April 19, 2018 (theonion.com)

LANARK, IL—Adamant that there would be no unplanned pit stops until her family had reached its destination, local mom Mary Curran reportedly made sure that each of her teenage sons had masturbated to completion Thursday before a long car ride to their grandparents’ house. “It’s going to be three hours—maybe more with traffic—so even if you don’t have to jerk off right this second, you should at least try,” said Curran, hoping to avoid a repeat of their last trip when they barely managed to pull off I-39 in time for her youngest to blow his load into a ditch. “I know you say you just cranked one out, but you say that every time. Please just go and pleasure yourself now so we don’t find ourselves desperately looking for an exit with a Denny’s that will let you jack it without buying anything first.” Curran went on to fault her husband for letting the kids watch so much porn with breakfast.

April 19, 2018 (theonion.com)

THE HEAVENS—Saying that the incident had a profound effect on Him and that He hasn’t been the same since, God, Our Lord and Heavenly Father, recalled Thursday his life-changing encounter with an 8-year-old boy who had a near-death experience. “I was standing there one day in the brightness of Eternal Life when suddenly, a small boy came walking towards My light,” said the Almighty, explaining that He felt at peace and had no fear, as was nearly always the case, but that He could also see the boy’s small frame on an operating table far below and realized that He was seeing an actual out-of-body experience. “He asked me if I was God and this Heaven, and when I said, ‘Yes, my child,’ a look of total tranquility came over him. I tell you, it was really humbling. Before I could say anything else, the child’s spirit was returned to his body, but the feeling of total serenity still lingered. It made me really appreciate the afterlife, you know?” God added that He took great comfort in knowing that He will see the boy again very soon.

1.  In his famous lecture Religion and Science (May 1937) Planck wrote: “Both religion and science need for their activities the belief in God, and moreover God stands for the former in the beginning, and for the latter at the end of the whole thinking. For the former, God represents the basis, for the latter – the crown of any reasoning concerning the world-view.”

Max Planck On God

NOVEMBER 28, 2010 / PRAYSON DANIEL

By Bill Eddy, Co-founder and President, The High Conflict Institute

April 18, 2018 (BigThink.com)

by Charlotte Lindsay — April 19, 2018 (thehoya.com)

HIGHWAY MAN FILMS

The opening scene of “The Rider” sets the tone for the entire movie: Viewers see horse trainer and rodeo star Brady Blackburn’s stapled skull under harsh lighting, matching the scene’s gruesome mood. Blackburn is played by Brady Jandreau, who serves as the inspiration for the film’s true story. Directed by Chloé Zhao, the film explores themes of identity and recovery from trauma, starring an untrained lead with a personal investment in the story.

Despite doctors’ warnings to quit riding after he falls off a horse and suffers a traumatic brain injury, Blackburn struggles to let go of his passion for rodeo. Viewers learn a central symptom of Blackburn’s injury is regular complex seizures, which cause his hand to “lock”; the symptom serves as a tactful metaphor for Blackburn’s reluctance to let go of his grip on his horseback riding dreams.

Blackburn’s story is one of perseverance and bravery: He is determined to make a name for himself. Blackburn clearly possesses not only the skills — he is the only one capable of training a number of unruly horses — but also the passion needed to succeed at this high level. Tragically, however, Blackburn is forced to follow a new path, getting an entry-level job at a grocery store — the only job he could qualify for without a high school degree.

Zhao juxtaposes the former rodeo star’s old life with his new one when a young rodeo fan approaches a shelf-stocking Blackburn for a photo. The stark comparison between past and present is clearest in that moment. Despite his difficult circumstances, Blackburn’s spirit is never fully put out. While others would retreat and mope, he does not give up, remaining confident and determined.

“The Rider” focuses on the larger theme of identity: Blackburn tells his sister God created each person with a specific purpose. His purpose was to ride. When horseback riding is no longer an option for him, the hero feels stuck in a whirlwind, unsure of what to do. The psychological effects of this uncertainty are profound, as Blackburn comparing himself to an injured horse that gets put down.

Perhaps most impressive about the film is its cast. Jandreau, star of the film, had no previous acting experience. Yet, his raw emotion and authenticity shine through in his character. Jandreau undoubtedly draws on his own struggles in his performance, as the actor suffered a similar real-life accident

The dynamics between the actors are also unparalleled: Tim Jandreau, Brady Jandreau’s father, plays Blackburn’s father in the film, and sister Lilly Jandreau plays his autistic sister.

Lane Scott, another untrained actor, plays Brady Blackburn’s best friend and fellow rodeo star who suffered an even more serious injury than the main character. The relationship between the two is touching, with each encouraging the other despite an unspoken knowledge that, due to their injuries, their lives would not be the same.

The obviously close real-life relationships translate onto the screen perfectly in a way that could not have been replicated had Zhao chosen unrelated, trained actors. The composition of the film adds to its authenticity; as a result, the film never feels manipulative or exploitative. The incredible sense of realness draws viewers in and keeps them captivated for the full 105 minute running time. “The Rider” resonates with its audience not through dramatic scripted conflicts, but through raw emotion. Blackburn is a man of few words, but the words he does say are never wasted.

Anyone who has been knocked off their path or forced to adapt after an unexpected change can relate to Blackburn, giving the film a wide-reaching appeal. “The Rider” is not simply a story of a horseback rider: It is a story of hope and resilience in the face of struggle.

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.” ~ Max Plank, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of Quantum Mechanics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck

One scholar who seeks to define intersectionality is Marla Brettschneider, Ph.D. She is a professor of political philosophy with a joint appointment in political science and women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire.

Queer and Jewish, Brettschneider is an expert on diversity politics. Her books include “Jewish Feminism and Intersectionality,” which was also the title of her March 27 lecture at the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion’s Jewish Queeries series in Berkeley. Brettschneider, 54, also spoke with the Bay Area Reporter.

In her lecture, Brettschneider defined intersectionality, a term first coined by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, as looking critically at multiple aspects of identity, oppression, and justice politics together. For example, one views racism, patriarchy, classism, and anti-Semitism, simultaneously, rather than as either/or or single entities.

Crenshaw developed her theory discussing black feminism, realizing that being black and a woman were not independent social stratifications but interactive ones, as they reinforce each other. So it’s not just race, or just class, or just gender, or just sexuality but all of them at the same time. Their combined weight is far greater than the sum of their individual parts and they have their most deleterious impact on marginalized people in society.

Brettschneider noted how this paradigm has long been in use under different terms such as multiculturalism, and identity politics by feminists and others on the left, but more systematized under Crenshaw’s depiction. Jews have been very active in using these models, both in the academy and in activism, yet Brettschneider observed how there is almost no scholarship that takes Jewish experience and matters of concern seriously in intersectionality work.

“Since my book went to press, lack of attention to Jews in intersectionality work has become increasingly joined with anti-Israel/anti-Zionist ideas and actions, as well as a persistent anti-Semitism,” she said. “This exclusion has worked against intersectionality because Jews’ experience as a minority, marginalized, and usually diasporic peoples has much to offer. This experience, wisdoms, and organizing strategies (for good and for ill) can be of much use for many other groups in their own specificities and also in solidarity.

“However, much more insightful and careful analysis is needed that questions privilege and Christian hegemony, to understand a variety of ways that politics and power dynamics operated. It is also potentially deadly, not only for Jews, but for all of us, to leave Jews out of analyses of white Christian supremacy,” Brettschneider added. “Yes, because of Trumpian policies, more people are talking about white supremacy, but they are not often understanding that white supremacy has always actually operated as white Christian supremacy.”

Brettschneider was adamant that “when you work on issues of identity, oppression, and justice politics and leave out any matters of gender and sexuality, anything about LGBTQ people, perspectives, and issues, you will not only get a partial picture but what you do get will be skewed, given any exclusions of this sort. And you will likely be engaged in reproducing modes of cisgender heteronormativity even if that is not your intention.”

Each identity one is exploring can situate differently power-wise, she noted. For example, a gay black man operates at different political positions, so gay and black might be disadvantages, but man is not. Still, each identity makes the other possible as they co-create each other.

She applies the same criteria to the #MeToo movement, as “we need to work on multiple levels with multiple axis of identities, impressions, in a multi-community and multi-issue justice movement.

“We have a lot of experience back from the 1980s in the feminist movement working between seeing the truth and individual testimony with complex ways in which we understand and challenge truth such that it’s not as simple as experience equals truth, which is a presumption sometimes of critics who then seek to challenge the validity of individual testimony,” she said.

Jews have long recognized that social justice is one of the main concerns that make them Jewish, so they can provide acute analyses of power and oppression, having been repeatedly dismantled throughout their long history, she noted.

One audience member brought up the issue of the Parkland, Florida school shooting and revitalization of the gun control debate, especially the recent March for Our Lives.

Brettschneider reminded the audience that the slogans used at the march, such as “Never Again” or “We Will Remember,” were first used as awareness for Holocaust victims and survivors. Also, seven of the 17 shooting victims were Jewish, and she said that there is evidence that shooter Nicholas Cruz may have been hunting for Jews, a fact not well-known, but a significant one in any intersectional analysis of this tragedy. So, she explained, with its wealth of historical examples, its organizational experience, and political public response, Jews have much to offer in how to deal with this catastrophe.

Another audience member remarked how the needs of a black child are often set against those of a white child, seen as a competition, that meeting the black child’s needs somehow takes away from those of a white child, with such hierarchies of oppression being used to delegitimize marginalized people by giving into an irrational fear that there is not enough room or resources for all of us.

But Brettschneider argued that people can be expansive for everyone if they are willing to see the world through multiple lenses through various communities, “supporting and challenging one another with humility and in solidarity,” she said. “Joining our collective wisdom and experiences will be crucial in building an effective resistance movement against Trump and his policies.”

Human Library Lets You Check Out People, Aims to Foster Diversity

This is what Wikipedia says about Groupthink:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the “ingroup” produces an “illusion of invulnerability” (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the “ingroup” significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the “outgroup“). Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”.

More at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink