the_dunk_tank

Barely attested religious practices from thousands of years ago are not European religion. Christianity did not erase white people's culture. Christianity did not colonize, imperialize, texturize, or homogenize Europe (excepting, very specifically, Lithuania). Homophobia is not Abrahamic - homosexuality as understood in modern culture and homophobia as understood in modern culture are both products of modern culture, with homophobia largely anchored in industrial revolution era notions of family, society, and patriarchy. Astrology is not "pagan", it existed the whole time and was an integrated feature of Christian societies. There was never some authentic primal real spiritually and emotionally satisfying Paganism (trademark llc all rights reserved copyright disney corporation mmccxxvi) that everyone was happy with before christianty ruined everything. Human cultures - including law, religion, sexuality, gender, food - evolve, change, spread, and syncretize constantly. They only very, very rarely disapear when an entire people is extremely thoroughly wiped out, which almost never happens. Missionary imperialism as we conceive it was a 19th century project. The hacienda colonialism that the Spanish employed in the Americas was it's own thing, with infuelnce on later religious imperialisms, that employed different theories and methods with different goalsm

I cannot emphasize this enough; magic isn't real, gods aren't real, religion is stuff people believe that does not necessarily correlate to an observable external reality. Christians don't do " pagan" stuff. They do christian stuff that in some cases was either adapted from the practices of other religion, or rose out of a syncretic (same "syn" as synthesis) mixing of religions and beliefs. Thoraboos all think Christianity came along and wrecked their sigma chad viking fascist whatever the fuck. Archeology suggests there was a long period where pre-christian northern european religious practices were practised alongside, and eventually merged with, christian practice.

All of this stuff is changing all the time! The christmas tree isn't some sacrificial wotan holiday log. It's not even the same thing as the christmas tree from 20, 100, or 200 years ago. Culture changes all the time. Even when culture doesn't seem to change that's often superficial - the fabric might look the same from a distance, but the dyestufss used, the method by which the fabric was made and transported, the method of sewing, all kinds of things are changing and so people's relation to their culture and the artifacts of their culture change, and in turn that culture and those artifacts change. There is never stasis. There are no ancestral traditions handed down unchanged through the centuries!

We live in modern times, and so did our ancestors, all of our ancestors, all the way back to monke! As long as there has been writing we have records of anxiety about the rapid, sometimes overwhelming changes in cultures, norms, and traditions. Yes! Postmodernism, futureshock, alienation, all these things are real, and their distressing effects are intense in our lives! But these feelings are not unique to us! You can trace changes in fashion on the walls of ancient tombs! You can read concerns for the well being of the youth written with iron gall ink on ancient vellum! The world has never been still or static! We have always danced and sung and warred and wailed and changed! Always, always, there is change!