunken rant of a sad person. 

You talked about my "covid conspiracies" but you never explained why covid deaths were up by so much in 2022.

-You never explained why "vaxing" 85% of our population led to 30% more deaths.

-You never explained why the multi-vaxed die of covid so often.

-You never explained why the media stopped talking about covid deaths when the number of covid deaths went up so sharply.

 

If you're the big man here, and you know things that other people don't know, then why can't you predict things? Why can I predict things with my "low IQ"? Why do all the stats point to the EXACT things that I talk about? Why is the MSM completely unable to address the topic of multi-vaxxed covid deaths? Why do they avoid covid deaths stats completely? If they're right, shouldn't the death stats support all of theories? Why don't covid deaths support your vaccine theories? 

You don't have answers, you're just gonna go on another drunken rant, aren't you?

Quote

Back on topic, here are my arguments, again: 

1. Both religion and leftism offer a sense of community and belonging to their followers.
2. Both provide a set of values and beliefs that shape the worldview of their adherents.
3. Both can inspire passionate devotion and commitment to a cause or ideology.
4. Both offer a "vision" of a better future, whether it be in the form of salvation or a more just society, ending in disaster if allowed political power. 

Playing Little League baseball offers a sense of community, bigtime.

It provides a set of values. Kids say the little league pledge before every game.

It is one of the earliest examples of passion and devotion that any kids experience before they go out into the real world. They practice for 2 hrs or play games 6 or 7 days a week for months.  

It honestly does offer a vision of a better future. 

Quote

whether it be in the form of salvation or a more just society, ending in disaster if allowed political power. 

The part that you bolded doesn't even complete your sentence in a sensible way. Were you just trying to prove how dumb you are?  

Quote

Both can be criticised for being dogmatic and intolerant of dissenting views.

Dogmatism and intolerance do not a religion make, and to be honest, merely being criticized of being those things doesn't even mean that one is guilty of those things. .

FYI wokeism ventures into the realm of religion because its adherents are forced to believe/repeat/act on things which are either from the realm of fantasy or ostensibly false.

A few examples of things that people have to say are: 

-women are the equal of men physically

-trans women menstruate

-trans women can have babies

-8 yr olds possess the wisdom and maturity to choose gender reassignment therapy but 18 yr olds don't possess the wisdom and maturity to understand how loans work

-defunding police will lead to a better society

-letting violent felons out of jail is crucial to make society better and more inclusive for everyone

-the vaccines work, but unvaccinated people can give vaccinated people covid, and then the vaccinated people can die from it

-being forced to choose between losing your job and taking the vaccine doesn't constitute being forced to vaccinate

-it's not a big deal that the FBI commits crimes now

-election denial in the US started in 2020, it wasn't a thing from 2016-2020

-white people are guilty of slavery, no one else really is

-protesting 24/7 at SCJ's homes is reasonable in a lawful society

-it was a mostly peaceful protests because less than 20 businesses were looted and burned, and only 5 innocent people were assaulted

-looting is reparations

 

Just take my word for it, that's a pile of mindless drivel, and in order to maintain one's woke status, they have to learn it by rote. 

You can't deny that you regurgitated the gesundheitspass mantra yourself: "The vaccines work, but unvaccinated people can give vaccinated people covid, and then the vaccinated people can die from it." It's absolutely absurd on its face, but it was a mainstream belief among vaxtards/leftards.

 

The floor is clean now, it's time to dip you back in the bucket and wring you out. 

[WestCanMan]

1 hour ago, Americana Antifa said:

This is what I mean. In order to criticize Antifa, y'all have to talk about the fringe cases.

You are a fringe case. You're a member of the Dems' unofficial militia. Do you know who their official militia was? The KKK. Just out of curiosity, are you a member of them too?

You're a member of a group that commits acts of violence to support false MSM narratives like "M Brown was a gentle giant who was just murdered by a racist pig."

You joined that group. You're proud of that group. You brag about being in that group.

Antifa is nothing to be proud of. You're stooges. Violent stooges.

Quote

Conservatives do the same thing during every civil rights movement. 

Wrong again.

A higher percentage of GOP voted in favour of the Civil Rights Act than Demonrats.

As far as I know, it's the only vote in the history of democracy anywhere that a bill received a lower percentage of support from the party that tabled the bill than from the opposition party. 

Quote

If I want to criticize the Right, I don't need to obsess over fringe cases. I can just point to their elected politicians and mainstream media pundits. Because while there are extremists on the Left, the Center, and the Right, it's only on the Right that the extremists are so common that they get elected to office or become mainstream pundits.

As a terrorist yourself, the center looks 'fringe' to you, just like allowing women to walk around without a hijab looks fringe to a member of islamic state. 

Kamala Harris advocated for Americans to donate to a bail fund specifically to get violent rioters out of jail. She's your VP, and that's as 'fringe' as it gets. 

This is a violent, divisive, hateful man:

If you photoshopped Hitler's face onto his body there it would look like an actual photo from 1936. 

Kinda hard to make the case that he's not 'mainstream' when the wee 'tard is your dear leader.

Edited April 11, 2023 by WestCanMan

[WestCanMan]

30 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

Ok, this one, I will not read. Just seen the word "Covid" at the beginning and moved to comment. 

Who in the world is going to spend several minutes to read the words of a troll FAKE MAGA in Canada, a manipulator which has no purpose but to write the same Covid-19 messages all over again, on different threads. No originals ideas, nothing of value to offer. 

New people, please read this man's profile, he is a great laugh. ?

You won't can't comment because I wiped the floor with your stupidity, as usual.

The trend continues: I make statements of fact, you throw baseless accusations. 

If you were the "superior" person which you continually claim to be, it would be very easy for you to challenge my statements, disprove them rather, but you have nothing. You can't speak to a single, solitary thing.

And FYI, The Star is arguably the most liberal rag in all of NA, and they're the ones who said that covid deaths in 2022 were 30% higher than 2021, and 24% higher than in 2020. 

It's a fact that you can't account for, but I can.

You also can't speak to the fact that when covid deaths were higher than ever, by a large margin, the MSM completely dodged the topic. That's pretty weird considering that all they did in 2020 and 2021 was talk about covid deaths. 

Cat got your tongue again, dummy? ?

Edited April 11, 2023 by WestCanMan

[Americana Antifa]

21 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

@Americana Antifa what do you think? Do you see me do battles with these far right trolls? You still think of me as a fascist? 

My dude. How many times do I have to say I don't think you're a fascist? My point has always been that by equating anti-fascists and fascists, you're helping to normalize fascism. Just like how people that say "Ukraine and Russia are both corrupt" are helping to normalize Putin's fascism.

I actually came across this meme a little while ago. Totally reminds me of you.

 

[Americana Antifa]

21 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

Oh, and @Americana Antifa the man above is not a conservative, in my estimation.

Like I said before, when the vast majority of conservatives are authoritarian, we have to accept that conservatism is an authoritarian ideology like nazism and stalinism.

And that's not even considering the fact that conservatism was founded as a forced compromise with democracy, plus conservatives opposed every social justice movement. Trumpism is just conservatism on crack.

[Americana Antifa]

Just now, Contrarian said:

I can't say that Ukraine is corrupt? You are talking to someone that found FSB trolls all the way to Australia and New Zeeland, pro-NATO to my bones, and I can stand on my two feet and say that Ukraine has a corruption problem and needs to be addressed right after the war. 

Am I helping Putin? How? Please explain the psychology while I do some volunteering around. 

It's fine to say Ukraine is corrupt. But by saying "Ukraine and Russia are both corrupt," you're equating Russia's fascism with Ukraine's imperfect democracy.

You might have noticed that Tucker Carlson used to openly support Russia, saying he hopes they win, praising Putin, and so on. But when it turned out that most normies are siding with Ukraine, he switched up his game. Now he doesn't openly side with Russia, instead whenever talking about the war, he just talks about corruption on "both sides." The point of this is to defend Russia by basically saying it's just another country with problems, like Ukraine. It normalizes Putin's politics.

[Americana Antifa]

30 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
DHS (Department of Homeland Security)
Local police departments
Civil Liberties Unions
Human Rights Campaign

So, why does the system need AntiFa again?! Please do not give me a conspiracy from the far left that the institutions above are infiltrated by you know whom, your favourite word, it will be a low point. 

So here's how I see it. Those groups deal in law and they don't want to make it illegal to be authoritarian, which I agree with. I don't support laws against "thought crimes" or anti-hate speech laws or anything like that. However, this means we're going to have situations where fascists legally march in order to promote fascism. We can get into why this is bad, how it actually does succeed in spreading fascism, and all that. For now, I'll just say that we need Antifa to prevent these people from marching, which can and is done legally through sit-ins. This happens in East Germany all the time and I wish it was more common in America.

Quote

 

Me, as a centrist, if I see Antifa agitating and stopping someone from speaking at a university WHICH APPROVED THE SPEAKER, why would i support them? which in turn, that can cause more division? 

Why not let the people talk and if they cross the line, call the above real anti-fascists to deal with the problem?

 

Because all that does is help normalize and spread fascism as an acceptable political ideology. The only time fascists should be allowed to publicly speak is in a debate format where an anti-fascist can destroy their points, then mock and humiliate them for being weak and stupid. And even then, we have to be careful with who we platform in a debate setting, how we go about debunking their points, and such.

Look at it like this. MAPs want pedophilia to be seen as an acceptable sexuality along with heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. And the rest of us are saying no, we understand we can't make it illegal to be attracted to kids, but we're not going to accept pedophilia the way we accept those other sexualities. This one sexuality, when acted upon, does too much harm. Well, it's similar with authoritarianism. I disagree with communism and liberalism, but I think they should still be acceptable ideas that we can discuss in a more relaxed setting. But authoritarian ideologies should not be seen as acceptable.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Americana Antifa

[Nationalist]

5 hours ago, Contrarian said:

Ok, this one, I will not read. Just seen the word "Covid" at the beginning and moved to comment. 

Who in the world is going to spend several minutes to read the words of a troll FAKE MAGA in Canada, a manipulator which has no purpose but to write the same Covid-19 messages all over again, on different threads. No originals ideas, nothing of value to offer. 

New people, please read this man's profile, he is a great laugh. ?

Picking fights again are ya?

Good girl.

[Nationalist]

12 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

Aw, bully troll. What's the matter, agitator?! 

Can't hold to ideas, so now, you use words such as "girl" ?!

Bully troll. What is next? Are you going to tell people you will "send them in a "box"? 

Who are you trying to intimidate, you uneducated man?! A bully weakling, hilarious to watch your hysteria.

Boy...you got projection down pat...don't ya.

[Nationalist]

1 minute ago, Contrarian said:

Bully low IQ troll, yesterday you lied again, saying you hold Security Clearence, I wonder if the government knows such elements use the Internet to claim things. I do need to look into the law. Maybe eventually, some laws will be passed, so when things like this are claimed over the internet, if found to be just the lies of a troll, some sort of consequences, legal, need to be paid. I think this might resolve the trolling business on the internet, overall., A few of you facing the consequences, then people will learn to think twice before pressing Enter on the keyboard. 

Until then, the screenshots that say you would put people in a box, are unique, only a violent thug like you can write such things. 

It's not my fault that you can't succeed. Jealousy is so unbecoming. 

[Americana Antifa]

36 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

Too much text, really, to justify one's BIAS and tribal behaviour. 

What kind of statement is this? "Those groups deal in law and they don't want to make it illegal to be authoritarian, which I agree with."

The real Anti-Fascists who deal in law: 

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
DHS (Department of Homeland Security)
Local police departments
Civil Liberties Unions
Human Rights Campaign

• Of course, they deal in law, who are you exactly to determine the standards of someone to speak?
• Do you have a checklist as to who is allowed to show up, according to your <- far left radicalism? 

Did you not finish reading the post? You asked why we need Antifa if we have those groups. My answer is that those groups deal in law, which is fine, but Antifa deals in using protests to block fascists from promoting fascism. One of the reasons fascism is part of mainstream American politics now is because Americans failed to keep them from normalizing fascism as a legitimate political position.

Most Americans aren't authoritarians, but Americans generally don't take the threat of authoritarianism as seriously as Europeans do. Now I wonder why that is. ?

[CdnFox]

19 minutes ago, Americana Antifa said:

Did you not finish reading the post? You asked why we need Antifa if we have those groups. My answer is that those groups deal in law, which is fine, but Antifa deals in using protests to block fascists from promoting fascism.

Antifa is attempting to NORMALIZE fascism. Not fight it.  They use violence, intimidation, bullying and fear to try to force people to do what they want and agree with their agenda. They are extremely nationalist, believing that their vision for the nation is the ONLY one that should be allowed to exist.

They are horrible people and the people of the us and canada have become fed up with their hatred and violence.

That's why the feds classified their activites as 'domestic terrorist violence'. 

[Americana Antifa]

15 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

Antifa is attempting to NORMALIZE fascism. Not fight it.  They use violence, intimidation, bullying and fear to try to force people to do what they want and agree with their agenda. They are extremely nationalist, believing that their vision for the nation is the ONLY one that should be allowed to exist.

They are horrible people and the people of the us and canada have become fed up with their hatred and violence.

That's why the feds classified their activites as 'domestic terrorist violence'. 

Yeah, it's crazy out there.

[West]

8 hours ago, Americana Antifa said:

This is what I mean. In order to criticize Antifa, y'all have to talk about the fringe cases. Conservatives do the same thing during every civil rights movement. 

If I want to criticize the Right, I don't need to obsess over fringe cases. I can just point to their elected politicians and mainstream media pundits. Because while there are extremists on the Left, the Center, and the Right, it's only on the Right that the extremists are so common that they get elected to office or become mainstream pundits.

AOC is a deranged lunatic

[dialamah]

2 hours ago, Nationalist said:

Picking fights again are ya?

Good girl.

Using "girl" to insult.  Sexist, misogynistic troll. 

[Americana Antifa]

Just now, West said:

AOC is a deranged lunatic

Examples?

[WestCanMan]

8 hours ago, Contrarian said:

Troll, I don't know what you are talking about. I found one of your brethren that I am talking Covid-19 now with, and after some going back and forth, I think we have a discussion going. 

This is not the Covid thread.

• This is you again providing ammunition to communists like Antifa with your stupidity.
• AntiFa takes your image and goes back to campus saying: "These are conservatives". 

Not on my watch. You are not a conservative, but a fringe troll.

Antifa can debate me or some real conservatives, there are real men around here that debate with logic. 

Have a nice day, stooge.

[WestCanMan]

8 hours ago, Americana Antifa said:

Like I said before, when the vast majority of conservatives are authoritarian, we have to accept that conservatism is an authoritarian ideology like nazism and stalinism.

And that's not even considering the fact that conservatism was founded as a forced compromise with democracy, plus conservatives opposed every social justice movement. Trumpism is just conservatism on crack.

What's authoritarian about conservatives? Was it conservatives that helped create the vaccine, or was it conservatives that forced everyone to take it?

Was it conservatives in Canada who froze people's bank accounts for donating small sums of money to a peaceful protest? 

Was it conservatives who called leftists the basket of deplorables, or called people who didn't vax racists and misogynists? Or asked people if the unvaxed should be 'tolerated'? 

What has any conservative in Canada or the US done that's even remotely as fascist as your burners and looters did in Ferguson, Minnesota, etc? 

Listen up dumbass, you support widespread violence and destruction for dumb criminals like M Brown. What makes you think that you're in any position to call someone else a fascist?

You may not have thrown the molotov cocktails or shot the fireworks at the police yourself, but by flying the Antifa banner you're supporting/sanctioning those actions. 

When people over here found out that islamic state was beheading journalists and committing genocide, so they went over there to do the social media posts for them, do you think they weren't really part of all the bad stuff? Were they good people in a group that had a 'fringe' element? Because they're you. 

FYI Hitler's brownshirts did the exact same thing that you do. They used violence to suppress reason and reality, and to support the disinformation and false narratives of the Nazis. You use violence to support the disinformation and false narratives of the Dems. And if you don't think that whole M Brown thing was a false narrative by now then you're a compete dolt and it's no wonder that someone conned you into being a terrorist. The Jussie Smollett scam was the exact same thing. Leftists supported that even when it was completely ridiculous on its face. Then when it was over, they pretended that he was just doing it for attention, they ignored the fact that what he did was a fake hate crime against himself which he blamed on an entire group of people. 

 

Like any good leftard, the only defence of your actions that you can provide is baseless insults against the bogeyman.