Posts by Nicholas Barnes74

David Hall6 said:Since my thread Children of Schizophrenic Parents was shut down, I have to keep posting about this specific intersection of schizophrenia and toxicity here:

- Imagine you sprain your ankle badly. You're wearing a brace and using a crutch—it's obvious to anyone looking. But to a toxic, narcissistic schizophrenic parent, it doesn't exist. They refuse to acknowledge it. They send you off to work anyway, and after ten minutes of limping around with a visible brace, you finally find the nerve to say, "Can't you see I can't work like this?" Instead of empathy, they just grit their teeth in disappointment at you and walk away, giving you the silent treatment because they feel insulted by your physical condition.

That’s just one example, and honestly, there are countless more.

It's like suggesting real estate as a safe way to invest. You bring it up, and since they used to work in that field before retirement, they take offense if it isn't done exactly according to their dictates. They’ll tell me I’m crazy or that I have fixed ideas, even threatening me with psychiatric intervention. Later, when the opportunity passes and I lose money, it’s as if the conversation never happened. It's like they have no memory of what we discussed.

I once offered to settle things by paying them $1,000 an hour to talk in front of a recording device or a witness—just so our positions are documented and can be defended in court or before a psychiatrist. They just laughed and ran away.

They claim I've never consulted professional medicine, even when I hand them dated lab results and reports with my name on them from actual doctors. They look right at the material evidence and the witnesses and insist it never happened.

Just try to imagine living with people like that. It takes an incredible amount of mental strength, willpower, and discipline just to endure it all.

Schizophrenia isn't just one thing that people think they understand. It’s a spectrum of symptoms, the most glaring being the inability to think logically or connect with reality. There is a complete disconnect between the things happening in their heads and the actual world they live in.

So, who actually has the diagnosis here? Is it the parents, one parent, or is it you?
I don't really get it. What's the point of this topic? If you're having this much trouble, just distance yourself from your parents—unless you're a minor, obviously. But based on everything I'm reading here, it sounds like maybe the issue is actually with you.

Kevin Hughes2 said:I am filing this report, though perhaps not so much to trigger an official complaint, but rather to ensure the general readership—those silent observers who lurk without ever participating—understands how those calling themselves "the moderation team" actually behave toward users. It is frankly appalling to see the uncivilized, vulgar language and outright insults they direct at people. Beyond that, I want to address their fundamental approach to their roles: the arbitrary deletion of posts they deem inconvenient, the punishing of users simply for expressing viewpoints, and the systematic censorship of almost any topic where ideological factions clash. This is meant to be a forum for debate, yet whenever there is even a hint of criticism regarding the current liberal-green coalition, the censors step in. It has become painfully obvious that certain moderators act as political activists. Whether acting on their own whims or following orders from political mentors, their mission seems to be deleting, censoring, and steering discussions to ensure that any argument not aligned with "they are perfect" is suppressed. By silencing dissenting voices from various corners of the web, they are actively distorting reality to present a version of events that simply does not exist.

Take a look at the way some of these moderators speak to the community.

trolls

f*** off - pieces of shit - you snitched on Mexicans as comparisons

Uncivilized, vulgar, anti-social, and demonstrating a profound lack of basic decency.

I think you missed the mark slightly on that definition.
On certain threads, the whole goal is just to blow the same horn over and over—don't deviate, don't have a different opinion, just stick to the agenda... I mean, specifically on certain topics. That's why I usually just stay away from those threads entirely.

Jeremy Johnson18 said:I mean, is it really that hard to get? Larry Walker24 laid it out pretty clearly, but I guess you're still missing the point.
So... what else is there for someone to even do at this stage? 🙂

Honestly, his explanations don't really matter here.
There isn't much left to explain, really.
You can't explain something that just can't be explained.
It's all just a bunch of unnecessary drama.

Tyler Jones46 said:This might be a bit off-topic, or maybe not...

I've always wondered why anyone would actually ask for a ban?

Is someone really that weak—like, they can't even control themselves enough to just stop visiting a forum they don't want to be part of, so they need some outsider to step in and do it for them?...

It's honestly kind of a disaster.

Or are people just being total drama queens? ☕

I'm with you there—it’s never made any sense to me either.😵

I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed, honestly. Between the pro-vax crowd, the anti-vaxers, all those wild conspiracy theories, the war in Ukraine, talk of a New World Order, constant digital tracking—man, it's just too much. I find myself wishing I could go back to a time before smartphones and the internet—you know, back when anyone who could type but couldn't even master basic grammar could just shout whatever nonsense they wanted at the world. I miss the simple things, like the pine forests being leveled for development, or the way nature is basically being swallowed up by the tourism industry. It feels like everything I actually care about is disappearing, and honestly, things might just keep getting worse and... well, I think I lost my train of thought.

I mean, chickens solving crimes? That’s actually pretty cool.
Honestly, way better than typical true crime.

Everything seems to be working fine on my end

Haha, just a little more follow-up on the Religion topic: Second off, nobody’s saying women are less intelligent—it's more about, I don't know, a certain lack of focus... or maybe they're just more forgetful... especially during their period.
(
Everything passes eventually 🤦

feralpilot0 said:This entire thread is proof of the kind of nonsense happening in the Religion section—it crossed the line of good taste and civilized behavior a long time ago.

Honestly, they're just some random, unimportant person—I've got them on ignore anyway—but it still proves how everyone thinks they have the right to judge believers and anyone else posting in the Religion section.
Even though there are actually some great, interesting discussions happening, unfortunately, a lot of high-quality people have stopped posting because the moderation is just... off. You've got a few people constantly clogging up threads with jokes, and yeah, there are always some weirdos and fanatics, I guess—that exists everywhere...
It would be nice if the moderators on the Religion board were at least somewhat fair toward believers, but that’s just not happening. I know that sub-forum is like a hot potato that nobody wants to touch, so maybe it'd be better if nobody moderated it at all—then we could all just talk to each other however we want, instead of having certain people policing everything.
I'm not some forum addict, so it doesn't really bother me that much, but it does suck seeing how smoothly moderation works on other boards (like with Azz, rustydrifter10, or Lemonzoo...) while here, if you even mention something, you risk getting banned. It happened to me once when they were gunning for me, slapping me with a "trolling" label—and when I asked for even one single example? Nothing, zero, zip... they just didn't want to deal with it.

Religion again.
The second a moderator thinks someone is being homophobic, they just shut the whole thread down immediately.
Check out this snippet from yesterday: "Actually, Catholics are the biggest idolaters and cursed ones before God—it’s clearly stated in the Bible." (
Now, just imagine if they had said "gay people" instead of "Catholics."
The sanctions would have kicked in right away, I guess.
But hey, you can say whatever you want about Catholics. No rules there, apparently.
P.s. I reported it, but like always, it was pretty much useless.

Charles Young56 said:
But that last part—that’s where things get messy.
That's just how it is.
Just because you aren't being a total jerk doesn't mean other people aren't allowed to be.
Honestly, forget all those rules, the morality, and all that other stuff they preach at church.
Live your life the way you want—even if that means stepping on a few toes to actually find some happiness and satisfaction.
I guess good deeds don't always come back to you... at least not in the way people hope.
Just be yourself and stop caring about everything else. I mean, maybe even be a bit of a bastard, but at least be a happy bastard instead of some miserable saint.

That sounds like the perfect recipe for a wasted, miserable life to me!👎

rustydrifter10 said:Could you send me the link to that post?

I didn't really get into who it was—they were banned, and I'm honestly not sure what the exact deal was there—but it doesn't really matter for the point I was trying to make.

coastalfalcon61 said:I guess this thread is actually a perfect illustration of exactly what the original poster was complaining about when they decided to start this discussion. Just like in the Religion section, you guys have basically hijacked the entire topic with all these off-topic arguments and by constantly pushing your own specific worldviews onto everyone else.
Now, I’m not necessarily saying that believers are right or that their specific views should be taken as absolute truth, but I do think we should respect their right to use this Forum for their own conversations. It feels like you won't even let them vent or express themselves because you just relentlessly bury the topic under a mountain of trolling and noise.

The whole point of creating this Forum was to give people a space where they could have actual, decent human discussions, yet it seems like a small handful of you have decided you have the right to push others around—which is pretty bold considering you're guests in this digital house just like everyone else.

Yeah, exactly.👍
I took a quick look at how this blew up, and I see some guy spreading hate toward believers by basically targeting Americans as a whole: "man, I just can't deal with the American mentality, it's an allergy, seriously... if you know what I mean. I can't stand the corruption, the shadiness, the constant maneuvering..."
The thing is, some people just show up to dump their toxicity—it can happen on any topic, really, but especially where people are allowed to express themselves.
Our opinions are never going to be the same, thank God, but there's supposed to be a certain charm to a good debate.
But here? There isn't any actual debate. It's just, like I said, people venting toxicity and projecting their insecurities—basically trying to compensate for their own issues by tearing down anyone who thinks differently.

swiftmaker12 said:I have a suggestion for the moderators:
Instead of handing out penalties to users, could we just open up a specific skeptic sub-forum dedicated to religion?
Something similar to how things were handled with COVID or Bitcoin.
It’s pretty obvious that opinions here are so wildly different and irreconcilable—it feels like everyone is hunkered down in their own trench, much like during World War I, where people spent four years or more stuck in the mud without moving an inch forward or backward.
That way, everyone can have their own space to express their reasons for celebrating or commenting.

Honestly, that's not a bad idea... although we have had threads like "why I became an atheist" and stuff like that before.
Even in those "religious jokes" threads, there's a fair amount of mocking going on regarding religion (at least from what I've glanced at lately), so I guess I could hang out over there too.

I’d really appreciate it if the moderators could weigh in here—honestly, your opinion doesn't really mean much to me anyway.

I’ve brought this stuff up before, but there’s just been zero reaction.
The Religion Forum obviously mostly serves as a playground for people who hate religion and believers.
Nobody even reacts when things get reported, so I guess it’s fine to just write like this:

Nji Hao said:And he's right. The Christian God isn't any of those things. He isn't smart, wise, or good.

If you actually read the Bible with an open mind, it becomes pretty clear to you that this so-called God isn't any of those things—not smart, not wise, and certainly not good.

The God in the Bible is just like the people who made him up: merciless, vindictive, vengeful, selfish, and jealous. Calling such a being "God" is honestly an insult to the true God.

Christianity is built on the Bible. Since the Bible is a lie, that means Christianity is a lie right down to its very foundation.And since everything built on top of that foundation isn't any better, the whole thing called Christianity is basically one big scam.

Getting on God's good side has nothing to do with whether someone is actually a believer or not.
I'm not just saying this out of nowhere; I believe the stories from people who have witnessed moments where humans actually encountered God. From those encounters, it’s become pretty obvious that our faith doesn't mean much to God.

Even if faith itself is irrelevant, how people practice it definitely isn't. Time and again, we've seen believers cause massive damage—to themselves and others—through their practice, which has basically earned them negative points with God. In that sense, atheists actually have a slight edge over believers because at least they aren't following all this religious nonsense.

"Kissing up" is probably the best way to describe what believers do.
"I'll follow whatever you say, and in return, you'll reward me." For most believers, that’s exactly why they want to believe—if not consciously, then at least subconsciously.

"I do this for you, you do that for me"—that's the basic principle of every transaction. Believers act like God is some kind of merchant, thinking they can achieve something by just kissing his ass.

The Bible is responsible for this skewed mindset, because the Bible depicts God as a narcissistic egomaniac who demands we suck up to him through praise and worship.

That is so far from the truth. God doesn't need anything, not even our worship. Worship is for narcissists, and God isn't that.

Anyone who demands blind faith and total obedience, backed by the threat of punishment if you don't comply, isn't God—he's just a cruel, merciless dictator.

The Bible and all of Christianity is a lie.
It's better to be an atheist than a Christian.
It's better to think that God doesn't exist than to believe he's the way he's described in the Bible.

I know a lot of people, and I've noticed that faith and intelligence are usually inversely proportional.

But when I talk to believers, their stupidity isn't even the biggest issue. The much bigger problem is that they don't care about the truth. They only care about things that confirm their faith. They jump at anything that supports what they believe, but they reject anything that contradicts it—even when the truth is staring them right in the face.

That's why talking to a fanatic believer is totally pointless. You can present them with an argument, but it's like you didn't even speak; it just bounces off them. They're like a wall—nothing contradictory to their faith can ever penetrate.

"We speak in God's name," "we are God's representatives," "God told us," "we fight for God," "Holy Father," "Reverend," "Excellency."

That's how it sounds in "Catholic-speak," but here is how it looks if we translate those words into their actual meaning:
"we speak for ourselves," "we've appointed ourselves as representatives," "somehow God supposedly said so," "we're fighting for our own interests," "the average Joe," "parasite," "pedophile."

Rituals, celebrations, parades, masses, fancy dresses, baptisms... honestly, "farce" might be the best word for it.
It’s all just empty outward show that has nothing to do with God. Just plain old tradition without any actual substance. A total farce. Christianity is basically that—just an empty shell lacking any real internal value.

Look, I get that there are people out there who can't stand faith or believers, but constantly bringing up the IQ of believers and all those other pointed comments—bolded or not—really falls under hate speech, discrimination, and intolerance toward religious people. That kind of stuff is actually prohibited by anti-discrimination law, and I don't think it would fly if it were directed at any other group.
It's always the same small group posting things like this, and somehow it just gets tolerated. If that's how it's going to be, then maybe we should just close the religion thread altogether.

Frank Foster6 said:It doesn't really matter; I’m sticking around this forum while Miller is still running the show, because he’s just going to find some manufactured excuse to ban me sooner or later anyway. I’ve already been slapped with warnings for supposedly being "blind" to certain historical facts regarding our neighbors—facts that were later proven to be crystal clear by actual academics and historians. Yet, not a single one of those warnings was ever rescinded, even after the experts confirmed I was right. It’s like they’re just refusing to admit they were wrong, and instead, he keeps writing about me and making insults, acting like I can't see the truth right in front of my face.

Guys, thank you so much for the support. I truly hope to return, just like dozens of other forum members will when Miller finally moves on one day. He could never actually debunk my arguments in the topics I follow, so he just decided to get rid of me by labeling me a bigot. But I’ll tell him, and I'll tell all of you: five, ten, or twenty years from now, the things I've written here will be cited in academic papers and become part of the official scientific record. I guarantee you that... "made in USA"

Then why don't you just stay away from the topics where he calls the shots?
I wouldn't even bother showing up there...

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
So, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (you know, the CDF) is one of those nine congregations within the Roman Curia. Basically, their whole job is looking at how faith is expressed in today's world and putting out statements—which, of course, the Pope eventually signs off on. Their main goal is really just translating Catholic belief into language people actually understand today. For instance, they were the ones behind the latest Catechism of the Catholic Church back in 1994, and then the compendium version about ten years later.

Back on July 21, 1542, Paul III set up the Sacra congregatio Romanae et universalis inquisitionis seu sancti officii. And—just to be clear—that had absolutely nothing to do with the old medieval papal Inquisition. This group was made up of six cardinals acting as inquisitors who were appointed directly by the Pope, giving them authority over the entire Church. One of the reasons this was even started was because of all the friction with reformers, but honestly, its main purpose was to push back against that notorious Spanish Inquisition, which had basically gone rogue and turned into a political tool for the Spanish crown.

Fast forward to 1908, and Pius X changed the name to the "Congregation of the Holy Office" (Sacra congregatio Sancti officii). Then, thanks to Paul VI’s *Integrae servandae* letter in 1965, the name was updated again to what we call the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (Congregatio pro doctrina fidei).

Just some quick info from Wikipedia.
It's a shame, really... there are always people who don't really get the Catholic faith and just seem to have this built-in grudge against believers, so they end up making all sorts of wild interpretations.👎

Amanda Hughes37 said:From what I can tell, the official story is just that people were out there making noise—you know, saying they were hungry or thirsty and had every right to protest, even if it meant blocking half the street. And the police? They haven't even been allowed to carry real ammo for years, treating everyone like they’re totally clueless... honestly, anything beyond that is probably just speculation.

What "official story" are we talking about here?
The fan groups at MZM are basically just a crowd used for manipulation.
I'm really only interested in the national team, but man, it's pretty sad that because of the MZM crowd, the actual fans who just want to go enjoy some soccer don't even bother showing up anymore.
Megi Tacher👍

I’d really appreciate some input here—especially if anyone has medical expertise and wouldn't mind sharing their thoughts.
My husband had surgery for prostate cancer about ten years ago, back when his PSA was at 18.
After the operation, the doctor mentioned the cancer had actually broken through the capsule. For a while after the surgery, his levels dropped all the way down to 0.0. But then, slowly, it started creeping up again until it hit 0.18. According to the standard protocol, once it hits 0.20, he's supposed to go in for radiation. It stayed right around 0.18 for almost a year, but during the last checkup—after six months—it jumped to 0.21. His oncologist suggested that waiting until the summer might not be the best idea for radiation, so he wants to run one more test and then hopefully get him scheduled by September. Now, just a month later, it’s already climbed to 0.25... though the oncologist isn't changing his stance yet. What do you guys think? I'm honestly pretty scared—is this kind of rapid rise normal?