Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "TopThink" channel.

@bonniemoerdyk9809 Yes, it is. Evil people never want for company, and they make you feel like "something must be wrong" with you.
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@joejones9520 The workplace has gotten sinister. My friend worked for a firm where the payroll clerk always read her Bible at her desk at lunch and participated in charities, etc., and made sure everyone knew. A bit odd, but would it alert you to mistrust her? Well, when she found out that a new employee had had breast cancer, she tried very hard to have her fired. I would not have expected that, say, fifteen years ago. Today, nothing surprises me. I've seen worse.
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@kiralevenson1706 I know. Religion is one of the biggest cover stories put to use for manipulating others. Most normal people are taken by surprise, because even those who are not particularly religious feel that it is sinister to use religion to dupe others and manipulate them. Most people would never dream of doing such a thing, and don't expect that others would, either. That's why it works so well. Just like crime, it is furthered by the element of surprise.
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Of course. It works as their cover story!
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Excellent advice.
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@elliestretchprays7851 Or are you projecting your guilty feelings on her?
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@kiralevenson1706 If you are able to imagine it, you can be better prepared when someone tries to pull it on you. They can't surprise you so much that you're defenseless.
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@margottfon330 Well, s/he accused someone else of precisely that, of "projecting," without any discernable basis for suggesting they were -- someone who apparently removed their comment (probably wise). I simply repeated what s/he said back to her/him, as irony. This was, um, a while back,
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@kiralevenson1706 Yes, THIS!
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Olga Martin It was her cover story. I wonder if she actually read it.
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@margottfon330 Well, what do you know? Baptized in the same faith as you. The original post decried hypocrisy. This was not an attack on sincere believers but on the hypocrites. The Gospels would agree, seems to me. Hypocrites can be exceptionally destructive, because they become so closely identified in other people's minds with the roles they play when they put on a big display of their religiosity, but they don't really believe any of it. They use it for their own ends.
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@margottfon330 Well, that is true, and I say that as someone who is quite agnostic. In fact, if hypocrites do make headway in churches or other religious institutions, it is so often because MOST of the people who attend are very sincere, genuine, deeply devout, and therefore have a lot of trouble believing that others, who appear to profess the same faith, are actually . . . Fakes. I think people often fail to appreciate how emotionally devastating that experience can be. Happens all the time, though. There are reasons hypocrites target churches, schools, etc., places we expect to find more trust and tenderness, etc.
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@kiralevenson1706 The person who wrote what you just responded to isn't well. :/
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@candyharding8361 Nice!! Really well said.
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@margottfon330 Yes, you are right. I just noticed, and was going to correct my response. But the gist is the same. I repeated what she said, ironically: psychologizing invites psychologizing.
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