American Atheists has unveiled the latest episode of their annual report, State of the
Secular States, exposing the huge surge and legislative bills favoring religious extremism. The
report reveals a record breaking crescendo of bills threatening civil rights, with LGBTQ protections
and abortion access being the prime targets. As we approach the twenty twenty four
election season, we can expect more religious fanaticism from lobbyists threatening one of the
Constitution's core principles. The stage is now set for a multifront assault on freedom,
and the unholy alliance between politics and religion is taking the forefront. So
brace yourselves for a dark comedy where the punchlines come at the expense of civil
rights and reason. This story is from American Atheists, published January ninth,
twenty twenty four, and I'm going to pass that straight to Phoebe to start
this story off. So, how do you solve a problem like America?
You break it down to smaller and smaller pieces, and you get even weird
a prot I'm not surprised by this. This is the probably the least surprising
piece of empirical data that I've seen. There are all these bills wending their
way through. Good for the bill, Good for the legislator waiting its time,
Yeah, Good for the judge that is gonna be overturned on appeal.
Good for the Supreme Court that's going to be filled up with ruling all this
junk. I'm pretty sure that far rather deal with, you know, actual
court cases on actual issues. But you know, eighty of these bills made
it into law. Are wonderful the twenty twenty two to three legislative session in
Texas, they passed Could you not hear six hundred and sixty six bills into
more? You couldn't make that number up? So what eighty is an undesirable
number? The most desired number of these bills should be this and nothing more.
I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I'm not going to
worry about it. Maybe I should, but I'm too busy getting on with
my life. I'm too busy ignoring these people, and I'm too busy telling
the pieces of legislation. What oh fuck off? I mean this ties a
lot into like previous segments that we've done here, just looking at the way
that these legislators have weaponized the government against vulnerable communities and doing so for nothing
more than political gain. And I've spoken on this in the past, but
what we're continuing to see are these celebrities doing what made them celebrities, and
that's been the loudest and most hateful person in the room. Oh you want
to build a wall, I'm putting alligators in a fucking moat. Let's see
you outdo that, Wokester like, That's what they do. Every time we,
the sane onlookers, see their next racist, sexist, transphobic move,
these people are rewarded with either adelation from their sycophantic supporters or a media frenzy
saying that how insane they are so and that somehow activates their base to defend
them and echo the insanity. So, of course, in all of this
insanity, there's this veneer of religious righteousness. They hide behind that book and
they push their agenda all the while projecting that that's what's happening to them.
Nobody's pushing their agenda on you. By existing you're an adult, you should
know this. But they also know when I say I'm doing the anti human
thing because the almighty sky Wizards said to do so. But when they say
that they're gonna do something horrible because sky Wizard sky Daddy said to do it,
the rest of their believers will follow online because we're taught not to question
the word. So what these people fail to realize is exactly what Nick fish
in this article what he said. It's not just the others who will have
their civil rights taken, it's just the door they will open as they waltz
in to take everybody's rights everybody. So like, have these people never read
Animal Farm? Like I thought that was required reading. People will always find
a way to separate themselves from the other, And when there is no longer
anyone to hate because of their outward appearance, it will become hate amongst economic
classes. Then thought policing. There will always be the others in the mind
of some, and at some point you're going to be the other. So
hey, if you're celebrating these things, enjoy, Hey, you remind me
original T. Davis. He said the following. You see, Britain you
do racism for better than America. America does racist against people who look different
to each other. Britain you do racism against people who don't the same as
each other. There's time and again we see this and as you mentioned,
you know, this isn't really anything new. This is the same old grab
bag. They're just reaching into it. But it is a really good example
of once again how fixated they are on clickbait. They're legislating by clickbait.
It's not about thinking, because you know, legislation and actually a government that
works is boring. You're never going to get a bunch of clicks and you're
not going to be the next hit on TikTok. It's just not going to
happen. It's a boring process, but it's an important process. But if
you can get up there and say something stupid and everybody goes into a tizzy,
well they succeeded with this, and that's one thing. It's one thing
for them to do that. It's entirely another for them to decide on what
becomes law according to what's going to be the best thing to get me clicks,
what's going to get me views. So let me make sure I say
these terrible, hideous things that one half has a stroke and the other half
applauds, and all I'm doing is laughing all away, hopefully, and for
these people let's be honest. All these state representatives and state senators, they
all dream of being US representatives and US senators. So while they lay in
bed dreaming their big dreams of that, they wake up in the morning and
say, hey, what can I do to be the next person who's who
virtually become politics by mean And that's really all we're seeing here because everything else
is just a distraction. They don't want to deal with the real issues.
Once again, that's busy. But blaytant, let me remind you. All
animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others. Kelly,
I have to disagree with you on one point. I don't think they're doing
this instead of being busy with real issues. These are the real issues to
them. This is them trying to make a theocracy out of this country.
This is real to them, and we need to act like it's real to
us too if we want to try to stop something like a religious takeover,
unconstitutional religious takeover of this country is bb You mentioned the quotes from Nick Fish,
the president of the American Atheist I even another one hear from them.
White Christian nationalists are undottedly going to keep pushing their culture war agenda in state
legislatures and on the campaign trail. We know their goals and strategies, and
we believe they can be stopped. But the media and the public need to
understand what's at state in twenty twenty four and are not only protections for women,
LGBTQ people and racial and religious minorities and atheist but the civil rights of
all Americans. And I think that sums up what this report is about.
I think it conveys the message that I think that the American Atheists is just
trying to convey with the State of the Secular State Reports. And I look
through it, it's a really interesting document. There's a lot of information on
it. To be honest, I wish there was a better breakdown of national
information, but there's a lot of really, really really good state by state
information. And if you're interested in getting involved in something and looking for a
cause, if you look at their state by state information, I'm sure there's
something in there that you're going to agree with. I'd agree with because they
also list bills that are pro religious freedom, like trying to get religion out
of schools and stuff like that. So they really just bills on both sides.
So if there's something you really want to get involved in, you could
probably find it on this website in this report. So there's a lot of
like I said, a lot of state by state, and even if you
want to get even closer, there's a lot of things that are happening right
in your neighborhood that are just totally local issues. If you want to get
involved, these are the things that are really affecting your day to day life.
The president doesn't, but these things that are happening right now in your
town do. And I really encourage people to get out there and get more
involved in what's happening with your life and your society. And I kind of
wonder if the panel thinks that this trend of more and more religious bills that
we're seeing now, because it's definitely on the rise, do you think that
this is going to continue? Or do you think this is more like the
dying throwers of a cornered animal phoebe. You want to start with you roads
are boring, plumbing is boring, river and wastewater management is boring. Taxes
are boring. They're supposed to be boring. This is what politicians are supposed
to do. You're supposed to be boring. In my opinion, the job
of a politician is boring. It's meant to be boring. You can get
all you know excited about effluent management if you really want to. But what
we've got here, and I will come to Kelly's question, is we have
people who are living in a very privileged world. You don't go to countries
that don't have plumbing and see this kind of thing being done in their legislator.
You don't see countries that have roads that don't exist, that want roads
to exist, have this happen in their legislature. I'm pretty sure Madagascar does
not have bills of this nature when it doesn't have roads, plumbing, a
functioning tax collecting system, a functioning wastewater management system for its country. I'm
pretty sure Madagascar doesn't. If you want in the comments below water to email
us and say that, yeah, actually Madagascar does, I will make an
on screen apology if you can prove me wrong. But I don't believe that
this is anything other the bored politicians that are bored doing the boring things.
And if you're bored doing the boring things, go and do something exciting.
Just because you think you should be doing this doesn't mean you should actually be
doing this. It's boring doing things that make a difference to people's lives.
Building houses is boring. Going and fixing potholes is dull. It's not,
you know, the most exciting work. You're not rocket scientists that are going
to the moon. If you are in your local city council and you're discussing
milages and you're discussing cannabis licensing, or you're discussing pothole fixes, or you're
discussing the latest ordinance on fire pits in back gardens, that is Dalla's dishwater.
But you've chosen to do that. Stop trying to make your job more
than what it is, and stop trying to make it more exciting. You
picked a boring job. Live with it or stop doing it. This is
why I think they will continue. But until these people realize that the job
they're doing is actually pretty dull. Sitting in a room discussing black and white
ordinances all day long, we're always going to have the dead you know,
that countroversy that's there. We're always going to go on right sensationalism. But
do you think that this is going to continue on a religious ban or do
you think that's going to be dying. It is because it's it's exciting and
they can defend whatever they do without having to go into any real depth and
reason. I get to draw up some fanciful piece of organs that could say
whatever I like, so I can indulge my brain capacity and I don't actually
have to defend it in any reasonableay because I can just say Skydaddy said so
or so. The book trend of esc So you think this escalating trend is
going to continue to escalating until people get bored of these people doing a job
that's boring in a way that doesn't do the boring things. So roads need
fixing, swimming pools need building for municipalities, children's schools need plumbing. I
want to get back to the issue of religion now right. What I'm saying
is what I'm saying is these religious bills will continue because these people are bored
with doing the job they should be doing. So it's going to continue because
these are bored people doing a boring job. So they're going to find something
they find interesting, and religion is something they've chosen to find interesting. Okay,
I'm gonna agree and disagree with something Kelly said when we were talking about
like this. The mean politicians. They are, well, there is a
set of true believers that are going to continue to fight for this too and
nail NonStop. This is what their life work is. They take it very
seriously. But the people that we are discussing, the loudest people in the
room. If your name has become an acronym, like pretty much any politician
that you know their name by heart because you see them constantly, these are
not serious people. These are just people trying to freaking They're doing ads for
their podcast every time they drop something into freaking legislative body. Just what they
do. I think politician is the politician you do not know about. This
isn't an endorsement of anybody, but I will say I'd never heard the name
Bernie Sanders until he ran for president. Never heard this man's name. I
was just going to say, that's how we just got Mike Johnson, right
nobody because nobody knew who he was, you know, yeah, exactly exactly.
So they use these loud people as pretty much like they're the squeaky wheel
that you're trying to fix without realizing that the engine is on fucking fire.
That's what these people are. They're they're driving this train. Everything is going
insane, but all you focus on is the loud person screaming about brown people.
That's what we focus on, because that's their purpose. I expect this
to continue until and this is something that Blatant alluded to, and I expected
to continue until people realize that the things that need to get done aren't getting
done. That's when this starts wearing thin. It's like anything else. You
know. You can tell me the train's coming, and I might wait for
but eventually I get tired and realize the train's not coming. And right now
we have state legislators that are so tied up and bogged down with what they
would say is saving the Republic from craziness and wokeness and all these other things.
But what they're really doing is promoting their own agenda of controlling other people.
And as long as they do that, they will continue to remind us
just how bad they are at actually that day to day legislation, and when
that builds up, people will get tired of that. So for the time
being, yes, I expect voices to get shrill. I expect them to
get louder. I expect them to get more dangerous, because a caged animal
does that. But at the end of the day, they are shrinking.
Religion is dying. They can put it any way they want to, they
can scream to the rooftops, they can say whatever they are, but just
like their God on that cross, they're dying, and unlike their God,
are actually more accurately like their God. Once this dies, religion is going
to stay in decay. So let's give it time because we will we have
to outlast it. But I do think you're dead right, Kelly with It's
important to be involved, to be aware because yes, you're not going to
tell you're not going to change what happens on a presidential level, that's a
joke. We we dilute ourselves into that. But down at the local level,
there is input, there are changes that can be made, and we
individually and collectively as well, can have an impact on that. And that's
what's so important, because time and again we get reminded of just how bad
these people are at the day to days of legislation the real world. Kelly,
Yeah, I think I think you're right to me, I see these
religious issues becoming less and less important as time goes on, and I'm hoping
that a decade from now, there's escalating trend that we're seeing now won't be
escalating anymore. It will be on, you know, on the opposite side
and going downwards. At least that's what I'm hoping for. But with the
rise of the noun in the US, and even just the rise of atheism,
which has gone up a good two percent over the last couple of decades,
I think these arguments aren't landing as well for the political parties as they
used to, so at least I'm hoping so. And uh yeah. Other
than that, I don't know what to say else to say. If you
would like to get some nice ACA merchandise, though, you can go to
tiny dot cc slash to ACA merch