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YEAAAAAAH, СОФІЯ WON!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I feel bad for the other kids, though. They look so sad. I wish they wouldn't have all been on stage like that.

6) Ooh, that was neat! It's giving "1944," "Teresa & Maria," and "Asteromata" vibes with the staging and costuming! Very nice! Fantastic performance!

5) He made really good use of the LED screen behind him, I'd say the best use of the night! Great job!

4) Omg, best outfits of the night so far! I can't decide which one I like more! I think the camping/stars theme is really fun, and THAT NOTE! Wow! Wonderful job!

I'm glad to be able to watch the commercials instead of staring at a blank screen for a few minutes. It's neat to see how cultures display themselves in their advertisements.

Pas pak time!

3) Ooh, I really like this one! Ngl, this was my winner coming in to the competition, and she didn't disappoint! What an exciting, energetic song! Excellent performance!

1) Okay, punk rocker kid is really cute, and the song is so upbeat and fun! I enjoyed that!

2) Ooh, I really liked that second song! It was really cool, and the staging let me understand more-or-less what the song was about!

Outstanding job to both performers!

THIS ONE KID SAID, LIKE, THREE WORDS THAT I RECOGNIZED!!! THE DUOLINGO LESSONS ARE WORKING!!!

Oh noooo, not the Vidbir judges! I hope they're being nicer than the adult Vidbir judges!

(BUT this also reminds me to do my Duolingo lessons)

Or maybe I'm just tired of being told "GOTCHA, ATHEIST!" because I believe genocide is negative. Bad, even.

I'm comfortable saying that social movements and religions can have similarities and can even shade into each other; I'm not comfortable saying that all social movements are religions because of these similarities.

I also find the whole, "I can define a religion through whether or not they have a religious text or in-group/out-group dynamics" intellectually lazy. A group of 8-year-olds who enjoy Babysitter's Club and hate boys is a religion under this framework.

I also find it odd that some of the people who demonize the term "religion" the most are theists (evangelical theists, more precisely). It really offends them to call them "religious" even though they are by definition. Try it out for yourself if you don't believe me!

HOWEVER. I would posit that some of this is due to "people in groups tend to act in similar ways regardless of goal or purpose" rather than "everything is a religion, actually, GOTCHA ATHEIST!"

That's not to say that religion is wholly separate from social movements, that religions can't drive or aid social movements, that some social movements don't act in ways similar to religions, or that some social movements don't toe the line and might have shades of religiosity.