this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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politics

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Churches campaigning for Trump? Take away their tax-exempt status.

Non Paywalled Link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/x2zrw

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 10 months ago (38 children)

Remember, if you see or hear a church actively campaigning for any sort of politics you can report them and get their tax free status taken away. 👍

[–] [email protected] -5 points 10 months ago (14 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (13 children)

So your answer is to do nothing and be apathetic?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It's more pointing out how the suggested action is bullshit. It's like if you had a leaking roof and someone said to blow soap bubbles on it. And then when you point out that's a nonsensical solution that has no chance of working, they reply "oH, so YoU juSt waNT to Do NotHinG anD bE apaThEtic?"

Pointing out that someones suggestion is a non-solution is not an endorsement of doing nothing. It's pointing out that the suggestion is not helpful and distracts from actual solutions.

Pretending the IRS would actually go after a church is ignoring the reality of the situation. I don't want suggestions that would only work in some deluded made up fantasy world.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It takes little effort. You're saying to not do it, while also not suggesting anything to do. Your suggestion has an even lower chance of success than the OP, so if anyone shouldn't be listened to it's you.

Collect evidence and submit it. Also work on getting better elected officials, unionizing, protesting, and whatever else you can do. If your suggestion is to stop doing something and not replacing it with something more effective then you should just keep your mouth shut.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

How about we throw a bunch of birthday candles in the nearest lake?

And remember, you can't tell me that's stupid and unproductive because by your logic, that would clearly mean you are advocating for doing nothing.

Are you starting to see how nonsense your argument is?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, their logic is that we should pursue the thing with the highest chance of success regardless of whether that chance is very good or not. Reporting to the IRS might only have a 1% chance of success, but that's better than nothing's 0% and birthday candles in a lake's 0.00001% chance.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

It doesn't have a 1% chance, it has essentially a 0% chance. The IRS has NEVER gone after an established church, and they never will because of the massive can of worms it would open. While astronomically speaking, nothing is impossible, there comes a point where something is so improbable that attempting it is wasted effort. In this instance, it distracts from people coming up with actual solutions because they're led to believe that the false solution is worth pursuing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I listed several other things people should also be doing. However, the IRS thing does have some amount of utility even if it does nothing at the moment. The IRS doesn't have enough employees (on purpose) to look into everything, but if they get enough complaints and enough evidence they may. It at least creates a paper trail of they try anything bigger.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Then, by all means, what do you suggest since you obviously know more?

[–] [email protected] -5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Jump on one foot and whistle.

What's that? You don't think that will do anything and it's an unhelpful suggestion?

Unfortunately you just established that you can't criticize dumb ideas unless you offer a working alternative, so I guess we'll all just have to stupidly go along with my jump-on-one-foot-and-whistle strategy until then.

/s

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Again, you provide nothing of substance other than your apathetic bitchy attitude. Provide an alternative if not shut the fuck up because you provide nothing to the conversation.

Unfortunately you just established that you can't criticize dumb ideas unless you offer a working alternative, so I guess we'll all just have to stupidly go along with my jump-on-one-foot-and-whistle strategy until then. /s

Lol, playing the world's smallest violin for ya, champ. You love to dish it but can't take it.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How many ways do I have to say it? I don't need to know or provide an alternative to be able to recognize the current suggestion as bad. How tf are you not grasping this?

Let me try ANOTHER metaphor. Let's say someone asked us both what the square root of 294,797 was without using a calculator. I say "I don't know" and you say "I think it's 4". I don't have to know the correct answer to know that your answer is wrong. And it doesn't magically become worth considering just because it's the only answer that was given. It's still wrong.

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