mark schuster

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

Another Portland business leaving… Freightliner to close its doors…

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@FreddyLA7 Chicken Wings at the Zanzabar in Louisville, Kentucky!

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@Be_Believing Should get a lifetime of free haircuts!

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@Chicago_History Nope.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

I’ve just finished reading Gad Saad’s book Suicidal Empathy.

It ranks, along with Chris Rufo’s America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything and Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay’s Cynical Theories, as the best take-down of the lunacy at the heart of the wokeist philosophy.

For Saad, empathy—in itself a perfectly decent trait—has become so grossly exaggerated that it threatens truth, reality, and justice.

Cases in point abound: so they won’t feel bad about themselves, we’ll allow biological men to compete in women’s sports and crush the dreams of thousands of young women; so as not to undermine the self-esteem of minorities, we will permit unqualified candidates to have positions in universities and the corporate world; so that everyone might feel included, we will characterize the meritocracy as “white privilege,” etc.

As I was making my way through Saad’s book, I kept remarking the sharp distinction between empathy and love.

To empathize is to enter profoundly into the experience of another and to endeavor not to hurt that person’s feelings. But to love is, as Thomas Aquinas taught, “to will the good of the other.”

As I said, in itself and all things being equal, empathy is a good thing. But it is not the same as love, which, depending on circumstances, can very much involve hurting someone’s feelings.

When a professor gives a student a “C” as an honest reflection of his work, he might well be insulting him, but he’s also telling him the truth and perhaps even urging him to try harder.

When, in the Confessional, a priest tells a murderer to turn himself in to the police, he’s undoubtedly making that person’s life more uncomfortable, but he’s also willing the man’s good.

Any decent parent knows that showing real love for her children means engendering all kinds of bad feelings in them.

In light of this distinction, we can understand why Jesus didn’t say, “have empathy for one another,” but rather “love one another.” And why St. John the Evangelist didn’t say, “God is empathy,” but rather “God is love.”

It occurred to me as I was reading Saad’s book that one reason Wokeism has seized the consciousness of so many in the West is that Christianity has faded as a cultural force and Christians themselves have forgotten what stands at the heart of their faith.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@creamsleeve He was a better QB than some of the QBs he played with.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@RealSpitfire If I had it to do over I would become a physical therapist. Heroes!

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@beyond_theveil1 @ThrillaRilla369 Quack 🦆 quack 🦆 quack

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@ResisttheMS We should have a national primary day. No Super Tuesday, all states vote the same day.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@SoveyX Well said, both then and now.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@MikeKATU Those scooters and electric bikes go pretty fast. Hope everyone stays safe…

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@MrBeast 218,000

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

What an appalling speech the Mayor of New York delivered for the 250th anniversary of the nation.

Sadly, it reflects the view of America propagated for years by Howard Zinn and his like-minded colleagues in the universities and believed by armies of the young: a dark, oppressive country where common people are denigrated by tyrants and oligarchs, where immigrants are treated with contempt, where those with “soft hands” hold the wealth created by those with dirty hands.

No sensible person would claim that our country is without flaws, but the relentlessly negative picture painted by Mayor Mamdani is just absurd.

And it is the fruit of the Marxism that, sadly, is all the rage today.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@TomCottonAR Didn’t Joe Kennedy orchestrate something similar?

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@infantrydort @Tneliton ‘ability to make diversity irrelevant’… well put.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@LibertyPDX1 @braedalibby Dude at the Tigard Home Depot told me 800,000 in theft the year before. Conversation was 2 or 3 a few years ago…

[John Rich🇺🇸 @johnrich]

Arizona State University @ASU is in court fighting 89 year old Robert Young to take the home he's owned since 1975 for their "green space." I'm calling on ASU's President, @michaelcrow to reach out to me ASAP. This is not ok. We must defend this man.
(Pls Watch/Repost/Comment)

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Like many others, I have been alarmed by the success of certain politicians in our country who identify as extreme socialists or communists.

This is not a matter of classical liberals triumphing over standard-issue conservatives; this is the victory of people who stand athwart the fundamental principles that undergird our country.

There are many reasons why I detest Communism, but I want to draw attention to just one issue of supreme importance.

Karl Marx said that the first critique is the critique of religion. He meant that, before a complete re-working of the politics and economics of a society can take place, religion has to be taken down.

This is because religion, as he saw it, is the “opium of the masses,” a drug taken to dull our sensitivity to the suffering caused by economic exploitation. As long as the suffering populace is lured into complacency by fantasies about God's providence and the promise of eternal life, they will never rise up and throw off their chains.

But there is a second reason why the elimination of religion is of paramount significance for Marx.

Communism aspires to be a totalizing system, involving the government's control over education, entertainment, communication, politics, and especially economics.

What stands resolutely athwart this ambition is religion, which declares that all of these societal expressions are finally under the judgment of God. So, if you want Communism to succeed, religion has to be stamped out.

If you doubt me on any of this, I would encourage you to read the recent histories of China, Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Venezuela. Revisit those histories and tell me I'm wrong about the attack on religion.

Might I encourage my fellow believers in God not to be complacent in the face of this very troubling development in the American body politic?

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@weheartseattle @Tneliton @Pride @GovBobFerguson @MayorofSeattle Portland got sued for that reason… though I’m not sure camping is the biggest problem.

[mark schuster @ripcitym]

@Common_Cent1 Yea not the best effort… glad to see them get tougher after halftime though…