• Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    I’m a Satanist and affiliated with neither CoS or TST. The leadership of TST are not good people. One of them tried to make himself the god of a cargo cult and the other has a history of making racist, antisemitic and ablist statements. He also owned a website about eugenics until 2018.

    That video I linked to is long but it is very well sourced and I hope might give you a bit more insight into who you’re supporting if you choose to join or donate to them. There’s a lot of comments under the video from ex-TST members, including Ministers and Chapter Heads who’ve been badly burnt by TST.

    • TaterTurnipTulip@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Up voting for linking to Dead Domain. It’s a good video with a lot of time taken to go over the various issues. Certainly doesn’t cover absolutely everything, but does a good job showing why TST ends up being more marketing than actual good.

      A less problematic Satanist org fighting the good fight would be nice

      • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        Are you suggesting that someones potential for child rape is the only metric we should look at when determining someones decency?

        • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          No. They are saying if group A, who has a long history of widespread pedophilia protection is going to get in, group B, who’s biggest issues are these, isn’t worth proactively trying to stop, especially when they both align on the principal at hand.

          • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            6 months ago

            My take on that is that is that its entirely possible to disagree with and not support any number of bad groups. I definitely wouldn’t want my kids exposed to either group.

            The issues raised in this story are to do with education, but the issues with both groups are concerning and go beyond education. I’m not sure not opposing one of them because they’re not as established as the other or less awful than the other is really valid. Being less awful is not equal to not awful at all.

            • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              They don’t want to be their either, the point is to force the state’s hand to either back off on religion in school, or have them pass unarguably unconstitutional laws and then rake them over it. There is also no perfect hero, or solution, so I am willing to not appose an organization that is working towards getting both parties kicked out, despite being run by assholes. They are just assholes, the other are monsters.

              • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                6 months ago

                No, they’re not just assholes. If they were just that, nobody would give a shit. I understand what you think they’re doing and I understand why you think it’s a good thing. As I said to someone else, there’s literally no way for anyone to summarise everything. You can either watch it or not, I can’t make you.

                It’s an oddity of the whole situation that 90% of the ‘ordinary’ members of TST are good people who want good things, but the owners of TST (and they are the owners, TST is also a registered business as well as a tax-exempt religion) are really not and they have absolute control over it.

    • Eww@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      No Christian person has ever been a racist, but all of them are part of a cult though.

    • nifty@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Sorry to ask, but could someone summarize the video? Cannot watch it rn, and will probably forget later.

      That said, all organizations face this kind of “what’s the orgs vision or character” challenge. Thats why good leadership is important. Sometimes it’s best to cut loses and reorganize, and also market how you’re different now.

      Supporting eugenics in any form is unconscionable, but people make mistakes and can grow from them. There are examples of KKK members who became activists in other direction, and we shouldn’t lock people in to their past bad decisions. I encourage the idea of “reformed racists”.

      As asinine as I think the idea of “Satan” is in general, I see value in contenders and challengers to established religious authorities. As a rule, we should remove religion from policy making.

      • Leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        Honestly, that feels impossible - there’s just so much there’s no way to summarise it neatly. And it goes way, way beyond just the racism eugenics, antisemitism etc. There’s the way TST are using the law as a weapon, the numerous comments about how women are treated the higher up the org you get. I really don’t know how to summarise it all.

    • acetanilide@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Thanks, saved to watch later

      If someone happens upon this around 7pm ET (USA - i think thats 11pm UTC) tonight (5/17) and can remind me, me and my ADHD would greatly appreciate it.