warning this comment is merely a theory and pure speculation and may be a bit offensive if you are particularly religious. Not intentionally offensive of course!
In paganism we have a concept of latent christianity.
Here’s a video from a popular pagan youtuber who discusses it. If you are christian just be warned he does not tiptoe around christian feelings. Sorry the purposes isn’t to offend christians by the way but this video explains it best.
Basically there are a lot of pagans who convert from christianity who often had a very bad, toxic or even spiritually abusive experience and they can sometimes be quite angry. Even if they aren’t angry sometimes they carry over old christian habits very often unknowingly. Or they may obsess over it and talk about all the annoying things that they had to put up with while growing up christian.
Why am I talking about this? Well it’s not to derail the thread! It’s because I think as a society generally speaking we are becoming less and less religious and I think the concept doesn’t just apply to pagans. Ever talked to that one atheist who just seems like the very mention of religion leaves them on fire with fury? You can probably blame latent christianity!
Carrying over old religious habits I think is significant here. A lot of TRA’s show signs of latent christianity in my opinion as many of them aren’t particularly religious or simply casually religious. The ones that are christian are often only christian in name but do not practice regularly.
In a way I often feel that the extreme conservative christian type personalities that plagued us in the 90’s and early 2000’s (you know the types that thought harry potter was satanic) didn’t go away. They merely shifted over to TRA land. And I think they carried over their attitudes of obsessing over what it means to be a “good person” and ethical purity.
But instead they just became wildly self righteous. See how they often shun the ‘non-believers’? It’s frowned upon to ask too many questions. The concept of dogma is very real and alive in this culture! Look at mermaids. They are essentially the modern version of the catholic child sex abuse scandal! The trans personalities in charge were once (and often still are) unquestionable much like a catholic priest. They are the personified idea of goodness and ethical knowledge. Then it is discovered that this “safe haven” for children was never safe at all.
I think that’s why they are so easily offended. They group up and bully anyone that pokes holes in their ideology of ethical purity and goodness. This ideology is a shield from the harsh realities of their world. They are threatened because of cognitive dissonance that they feel because science is not on their side.
Very similar to how some radical christians will try to argue that evolution isn’t real. They try to twist, bend, and even go so far as to invent their own science so that creationism is the only explanation that makes sense. At least to them that is…
While christian’s that aren’t bullying or abusive much like my cousin. She says that she feels that no one knows how the world was created and in her opinion that’s a beautiful and mysterious thing and it’s okay to not have all the answers!
But TRA’s are often not logical thinkers when it comes to their precious ideology.
The fact is that anyone who claims any kind of ethical purity or claim to be all knowing of the difference between good and evil we should be cautious of! I’ve found that any group that shuns their version of ‘non believers’ and doesn’t believe in the idea of agreeing to disagree are usually types to be weary of.
The fact is that good and evil are very nuanced. There sadly is no clear cut concept of it. There’s a lot of gray and everything is very situational. The age old dilemma of the train crashing into a group of adults or one small child. There are no good answers sometimes. Sometimes we just have to make the choices that we can live with.