Mayors and police around the country have pretended public health is the reason for shutting down Occupy protests, but their actions belie their words. . . Michael Ratner [president of the Center for Constitutional Rights] noted that the idea of protesters being unclean has a long history in this country, that various generations of immigrants were described as dirty, as outsiders, as not really American. “What it does is it paints the protesters as a dangerous infection in america that has to be cut out, it’s like saying they’re a cancer or radioactive, that’s saying they’re not part of our country, not part of our tradition of protest.” . . . Instead, it seems that the real contagion is community, as Fagin said, but more than that, the very idea of fighting back. Whether it’s a mayor shutting down an occupation in his or her city or a businessman complaining that his workers want to collectively bargain, the idea that people might work together appears to be, itself, a hazard.
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Most religious believers really can’t even attempt to defend their beliefs and so they get angry at atheists for forcing them to think. If everyone believes in God, then they can continue to live in blissful delusion, but if just one person rejects that belief then the delusion is diluted. The possibility arises that God might not exist. The more people reject the belief in a god, the more religious believers have to accept the possibility that they are wrong and that God doesn’t exist.
Always Question Authority 