this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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History Memes

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[–] CPMSP@midwest.social 69 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The fact that we put people in power who believe fairy tales over objective reality is legitimately terrifying.

Same bullshit going on with Kegsbreath right now. Fucking lunacy.

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I am pretty liberal but I think objective insanity should disqualify people from military command.

[–] 8oow3291d@feddit.dk 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If a belief is widely shared within a culture or group, it is not classified as a delusion, even if it seems irrational from the outside.

So since believing in the end times is pretty normal in US cultural groups, then it is not insanity. So by your very own self-description as "pretty liberal", you are obliged to not disqualify people like Bush II from having access to the nuclear suitcase...

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Of course. Anyone who honestly believes in supernatural religions is insane. I said I was pretty liberal, not a fuckin Democrat.

[–] 8oow3291d@feddit.dk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Anyone who honestly believes in supernatural religions is insane.

Not according to the clinical definition of insanity!

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Because the clinical community is infested with insane people who believe in sky fairies. Use your mind instead appealing to the authority of quack hacks that believe faith in obviously false things isn't insane.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Its because, in the US, even though "nonreligious" was the fastest growing religious status for about 2 decades, the country and culture still heavily caters to religious zelots above all else.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Roman Catholic here, born and raised, church every Sunday and catechism. As Roman Catholics, we don't fuck around with reading the Bible. We daze off during the two readings and the Gospel, and we rely on the priest's homily to sum it all up succinctly and with a couple of jokes sprinkled in.

18 years of going to church growing up and I don't know what a Gog Magog is.

[–] RustyShackleford@piefed.social 39 points 1 week ago (3 children)

In the Hebrew Bible, particularly in the Book of Ezekiel (chapters 38–39), Gog is a leader (possibly a king?), and Magog is the land or people he rules. They are described as a hostile force that will attack Israel in the “last days,” only to be decisively defeated by God. In the New Testament (Book of Revelation 20:7–9), the names reappear symbolically. Here, “Gog and Magog” represent the nations of the world gathered for a final rebellion against God after a period of peace. They are again defeated in a climactic, apocalyptic battle.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Space king has more credible lore than this

[–] RustyShackleford@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago

People believe anything their religion tells them.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Woah woah... Slow down and throw a joke or two into that if you want me to absorb it.

[–] RustyShackleford@piefed.social 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Alright, alright, let me put the tinfoil on low heat for a second.

Old Testament: Gog is the boss, Magog is his turf and crew. They roll up for a big end-times fight… and get absolutely smote. End of story.

New Testament? Same names, but now it’s basically everyone and their cousin joining the rebellion. Bigger crowd, same outcome, still gets shut down.

So yeah… same names, bigger scale.

It’s like a sequel where the budget goes up, but the villain still loses in the last five minutes.

And let’s be honest, if your battle plan keeps ending in divine smiting, maybe… workshop the strategy.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That's pretty danged good. Now do it as a limerick.

[–] RustyShackleford@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I gave it a shot, but not sure how it came out. How about this:

There once was a leader named Gog

Whose land, Magog, was part of the slog

They attacked in the end

Got smote ‘round the bend

And the sequel went global, same log

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Not bad at all. Way to give it the ol' college try.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There once was a bloke called Gog,
Who thought he could be "top dog".
He fought with Israel,
Where soon he did fail,
Then he buggered off back to Magog.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Nicely done.

[–] RustyShackleford@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can’t say I’ve ever been good with limericks lol. I tend to be overly descriptive.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There once was a leader named Gog
Who ruled in the land of Magog
His forces were smote
Then again it was wrote
And Dubya's as dumb as a log

[–] Ariselas@piefed.ca 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well, it's not as far fetched as believing that a grifter found some golden tablets in the woods and a magic hat translated the markings for him.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ya know, people believe strange things all of the time, but the thing that has always perplexed me about LDS is that Joseph Smith had a posse destroy the local newspaper's press and died after shooting four people and falling out a window, but his religion lives on.

All that said, I dont like to pick on mormons. The mormons ive encountered have been very positive people that were raised with manners and a strong moral compass. They also have been very family focused.

I'm sure those traits are not 100% universal and The Secret Live of Moron Wives definitely tells a different tale, but in my personal experience having lived in Salt Lake City and a heavily Mormon town in Wyoming, Mormon folk are generally good people, and I credit their religion for a lot of it.

Their mission work is pretty danged cool and "Christian" and they're preppers by religious mandate.

[–] Gathorall@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

The Judeo-Christian God is self-absorbed, vindictive, violent, unpredictable, callous and often wrong. Joseph Smith well serves as a prophet in his image.

[–] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Really makes you wonder what would have happened if Revelation was just never accepted as cannon

Dunno, it likely wouldn’t eliminate apocalyptic thinking altogether since those themes were already present in earlier Jewish and Christian traditions. Revelation, just gave them a script to work with. ¯\(ツ)

[–] Johandea@feddit.nu 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

18 years of going to church growing up and I don't know what a Gog Magog is.

I believe Gandalf killed one of them.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s balrog.

I think what you mean is a game service that sells old games, and my collection of such games.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're confusing it for GOG.com.

I believe Gog Magog is when a person delivers a long, uninterrupted speech.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's a monolog. Gog Magog is an Israeli martial art.

[–] aldhissla@piefed.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's Krav Maga. "Gog Ma' Gog" is a vague and mispronounced instruction regarding one's penis.

No, that's "Crank my hog" Gog Magog is that crocodile cowboy from episodes 2 and 4 of the Amazing Digital Circus.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Isn't gog magog a goose liver pâté? 🤔

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

I wouldnt know -- im catholic.

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I also grew up Roman Catholic, but Catholic Bibles are really a thing. The reason Catholics don't read the Bible is probably to do with timing. In the Second Vatican Council, one of the changes they made was this:

Dei verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation emphasized the study of scripture as "the soul of theology".

But see, the final release of Dei verbum was released in 1965. Everybody was used to not reading the Bible, so they only started teaching children a more Bible-oriented education after that, and it was sort of slow to roll out. But you see, those children were reaching adulthood in the late 80s and 90s, when people stopped going to church as much, and not too long after that, all of the sex abuse scandals really became a hot issue.

Twenty years isn't really enough time to change generational norms. I would expect something like this to change over 2 or 3 generations, so 40 to 60 years, but the decline in attendance and in people seeking the priesthood has sort of reduced the Vatican's control over specifics like this. And I think that's why we still don't see Catholics reading the bible.

[–] FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I have a catholic bible -- st joseph edition. It's same bible as the protestants but a few extra books thrown in at the end.

Dude, Catholicism has been around since the days of St. Peter (if you believe the church's timeline). Catholics dont read the bible because for like 1,940 years of the church's existence, most people couldnt read. Generation after generation after generation was taught that reading the bible isnt necessary. The lutherans only had like 400 years of illiteracy to contend with, and I think they probably still read the bible less than the new-age 19-tickety revival spurred Community/Nondenominational Christians.

Maybe we're saying the same thing in different words with different examples.

[–] auntieclokwise@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Religion for Breakfast has a nice video on what Gog and Magog is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh11CuVUZPY . They're basically a group originally mentioned in Ezekiel that we don't have alot of idea who they originally were, but they've been this recurring boogeyman through Judaism and Christianity as both groups keep trying to apply the name to whoever they think might be the biggest threat to Israel.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Up until Trump, GW Bush was the dumbest president ever. Like Trump, he had a hard time focusing on his morning intelligence briefing, so they started making the first page a Bible verse. That way he looked forward to opening the file.

[–] 8oow3291d@feddit.dk 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Eh? Reagan was an actor, and not a curious mind. And Reagan had literal Alzheimer's, as widely reported. Surely Reagan was the dumbest?

Though we can agree that Reagan - Bush II - Trump were all incredibly stupid. Republicans just know how to pick them...

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Alzheimer's is NOT the same as being stupid, so while he WAS stupid, that's not why.

It's pointless to have an argument about which was the stupider president before Trump. I think it was GWB, you think it was Reagan, and there is no source that will decide it.

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[–] UninvestedCuriosity@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Moloch also keeps showing up again and again in the lore of these people as a way for them to personally atone for their egregious activities. They believe this entity requires constant and significant sacrifice for good fortune. George Bush Jr was in attendance at Bohemian grove many times where the powerful people go to rub elbows and relax in the summer on a lake. They run a mock ceremony there called the Comfort of Care as part of the festivities where they do a mock sacrifice of a young women (presumably a virgin) to Moloch as a symbol of the entire years worth of their immoral actions to atone to Moloch. The idea being that they can then leave the mini vacation with less weight of how they have used their power in the past.

I think coverage of the grove as dramatization throughout the years regarding occult activity actually did us all a big disservice toward what the real issue has always been. That is, leadership without personal responsibility, and should be a major red flag when thinking about leaders at any capacity.

I wish I was making this stuff up. So it's not totally off the wall here that George Bush Jr would be looking for other spiritual entities and collect them so that he could also use for himself for justifications. This is how they sleep at night and we should never let them forget their harm no matter how many cute paintings they make.

Whether they really believe this stuff or not, there is always a theme of using spirituality to justify horrible actions among these people and I think that's something important to keep in mind in regard to understanding the complete lack of mental health and critical thinking among the powerful despite their positions and willingness to say or do anything to justify their actions.

I wish we could do away with the idea of spirituality once and for all but I'd settle for the institutions of religion to at least call out these people more often along the way when powerful people are just as happy to use that religion as a means of justification for their actions. The whole thing is rotten to the core.

When a person with addiction murders someone and says "god made me do it.". We treat them as crazy. When a politician does it, we are supposed to feel sorry for them?

Anyway, for anyone that believes they have to choose "something" focus on science. At least it has to prove itself rather than demand sacrifice to some vague mythical goat man. I believe the Pastafarions haven't harmed anyone (yet) either.

[–] Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

"Those damn Catholics" - George Bush probably

Also nothing has changed in regards to the United Slaves of Israel's religious fanaticism, they really believe that creating "Greater Israel" and deporting all the Jews to Palestine will fulfill that "biblical prophecy" usher in the apocalypse, Jesus will return and kill all the Jews for not believing he's the Messiah and judgement day will come.

And yet apparently the Iranians are the religious nuts 🤦‍♂️ Oh and also apparently this time Russia and China are Gog and Magog, which one's Gog and which is Magog though is anyone's guess.

[–] Kaput@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I dont know about Gog, but Magog ils not where they expect it, https://www.ville.magog.qc.ca/ its rather Nice too.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

Did he even really say this, or was this a propaganda piece published by prosperity gospel evangelical baptists to keep their rubes salivating over the Middle East oil wars?

[–] answersplease77@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

It turned out in the end by Gog & Mogog, Bush meant Oil & Gold

[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Protestants: Rapture when?

Catholics: Rapture, why? We got all this prime real estate locked up.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm no expert on Christianity, but I come from a protestant country that is mostly secular and I cannot recall a single time anyone outside of cult people from jehovas witnesses or similar, talk about the rapture.

There might be versions of protestantism that believes in end of days prophecies, but that is not something I have ever heard any respected priest say in my country.

The way they preach is always more like a mix of philosophy and a pedagogy. They use Bible stories to relate to everyday problems we all might face and they put emphasis on how we need to be kind and forgiving to ourselves and others then the days are short and the nights are long. We have long, dark winters where I live.

I have always felt weird about the way especially American Christians talk about religion. To me its like listening to cult people or someone who is mentally ill.

The first time I ever heard of the rapture as a concept was in 2014 when Left Behind with Nicholas Cage came out. I only heard of that movie because I enjoyed watching movie reviews and some reviewer covered this film to clown on it. I was around 25 years old at the time and had never ever heard of such a crazy idea before. When I found out that a large number of Americans believe in that shit, I thought I was being left out of a joke I didn't get.

So yeah, maybe the rapture is a part of protestantism somewhere, but I have never heard of it. In my country we see most Bible stories as metaphors for universal wisdom that we can learn from, but no one really believes any of these things happened in real life. Most believed that Jesus existed, but many also think that his more fantastical stories were enhanced versions of the truth to make the point more clear and fun to hear/read about. Therefore, introducing ideas like the rapture would be off putting to most because it is scientifically ridiculous and we also consider doomsday prophecies to be extremism and cult mentality which we reject.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

American Evangelicals are wild. Source: former American Evangelical brought up in an Evangelical region of the USA.

Be glad you don't have to deal with them, and please prevent any of their spawn from setting roots down in your country. They are a fucking plague.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm sorry you had to grow up in an environment like that. Are you doing well today? I hope you are in a good place!

As for stuff like that taking root in my country, I am not worried. Something would have to radically change in my culture for religion to become that influential.

The most extreme cults we have here would be considered wholesome in America, to the best of my knowledge. I have seen how Mormons are often portrayed as a legit religious group and they are often considered wholesome and harmless.

To me, American Mormons are a cult, a couple of degrees more extreme than our Jehova's Witnesses whom I would consider pretty extreme.

So it would be a long way for us to end up with American Evangelist conditions in my country. We would basically have to replace the fundamental values and systems that we have had in place for hundreds of years and I don't really believe that will happen.

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