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SoberSecondThought ago

I'm going to argue here for a sensible middle ground. Yes, you are correct that people of faith, people with spiritual values, are more likely to take this problem seriously. I think that's a statistical reality, just as it is a statistical reality that "blue" states are somewhat less church-going and less likely to volunteer or give to charity than "red" states are.

But I want to urge you -- all of you, not just OP -- to consider how your spiritual beliefs make you vulnerable to manipulation. Because they do. Back in the 1980s, the pedos exploited this vulnerability by playing up the Satanic abuse angle, rather than playing it down. The accusations quickly escalated far beyond what the evidence supported, dragging literally hundreds of daycares and kindergartens into prolonged scandals that led nowhere. The idea of Satanic abuse got discredited, which was a victory for them. And it got discredited in large part because of the excesses of sincerely spiritual people, who weren't good investigators, who didn't have anyone to impose rules of evidence, and who thereby got way ahead of the actual facts.

I agree that Voat's structure has some disadvantages. But this little community has developed some strong BS filters, and has stayed focused on real facts. (By that I mean, facts that will also qualify as facts to an atheist.) There won't be a repeat of the problems of the 1980s here.

I have something I am working on that will help address the scattered and repetitive way that subjects are addressed. Hopefully I can post it tomorrow. In the meantime, I would just say: Don't let v/pizzagate get divided along atheist/religious lines. We all need one another.

pizza-party-pooper ago

agreed