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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7880249" data-attributes="member: 53980">I think you overestimate the power that ideological fringe groups have in modern democratic society. Heck, just look at the LGBT movement, which you mentioned. Things certainly aren't perfect. We definitely have a ways to go. But society as a whole is moving towards acceptance and equality. And that's given that the LGBT movement is made up of people who are the same as any of us. Imagine if they had the power to end the threat of climate change while reducing your electric bill to zero (magi-tech solar panels)? I strongly suspect that we'd be at effectively complete acceptance and equality by now (or at least as close as possible in the real world - haters gonna hate).Yeah , there are totalitarian regimes where things would be much worse for the Wise. That doesn't mean it would be worse everywhere. And those regimes would be shooting themselves in the foot in the long term.You might see a few lynch mobs early on, but when the government comes down hard on them, you'd suddenly see a lot less. Because the US government doesn't typically tolerate folks taking the law into their own hands. There are certainly people who delude themselves into believing that the most vile of acts are justified and good. But there are a lot more folk who believe in the rule of law (some of them are even genuinely good people). And of the deluded folk, most aren't so far gone that they want to spend the rest of their days rotting in a cell (or dead) for their beliefs.Every year we have a number of horrific tragedies caused by hateful people. But for every one such as them there are probably hundreds with hate in their hearts who have enough fear or sense not to act on it. And for each of those hundreds of hateful people there are thousands of decent people who are happy to live and let live, to let others live their lives as they see fit. That's the majority. And if you can provide that majority with something that makes their lives better or more enjoyable, then you have a societal force to be reckoned with. Anything that threatens that comfort becomes a call to action. And that's a powerful thing.Happy Holidays!</blockquote>

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