“Once we understand that addiction is neither a sin nor a progressive disease, just different brain wiring, we can stop persisting in policies that don’t work, and start teaching recovery.”
— Can You Get Over an Addiction?
6:09 pm • 29 June 2016
“people with addiction continue even when the damage far outweighs the pleasure they receive and why they can appear to be acting irrationally: If you believe that something is essential to your survival, your priorities won’t make sense to others.”
— Can You Get Over an Addiction?
6:06 pm • 29 June 2016
“In essence, addiction occurs when these brain systems are focused on the wrong objects: a drug or self-destructive behavior like excessive gambling instead of a new sexual partner or a baby. Once that happens, it can cause serious trouble.”
— Can You Get Over an Addiction?
6:05 pm • 29 June 2016
“Addiction is indeed a brain problem, but it’s not a degenerative pathology like Alzheimer’s disease or cancer, nor is it evidence of a criminal mind. Instead, it’s a learning disorder, a difference in the wiring of the brain that affects the way we process information about motivation, reward and punishment. And, as with many learning disorders, addictive behavior is shaped by genetic and environmental influences over the course of development.”
— Can You Get Over an Addiction?
6:04 pm • 29 June 2016
“Mateem was afraid of his god, of what his family would say, of how his culture would condemn him, and so his visceral shame became visceral hatred.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:59 pm • 17 June 2016
“many Muslim families in the West still practice first-cousin marriage despite the many health risks this carries. In what twisted morality is dating bad but borderline incest ok? Homosexuality sinful but grandfathers marrying teenage girls virtuous?”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:54 pm • 17 June 2016
“Something has gone terribly wrong in the mental and sexual life of a culture—once rich in diversity—when it is hijacked by a conservative puritanism that is autocratically enforced by repressed men.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:54 pm • 17 June 2016 • 1 note
“Perhaps the worst case of gross hypocrisy takes place in Afghanistan, where because women cannot dance in public and because Afghan social mores are ultraconservative, a practice known as bacha bazi, or “boy play,” is common.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:52 pm • 17 June 2016
“the child who begins to think he is different from the other boys will be tormented by self-hatred. He will either reject his religion or reject his body—and the latter can easily lead to frustration and violence.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:50 pm • 17 June 2016
“from a young age, Muslim children are taught that sexual feelings are impermissible. A basic ignorance envelops the sexual life of the Muslim child—her parents will never mention sex other than to condemn it; her god is apparently opposed to all forms of sexual temptation; her mosque teaches that sexual impulses are the devil’s work.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:39 pm • 17 June 2016
“
In 1858, the Ottoman Empire decriminalized homosexuality. These were not one-off instances, either, as the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World notes:
Whatever the legal strictures on sexual activity, the positive expression of male homoerotic sentiment in literature was accepted, and assiduously cultivated, from the late eighth century until modern times. … Anecdotal literature reinforces this impression of general societal acceptance of the public celebration of male-male love.
”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:39 pm • 17 June 2016
“Despite all the efforts of Muslim despots to scrub gays from the historical record, Islamic history is not only rife with gays in the public arena, but boasts a vast corpus of literature and poetry that celebrates their love.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:38 pm • 17 June 2016
“the Koran must be read in light of all of Islamic history. There are historically informed readings and historically ignorant ones, and ISIS, the Orlando killer, and the Muslims who justify homophobia with recourse to a seventh-century text all eliminate 1,400 years of history, commentary, discussion, rebuttal, and consensus.”
— Orlando Has Exposed Islam’s Huge Homophobia Problem
1:35 pm • 17 June 2016