So... I've moved back to MA from OH and I'm having a hard time

[Ohio Joe]

I have lived most of my life in the NE... NJ, NY, CT and MA but I just came back to MA after a ten year stint in OH and I am having a bit of trouble re-adjusting. Before I moved to OH, my atheism was not much of an issue, we did not have many fundies so I contented myself with simply messing with those I ran across. Ahhh, the simple days. When I got to OH, that changed. I found myself faced with scary fundies I had only heard about and really thought only existed in small numbers... Boy was I wrong. I mean... fuckin-A, people that seriously wanted to teach creationism in science class... People that wanted laws passed to outlaw being gay... People that seriously want America to be a christian theocracy... and much much more... and saw nothing wrong with this shit. I shit you not, I was once sitting on the smoking patio of a bar with my girl (also an atheist) talking with another couple that fucking walked away from us when they found out we were atheists... WTF? Your drinking and smoking and trying to talk us into "swapping" but look at us in disgust and leave when you find out we are atheists... jesus h tap dancing christ on a popsicle stick... you have got to be shitting me!

Sooooo.... Now I am back in MA and I find that I have become an atheist with zero tolerance for anyone that believes... I'm not too happy with that. The bulk of the people that believe out here are not loons... they have no interest in legislating their beliefs but... I still find my back going up and my tongue wagging when it is not appropriate.

Comments... Suggestions... Ideas... I am having a hard time being... ehhh, polite, when I should be and need a bit of help.

Edit - Finished the post when I hit "post" instead of "check spelling" because Ive been drinking :D

[Goblinmonger]

1. I live in the middle of WI

and not in the cool liberal cities like Madison or Milwaukee, so I feel your Ohio pain. I don't know how I'd adjust to living in a place where I don't need to hide my atheism.

[realisticphish]

2. where were you?

I live in Columbus, and aside from a few clearly DSM-quality crazy people, I've yet to run into a real fundamentalist. A few conservative christians, and I know they exist, but I've never had a real problem here.

Cincy, Toledo, and Dayton can be bad, from what I've heard, but I've never lived there

[rexcat]

3. It is really bad in SW Ohio...

I live in Mason, OH and 4 of my immediate neighbors are young earther fundies. They know where I stand and only one will give me the time of day. Intolerance is rampant here. We have lived in Mason for 22 years and the only good things going for Mason is the public school system and the Masters tennis tournament (some of the best men's and women's professional tennis other than the grand slam events). My wife works for a large company who has facilities in Mason so her commute is only 5 minutes.

[TZ]

31. Hey! My dad lives in Loveland/Mason Ohio!

He's a HUGE atheist, although he's really into the Jewish heritage thing....I like to tease him cause he lives next door to a Jews-for Jesus church...:hi:

[Ohio Joe]

5. I was right outside of Columbus in Dublin

It is true, the people that live in Columbus are really pretty good, not a lot of fundies but... you don't have to go very far out to start encountering them. Also, I worked for Nationwide and there were a surprising number of people that went to that big fundie church over east of Columbus (I forget the guys name that runs it).

I don't mean to make it sound like everyone out there is a fundy, I met a lot of very cool people in Columbus. Also though, far far more fundy types that were much more outspoken then I've ever encountered in the NE.

[realisticphish]

7. i guess

I was mostly around the college-age crowd, so that biases me somewhat. Plus I live in Columbus proper, not in the suburbs near all the rich people, so that probably changes things too

[awoke_in_2003]

13. Columbus is right wing...

Cleveland is much better (and more fun). I miss that city.

[realisticphish]

15. wha?

no, not really. Sure, the rich suburbs like Dublin and Upper Arlington might lean right (though UA had a lot of support for Obama), but Columbus has 50,000 college students, and has almost always voted blue

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Am I, perhaps...

thinking Cinci?

on edit: Cleveland is still more fun :hi:

on second edit: of course I am thinking of Cinci. Anyone who would put chili on spaghetti can't be right in the head.

[realisticphish]

17. whew

Cleveland's ok. Never lived there, and I refuse to judge (most) places I haven't lived. But I've been there plenty of times, and it can be pretty cool. I still love living in Columbus, though.

And everyone knows Cincy is basically Kentucky anyway :D

[awoke_in_2003]

18. "Cincy is basically Kentucky anyway"

Yep. I love central ohio, especially in the fall. Absolutely stunning colors. One thing I miss about Cincy, though:
http://vodpod.com/watch/2583965-wkrp-turkey-drop

[realisticphish]

19. they also have some GREAT museums

if you're ever down there, check out the Cincinnati History Museum. It's in the old Union Terminal rail station, which is this giant art-deco thing. Absolutely stunning. And the museums are ridiculously good, considering it's a local history deal. There are actually two museums inside, the Cincy History Museum, and the Cincy Natural History Museum.

Seriously, awesome place. About the only reason to go down there :D

[awoke_in_2003]

20. If I am up there...

I will- I miss the Buckeye State

[realisticphish]

21. oh, and in TEXAS, too

makes Ohio look like San Francisco :D

ok, not Austin, but still...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

22. Yes, rural Texas. Gag.

You can stay away from the fundies in the big city, but out here in the middle of nowhere....no way to avoid them.

My next door neighbor has a six foot tall cross in her front yard. She has a corner lot. She has white xmas lights on it that she turns on at xmas. She was touring my house and she informed me that Buddhism and Voodoo were the same thing while crossing her forearms in front of her as to keep away the pagan vibes from my altar (with a Medicine Buddha and a Kwan Yin and a Dancing Shiva).

Ignorant as hell.

On the wall next to their front door they have a cross made out of horseshoes welded together.

People who have large crosses in their yards are not terribly uncommon. I've probably seen 5 or 6 in the town I live in (1400 people) and the next one over (maybe 500?). If they are really fancy they have THREE crosses.

:banghead:

They put editorials on the front page of the local rag proclaiming "America is a Christian Nation".

That's spelled "KKKeeeee-RRRiiiissstt-Yunnnn".

[realisticphish]

26. it fascinates me

the whole "cross the arms" thing to avoid evil. It's NOT Christian. That's 100% pagan anti-"evil eye" stuff. Gotta love it.

I see large crosses occasionally in rural ohio; generally on some farmer's land on a hill above the interstate. But the area of ohio I grew up in, while rural (near Lancaster, SE of Columbus), is mainly Lutheran, Methodist, and Catholic, so there is a different, quieter wingnuttery. More general conservativeness. We're a bunch of Germans, and emotions are bad :) Honestly, most of the people who were conservative near us are pretty reasonable. The only big thing is, of course, abortion, and maybe 2nd amendment stuff, but not exactly Klan territory.

I will admit, though, that once you get down along the river, things get a bit more nuts

[awoke_in_2003]

29. I live in a Fort Worth

suburb, and one of my neighbors has a cross that looks to be about 8 foot tall. First time I saw it I was like "WTF?"

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Austin is a great city...

San Fran of the south- have to love a town who's motto is "Keep Austin Weird" :hi:

[realisticphish]

25. I've heard great things about it

its actually about the only city south of the ohio that I would willingly move to (MAYBE Virginia, too)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Yes, but Texas is HUGE!!!!

I'm so far from civilization it's not even funny.
People in other states, except maybe CA, have any idea how far we have to drive to go anywhere.

I'm a minimum of 150 miles from proper civilization (shopping at costco for example):
Houston OR Dallas, take your pick.

Have to drive twenty miles just to get to a grocery store, and not even a decent one at that.

If I wanted to avoid Wallyworld totally I would have to drive 80 miles one way to get to a Target or other large store chain in Tyler (home of Louie Goomer the Tumor).

:grr:


:banghead:

Gardening keeps me sane, folks. And listening to the cardinals sing.

[charlie]

32. Ayup

If I wanted to visit you from El Paso, but drove in the wrong direction, I'd wind up in San Diego. Same distance.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. "Cleveland's ok"

Dude, Cleveland rocks (yes, I know the song sucks). My favorite thing about downtown Cleveland- the downtown branch of the Public Library. World class, without a doubt. But then, I am a bookworm

[realisticphish]

27. Haha, Library Science grad student here

yeah Cleveland has 2 great library systems (Cuyahoga is great, too). Cleveland handles the inner city, Cuyahoga handles the suburbs. Apparently, they work very well together, though they're separate entities.

In fact, ohio in general is known as library-topia. Columbus, Cleveland, Westerville, and even smaller libraries like Upper Arlington are frequently rated as some of the best in the country, and the whole network in general is pretty widely acknowledged as one of the best. I was shocked to hear that in many states, you have to pay to get a library card! Here, I can go to any library, anywhere in the state, show my id, and get a library card for free.

[lazarus]

4. I used to be like that

I don't remember how, exactly, I changed. But I mellowed over the years, and now I only attack if they get in my face about. Doesn't happen very often, as I live in a very liberal part of San Diego. My neighbours are fundies, but they're nice about it, and politics and religion have never come up. We had No On Prop 8 signs all over the place, and they demonstrated for Prop 8, but we're still friends.

It was bad in Alabama, but I couldn't do anything about it because it was a small town and I was manager of a store that would have died if my atheism was revealed. Very frustrating.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Lame situation.

Perhaps if you are around a bunch of fundies you can pretend to be an alien, in disguise as a human, who has come to Earth for sociological data collection for the invasion.

[sakabatou]

8. Or do a fake Rapture to scare them into thinking they were "left behind."

:evilgrin:

[ZombieHorde]

10. Funny. nt

[Warpy]

9. Well, the drinking might be contributory

If drinking turns you into an argumentative asswipe, maybe it's time to deal with it.

While I share your utter disgust with hypocritical fundies, I recognize their constitutional right to believe any stupid thing they want to. That doesn't mean I won't retaliate if they dis me to my face. It means I don't bring up the subject at all and hope they're polite enough to keep a lid on it, too. If they do bring it up, I use the "I'm not religious" copout if I don't know them very well and change the subject.

If you don't manage to put a lid on it yourself, you run the risk of being a very lonely atheist.

[Ohio Joe]

11. No, I really don't think thats the problem

I'm being an argumentative asswipe even when sober. The point of my post was that I am aware of what I need to do but am having a hard time doing it. I was really hoping someone had gone through something similar and might have some advice.

[Warpy]

12. I did but it was when I was a teenager

and I learned how to outquote them, send them scurrying for their babbles to confirm what was usually the rest of a cherrypicked quote that they'd misinterpreted, thanks to a preacher who didn't deserve the job. I was never particularly gentle.

Then I grew up.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. We have a lot of that down here...

being one of the best at my job allows me to say whatever the hell I want. People know not to bring jeebus up to me.

[onager]

28. MA? Maybe this will cheer you up a little...

Lord Jesus Christ Hit By Car In Massachusetts

A 50-year-old man named Lord Jesus Christ — yes, that's his real name — was hit by a car in Northampton, Massachusetts on Tuesday while trying to cross the street. We're guessing he forgave the driver.

Christ, who lives in Belchertown, was taken to the hospital after being hit in a downtown crosswalk. He was struck by a 2005 Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven by 20-year-old Brittany Cantarella and suffered minor facial injuries.

Police have confirmed that his legal name is, in fact, Lord Jesus Christ. Cantarella was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk; Christ was treated and released from the hospital.

Catholics in the Belchertown area are reportedly wearing wooden crosswalks around their necks until he returns.

As usual, the comments are a hoot:

In Brittany's defense, she said she was an Atheist, so she didn't really hit anyone.

Brittany was texting OMG when she hit OMG.

http://jalopnik.com/5533457/lord-jesus-christ-hit-by-car-in-massachusetts

(Some earlier comments have disappeared, but I captured them.)



http://jalopnik.com/5533457/lord-jesus-christ-hit-by-car-in-massachusetts