{"id":7825,"date":"2025-10-31T14:56:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7825"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:56:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:56:43","slug":"tgfi-volume-528-halloween-china-and-nihilistic-violent-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/10\/31\/tgfi-volume-528-halloween-china-and-nihilistic-violent-extremists","title":{"rendered":"TGFI, Volume 528: Halloween, China, and Nihilistic Violent Extremists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4396\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\"><\/a>\n<\/p><p>You\u2019ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Interesting<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues likely to be of interest to Christians in college. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions, so if you read something fascinating please pass it my&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criticalgracetheory.com\/p\/christians-dont-celebrate-halloween\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christians Don\u2019t Celebrate Halloween<\/a> (Tyler Krug, Substack): \u201cFor years now, when someone asks me if our family celebrates Halloween, my reply has been the same: <strong>\u2018No, we don\u2019t celebrate anything on Halloween\u2014instead, our kids dress up and extort the neighbors for candy.\u2019 <\/strong>My reply brings to the surface two related concepts\u2014one explicit, one implied. The first concept is <strong>celebration<\/strong>. Celebration is \u2018the action of marking one\u2019s pleasure at an important event or occasion.\u2019 Celebration, therefore, involves knowledge, intent and endorsement.\u2026 But my Halloween retort also implies a second concept: <strong>participation<\/strong>. While celebration requires participation, participation does not require celebration\u2014playing in a football game and celebrating the sport are two different things. Further, a defensive back might participate in a play resulting in a touchdown, but they won\u2019t be celebrating in the end&nbsp;zone.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Emphasis in original.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thedispatch.com\/article\/south-china-sea-gray-zone-war-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">America Is Losing the Gray Zone War for the South China Sea<\/a> (Raymond Powell, The Dispatch): \u201cAmerica\u2019s continued inability to develop anything approaching a counter-gray-zone strategy is exactly why China employs it. The CCP has figured out that we really like our neat categories and rules-based order: We are either at peace or at war; an action is either legal or illegal; an asset is either military or civilian; a fact is either true or false; crises are to be avoided and de-escalated, not used as opportunities to reset the board in our favor. China\u2019s gray-zone strategy is designed to exploit the myriad gaps and seams that define our conventional and ordered policy frameworks and deterrence models.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/the-suspected-la-arsonist-and-the-nihilistic-violent-extremists-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Suspected LA Arsonist and the Rise of the Nihilistic Violent Extremists<\/a> (Peter Savodnik, The Free Press): \u201cHe was defined more by what he was against\u2014climate change, Donald Trump, people who ate meat, people who believed in God\u2014than what he was for.\u2026 Rinderknecht told the chatbot that he \u2018literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated.\u2019 \u2026Rinderknecht came from a religious home. His parents, Joel and Jennifer, were Baptist missionaries who lived in France.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/yaschamounk.substack.com\/p\/we-all-live-in-a-village-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">We All Live in a Village Now<\/a> (Yascha Mounk, Substack): \u201cWe all live in a village again.\u2026 For it turns out that the life of the city, with its attendant freedoms from neighborly supervision and collective constraint, was really just a short interlude in the history of humanity. Facilitated by social media, the village has returned with a vengeance\u2014stripped of its warmth, and supercharged by the cruelty of the&nbsp;crowd.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/why-i-miss-living-in-a-red-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blue State Blues<\/a> (River Page, The Free Press): \u201c[The guiding principle of blue states] is paternalism for the law-abiding masses and permissiveness for society\u2019s antisocial underbelly. In other words, living in a blue state means that the government treats you like a child and does everything in its power to make your life just a little more annoying and inconvenient\u2014unless you start openly smoking crack on the street.\u2026 I still support labor unions. I still want Medicare for All. But I want my dignity and sanity too. I\u2019d rather be ignored than annoyed.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/preservinghope.substack.com\/p\/is-terminal-lucidity-real\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Is terminal lucidity real?<\/a> (Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, Substack): \u201cAs a neuroscientist, my first thoughts when encountering reports [of terminal lucidity] are <em>that they can\u2019t possibly be real<\/em>. By the time patients with severe dementia actually die, their brains are catastrophically damaged. They typically show no signs of recognizing family members. They often haven\u2019t responded meaningfully to their environment in months or years. Their brains are riddled with plaques and tangles. And they\u2019ve lost 20\u201350% of their synaptic connections \u2014 so much that their brains have visibly shrunk on MRI scans.\u2026 And yet, terminal lucidity keeps being reported.\u2026 The only prospective study, which followed 100 hospice deaths, found it in 6% of cases. That\u2019s not ubiquitous, but nor is it rare \u2014 in the US alone, it would mean around ten thousand cases per&nbsp;year.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An interesting complement to the Charles Murray article arguing for the existence of the soul I shared <a href=\"https:\/\/theglendavis.substack.com\/p\/volume-526\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/theglendavis.substack.com\/p\/volume-526\">two weeks ago<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The author is a research scientist at Monash University in Australia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/31\/us\/politics\/supreme-court-kagan-jackson-liberal-justices.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Debate Dividing the Supreme Court\u2019s Liberal Justices<\/a> (Jodi Kantor, New York Times): \u201cBadly outnumbered, seated for the long haul of life tenure, Justices Kagan and Jackson in particular are divided on the best approach to jobs in which they are more or less sentenced to fail.\u2026 Like many others across the left in the era of Donald J. Trump, the liberal justices are in a generational and philosophical struggle over whether to safeguard institutions from within or protest their decline. But unlike politicians, they are doing so in a sealed world so tradition-bound and decorous that closing an opinion \u2018I dissent\u2019 instead of \u2018I respectfully dissent\u2019 is considered a dramatic statement.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list simple-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/how-easy-it-fudge-your-scientific-rank-meet-larry-world-s-most-cited-cat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How easy is it to fudge your scientific rank? Meet Larry, the world\u2019s most cited cat<\/a> (Christie Wilcox, Science): \u201cLarry Richardson appeared to be an early-career mathematician with potential. According to Google Scholar, he\u2019d authored a dozen papers on topics ranging from complex algebras to the structure of mathematical objects, racking up more than 130 citations in 4 years. It would all be rather remarkable\u2014if the studies weren\u2019t complete gibberish. And Larry wasn\u2019t a cat.\u2026 [This is not without precedent] In 1975, theoretical physicist Jack Hetherington added his Siamese to one of his single-author papers so the references to \u2018we\u2019 would make more sense. As of this year, \u2018Felis Domesticus Chester Willard\u2019 has 107 citations.\u201d&nbsp;<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Note: this is from July 2024, so a bit outdated. I did check FDC Willard and his citation count has gone up to&nbsp;113.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/comic\/asteroid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AI Will Ruin Social Media<\/a> (SMBC)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mpierce.substack.com\/p\/sexy-costumes-for-your-church-fall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sexy Costumes for your Church Fall Festival<\/a> (Matthew Pierce, Substack): \u201cProbably the sexiest man in the Bible is Samson, because he was an idiot with big pecs, and all the Christian ladies are like \u2018oooh, I could fix him.\u2019 Samson is your friend from youth group who could walk into a room full of smart, pretty girls, and in five minutes he will be talking to the one crazy girl in the back. And then you are like \u2018John, that girl is on probation for stabbing her last boyfriend,\u2019 but he is like \u2018bro, I got this,\u2019 but in fact he does not have this, and he never&nbsp;will.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theoatmeal.com\/comics\/brain_job?no_popup=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Your Brain\u2019s Job<\/a> (The Oatmeal)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/xkcd.com\/3160\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Document Forgery<\/a> (xkcd) \u2014 I lowkey want to make one of&nbsp;these<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/30\/climate\/candy-chocolate-cocoa-prices-climate-change.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What\u2019s Missing From Your Favorite Chocolate Bar? It May Be Chocolate<\/a>. (Claire Brown, New York Times): \u201cAs the Halloween season boosts demand, some candy companies are replacing expensive cocoa butter with other fats, a swap that means their products no longer meet the U.S. regulatory definition of milk chocolate and can no longer be called that on packaging.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/the-nightmare-is-over-supreme-court-outlaws-candy-corn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Nightmare Is Over: Supreme Court Outlaws Candy Corn<\/a> (Babylon Bee)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors \u201cwho understood the times and knew what Israel should do\u201d (1 Chron 12:32). In a similar way, we need to become wise people whose faith interacts with the world. I pray this email gives you greater insight, so that you may continue the tradition of Issachar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Disclaimer<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey\u2019s agenda and we are not about the elephant\u2019s agenda \u2014 we are about the Lamb\u2019s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass <a href=\"http:\/\/econlog.econlib.org\/archives\/2011\/06\/the_ideological.html\">the ideological Turing test<\/a> and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say \u201cI agree\u201d or \u201cI disagree\u201d until I can say \u201cI understand\u201d) and may at times share articles that have a strong partisan bias simply because I find the article stimulating. The upshot: you should not assume I agree with everything an author says in an article I mention, much less things the author has said in other articles (although if I strongly disagree with something in the article I\u2019ll usually mention it). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent.\n\nAlso, remember that I\u2019m not reporting news \u2014 I\u2019m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There\u2019s a lot happening in the world that\u2019s not making an appearance here because I haven\u2019t found stimulating articles written about it.\n\nIf this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/theglendavis.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">view the archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Interesting On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues likely to be of interest to Christians in college. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions, so if you read something fascinating please pass \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/10\/31\/tgfi-volume-528-halloween-china-and-nihilistic-violent-extremists\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cTGFI, Volume 528: Halloween, China, and Nihilistic Violent Extremists\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[204,218,125,346,132],"class_list":["post-7825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-atheism","tag-california","tag-china","tag-halloween","tag-supreme-court"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-22d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7828,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825\/revisions\/7828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}