Yes!

There is of course a difference between faith and religion. Everyone can believe what they want as long as they keep it to themselves, but as soon as it turns into religion you get organisations dictating people's lives, pushing rules on them, trying to convert innocent atheists and giving more reasons to be mean to each other. Like, I don't care if you like batman or superman, they are both fictive and their fanclubs shouldn't have any influence over society. The face that batman is 2000 years newer than your imaginary friends doesn't make him less real.

There is nothing wrong with religion. I have me beliefs on religion and those ideals lead me to help tose less fortunate than myself. I get very weary hearing that religion is somehow bad. NO people are bad and can twist any religion into a self serving disaster. A large portion of religious people are honestly good at heart.

You clearly never won a battle because of your cattle sacrifice to Athena.

Very much so. It may not have started out that way, but we'll, here we are.

Christ saves, religion kills

I saw the light when I was 17......

Amen! so-to-speak

Can they just be left alone ?

Organized religion breeds hypocrisy.

Yes, yes to all of that stuff! Spiritainment - ok, that, it may do. I'm not in for it, but neither am I for certain types of music, art, recreational activities or pets without considering them wrong by any means. But, as soon as it allows or demands anything that, in a secular way, can't be justified or is downright wrong - like those stupid excemptions from laws against cruelty towards animals, that all should be revoked mercilessly ... ironic to use that word, eh? ... any claim of superiority over anything that isn't based on proven facts ... off with that, expect no tolerance, and don't dare blaming it on extremists alone - if any religion is peaceful, its extremists must be the most peaceful people around. Aren't, are they?

Amen! 😉

This! #1

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Hollywood, the US media and influencers

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that isn't a scam have you died and seen for yourself

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If they don't force you to pay for something then it doesn't really matter

I'd say capitalism is the greatest scam ever. Sure, it drives innovation and generates wealth. However it will destroy humanity in the long run by: 1) turning the planet uninhabitable because of greed; 2) creating so much wealth concentration that in a century or two the 1% will own 99% of world assets. Good luck trying to take that power away from them.

What, you didn't read that part of the Bible where Jesus builds a megachurch and then keeps asking for donations?

As someone in the hospital as I type, who has been told my child cannot be discharged because hi electrolytes are low, and who was told by a different doctor yesterday that electrolytes don't matter because his PICC line has been replaced, and my child is bored out of his mind, and after the news was delivered, the resident threw his hands up because he knows it's all about money, that US healthcare system. I have good health coverage from my company and they are milking it. Oh, they also contacted Child Protection Services in the event that I get any ideas about complaining. We're effectively PRISONERS!!!

My god is better than your god.

They won't be coveted for long now that there are ways to produce them in 15 minutes! (Although they are microdiamonds, they will still force prices down.) Don't buy anything except lab-grown diamonds, people! It's the only way to be sure you aren't propping up the deeply unethical diamond mining industry.

*unless* you are donating blood. At least for me here (Sweden). Those who come to donate blood have reserved parking spaces, and don't pay parking fees.

yep, you're hamsterwheeling. Basically going to work to pay for somewhere to sleep and a car to take you to work so you can earn money to pay for the place to sleep and the car to take you to work so you can... ad infinitum.

Imagine bankrupting a casino, a place where people go to practically beg you to take their money. Then imagine doing that four times. Scam.

Well, in a normal democracy with a multiple ( = more than two) party system, the solution is easy: Found a new party, run for elections, do better. It happens constantly in the Netherlands and Germany, in Germany it takes a couple of years to reach a seat in parliament because you need at least 5% of the voters voting for you. In the Netherlands there is no barrier and new parties come and go. Interestingly enough, no one does really better.

We should try the trickle UP effect. Increase pensions and welfare payments, people will have more money to spend, which will make more money for businesses which can even lead to new jobs.

I'd say capitalism is the greatest scam ever. Sure, it drives innovation and generates wealth. However it will destroy humanity in the long run by: 1) turning the planet uninhabitable because of greed; 2) creating so much wealth concentration that in a century or two the 1% will own 99% of world assets. Good luck trying to take that power away from them.

Forty hours was a short and easy work week in most of the jobs I had.

You use it, the company cancels your policy. My dad had the same homeowner's policy with AAA for almost 50 years. It was their top policy, and therefore had the highest premium. We had a house fire (the damage was mostly contained to a single room). The cost for repairs was less than what my dad had paid to AAA over the previous 5 decades. Not only did they require us to use their preferred contractor (which, BTW, has an F rating on the BBB, and has thousands of complaints), but the immediately cancelled the policy AND since all these are in cahoots with each other, nobody would insure the house afterwards. We were only able to get insurance on the house again after my dad passed away nearly 7 years after the fire, because AAA had blacklisted him. Oh, and get this, the fire was caused by a defective water heater, AAA sued the manufacturer (for far more than what they paid out to us), and won.

When my PC died last year I went to get latest versions of various bits of software I'd been using for years and all of them are now subscription based. Found some good open source ones in the end because no thank you.

A real scam is inheritance tax.

You are paying for the bottle, the staff, the cleaning and processing

it's not the loans per se, it's the profiteering pricks on wall street who want a certain level of interest return on the loans. You think paying 6% in usa or whever is bad? Try africa where we are ALSO paying ""investors"" in wall street... at 12%. Most of our loans are owned by USA or china.

Well, interest I dunno. Loans are a business just as any other. They don´t give out money because they have good hearts. But there should be methods in place to control them, that it doesn´t get to high and such.

You mean, private health insurance. There's this funny concept called social security, which includes a health insurance - at least in Europe.

the problem is more how your voting system works. In usa you have too few choices of political parties; bascially you can choose fascism (republicans) or centre-right (democrats). Yes really you guys only have rightwingers, except Bernie. In my country we have over 40 political parties on the ballots for our upcoming elections and three major parties of those who actually get above 10% of the vote. The trouble WE have is that the opposition parties are not strong enough to demonstrate competence but ARE strong enough to prevent votes in parliament.

The worst part is I don't FEEL like an adult, I just have all these stupid adult things that need doing.

not true. The taxes etc you are paying are funding things like sewer pipes and garbage removal.

I disagree with this one. At a time when I did not need any benefits and didn't want to stay at one place for long, I used those agencies and loved it. Also, a job hunter found me and negotiated (with my personal requests) a contract when I was ready to find a permanent job.

Disagree. It's not the school's fault that some people willingly choose ignorance.

Only in the USA, though. In Europe, it's quite affordable... and even free in some countries. Student debt is mostly unheard of ;)

Why would this be a scam?