DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - On Thursday, the Satanic Temple of Iowa announced that their display at the Iowa Capitol had been significantly damaged.

The controversial display, which Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds called “objectionable,” featured a ram’s head covered with mirrors on a mannequin before being damaged.

Organizers say it’s a symbol of their right to religious freedom.

The Satanic Temple of Iowa posted the following message on their Facebook page:

“This morning, we were informed by authorities that the Baphomet statue in our holiday display was destroyed beyond repair. We are proud to continue our holiday display for the next few days that we have been allotted.

We ask that for safety, visitors travel together and use the 7 Tenets as a reminder for empathy, in the knowledge that justice is being pursued the correct way, through legal means.

KCCI has reported that 35-year-old Michael Cassidy of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. He has since been released.

Solve et Coagula! Happy Holidays! Hail Satan!”

  • UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I feel that destroying it has garnered more attention for TST than they would have received had it been left alone.

  • kautau@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    He’s from Mississippi? Did he drive 12 hours just to go break the display?

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      That’s what being brainwashed by fucking propaganda will do to a person…

      Reich wing media is a cancer on society.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      I mean, either that or he was travelling for any number of other reasons that people do. Visiting family is popular this time of year.

      More importantly it ups the chances he doesn’t show for his hearing and either never interacts with cops again, or gets arrested for skipping his hearing next time he interacts with police for any reason, such as a routine traffic stop and jailed until Iowa gets back about whether or not they want him.

  • oleorun@real.lemmy.fan
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    1 year ago

    The 7 Tenets are strong against right wing hate.

    Imagine if doofus had fucked up a nativity scene. His ass would have been tazed several times, he’d be beaten, and the fundies would stop poking holes in wrapped condoms for half a second to be up in arms.

    • lemmydripzdotz123@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You could improve this by comparing it to someone beheading a statue of Jesus at the state capitol. I don’t know if that has happened, but it would be more likely to elicit the response you describe.

    • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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      Nativity scenes get messed with all the time. I see no reason to jump to such extreme conclusions unless youve got a scenario where this actually happened.

      Edit: This is the same thing as Christians inventing persecution basically. I don’t want fellow secularists denying reality to invent unreasonable scenarios where they’re the victim.

        • chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Tee-hee! Us few are enlightened enough to recognise the groupthink! I think I shall leave a slightly snarky commenting highlighting how intelligent we are, and how like sheep the other thickos are!

            • chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              Only if you’re part of the group who, as a group, don’t agree with the groupthink. That is, the group that define themselves in opposition to groupthink. Those with completely independent views to the group. That group.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Because the whole point of conservatism and Christian Nationalism is that only the right people are protected by the legal system. Everyone else is beneath the law, denied rights and protections, and subject to retribution without cause and due process.

      Conservatives fight to assure those not protected do not gain civil rights.

      The white power movement fights to further reduce rights and protections, and narrow the set of those who qualify for them.

      • jandar_fett@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        These kinds of behaviors are really hammering home that Christians are just nazis with training wheels huh?

        • foyrkopp@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s the quiet part that’s (usually) not said aloud.

          Just take a look at the statistics of how i.e. criminal law is applied much more aggressively to conservative out-groups (PoC, poor, etc.) than conservative in-groups (white, wealthy, etc.). Then have a look at who is proposing politics intended to fix that imbalance an who’s talking about “taking a hard(er) stance on crime”.

          Another, rather specific example: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8769269/Former-abortion-clinic-worker-recalls-pro-life-women-justify-procedures.html

          Once you look our for the pattern, you’ll see it everywhere.

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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            criminal law is applied much more aggressively to conservative out-groups (PoC, poor, etc.) than conservative in-groups (white, wealthy, etc.).

            So in your mind is there a conservative in group and out group as regards sex? I just want a starting point before I delve any further.

            • foyrkopp@lemmy.world
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              My comment wasn’t related to sex but more generalized, but, umm - yeah?

              People having heterosexual two-person sex (preferably with a single, consistent partner) are the “in-group”.

              Everyone else is the out-group.

              If anyone ever made i.e. a study to something like police behavior experienced by a “regular” pick-up bar and a gay bar, I’d expect to see some stark differences.

        • kmaismith@lemm.ee
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          I can’t imagine any would, that is an abstraction developed by not-conservatives trying to wrap head around conservative actions. To have a conservative in power say so overtly would fuel the people being oppressed into coordinated resistance and disgust fence sitters into voting against conservatism

          • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I’m a conservative, and I think people should be equal under the law.

            What are you seeing that makes it seem otherwise?

            • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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              What are you seeing that makes it seem otherwise?

              Satanic display at Iowa Capitol vandalized ‘beyond repair’

              Someone seemed to think it was appropriate to vandalize this display specifically.

              • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                So because someone targeted a specific thing here, that’s unequal, and the inequality must therefore be a core belief of conservatives generally? Is that the line of reasoning here?

                • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                  https://apnews.com/article/satanic-temple-display-vandalized-iowa-capitol-199fb41983a3f3a390b7be370214bb64

                  The display is permitted by rules that govern religious installations inside the Capitol but has drawn criticism from many conservatives, including presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. A Facebook posting by The Satanic Temple on Thursday said the display, known as a Baphomet statue, “was destroyed beyond repair,” though part of it remains.

                  Michael Cassidy, 35, of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said Friday. He was released after his arrest.

                  Cassidy is a Republican who was defeated by Democrat Keith Jackson in Mississippi State House District 45 in November.

                  It is possible for someone to be on the Conservative side of the political spectrum and still be a reasonable person who respects equality. It is not possible for a reasonable person who respects equality to support the Republican party.

              • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 year ago

                It’s a misdemeanor vandalism charge, odds are he’s a vaguely attractive white guy with no priors so of course they let him go until his hearing, probably without bail. Only way his odds of being released on his own recognizance would have been higher is if he were a pretty, young white girl.

                I actually personally know a pretty young white girl who got caught in a drug charge out of state, released on her own recognizance pending hearing, came back home, skipped her hearing, got pulled over for a traffic violation back home, jailed for a bit for being a fugitive until the other state could fetch her, taken back to the other state and then released on her own recognizance pending a hearing again despite having explicitly proved that she was a flight risk.

            • brax@sh.itjust.works
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              If you feel that people should be equal under the law, why do you align politically with the parties that don’t recognize trans rights, homosexuality, worker rights, social support, freedom of religion (not just Christianity), voting rights…

              You don’t believe people are equal under the law. At best, maybe you believe that groups of people are equal under law, but some groups are more equal than others.

            • voidMainVoid@lemmy.world
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              This case right here. He thought that it was okay to vandalize a religious display that was from “the wrong religion”, and he’s getting let off with a slap on the wrist.

              • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                And the person letting him off is a conservative, I take it? And this is in comparison to a different arrestee who did the same to another display?

        • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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          There is a long history of right wing politicians cloaking themselves in the rhetoric of the left. You can watch it evolve over it’s history as the leftist talking points have… but the one thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning is the way they behave shows a belief in the aggregation of power. Conservatives support a hierarchy with a lot of executive power at the top and a failure state at the bottom. The left looks to broaden and scatter power horizontally…

          It’s part of why complaining that social services and welfare programs are artificially disruptive to a “natural” order and determining and expelling non-citizen underclasses and narrowing the rights to fully participate has existed since the beginning of right wing rhetoric but they never sell it outright as “some people deserve to die poor or to serve in a perpetually subordinate position”. It has always required a grift to get the masses to sign on. It’s also why they tend to pair themselves with the church going crowd. Their base has to believe at some level that inequality is not just natural but justified and that helps when you already have people you veiw as fundamentally inferior.

    • brax@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Because the Christian hegemony rules with an iron fist in the west. A big part of TST’s existence is about bringing that hypocrisy to light.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      Perhaps they were simply trying to uphold the separation of church and state. Maybe the thing that caused the attack was “a church display at the state capitol”

  • IHadTwoCows@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Weak, pathetic, pussy-assed ‘god’ gets extremely butthurt and sends a pathetic paranoid delusional simp loser to break things.

    This incident is proof that the judeo-christian god is a bedwetting loser.

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hey now, the Judeo-Christian god can’t be a pussy-ass or get butthurt. Both of those require existence 🥁 Bang-on about the delusional losers breaking shit though lol.

      • kmaismith@lemm.ee
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        If we call the part of our brain that helps us call label things right and wrong “god” we can see anyone speaking or acting on behalf of “god” as the reality of being on behalf of themselves or whoever put that god into their head

          • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They don’t. All three of those change, sometimes drastically, depending on the person asked and the culture they live in. If all humans vanished, those three things will vanish with us.

            • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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              That’s not true. Other species have altruism and social behaviors akin to those principles. Plus almost all cultures have at least some sort of ruleset, showing it’s objectively important and real. Social groups have to regulate behavior of individuals to exist and that is a fact regardless of the species.

              Stop with this r/iam14andthisisdeep edgelord bullshit. Justice, laws and morality are very, very real. Just because they’re immaterial doesn’t mean they’re not real. They influence every aspect of your life, especially when they’re not enforced.

              Other species could and would rise to become an intelligent, technological species if we disappear and would therefore end up having their own, even if it manifests in a different way.

              • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
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                It’s not edgelord bullshit. It’s just a simple truth. Other species may present with some manner of social contract, but it would likely be very different to anything we call morality or justice.
                They are ideas from human minds that we agree to live by for the most part. Same with currency and many other social constructs. Since evolution is constantly happening and imperfect, those ideas are imperfect and constantly changing, sometimes dissolving away.

                We might not even be a self, but instead, we are an ongoing process evolved to see itself as a self. The concept of free will needs a pretty big rewrite as well, if there even is such a thing.

                I’m only scratching at the surface of very deep and intricate topics of course. This isn’t exactly the best place for more in depth discussion, but for an example of where I learn this edgelord shit, the book I’m chewing through now is https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/439332.

                • jandar_fett@lemmy.world
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                  I’ll add to that, that you can just consider that still to this day, cannibal human beings exist, and to them, it is moral and ethical, because it is part of their culture. That is “morally” and ethically reprehensible to us, but we exist in a different sphere of influence than them. Does this make them wrong? If so, then by who’s metric? I agree with your opening sentence, btw. Don’t have time to get into the weeds and read all of this right now though. Just got off work.

                • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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                  Lol oh no, it’s 100% moral relativism edgelord bullshit dumbasses use to justify doing whatever they want without consequences.

                  What other species do to regulate social behavior isn’t much different from what we do, and if you bothered to research it instead of talking out of your ass, you’d know that. Google. It.

                  Now in the real world where adults pay bills, people universally accept the concepts of laws and justice because they are the means by which we regulate behavior to protect ourselves and each other from harm. When people do not enforce them, we get situations like the one we’re in now, and society collapses.

                  When you grow up, you’ll understand.

          • jandar_fett@lemmy.world
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            They’re social constructs for the most part. Try to apply your concept of laws, justice and morality with a paramecium in a drop of water.

            • TK420@lemmy.world
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              god is some man made shit that has no place in our society. People who believe are not very smart, similar to flat earth people.

              I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not, the truth hurts.

  • Facebones@reddthat.com
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    Interesting though it’s just a mischief charge, if I trashed their Jesus garbage you know DAMN well I’m swimming in hate crime charges.

    • brax@sh.itjust.works
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      If you did it now, wouldn’t lawyers be able to use thos case to get you the same punishment?

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      In Iowa, criminal mischief covers vandalism, and 4th degree criminal mischief means damages between 300-750 dollars. Penalty is up to a year in jail and up to about $2500 in fines if convicted. Since it says he was charged, he wasn’t just let off free, he was released pending hearing aka they aren’t holding him in jail until then.

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
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    Whenever I hear the phrase Criminal Mischief, I always imagine an old cartoon criminal tip toeing around and up to no good.

    • voidMainVoid@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, it’s absurd. Don’t you think that if this guy had vandalized a Christian or Jewish display that he’d get more than “criminal mischief”? This is a hate crime.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      The black mask around the eyes is a dead giveaway.

      That’s how you know that racoons are always up to no good.

  • Bruncvik@lemmy.world
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    KCCI has reported that 35-year-old Michael Cassidy of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree. He has since been released.

    What a special snowflake, that one. Bless his heart.

  • 4grams@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    After hearing about this thing, I’ve decided I’m making myself a Christmas Baphomet decoration for my house.

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    I like how he knows that the founding fathers didn’t really mean what they said about the first amendment and all that. I hope the temple sues.

  • GardeningSadhu@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    shocked they actually arrested him. will be even more shocked if he gets anything close to the punishment he earned

    • Pacmanlives@lemmy.world
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      A 4th degree misdemeanor is nothing! I doubt if someone messed up a Jesus Nativity set they would get that

      • brax@sh.itjust.works
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        Idk, a precedent has been set now. Lawyers could just refer back to this case, no?

        • misophist@lemmy.world
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          What is the precedent? “Unlike crimes against any other religion, hate crimes against satanism is not a hate crime”?

          • brax@sh.itjust.works
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            Seems like America has basically said:

            “hate crimes against religious iconography isn’t a hate crime”

            It’s a huge can of worms that they opened, and basically shit all over everything people fought against in WWII.

            Pretty sure it also just wiped out a few US fundamental freedoms too.

            So, either this goes up the chain to punish the guy appropriate, or the USA is in for some real heated bullshit in the near future.

            • misophist@lemmy.world
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              Burning down a church with nobody in it is a hate crime. Where is the line? Is it destruction of real property? Is it a monetary threshold? I don’t know the answer, but it is definitely a huge can of worms.

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            I keep seeing this precedent argument and this is exactly what I think every time.

            If anything I see someone TRYING to use this case as a precedent to swerve hate crime charges and it gets used to declare Satanism not a recognized religion.