It's the 21st Century, In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Ignorance is bliss, only to the ignorant.

If you prefer to live your life in a superstitious fervor, making life decisions based on two-thousand year old precepts that have little to do with an age of the Internet and space travel, leaving your fate on Earth to the machinations of an unseen, overarching spirit that you claim has a "plan," which is not obvious to anyone, then so be it. Be who you want to be. Think what you want to think. That is your right.

But that right stops at the tip of your nose.

Whatever you may believe, it's your belief. Whatever is in the best interests of all of us, that is a matter of the common good, and yes, that means that sometimes what is in the best interests of everyone comes up against your beliefs. That gives you no "divine" right to decide for the rest of us what is best, just because your beliefs tell you otherwise.

Vaccination. Trans rights. Abortion. Books. Whatever you may think about any of the "controversial" topics of the day — and that is in quotes, because only you make them so — the fact remains that your beliefs do not give you any right to deny others the right to participate in them, use them, talk about them, etc. You have a say, but your say is not the ultimate word. Your beliefs do not give you superior moral suasion, nor guarantee you the objective power to simply force your views on the rest of us.

And if you will now harp on the government, because it does have the power to enforce moral order, then you are talking out of both sides of your mouth, because you cannot proclaim to be restrained from the exercise of your beliefs while simultaneously having your representatives in government attempt to force everyone else to abide by them. Hypocrisy is a weak word for what you are doing, but it fits.

No amount of ignorance anoints you with special authority. No desire to fold the 21st Century back into a mobile-phone using version of the 13th Century is worthy of the time-and-effort of serious people trying to solve serious problems in the United States and throughout the world. The only reason we have to engage with the you on the topics of the day is that under no circumstance will we allow you to drag us back through the centuries to a place where burning witches and torturing people to profess a love of God is considered the "height" of sophistication. If we have not moved well beyond that in this new millennium, then there is no hope for humanity. So, we will fight back, and prevail, to because we can afford to do no less.