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Post by Armand Tanzarian on Apr 1, 2009 17:42:18 GMT -5
www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html The article details a Polish student who spent a half-year living with a fundie family, and found it, in no less terms, hell. He was belittled and treated like a child, subjected to unreal ideals, and expected to return to Poland and spread the religion. He applied to leave as soon as he could. Which brings me into the fray. I can say that American fundementalism is unique in its style and the echo chamber its built for itself. Every now and then, you do get the foreign student who gets suckered into fundie-ism- Carlin knows I've argued with a few of them. Then there's me, the expatriate who has a violent reaction to religion. What do you think? For those who suffered through the American school system, how do you think the foreign students are treated on campus? You already saw how stereotyped we are on campus, so I wonder if its similar elsewhere.
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Post by antichrist on Apr 1, 2009 18:02:02 GMT -5
www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html The article details a Polish student who spent a half-year living with a fundie family, and found it, in no less terms, hell. He was belittled and treated like a child, subjected to unreal ideals, and expected to return to Poland and spread the religion. He applied to leave as soon as he could. Which brings me into the fray. I can say that American fundementalism is unique in its style and the echo chamber its built for itself. Every now and then, you do get the foreign student who gets suckered into fundie-ism- Carlin knows I've argued with a few of them. Then there's me, the expatriate who has a violent reaction to religion. Fundies seem to only see other people as extensions of their own plans and schemes. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. It's almost psychopathic. They seem unable to understand that people exist outside of their world view. And if they do run into someone who refuses to bend to their whim, well obviously that person is demon possessed. You mean you're not a Buddhist math geek whose addicted to rice?  |
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Post by wmdkitty on Apr 1, 2009 18:16:10 GMT -5
www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html The article details a Polish student who spent a half-year living with a fundie family, and found it, in no less terms, hell. He was belittled and treated like a child, subjected to unreal ideals, and expected to return to Poland and spread the religion. He applied to leave as soon as he could. Which brings me into the fray. I can say that American fundementalism is unique in its style and the echo chamber its built for itself. Every now and then, you do get the foreign student who gets suckered into fundie-ism- Carlin knows I've argued with a few of them. Then there's me, the expatriate who has a violent reaction to religion. Fundies seem to only see other people as extensions of their own plans and schemes. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. It's almost psychopathic. They seem unable to understand that people exist outside of their world view. And if they do run into someone who refuses to bend to their whim, well obviously that person is demon possessed. True, but there's an unhealthy amount of projection going on as well -- they hate and fear Teh Ghey because they see it in themselves. They want to control women, because they (fundies) cannot control themselves. See what I'm getting at? |
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Post by RavynousHunter on Apr 1, 2009 20:00:27 GMT -5
They look for control in a life whose walls are crashing down around them. As their beliefs come under more and more scrutiny, and that scrutiny is making more and more sense, they cling on to what little they have left with a vigorous zeal. They are fundies because they are afraid, not of God, but by the possibility that everything they believe to be true is, in fact, false.
They fear the truth, and thus attempt to have the truth quashed and all evidence of it buried.
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Post by Old Viking on Apr 1, 2009 20:17:20 GMT -5
AT: I find Asian people inscrutable. On the other hand, I have no idea what "scrutable" means, so inscrutability is probably OK.
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Post by Art Vandelay on Apr 1, 2009 20:35:26 GMT -5
AFAIK the US fundies are in a league of their own due to the bible belt being an isolated fundy enclave until around the latter half of the 20th century and as such the fundies could stay in the 18th century mindset without any sort of scrutiny whatsoever until very recently.
Is this at all close to the mark or am I just talking out of my ass again?
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Post by brendanjd on Apr 1, 2009 20:51:43 GMT -5
I grew up in a small town in Canada, about 10k people. We had exactly 4 Laotian people, 3 Black people, one Jewish family, one guy form the next town over who was Ba'Hai and a Muslim family with about 6-8 people in. I went to high school with the two Laotion kids, 3 of the Muslim kids, a Jewish girl, a Ba'hai guy, and the one high schooled aged Black kid.
They were accepted without regard for skin colour or creed. Even in a Post-9/11 world. This is a town where we have a festival every year celebrating how the founders cut down trees and floated them down the river. We are hicks, pure and simple. Yet there was no racial or religious discrimination.
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Post by dantesvirgil on Apr 1, 2009 21:07:35 GMT -5
Honestly, I don't know. I grew up in a really rural area and we had exchange students periodically. But they didn't stay with fundamentalists. And they weren't really treated differently at school, they usually got on with people well enough. As far as I could tell. It's not really been my experience that fundamentalists have been eager to host exchange students. So that in itself seems like an anomaly to me. I know it's a generalization, but people who enjoy hosting exchange students usually enjoy multiculturalism--not something fundies are into. So the whole thing defies my experience.
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Post by m52nickerson on Apr 3, 2009 7:12:44 GMT -5
The best/worst part.
"They also wanted to know whether I drank alcohol. I admitted that I liked beer and wine. They told me I had the devil in my heart."
Being of Polish descent myself and having known my Polish grandparents alcohol is a part of the culture. Not saying that people abuse it. My grandfather would make wines and alcohols out of just about anything and everything......including Dandelions. Plus, it is normal over there for a 19 year old to having a drink once in a while.
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Post by deliciousdemon on Apr 3, 2009 8:31:31 GMT -5
www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html The article details a Polish student who spent a half-year living with a fundie family, and found it, in no less terms, hell. He was belittled and treated like a child, subjected to unreal ideals, and expected to return to Poland and spread the religion. He applied to leave as soon as he could. Which brings me into the fray. I can say that American fundementalism is unique in its style and the echo chamber its built for itself. Every now and then, you do get the foreign student who gets suckered into fundie-ism- Carlin knows I've argued with a few of them. Then there's me, the expatriate who has a violent reaction to religion. What do you think? For those who suffered through the American school system, how do you think the foreign students are treated on campus? You already saw how stereotyped we are on campus, so I wonder if its similar elsewhere. One of my best mates is German and she has a good friend currently living in Georgia for a year of exchange. The friend says it is hell and she hates it. She is a very tough woman but she hates the religious aspect of the family. It does not sound like it is as bad as with the Polish student in the article (they have not expected her to return to Germany and start a church) but she regrets her choice very often. The rural setting doesn't help either because she is from Berlin and used to a mosaic of different peoples. |
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Post by Rime on Apr 3, 2009 13:20:02 GMT -5
The best/worst part. "They also wanted to know whether I drank alcohol. I admitted that I liked beer and wine. They told me I had the devil in my heart." Being of Polish descent myself and having known my Polish grandparents alcohol is a part of the culture. Not saying that people abuse it. My grandfather would make wines and alcohols out of just about anything and everything......including Dandelions. Plus, it is normal over there for a 19 year old to having a drink once in a while. It may have to do with the water being poor quality in many places. The French drink wine because it's safer than drinking the water in many cases. |
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Post by m52nickerson on Apr 3, 2009 13:25:07 GMT -5
It may have to do with the water being poor quality in many places. The French drink wine because it's safer than drinking the water in many cases. That could be very true. ......and now talking about it I really what some Krupnik. |
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Post by Thejebusfire on Apr 3, 2009 13:35:06 GMT -5
That explains a lot.
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Post by szaleniec on Apr 7, 2009 23:18:04 GMT -5
The best/worst part. "They also wanted to know whether I drank alcohol. I admitted that I liked beer and wine. They told me I had the devil in my heart." Being of Polish descent myself and having known my Polish grandparents alcohol is a part of the culture. Not saying that people abuse it. My grandfather would make wines and alcohols out of just about anything and everything......including Dandelions. Plus, it is normal over there for a 19 year old to having a drink once in a while. It may have to do with the water being poor quality in many places. The French drink wine because it's safer than drinking the water in many cases. The thing about tap water is that it varies enormously by region, both in health terms and by taste. I can drink the tap water in Norwich by the litre and never buy bottled water, but the stuff in Manchester where I'm originally from has (to my mind) a strange taste to it. For some people this may be the other way round. I'd be surprised if French tap water was unsafe to drink, but I'm no expert. I believe safety was the reason that beer rather than water was the most common drink in medieval Europe, though - even with no conception of germs it's easy to deduce that there might be some significance to the fact that people who only drank beer didn't die of cholera. As to Poland... well, I've never had any trouble with the water. Tastes decent (though the bottled is nicer) and has never given me an upset stomach or anything. I've seen reports ranging from "perfectly safe" to "don't drink the stuff if your life depends on it". Of course for such a rapidly developing country a report from 3 months ago could well be outdated, and there's still the regional variability to consider. |
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ouabache
Junior Member
Official Pope
Posts: 73
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Post by ouabache on Apr 8, 2009 22:39:30 GMT -5
More proof that lack of sex drives you clinically insane. |
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