Revelation had: Secrets of the Mayan calendar unlocked.

Dude. DUUUUDE. I fucking GET IT now. I UNDERSTAND. Mind officially blown.

I was just talking to my friend Dan. He mentioned that he was hanging around some loser homeless drug addict, and the guy's girlfriend walks up and starts hugging on him and telling him how much she loves him and shit. And the guy was just totally ignoring her and acting like a total dick. Dan was confused by this. "Why is she in love with such a loser? What the hell's wrong with her?"

And, completely by accident, I blurted out the most truthful thing I've ever said in my entire life. "Dude. If you're successful, and you have your shit together, and you're a nice guy, and a good person, and you're there for her when she needs you, and you're nothing but good to her, she'll want nothing to do with you. But if you're a loser-ass drug-addicted dick who treats her like garbage, she'll fall in love with you. That's the way their minds work."

I now know why I don't have a girlfriend. I now know why every girl I meet friendzones me. I GET IT NOW. It's because I'm a nice person. It's because I'm going to school and doing well. It's because I'm nice to them. Women don't respect that. They want the asshole that'll blow them off to hang with their bros and do some coke.

Upon hearing this, he totally agreed with me. We were then able to come up with numerous examples that proved our thoughts true. He then looked down at his guitar and said, "The funny thing is, I treat my guitar like a lady. I give her a warm bed, a place to stay, I pay attention to her, and everything. I even named her. I treated my lady like a guitar, and she loved me for it. I guess you're right."

So if you're in the same situation as me, just be a total asshole to women. Pretend that you don't give a fuck about their problems, ditch them to hang out with your loser friends, get addicted to some hard drugs, get drunk and tell them you just wanna fuck them. They fucking flockto that shit.

God fucking dammit.

You fucking people make me so mad sometimes.

You're going to have to deal with the fact that there are BAD THINGS in the world. That ACTUALLY HAPPEN. There are BAD PEOPLE. There are BAD IDEAS. Not everything is fucking rainbows and unicorns. I know you like to put on your Kanye West-style shutter shades so you can block out anything that might make you uncomfortable or sad, but that doesn't change the fact that they're out there.

So everything's going great for you. Your boyfriend just bought you some new shoes. What a sweetheart! You're taking some college classes. You're gonna get an education, cool! Your boss gave you a raise. Everybody likes more money, right?

Congratu-fucking-lations.

SOME people are not in your perfect situation. SOME people wake up everyday, seeing gray skies and gray faces, drudging through their monotonous everyday lives with their vapid and unthinking counterparts, trying to convince themselves that it wouldn't be worth it to just buy a gun and kill as many people as they can before being taken down. SOME people look at their classmates and co-workers and see nothing but an empty vessel, devoid of life and thought, simply going down the path set for them. Horses with blinders on, never seeing or thinking about anything important. SOME people have to get up every morning and catalogue the reasons to not paint the walls with their brains.

For you to act like a high-and-mighty asshole who all of a sudden knows everything about life and emotion doesn't help anything. It just adds one more minute on the clock that's slowly ticking down to midnight.

Hatred is NOT an unnecessary emotion.

"Don't hate, it's a waste of emotion and energy on negative things my friend."
- A good friend of mine

As this quote demonstrates, many people seem to think that hate is a completely useless emotion that has no purpose in life. That nothing good ever comes of it. And this bothers me. Why? Because it shows that many people misunderstand hate. Hate is the guy at the back of the poetry slam that no one wants to listen to. Hate is the kid who no one invites to lunch with them. Hate is the emotion that everyone feels, yet everyone denies. Hate is a massive force behind the progression of everyday life. Hate is essential to the human condition. So why does everyone hate on hate?

If everyone focused solely on the positive things in life, would anything ever get done? No. Why help the starving kids in third-world countries? This PB and J sandwich is delicious. President Bush is starting an unnecessary war to gain more wealth and destroy the U.S. people? Don't think about that, it'll only make you mad. Genocide, rape, racism? Don't think about those. Think about the party next weekend! Hooray!

If the colonists had not hated King George III and his taxation without representation, they would not have left to form a new country. If Martin Luther King, Jr. had not hated the mistreatment of black people, we would never have had the Civil Rights movement. If so many people did not hate George Walker Bush, we would never have elected Barack Obama. Do you understand where I'm going with this? Hate can be a positive thing.

So go out there and do something good in the world. Start hating things. I've even started a Facebook group for it: http://tinyurl.com/mlwwx2

“Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire.”
- Kurt Tucholsky

Memories Revisited

I was just in the process of talking to a good friend of mine about a relationship I had up in Oregon, about 5 years ago. For some reason, I've been going insane over it pretty recently. For those of you who don't know, when I was 14 and living in Oregon, I fell in love with this girl named Kaylee. After a few months of dating, I was sent back to California against my will, and I still talk to her every now and then. I visited her when I was recently in Oregon( a few months ago), but the circumstances surrounding our meeting were inconducive to expression of our true feelings for each other(i.e. particular personae non gratae were present). Anyways, I was just rehashing these feeling with a friend, and I felt that I wanted to put them here, where they would be permanently visible.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: [named removed to protect the innocent]
To: Daniel Plainview
Date: Jul 17, 2009 2:19 PM
Subject: RE:


In my opinion.. God isn't real.
he's not punishing you for not believing in him.


sometimes things just don't work out.
& I'm sure that's not what you want to hear, it wouldn't be what I want to hear either.
but maybe someday something will happen and you'll think
"wow... now it makes sense"
if not, then. well I got no idea.

at least you guys are still really good buddies.
because if you weren't on good terms, it would be a million times worse, for sure

there'll be a silver lining, no worries :]:]

My reply:

I know, that's why I said he's punishing me for not believing in him. Get it? I don't believe in God either.

For me, it's just endlessly angering because she was the only girl that (brace for cliche) got me. Every other girl I dated just wasn't on the same level as her. We both completely understood each other. There were never any moments of boredom or uninterest between the two of us. You know all those couples that you see, and they're constantly fighting? That never happened with us. We were completely compatible in every way. Girlfriends after that just had all these problems after I dated her, and I didn't want to deal with them. I got used to perfection.

It probably sounds like I'm saying I loved her because it was an easy relationship. It's actually the complete reverse. It was an easy relationship because we loved each other so much. And there has been nothing like that from then on for me.

I know that sometimes, things just don't work out. But what I'm pissed about is that this is the one thing that I would give everything else up for. And it didn't work out. Because we were so young, our guardians assumed that it was just silly teenage pseudo-love and that it would eventually fade away. That made it easy for them to split us up. And that's bullshit, because it's ageism. Just because we were young doesn't mean that we were confused or didn't have the capacity for understanding or emotion that our elders had.

And believe me, I've thought about our relationship endlessly after that. To this day, I still consider that maybe it was just "puppy love." Or maybe that she was the first real girlfriend that I ever had, so I subconsciously invented such intense feelings for her. And every time I think about it, I come back to the same answer: No. I really loved this girl. And I still do. With every fiber of my being.

So if there's a silver lining, I can't see it. It must be pretty thin.

"Wow, that guy has WAY too much time on his hands."

Yeah, it's kind of REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING when I hear this. Not even just directed at me. At anyone.

What would you consider a better activity, asshole?

Maybe watching TV? This site says that Americans spend 5 hours a day doing just that. Would that be a better use of my time? Or perhaps I should be texting my friends about unimportant shit. Maybe go to the football game and watch D-average people throw a ball around? OR... Go to a bar and get drunk! Yeah, that would be a MUCH better use of my time. Spend time chasing neurologically-deficient women for vapid, empty sex, drive to Wal-Mart to get cheap shit I don't need... There certainly are quite a few activities that I should be focusing on more.

So while you're off doing all of these things, leading an exciting, important life, if you could take the time to tell me that my hobby that makes me happy is pointless and wasteful, I would VERY MUCH appreciate it.

Longboarders Vs. Skaters

I'd like to ask you a question. What do you see here?



I'm going to assume that some of you already know where this is going. For those of you who don't, allow me to help you out:



Yep.

I'm writing this because I'm sick of douchebag college-going bros that think they're total skaters while they roll down the street on their 20-foot longboards.

Longboards are not used for skating. They are used for transportation and giving the illusion that the owner is cool. While a skater might be out searching for a new spot, or thrashing it up during a night session, or getting harassed the cops, a longboarder would most likely already know the cop from football practice. Then he would return to his frat house with all of his moron buddies and do a kegstand all night.

Most longboarders don't even know what a kickflip is. Tell you what, next time you see a longboarder, ask him what a kickflip is. I guarantee you'll get something along these lines:

"Oh, whoa, I, uh, don't really know, bro. Sorry, man. Hey, uh, you don't know where I could get some bud, do ya?"

LONGBOARDERS ARE NOT SKATERS. THEY ARE ASSHOLES AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH.

So the next time you see a longboarder riding his way lazily down the street with his backwards hat and his cargo shorts and his Oakley rip-off sunglasses, tossing a frisbee around with his C-minus buddies, do the right thing. Call him a faggot and tell him to get a real skateboard.

(A Few)Albums That You REALLY Should Listen To, Pt. 1

Part 1 in a series of record reviews for albums that I think deserve a lot more attention. If you read these articles, please give these albums a listen.

Crime As Forgiven By - Against Me!

I'm sure that many of you have heard of Against Me! before. They recently signed to a major record label and have been touted about on MTV, VH1, David Letterman, the Warped Tour, and other musical graveyards just as Green Day was. But before they lost their meaning, before they sold out, before they started creating garbage like New Wave, they were one of the most amazing folk-punk bands out there. With socially aware lyrics and truly heartfelt riffs that will make you want to scream in the middle of a street until your voice is hoarse, Crime will destroy your pre-concieved notions of what an album can make you feel.

First of all, there is not a single record out there that can match the desperation, energy, and raw emotion of this one. All the production value, all the expensive recording tricks and cool effects in the world cannot cover up a crappy album(as demonstrated by Chinese Democracy). With the raw, unpolished sound of a band's first garage-recorded demo, Crime shows that flashy pedals and 30-piece drum sets are not required to make a hell of an album.

Against Me!'s first iteration has only two members: Tom Gabel on guitar and Kevin Mahon on drums. Both of them alternate vocals on the six tracks that make up the album. And while this is such a short album, while it has virtually no production value, it is still one of the most deepest albums ever concieved. In fact, I personally think that all of these aspects just make the end result that much more amazing.

Violence Violence - Ceremony

I saw these guys live before I had ever listened to any of their songs. And I noticed something: People went off to these guys. Moreso than any other other band. And it was one of the other bands' last show. I had never seen a band invoke such crazy, relentless, fury in their audience. So I picked this album up at the merch table and took it home. I gave it a few listens, and I was stunned. Of all the thousands of bands I had listened to, of all the live music I had seen, I had NEVER heard a band as angry as Ceremony. I had listened to so much metal, punk, and hardcore, that I thought there was no band that could really make me re-think what a genre meant.

But this album ripped up all of my notions of what hard music could be. The lyrics ranted about hating everyone you see. About walking down crowded streets and seeing nothing but emptiness in the eyes of those who pass by. About killing society, screaming in the face of every ignorant, materialistic asshole who measures success by salary. About how there's no love without hate, no happiness without depression. Never have I heard such blind fury contained in one album.

This album revived my faith in the hardcore genre. With such vanilla bro-core bands as H2O and Remembering Never mucking things up and leading the growing movement of being mediocre, I had almost written it off as a lost genre. But then I heard this album. It truly reinvigorated my love for hardcore.

Dead Mountain Mouth - Genghis Tron

There's a reason that Genghis Tron's MySpace page says Metal/Electro/Experimental. Why? Because they are marching down a less-than-traveled path in music. One that bands like Enter Shikari and Sky Eats Airplane have meandered around but never fully committed to. Genghis Tron has come up with some of the most interesting and innovative techniques in modern music. While their latest release, Board Up The House, has recieved critical acclaim and is becoming a household name due to tours with bands such as Converge, I believe that Dead Mountain Mouth is their most amazing work to date.

To me, it seems that Board Up The House was overthought. Dead Mountain Mouth seems that it was concieved, written, and recorded all within the span of about a week. This lends to the way the entire album flows from one song to another, wrenching your brain out of your ears, one cell at a time.

Anyway, Dead Mountain Mouth was a brave foray into uncharted terrain with a triumphant victory awaiting on the other side. If you are looking for something to spice up your playlists, check it out.

Photoshop for Poor People

It's called the GIMP, and it's a photo editing program. It's free, and I'm having an absolute blast with it.

Here's something I made for our little L4D team yesterday.



I've just started, so I'm not very good. I hope to get better as time passes and bring you guys cooler shit.

Let's Have a Little Respect Here!

-I can't read the artist's name, but here is where I found it.

I'm sure you know the feeling. Religious people tell you what's "right." They tell you how you should be living your life. They condemn you for not believing what they say. They spout whimsical nonsense from a book of fiction, demanding that you convert to their hierarchy of cardinals, bishops, and ministers, each one just as blind as the last. They tell millions each day what to think and say and do. They take money from the sheep of the world, thriving on others' stupidity. And when you tell them to screw off, to quit with their mind-numbing trash, society turns on you. Suddenly, you're the evil one. The intolerant one. The hypocrite. "How dare he!" They say. "Attacking someone's religion? That's unacceptable!"

Why is this? Because religion has an "untouchable" status. It's fine to discuss, just as long as you don't say anything to offend the religious. Just as long as you pander to them, everything is fine. And if say that you're an atheist? A non-believer? Boy, you had better do so in the most apologetic, ass-kissing fashion, lest you be branded as "intolerant."

For thousands of years, the religious have told us that we are wrong, that we are evil, that we are going to burn. Entire governments have been founded upon keeping a religion enforced. Countless atrocities have been committed in God's name. And now, when we finally have proof that religion is nonsense, when we finally have the ability to dissent without being put into an iron maiden or burned alive at the stake, the religious have still managed to put the fear of non-believing into us.

What we need to do is be open about our non-faith. Be proud in your un-beliefs. Tell the religious people that if they want to shout their garbage at us, they can do it from inside a church, where they belong. Do not be apologetic. Do not be meek. Show the world that atheists have no more fear of rejection. No more fear of being mocked, hated, or screamed at. WE ARE NON-BELIEVERS AND WE ARE PROUD.

Is Music REALLY Your Life?

I'm sure you've seen them. The "Music is Life" shirts, hoodies, bags,and other paraphernalia that seem to be sweeping the youth like a California wildfire. Kids talk about music. They listen to it. They watch it. They appear to be truly dedicated to the cause of music, doing everything they can to support their favorite musicians and artists.

If you are one of the people who wears this apparel or makes these claims, what you need to ask yourself is this: Am I truly dedicated to music as much as I think and say I am?

Let's administer a test. I'll ask you a series of music-based questions. Tally up the amount of "yes"'s and "no"'s you gave. I don't need to know how you answered. Only you do.

Do you spend (literally) hours a day listening to music? Can you name off your top 10 favorite albums of all time in under a minute? Do you search for new artists on a daily basis? Do you go to record stores? Do you buy albums? Do you go to shows? Do you know what a show is? Do you know what "getting signed" means? Do you hate any bands? Do you know what kbps stands for? Do you know what vinyl is? Do you know what an EP is? A split? A 7 inch? A demo? A full-length? Do you actively play a musical instrument? So you support artists through purchase of merch? Has a band or song or album ever changed your life? Has it really? Do you avoid listening to the radio? Do you have a record player? Do you read zines? Do you know what a zine is? And most importantly: Does music make you feel like nothing else in the world, like there is no word or phrase or movement that could ever describe the euphoria you get from listening to your favorite song?

Because if you answered "no" to most of these questions, chances are that music is not your life. Chances are that music is just another minor form of entertainment to you. No more important than TV, or movies, or sports. You aren't dedicated to music. You just think you are.

So do yourself a favor and get rid of that T-shirt you got from Hot Topic. It makes the people who actually are dedicated to music look bad.

Four Reasons that Family Guy Sucks

4. We get it, Seth. You're a liberal.

Seth MacFarlane(creator of the show) seems to feel that he is the sole purveyor of wisdom on the entirety of television. He thinks he needs to show the world how stupid conservatives are via predictable plots involving conroversial subjects(immigration, abortion, vegetarianism, etc.). But the fact is that conservatives don't watch the show. They don't even care about it. The only thing that comes from Seth MacFarlane's attempts to show the world his intellect is another boring, predictable storyline that ends with Brian or Lois stating a view that they present as a fact. And, from this, his liberal 13-20something-year-old fanbase gets a smug sense of superiority and thoughts like, "Boy, I bet those conservatives are soooo pissed right now!"

Note: I am a liberal. I agree with almost every stance Seth takes on such issues. I just don't want to see 20 minutes of Republican-bashing presented as funny.

3."Uh oh, this joke isn't funny." "Well, then, let's make it 3 minutes long."

Never before have I seen a show that does this so frequently. Instead of actually coming up with something funny, Family Guy drags something out for minutes on end and hopes to get a nervous laugh. I'm sure that anyone who is familiar with the show will know what the "Chicken Fight" joke is. An event is interrupted by Peter fighting a giant chicken for a reason that I'm sure most people can't even remember. They fight. And fight. And continue fighting. It eventually ends with the chicken appearing to be dead, although at the last second, he opens his eye, ensuring that the already god-awful writers can use him again if they need to fill up more time and they don't feel like being creative.

Of course, this is only one joke. There are numerous running gags throughout the show that abuse this idea, and yet people still seem to find it funny. Why? I cannot understand.

2. A Complete List of Every Family Guy Joke Ever

Family Guy's writers are so uncreative and unimaginative that I can list every type of joke it has ever used without breaking a sweat.

1. Angry monkey
2. Family hates Meg
3. Musical (These aren't even jokes. They're just songs.)
4. 1980's pop culture/sitcom/movie joke
5. Sexual innuendo, courtesy of Peter
6. Neighbor joke (Joe = disabled, Cleveland = black, Quagmire = nymphomaniac)
7. Modern pop culture/sitcom/movie joke
8. Non-sequitor joke
9. Callback to an older episode
10. Stewie wants to fuck Brian
11. Failed attempt to be edgy
12. Someone falls down really quickly

Every episode of Family Guy uses a mixture of these premises to produce one tired, recycled joke after another.

1. "Like the time I..."

Yes, I realize that South Park made this point very clear three years ago, but the point has only become stronger since then.

I'm sure you've all noticed it. Every 30 seconds, Family Guy makes one of those completely random jokes that have nothing to do with he current situation. They'll reference an 80's sitcom, make fun of a celebrity, or have a character's flashback. These jokes have no bearing on the current storyline, nor do they derive anything from it. Most of the time, they don't even have a point or a punch line. These jokes are tired and interchangeable, and Family Guy makes them so often that it makes watching the show less of an enjoyable experience and more of a chore.

Well, there you go. There are dozens of other reasons that Family Guy sucks, but these are the ones that I feel most strongly about.

Musical Eclecticity

"Metal."

For many years, this was my answer to the ever-asked question, "What kind of music do you like?" I listened to metal and not much else. Meshuggah, Behemoth, Slayer, At the Gates, and everything similar were my bands and that was fine by me. Everything that I needed, I got from metal.

But over time, I began to question my unwavering faith in metal. What else was out there? Was metal really the end-all be-all form of music for me? Could I enjoy other forms of music? Looking back, I see how ridiculous these questions were. Of course there were other things to enjoy. It would be silly to think anything otherwise. But at the time it was a serious issue, one to which I had not the answer.

I experimented with listening to punk and hardcore. Remembering Never, Dead Kennedys, and things like that were what I first got into. You know, bands that were still good even though they were pretty well known. Then I took music recommendations from a friend of mine named Dant. He showed me numerous bands that eventually came to be some of my favorites, like Foxy Shazam, Test Icicles, and Band of Horses. And, funny though it may seem, Rock Band actually got me into a lot of classic rock. I downloaded The Who's greatest hits and found them to be quite amazing. That's when I started listing to things like The Police and Michael Jackson.

As of now, my answer to the musical tastes question is a resounding, "I don't know. A lot of random stuff." I have no specific genre that I say right off the bat, and I like it that way.

See, I think that more people need to broaden their musical horizons. Most people I know are like me. They listen to a lot of things and don't really have one genre that they prefer. But I also have many friends that like one genre and one genre alone. That's all they listen to, that's all they've ever listened to, and chances are good that that's the only thing they're ever going to listen to. And that's sad to me, because I know that they'll never even give other music a chance. They'll never know the endlessly amazing musicians out there that make truly good music and don't really tie themselves to a specific genre.

I guess the point of this whole post is to try and show that great music exists outside your immediate field of vision. You should give other music a chance. You might just find that it's better than you thought.

Straight Edge

"A group of fags who want the look of hardcore kids, but dont [sic]have the balls to do anything fun. So they put X's on their hands to show everyone that they truely[sic], [sic]do, in-fact[sic], need to die."
- Sam Elwood

This is most people's view on what straight edge(hereby referred to as sxe) is. They think that sxe kids are either good churchgoing kids trying to impress their parents, or they are jealous that they aren't old enough to partake in alcohol/other shit, or they just "don't know how to have fun." In fact, I used to think pretty much all of the above. "Why would anybody be sxe?" I often found myself asking. "Drugs and shit are just plain fun. What, do they hate fun?"

But over time, I began having less fun. When I went to parties, I frequently refused alcohol. I spent less time with kids who were always fucked up. I began to see drugs and alcohol as a detriment, rather than a benefit. And that's when I started to consider becoming sxe. It was by no means a quick journey. It took years for me to finally understand what sxe truly was and why people would make it a part of their lives. And (maybe not so) coincidentally, that was around the same time that I started listening to hardcore a lot more. But I did get it eventually, and when I finally became sxe, I found out that it was a lot different than I had thought.

I realized that sxe wasn't about being a "good kid," or staying away from fun things. It was about respect for your body and mind. It was about trying to keep your independence from things that only hurt you in the end. It was about not clouding your judgement with useless trash.

And yes, there are those hardliners that will misinterpret sxe. They hate anyone who isn't sxe and judge everyone. They see sxe as a way to be better than everyone else. And there will be the kids who do it for the image. They'll put X's on their hands and tell everyone about how they are choosing a better path. They want people to like them, or be impressed with them, or some other stupid reason.

But the true sxe kids are the one you don't expect. They don't need to impress anyone and don't need to piss anyone off. They don't do it for the image or anything else. They don't push their views on others and they don't judge you for living differently. Their choice is purely a personal one, done simply because they wish to live a better life.

So no, sxe isn't gay or stupid. It's a lifestyle choice, and if you don't like it, then don't associate with it.

Hardcore: What It Means to Me

Now, let me start off by saying hardcore is certainly not the only genre I like. My tastes in music are not really tied to one specific sound; if I like it, I'll listen to it. Pop, classical, metal, punk, IDM, whatever. But there will always be a special place in my heart for hardcore, and I'd like to try and explain why.

Hardcore is such a widely defined genre that nobody who actively listens to it will like all of it. In fact, usually the opposite. People say they like hardcore, but have to name off a few bands to show what constitutes hardcore to them. There are so many bands out there that define themselves as "hardcore" that sometimes I find myself questioning what true hardcore is(Of course, a quick listen to Violence Violence by Ceremony always reminds me). And although the mainstream will always try to hijack, dilute, and rape it for all it's worth, I feel like they will never succeed.

MTV and VH1 will always ruin people's fun. They played Blink-182 and called it punk. Suddenly, everyone wanted piercings and patches. Job For A Cowboy came along and metal was all the rage. Bands like My Chemical Romance and Forever The Sickest Kids hijacked the "emo" name and created something completely different,something that suburban kids thought they could "relate to." Now, while all these genres have been defiled by numerous bands, I feel like hardcore can't be touched. No matter how many kids listen to H2O or Set Your Goals and call themselves hardcore, I feel like that can't affect me. When I liked punk and people shouted, "OMG Good Charlotte!" I was pissed. I ranted about how if they wanted punk, they should shove a Dead Kennedys album up their ass. When people heard In Flames and started throwing their horns incorrectly (A VERY dangerous thing to do), I nearly shit myself my anger. But I feel like the media can try as it might to take hardcore away from me, but it can never succeed.

Hardcore, for me, was always more about the music. Punks could keep their mohawks and peircings, metalheads had their crazy shows with lights and Pope blood. But we didn't need that. All we needed was a few guitars, a drumkit, and mic, and some seriously pissed off people. People who shouted lyrics that had changed their lives, lyrics that gave them something to believe in, something to fight for. Lyrics that wouldn't forgive and wouldn't forget. Lyrics that cut like barbed wire and smashed into your skull like a foot in a stage dive. Hardcore was not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for the heartless. No, my friends. Hardcore was it. Hardcore the last, best hope of humanity during times of desperation and oppression. Hardcore was us.

And no matter how hard the mainstream tries, no matter how many shit bands they manufacture, they can never take hardcore away from us. Because we won't let them. We don't follow the trends, but we do know this: Other people could never understand what hardcore is to us. And that's why we'll always win.

Why I Hate Christianity And Religion In General

I guess I should start off my blog with something controversial. Something that matters.

"What's wrong with religion? Why are you so hostile?"

It seems that a lot of people I know would not classify themselves as "religious." They don't believe in a God. They don't believe in heaven, hell, or purgatory. They don't go to church and they certainly don't live their lives according to a thousand-year-old book. And while they don't believe in any of these things, they have no problem with those people that do. Live and let live, right?

NO.

The mass-delusion of a God has been a serious detriment to humanity. Religion is perhaps the most effective and long-term inhibition of a species that desperately needs to progress in order to save itself. We are in more danger of destroying our planet than ever before. We cannot afford to live by the superstitions of the past anymore. Global climate change is very dire threat to our planet. Unnecessary wars frequently occur with devastating results. The rich continue to oppress in their disgustingly lavish situations while millions fall to the ground in starvation, never to rise again. The world is in a bad way.

"But this is not all religion's fault."

I agree. While it has certainly started many tragedies, religion is not always the culprit. But what it has done is justified these atrocities. Climate change? "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming [of Christ] is at hand." (James Watt)Why worry about the polar ice caps melting when Jesus will save us all? Well, what about wars? It is a commonly known fact that religion has started and justified numerous wars. In fact, many religions even encourage its followers to commit horrible acts against non-believers and sinners. 9/11 was not the first religion-inspired tragedy, nor will it be the last. And as far as wealth goes? Well, why do you think that early slave owners in the South forced their slaves to attend church on a regular basis? Because they knew religion sedated them. Religion teaches you to accept your circumstances, no matter how bad they are. Instead of trying to improve life for you and your children, put your faith in God. He will make everything right in due time. Religion pacifies the ignorant and uneducated, and people in power know this.

This is why I am a serious opponent to Christianity, Islam, and any other religion that fosters hatred, blind worship, and praise of ignorance. Until humanity can shed its ridiculous superstitions and fear of the unknown, we will never truly progress. And we have never needed to progress like we do now. If religion continues to infect people's minds and destroy their sense of logic and reason, then the world's situation will only get worse.