#people around me like Jews need to be careful and they are not wrong

[fanchonmoreau]

THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD IS A VERY NARROW BRIDGE AND THE MAIN THING TO REMEMBER IS TO HAVE NO FEAR AT ALL.

[kelluinox]

I just want to understand how westerners who never experienced war, who don't have anyone they know affected by war, have the audacity to sit in their ivory towers and pontificate about war. It's truly mind boggling. These pampered, privileged, spoiled little kids sitting on social media, treating wars in which real people are dying like they're a particularly interesting Netflix show, drawing anime characters with the colors of terrorist regimes.

I have family in Odesa. Practically every summer of my childhood I spent in Odesa. I went to the beaches. I stayed at my aunt's apartment. Walked around the city with my cousin. Odesa is beautiful. And I watched it be bombed by Russians with no ability to stop my terrorist government from doing so. I received text messages from my cousin, saying, "we have fireworks tonight" and nearly lost my mind every time I heard of new bombing. I didn't know if the next day I would be hearing of my relatives being trapped under rubble. I had nightmares over what the Russians did and are doing in Ukraine. Bucha still haunts my thoughts. All of this slaughter is being done by my government and I have no ability to stop it. And Russian society supports it. You know, those screaming about innocent civilians show only one thing - they don't understand the first thing about fascist societies. The innocent civilians of Russia celebrated the annexation of Crimea. They stuck Z symbols to their cars and hung st George ribbons on their clothes to support the invasion. They got their kids to record their anti war teachers to get them fired or even imprisoned. They dress up their kids in military style clothes and they invite terrorists to speak in front of class about 'patriotism'. An innocent civilian art class teacher reported a girl who drew an anti war picture in class to the innocent civilian school principal. The principal called the police. The girl was put into solitary confinement until her mother agreed to take her. Her father was kidnapped and secretly put in prison.

Some other absolutely ignorant claims I've heard are ones about "collective punishment" and "illegal blockades". Funny. I live under collective punishment - sanctions, and countries bordering Russia are closing entry to Russians, slowly forming a blockade. And you know what? Russia deserves it. Russia deserves to learn the hard way that this is what you get for being an imperialist aggressor. I don't blame the Baltics, or Finland for closing their borders with Russia. I blame Russia for being such a shitty neighbor that such measures were needed in the first place.

And for those who will say, oh but how does this relate to the Middle East. Well, first of all, I'm a jew. I care when the biggest attack on jews since the Holocaust happens and the world spends 12 months celebrating it and bemoaning that only 1200 were murdered and not 7 million. I also care because, unlike you, I know Putin's allies, I know who helps bomb my family in Ukraine. I know that Hamas and Hezbollah and numerous other terrorist organizations terrorizing Israel are Iranian proxies. And I know Iran and Russia are buddies and Iran sells weapons to Russia. I was here, in Moscow, when the PA and Hamas were here for a visit. I was in the same city as those bloodthirsty murderers who want all jews dead. And yet people will still have the audacity to tell me that I'm the one who's in the wrong. It's me who doesn't understand anything about geopolitics, you see. I'm the one who can't tell the difference between a war and genocide even though I had entire branches of my family erased by the Holocaust, have parents and grandparents who lived in the Soviet Union and watched my own government attempt a genocide in Ukraine. I'm the one who doesn't understand imperialism even though Russia is an empire. Russians believe that all post Soviet states should still belong to them and make no mistake once they have them they'll go on to grab some more. I'm the one who doesn't understand how dictatorships operate such as using outside conflicts to distract the population from internal problems and hold on to power. I'm the one who doesn't understand anything.

I don't care if anything of what I say isn't politically correct. I don't care if just being honest about reality and refusing to coddle westerners with lies loses me followers. I'm not going to lie about my life just to be accepted on social media. I don't care. I don't care what the UN says, they've shown me their alliance way back when they didn't do shit for Ukraine. They let Russia veto whatever it didn't like. Putin wasn't arrested when he visited Mongolia. What did the UN do, really? Except waste their time with Israel? I'm not surprised to learn of the complicity of UNWRA. I'm not surprised to see videos of Hezbollah tunnels mere meters away from UN outposts. The majority of countries in the UN are undemocratic and interested in pushing their own agendas. The UN has lost its purpose. I don't care about the Red Cross, who told hostage families concerned about their family members being held by a brutal terrorist organization that "they should think about the palestinians". The red cross claimed there were no installations for the extermination of jews at Auschwitz too. I don't care about Greta Thunberg who now claims that Israel is causing damage to the environment and has forgotten all about Russia that continues to bomb Ukraine. Russia blew up a fucking dam, but everyone has already forgotten all about that. It wasn't the jews who brought down the Kakhovka dam, so who cares, right? No jews, no news. I don't care about student activists demanding they be brought humanitarian aid on the steps of elite US universities. I don't care about Biden who spent more time holding Israel back, than actually rescuing his own citizens from Hamas. I don't care about the Spanish with their history of antisemitism (the Inquisition), and colonialism (that they're now trying to blame on us by saying Columbus was a jew when he was not). I don't care about the British who also have their own history of colonialism and tried to stop jews who were fleeing the Holocaust from migrating to the then British Mandate. I don't care about South Africa, who would rather distract their own people with Israel rather than sort out their internal problems. I don't care about the BBC, Reuters, CNN, NYT nazi rags that give awards to terrorists taking pictures of the bodies of dead jewish women and cry bitter tears over a murderous monster like Nasrallah. I'm past the point of caring what any of these people say. I see who they are. I see their hypocrisy. I see their blatant bias and hatred. I see all of it. I'm tired of it.

And I'm tired of being lectured by westerners who don't live in reality. Who are so morally confused and who live with such a simplified worldview that they've started supporting terrorism. I actually live these conflicts. Who the fuck are you to lecture me? Who the fuck are you to "educate" me on anything?

[weirdmageddon]

i posted this on twitter also but it’s still eating at me. i’m so fucking embarrassed to be jewish rn. i dont want to be associated with this ongoing bullshit from israel. why do we need our own state. theyre just making every jew across the globe look bad in general even though many of us are conflicted about zionism and the legitimacy of israel as a state

people have hated jews throughout history for no fuckin reason but now israel exists but now its like. GIVING people reasons to hate us as a group. note that i DON’T conflate zionism with jewishness, but a lot of people in the world don’t know the difference because theyre uninformed and been dripfed cultural antisemitic tropes their whole life and that’s the scary part is them falsely putting two and two together. like what the fuck israel stop youre just putting fuel on the fire for people around the world to hate an entire group of historically persecuted people if youre being this shitty with your insane colonialism and apartheid like……I Want No Fuckin Part Of This. you’re spelling our own doom. you cant just swoop in and go “mine now” and then oppress the people you took land from under a regime without my blood boiling at the injustice no matter WHO you are. even if my lineage is tied to you. so when news outlets support israel it doesn’t feel like they have the best interest of jews as a people in mind. it’s in the interest of a zionist ethnostate and whatever that christian zionism belief is about the jewish people returning to the holy land as prerequisite for the second coming of jesus. its not like they care about us as a dispersed ethnocultural group, it’s all for that religious narrative that a bunch of people in the US are backing.

saying you want all jews to die is antisemitic. beating someone up because they’re jewish and no other reason without knowing their views is antisemitic. criticizing human rights violations perpetrated by israel and the belief that one group deserves more rights another is not antisemitic. and the fact that israel has the ability to pull that antisemitism card in response to criticisms of the violations they commit because their state is the “jewish homeland” drives me fucking insane. take fucking accountability for your actions. and yes, there do exist full-on anti-jewish groups in the middle east that go beyond hatred of israel’s policies and existence as a state and i’m tired of people pretending there aren’t in fear of appearing to seem like they support the state of israel. on the other side of things many people overestimate this by fearmongering and saying EVERY arab is out to get jews worldwide, telling people like me “they want YOU dead”. this is not the belief every person in the middle east and it really rubs me the wrong way that people group millions of individuals into all-encompassing lumps like this. many people there do understand nuance of this political situation.

even if i have that “right of return” by israeli law or whatever, i don’t feel obliged to it; it does not register as fair. why do i have a “right of return” when i’ve never even been there in the first place while palestinians who have homes there can’t return to them? what’s the basis for that? substituting objective reality with an imaginary reality? i don’t think like that. i can hypothetically come and go whenever i please but palestinians are severely limited in mobility? what makes me more entitled to that land than the people who lived there for centuries? nothing that comes from natural law thats for sure. it’s all artificial and inflated.

but at the same time i also dont want to be the target of antisemitism and caught in the fray just for being ethnically jewish. once people start calling for the genocide of entire groups we’ve got issues (and you better believe this absolutely applies to the palestinian victims in gaza too), because people who dissent to the violence perpetrated by the loudest are caught in there with the people who are perpetrating the violence. lack of nuance. people conflating israel and its zionist apartheid policies with jewish ethnicity and culture worldwide. other people conflating being terrorist anti-jew with muslims worldwide (like that 6-year old palestinian-american boy that was just stabbed to death in chicago). scary times man. but as a jew i can’t just opt out of this if it’s how i was born as. i don’t have control over that. but i can control what i think and what my beliefs are

[mossadspypigeon]

when it comes to this “kahanism” shit, i have some shit to say that most of you won’t like. and no, i do not support meir kahane.

i’ve been in zionist spaces for a good 17+ years now. since i was a young teenager and even before then. i have degrees in jewish studies and studied the history of zionism and jewish political movements. we never called meir kahane’s movement “kahanism” at university. yes, terms change over time, but:

the only time “kahanism” has really popped up was when i did personal research. it always appeared on pro palestine websites and in pro hamas literature especially.

it still does on sources like mideast eye and electronic intifada:

and of course that shitshow haaretz. what does all of this say? nothing good.

i firmly believe that this concept of “kahanism” is a means of trying to equate american politics to israeli politics. and yes, this is done by both diaspora and israeli jews who happen to be more ultra leftist. (btw i am a left leaning moderate so get off my dick.)

the israeli right wing is very different from the american right wing and was formed for different reasons and in different historical contexts. i hate to say this, but not everyone reacts to centuries of oppression, colonization, forced expulsions, and genocide mainly by two groups (christians and muslims) by wanting to give peace a chance.

do i agree? no. but i empathize regardless and i think that’s important. i see so much empathy for palestinians, who are descended from colonizers and oppressors, whose entire political backstory is rooted in jew hate, but very little for us, even amongst ourselves. it’s like sometimes, we hold ourselves to an impossible standard. we are traumatized and that is valid. is hatred? no. but is mistrust? once again i hate to say it, but yes. especially when one group has systemically targeted you and murdered you not just for decades, but longer.

once again: do i agree? no. but i empathize and i think through empathy, things can change.

are there other issues? of course. but boiling it all down to meir kahane, the kach party, and kahane chai and lumping it all together? is unfair. the israeli right wing is varied in its views and platforms. some would absolutely abhor kahane.

also, how many people in diaspora throwing these terms around actually know how the political system works in israel?

not only that, but i do not see islamism discussed with the same sense of disgust and horror. thing is, islamism is different because it is formed by the oppressors and colonizers of that region, but it is much worse. a much bigger threat. (islamism is not islam btw and not every palestinian is horrible. i am talking about leadership and the systems in place for palestinians that teach many of them to hate and want a “free Palestine” from water to water.)

bringing up “kahanism” and accusing people you disagree with of being this weird made up “kahanist” is divisive and wrong. it’s false equivalence to the american right wing. it does nothing to help or heal.

it’s like calling everyone you disagree with a racist or a fascist. it just shuts people up. it does nothing but manipulate the conversation.

stop it with this shit. we don’t need anymore division.

for diaspora jews: stop judging other countries and regions through your own biased lens.

go ahead and cancel me again 😂 i don’t really care.

[thestrangestthing89]

It's not an apology, it's a clarification. He very directly says "you misconstrued what I said" a thing multiple people around here have been trying to say for months. He said this exact same thing in an Instagram post he made a few months ago but people lack the reading comprehension skills to follow something like that. So he said it in a TikTok video again only some people are still not understanding. And it's because they don't want to. (He has recently taken his Instagram post down, I'm guessing because he is getting relentlessly harassed.) The truth of the matter is that many people didn't take the time to understand basic facts about this situation (like what the word Zionism actually means) and the result was that a lot of misinformation spread because people were desperate to make sure their followers knew they were The Most Progressive and The Most Anti-Racist. They did not talk about this issue in a way that was culturally sensitive. They made assumptions about Noah based on anti-Semitic stereotypes and I don't even think they realize they are doing it because, again, they aren't well-informed. But every time someone twists the word Zionism to mean "pro-genocide" and makes the flying leap that anyone using that word is laughing at people dying they are falling into the stereotype that Jews are bloodthirsty. Anytime people say that any Jewish person has the wrong information in this situation and needs to education themselves about their own culture, they are believing that Jews can't be trusted. They did all of these things to Noah and they did it very easily because they are ignorant. These people essentially turned into an angry mob. I can't even count the amount of comments I saw that were basically "I hate Noah too!!! Wait, what did he do? Someone tell me!" They piled on because their peers were doing it and not because they had any clue what the problem was. It was the cool and trendy thing to do so they did it. And they deluded themselves into thinking they were saving Palestinians in the process when they actually didn't do shit for anyone. The only problem is that the people who did this didn't take the time to inform themselves before piling on. Noah didn't apologize to them because he doesn't have to. They owe him an apology though and I think the ones with larger followings are responsible for a lot of this and imo are lucky they didn't get sued for defamation. He didn't do any of the things they are accusing him. They decided for themselves what he thought and believed based on very little information and they have no right to do this to anyone. They seriously think Noah is responsible for single-handedly killing people. He's not in the military or a politician. He didn't even endorse anyone who did. This whole situation is the stupidest fucking thing in the world. They are more outraged over the bullshit they made up about him the actual political situation and it's because they don't actually care. They are using Palestinians as an excuse to say hateful things, but they aren't helping them at all. I don't think Gen Z-ers are realizing that everyone older than them is getting increasingly more concerned about the way they go about their political activism. It's a serious problem and this current political situation only highlighted problems with them that had been occurring for a while now. Relentlessly harassing any Jewish person online for not speaking exactly to your liking isn't activism. Threatening to kill people who disagree with you isn't activism. Trying to ruin someone's career because they didn't act like your parasocial bestie isn't activism. Spamming the comments of everyone's posts with Free Palestine isn't activism and it sure as hell isn't what spreading awareness looks like. That requires being well informed first. Not to mention learning how to have difficult conversations without screaming hysterically at people and shouting that they must be pro-genocide/racist/misogynist/homophobic every damn second just because they said something you didn't take the time to understand.

They need to learn to ask for a clarification before assuming the absolute worst about people. They do this to people in the fandom constantly and it's why no one decent posts here regularly anymore. They are ignorant, plain and simple. But they are so desperate for peer approval and for people to think they are the best activists ever that they don't realize how much damage they do when they behave this way.

The people still pissed at Noah were always going to be. They were always going to pick him apart because they are anti-Semitic and they made that very clear. All he is saying is that people need to understand that both Jews and Palestinians are human and stop taking sides. A thing that anyone with a shred of human decency has been saying for months. The people who haven't been saying this tend to be very young (teens and early 20s) and it's because they fell for a lot of unverified information on TikTok - something that is concerning a lot of people given that it is an election year in the US. All anyone had to do here was listen and they didn't. They are too busy trying to be morally superior to anyone to bother having an actual conversation. They still aren't listening. There was nothing wrong with what Noah said here either. But people are determined to believe that he was laughing at people dying when he wasn't. This literally never happened. They just heard a word they weren't familiar with a jumped to awful conclusions. It's not their place to educate anyone on anything. They are not qualified to do so. And I wish people were smarter about who they were reblogging and weren't so desperate to get more followers by jumping on the bandwagon. They cause so much drama in the fandom constantly by acting like this. This is just the latest example.

The people who think it's now suddenly ok to be violent and homophobic towards someone just because they perceived that person to do something they didn't like, were waiting for an opportunity. They wanted to be horrible and they think they got a reason. They didn't and there is never a reason to behave like this. But it did reveal just how many people in this fandom are horrible human beings. The people who weren't saying this directly were still agreeing with those people and were not better than them. It should have set alarm bells off in their heads that the only people who agreed with them were being vile. That should have been the first clue they were on the wrong side. I wish people learned to think for themselves better. They were clearly jumping on the bandwagon and didn't understand what was going on. And I stand by my comment from a few months ago, we would not be dealing with relentless drama in the fandom if the show had a higher rating. And I do think they need to focus more on their original adult audience again. Most of us do not feel comfortable posting regularly in this fandom when it got taken over by kids who don't understand any of the things they are upset about, but they are upset with everyone and everything constantly. No one came here to babysit.

[disgruntled-detectives]

I need more Jewish conversion friends.

I need more people in my life that have either gone through what I am currently going through, or are currently going through it themselves. Because damn i have so much stuff I wanna talk about. This weird liminal space we exist in like. We’re not Jews. But the Jewish community is our community. Ever since 10/7 there’s been so much shit coming up for me and I wanna talk to more people in my position. I wanna share the joy of discovering and falling in love with Judaism. I wanna talk about my joy and my worries and hopes and cares. I wanna talk about the books I’m reading. I wanna talk about everything. The good and the bad. The joy and love and beauty and the antisemitism. Which. Boy. That’s new.

Don’t get me wrong. My friends are super super supportive. They love and support me completely. But they are not Jewish and don’t really “get it” ya know?

My husband is also incredibly supportive. We are building a Jewish home together. We celebrate holidays, I make challah, we do Shabbat, Yiddish is tossed around pretty often, Jewish jokes and humor is a thing in our house. We have Jewish decor up, and a mezuzah on our door. But. He was born Jewish. He doesn’t “get it”. I am working so so so hard to join something he was in since birth. Something that is just a given for him is a brand new passion for me. Granted, me falling in love with Judaism, I can tell is having an affect on him too. He actually asked to sit in on my class last night. Which. Woah. But yeah.

So yeah. I’m in a kinda lonely place. My rabbi does want to host a newbie Shabbat dinner sometime though which is nice.

[jedi-enthusiast]

@confusledqueer apologizes for not responding sooner, it’s been a busy couple days and—honestly—I forgot for a bit.

Moving on-

—————

Me equating some of the things that anti-Jedi people say to antisemitism and, sometimes, outright Nazi-esque rhetoric is not “wild” or “a stretch,” as you’re implying.

Justification of their genocide, denial that it actually was a genocide, a belief that the genocided party “caused” their own genocide, and a belief that they genocided party were wrong or “led astray” while one person was sent to make things right- (via either making them change their ways or outright destroying them/their culture) -are all things I’ve seen people say about the Jedi…

…but they’re also things that people have actually said about Jews.

Take the example I put in the post of someone denying that the Jedi Purge was actually a genocide, and how—by changing “Jedi” to “Judaism” and “Force-religions” to “Abrahamic Faiths”—it sounds verbatim to Holocaust denial.

Or, as another example, people claiming that the Jedi “kidnapped kids to brainwash them”…don’t you see how that sounds like Blood Libel?

So me pointing out that a lot of stuff anti-Jedi people say sounds like antisemitic rhetoric isn’t a stretch, not when a lot of it sounds verbatim to what people are saying with the rise of antisemitism and stuff they have said in the past.

—————

Now, I’m not Jewish, but it’s not just me, your neighborhood White Girl™️, who’s pointing this stuff out.

Actual Jewish people have pointed out the alarming similarities between anti-Jedi rhetoric and straight up antisemitism. So, if you wanna argue about- “you shouldn’t compare real world discrimination to fictional stuff” -then you should probably take that into account.

Go ahead and try telling Jewish Star Wars fans to stop calling out antisemitic rhetoric in the fandom, I’m sure that’ll go down real well.

I also find it hilarious that you’re telling me to be careful about the rhetoric I use in a thread about how I shouldn’t point out that some of the rhetoric other people spout is basically antisemitism rebranded.

And my point in that post wasn’t- “since this is based off of a real world culture/religion, you can’t criticize it.”

My point was- “since this is based off of a real world culture/religion then you need to be careful about how you criticize it, otherwise you might unconsciously be spouting bigoted beliefs and antisemitic rhetoric because you don’t recognize that that’s what it is because you’re saying it about a fictional culture.”

By all means, I get that some people just don’t like the Jedi, that’s their prerogative and we all have our own tastes.

Criticize them, if you feel like it, but don’t go around spouting rebranded antisemitism to do it. I’m sure you can come up with plenty of things to complain about them for without doing so.

—————

Now, I can understand why you might be worried about the slippery slope from this to shit like actual censorship—which, I think we can all agree, is a bad thing. Or how you might think criticizing this could lead to the whole “fandom purity” debate.

My thing is, it all comes down to does it actually harm people?

Perpetuating harmful stereotypes via saying stuff like the Jewish based characters “steal children,” or “lost their way,” or “they caused/deserved their genocide”—that does cause actual harm.

Think about why the “angry black man” stereotype or the “cheating bisexual” stereotype are bad and people- (rightly) -push back against them. It’s the same thing here.

Shipping a problematic ship, calling a fictional serial killer “babygirl,” writing about dark topics*, headcanoning characters as gay or trans…none of that is actively harming people.

(*obviously when writing about dark topics you should tag appropriately so people can avoid triggers, but that’s another topic for another day)

That’s the difference.

And, for the record, I think letting people spout bigotry just because they’re saying it about something fictional is the more dangerous mindset than calling it out.

[uboat53]

In light of the election, a word to those who voted for Trump.

I'll admit, I've run out of sympathy. It's been eight years of him being overwhelmingly in the public limelight and he was president for four of those. You all know who he is now and you still voted for him.

And I get it, you'll claim that you voted for him for "the economy" and that you don't support all of the ways in which he's a terrible human being, but I have a hard time believing that considering that the average Trump voter doesn't actually even know what Trump's economic policy will be. Look, America had a decent economy under Trump the first time, not because of anything he did, but because he inherited a decent economy from Obama and spent all his time doing petty things like the Muslim ban rather than screwing up the economy. Don't believe me? Find any graph you like of the US economy and show me where his policies changed anything dramatically from the pre-Trump trend (at least, before he completely screwed up the pandemic).

And, look, if he'd just been promising vague, back to normal-type things, I might believe you that it was the economy, but he hasn't. Since the start of his campaign he's been promising to implement massive tariffs on all imports; something he can do, by the way, without Congressional approval. Tariff, by the way, is another word for tax; he's going to add a 10% (and more!) tax to every single thing that the US imports, and we import a lot. Inflation, by the way, has been back down to reasonable levels for months, this is the type of thing that would cause it to spike back up again.

So, yeah, I don't believe you that you voted for him because you were very concerned about the economy; if you were very concerned about the economy you would know all of that already. No, you didn't vote for him "in spite of" the racism and the lawbreaking and the bigotry, you voted for him because of it. The economy was just a fig leaf.

And if that strikes you the wrong way, if you think I'm wrong about that, if you think I'm judging you in bad faith, sit for a minute with that feeling. Ask yourself, why did you vote for a racist? Why did you vote for a criminal? Because you did. Whatever reason you tell yourself you did it for, you still did it. And millions of people around the country and around the world are going to suffer for it.

And, if the economy, as just about every economist predicts, crashes under the weight of Trump's tariffs and other terrible economic polices, I'll admit that my reaction to your shock will probably not be what you'd like either. As I said, I'm out of sympathy after eight years. You voted for a criminal and a bigot in exchange for a "good economy" and the most likely result is that you will still not get it.

I hope that all of the women who will die because they're unable to access abortion care find peace and that their families will too. I hope that all of the immigrants who are deported and the communities they're ripped from are able to heal. I hope that all the gay and trans people who will be attacked and denied support by their own government find what help they need. I hope that all of the Jews and ethnic minorities who are murdered all over the country by white supremacists emboldened by Trump are able to find peace as well. I hope that all of these people are able to survive the economic shockwaves that are coming.

As for you, I'll admit, as unsympathetic as I am generally, I still have my humanity and that leaves me with at least a small bit of hope for you. I hope that you one day discover the humanity to, even if your assumptions about the economy were somehow correct, risk a little bit of what you have to prevent the suffering of others. I hope that you aren't one of the many people devastated by the economic policies you've voted for. I hope that you eventually realize what you've done. I hope that you'll take responsibility for what you've unleashed and work to combat the bigotry and crime that is coming. Ultimately, though, I hope, when you do realize everything that's happened and everything is said and done, that you can forgive yourself.

[jellybeanium124]

in honor of speak your language day this monolingual is going to teach you all the yiddish they know... poorly! these transliterations are terrible and I don't care! but that doesn't mean I don't care about yiddish as a language. yiddish means so much to me as an ashkenazi jew, and I wish I had the time to become fluent. hopefully someday. I also want to say that some of this may be technically wrong. what I am sharing here is what I was taught by my parents and grandparents and probably differs from correct yiddish. if you want to learn more please consult proper sources made by fluent speakers.

before we get started you need to know that many things yiddish has a literal meaning and a connotative meaning. basically, it's a language of idioms, or, at least, many of those idiomatic expressions are what survived to get passed down to me.

yiddish: jewish

oy vey: if you don't know this one already I can't help you. you know an oy vey moment when you see it

oy vey es mir: when it's even more oy vey than normal

goy: non-jew (for me it's kind of specific to white people, yknow the people who lived around the shtetls and did pogroms and stuff. versus "gentile" which to me means literally every non-jew)

losenkopf: literally translates to "hole in the head." aka idiot

goyishe kopf: literally means "goyish head." aka idiot

yiddishe kopf: literally means "jewish head." aka smart

sheine: pretty

meidele: girl (combine 8 and 9 for "sheine meidele" which means "pretty girl" for a cute pet name)

engele: boy (combine 8 and 10 for "sheine engele" which means "pretty boy" for a cute pet name)

punim: face (sheine punim is another cute pet name)

pupik: belly button

pulkey: thigh (fun fact! I didn't know pulkey wasn't english until I was like... 12)

ketzeleh: kitty. also a pet name

feygele: little bird. can also be derogatory.

hinetele: puppy. also a pet name

gey khaken affen yam: literally "go shit in the ocean" aka go fuck yourself

gey gesunte heit: literally "go in good health." basically it's a way of saying goodbye when you like/love someone.

a dank eich: thank you

nish to farvos: your welcome

kinehora: combo of "kin ein hora" which means "keep the evil eye away." aka a verbal knocking on wood/crossing fingers

ich hob dich lieb: I love you (in yiddish: איך האב דיר ליב)

[slyandthefamilybook]

If you don’t mind, can you explain why you want Israel to be abolished? Not in the anarchist sense of ‘I want all states abolished as an ideal’, but actually wanting it dismantled while states are still a thing. I think that’s your view anyway— I remember that, in the post heritageposts and his minions went after you for (really sorry about that btw, I’ve also been harassed on here but luckily haven’t had one of the big bloggers come after me), you said that you want Hamas to surrender and then after that have Israel dismantled. You don’t have to reply if you don’t want to, I’m just trying to understand that view a little more when it’s not egregiously Jew hating, even if I won’t agree with it, and also you seem like a very nuanced and compassionate person. I hope you’re doing well, and have a nice day!

It is very much in the anarchist sense. I don't think Israel is the only state that should be abolished; I think we should get rid of all nation-states. It's not something I've really had the opportunity to talk about much outside of the Current Situation so I understand that it may have come off like I think Israel is singularly...idk. Dismantle-able. I think we tend to think of these things in terms of immediacy; countries that are currently at war are constantly teetering on the verge of collapse and are therefore primed for anarchy. On the flip side we also often forget our political idealism when real people are suffering. No non-Jewish anarchist is calling for Hamas to be dissolved, despite the fact that they ostensibly abhor centralized government in all its forms. To them Hamas is the final bulwark between Israel and total decimation of the Palestinian population and so calling for them to step down in the anarchist sense is tantamount to signing the death warrants for everyone in Gaza. They're wrong, but the idea is sound. You can't defeat the mechanism that allows people to organize at a national level while its people are currently endangered. That's why I've said no "revolution" can precede peace which is where I differ from the Hamasniks who think the revolution will bring peace (because they don't care about the safety of the Israeli population). Ultimately I think liberalism is like a sword: it's a tool that I need because everyone else has one, much as I would rather none of us needed on in the first place.

Sorry if this is incoherent, I haven't haven't had my coffee yet. Tl;dr is: Would I like to see all nation-states including Israel be abolished? Yes. Do I think that will happen? Not in this lifetime, especially not with the Current Situation. So I'm not going to go around pretending it is, because then everything I do will be utterly useless

[genderfluid-jew]

I'm gonna be wild and put this on an account where it might be shocking to post, but it needs to be said.

There is a genocide going on in Palestine, it is inherently wrong, and anyone who disagrees is upholding islamophobia and colonization.

Yes I have posts on my account that go against that and are more zionist. Guess what? I found out I was fucking wrong and I'm ashamed of myself for ever siding with those people. They're all on the wrong side of this conflict morally and it's reprehensible. It's also against Judaism, and even though they might argue that it isn't, Judaism has never been a religion that celebrates murder and slaughter as a solution, even if all else fails, which it hasn't in this case.

If you disagree with me, look up the founding of Israel, how the British government didn't care about Jews and just wanted them to go away and to have a puppet state that was friendly to them in the middle east, so they used Jews to achieve that. How could a country founded that way ever be moral? How could it be truly safe for Jews?

Look up how the Balfour Declaration was supposed to give non-Jews in the middle east rights and keep the rights of Jews outside of Israel safe. That's been a complete failure, I read it for the first time and laughed out loud. I don't know how anyone can look at that founding document and say "yep that's what Israel is doing today!" It's never been worse for Jews and it's all Israel's fault for constantly promoting the idea that the modern state of Israel is inherently central to Judaism, and not an ethnostate that's trying to slaughter the minorities around them that they don't like.

Look up the massacres that have been going on in Palestine. Attacks on displaced persons camps? Imagine if that had been Jews in the DP camps shortly after WWII. How many Jews would no longer be in existence if that had happened? How can people call themselves Jews if they support that? Think of the most recent massacre after writing this (on 6/9/24) - who the fuck disguises themselves as aid workers to sneak into somewhere and slaughter them? I saw rightful outcry when Hamas was doing that, and no pro-Israelis I saw protested against the IDF checking ambulances to 'make sure the need was real', so why is that being supported now? It's fucking disgusting, and if you aren't wholeheartedly condemning this you should be ashamed.

If you want to know the actual facts of what's going on and not the version that's been astroturfed by Israel (yes they have done this consistently over the past decades, look it up, there are literally campaigns to talk about how 'good' Israel is for queer people and the environment, as long as it's only their colonialist view of 'nice queers' and 'the Israeli environment'), try some books! I've read a few that are really good - Walking to Jerusalem by Justin Butcher and Light in Gaza edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze. Those books make it clear how reprehensible the behavior of Israelis are (throwing rocks at people for fun, demolishing peoples' houses and laughing, not letting them eat, constantly arresting and harassing them), and how despite all of it there are still Palestinians who are willing to work with Jews and consider them friends as long as they put in a bare minimum amount of support.

Or, you know, you could ignore this post and call me, a Jew, antisemitic for pointing out how awful Israel is being and how it's all against the laws of Judaism.

I hope everyone who disagrees is ready to make massive amounts of teshuvah in the future.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Please feel free to ignore - do not want to burden you with anything.

__

I want to help Palestine but I don't know what to do. I have neurological issues and struggle with memory. I'm suicidal - bearing full witness would break me. They are begging to be heard and I cannot ignore them - not as a Jew, not as a disabled person who struggles to put things into words and is often invisible, but I'm so scared I'm going about this the wrong way

I've managed to donate an e-sim - that was good - but I'm scared my other efforts were useless, that I won't be able to do good, that the posts I find which claim to be kind or helpful are hiding cruelty I can't notice. I donated but then I heard the donations weren't going through. Just. Scared my efforts are pointless or even worse harmful.

Current goals/moral standpoint:

-Do not share suffering without a means to ameliorate it. To do otherwise will induce hopelessness. Be practical.

-Do not reblog posts I do not understand.

Are these good? (Again - please only answer if you up for it. I just needed to share this someone kind and I'm okay if there is no answer.)

Little bit of context: I'm relatively divorced from my culture and know very little of it, which is why I'm wary of sharing things with hidden cruelty. I'm not adept at spotting hidden meaning or antisemitism. I did read Maus at a young age - carried that horror around permanently, I think.

Sea sheep of gratitude. I'm sorry to burden your inbox with this.

Hello there, friend! Thank you for the nudibranchs, they are delightful in a similar way to moth friends! 💖

I wasn't sure myself how best to answer your question about how to help, so I decided to phone a friend. Please see this post for some excellent suggestions by someone who has been doing the work from the Israeli side.

As for protecting your mental health: please don't torment yourself by doomscrolling or seeking out the horror. (Do as I say on this, not as I do - this is great advice that I personally cannot follow, but it sounds like you have plenty of other struggles of your own to worry about that I do not.) You are much more useful to folks if you are strong; outside supporters need to take turns so as not to burn out.

I think these principles you laid out are great and a lot of people would do well to hold by them.

Take care of yourself and stay kind out there!

[shadowweaver06]

If you observe, I hope that you all had a lovely Rosh Hashanah. Mine was busy, to say the least. And the entirety of the chag was overshadowed by Oct 7th, which, while expected, did add a tint of melancholy to the holiday. I will admit, the level of the holiday being overshadowed by Oct 7th happenings by my shul was a bit offputting, to say the least, and I found myself feeling wrong-footed. Our rabbi talked about it both on Erev RH and during morning services on Thursday - and if I had been smart, I'd have heeded his disclaimer about the topical discussion of his sermon on Thursday morning before opting to sit through it. Instead, I did sit through his entire speech, and it left me feeling uncomfortable. Now - I've gotten pretty used to the array of feelings around what is happening with Israel and Gaza and whatnot. As much of a peacenik as I am, I still find myself vacillating between anger, grief, frustration, and rage, both about what happened on Oct 7th and what is still happening both to Israeli citizens and to other non-combatants unlucky enough to get caught in the way, and even more so now with Lebanon and Iran getting themselves involved in the fray.

Our Rabbi's discussion rehashed all the atrocities of last year (which I could have done without the reminder of... like we've all borne witness to it, repeatedly), and then veered off into congratulating the congregation for their increased Zionism. Which I found... weird. Like, sure, congratulate us for being more observantly Jewish and involved in our community, and engaged in doing mitzvot, but congratulating us for an ideology just seems... I don't know, odd? I just found it troubling, and it was not the type of message I expect to hear during a holiday sermon I guess - I expected more of a hopeful, 'dawn of a new year' message. (I will admit, this is my first time spending HHD at a Conservative shul, so maybe this is the norm and I'm just not used to it, I don't know). It was also heavily flavored with some us-vs-them rhetoric, which I also did not care for. (Ultimately, though, I very much lack the generational trauma of my co-religionists (I was not raised as a Jew), so I expect that lack of trauma is strongly flavoring my view on things). I don't begrudge people for feeling the way they feel - it's certainly valid. I suppose this is a lot of what the congregation here wants to hear, which is why he wrote it, but... I don't know if it was what I needed to hear in that moment. Like I'd already been reflecting on the last year and what we've lost as a community as I was praying - and having that note layered on top of it made it feel even more bitter. 2nd day was better - but we joined our friends with their kids for the family service, which was shorter and more interactive (since we're the only other folks they know at this shul, they asked us to be with them so they didn't feel so abnormal, since they are new to this shul as well). We went to a RH party thrown by a friend on 2nd night - we catered the majority of the food (we smoked an enormous brisket, I made gluten free challah and regular challah with rasins, and apple honey cake, vegetarian matzah ball soup, and diri djon djon (it's our little taste of Haiti - and a staple of our shabbat table, which is usually a mix of Kosher-fied Haitian or lebanese/middle eastern dishes). On Friday evening I had company over for Shabbat - my friends (who aren't Jewish) came with their daughter and one of our other Jewish friends who needed a break from her kids came by, and I made an absolutely amazing pomegranate molasses roasted chicken recipe, ktiztzot with leeks and swiss chard, roasted squash and root vegetables, glazed carrots, a tossed salad, and a really tasty herb salad with apples and pomegranate seeds (which I am absolutely making again for Sukkot because it was amazing). Saturday night after Havdalah, we walked down the street and made an appearance at my best friend's birthday party, and I am 98% certain that I ate my body weight in tacos. Yesterday I woke up with a terrible cold. And now I'm sitting in bed typing this after waking up for the second time today after sleeping for 99% of yesterday, and a good chunk of the day today. So yeah. That's been the last week or so in a nutshell. Still feeling rather off-kilter given that it's the Oct 7th anniversary, and I sometimes feel like as a convert, my opinion doesn't really matter on these things - I don't have family ties to Israel, just religious/emotional/theoretical ties, so it's something I don't really feel like I sometimes have a right to have an opinion on, because so many other people do, and have lost someone either to the violence on the 7th, or to subsequent skirmishes. It's just a weird, somber, and reflective time, and I'm spending my day praying for an end to the cycle of violence, and for something approaching lasting peace for folks who live there. If nothing else, that is something I can do, and don't need to voice a personal opinion on.

(Forgive me my rambling - I'm all manner of doped up on cold medicine).

[alarajrogers]

Friendly reminder from a former-Catholic-now-atheist that today is a great day to remember that "Zionist" does not mean "Benjamin Netanyahu's butt monkey", "eager supporter of the murder of Palestinians", or even "supporter of everything Israel does, right or wrong." It means "someone who believes the Jews should have their own homeland, and preferably, it should be in the place where they originated, that they are indigenous to." Which happens to be Israel.

If you find yourself thinking that Zionism, by itself, is terrible, maybe it's because you're asking one of the following questions! Well, they all have good answers.

Why do Jews need a homeland? Well, first off, why does any ethnic group need a homeland? Secondly, though... do you know anything about antisemitism? It's not just the Holocaust, you know -- Jews have been persecuted in every country they entered, on Earth, since the Romans forced them out of their homeland 2,000 years ago. And the reason they were persecuted? They were outsiders. They didn't do things the way everyone else did. If you're queer or neurodivergent, don't tell me you can't relate to that!

But antisemitism is a thing of the past! Buddy, I don't know how to tell you that your own movement has inspired violence against random Jews. And that the belief that "thinking a Jewish homeland is a good idea" makes someone evil is, um, antisemitic.

But that's not what Zionism means! Zionism is unconditional support for Israel! Right, and socialism means communism, and communism means totalitarian thought control and forcing cis people to be trans and straight people to be gay. What? The right wingers say it, so it must be true, right? It's the people who hold a belief who get to say what it means, not the people who are ideologically opposed to them.

Okay, but what Israel is doing to Palestine is evil and unforgivable. No disagreement there, buddy! What Israel is doing to Palestine is evil and unforgivable. So is what my country, the United States, did to Iraq 20 years ago, but last I checked, if there's anyone around declaring that the United States should not exist because of what we did to Iraq, they are pretty fringe and no one cares what they think. Whereas this belief that Israel should not exist because of its extreme cruelty toward Palestine is getting pretty mainstream on the left!

Okay, but Israelis are colonizers. Is there a statute of limitations on land-back? Israel is the ancient Jewish homeland that they were forced out of 2,000 years ago. (Anyone who tells you that this isn't true is wrong, and if they're Christian, they're also actively lying, because the Christian Bible talks a lot about Jews living in Israel, a lot of our Christmas songs mention it, it's, like, a fundamental part of the story of Jesus, which all Christians are expected to know at least a little bit. It is understandable for Muslims to be misinformed on this point, but Christians know better.) So no, Israelis aren't colonizers, not in Israel-qua-Israel, although the assholes trying to push Palestinians out of the West Bank after Israel signed treaties saying the West Bank belongs to the Palestinians absolutely are.

But the Palestinians were there first! Um... no. What is confusing you is that the Jews were forced off their own land 2,000 years ago. Since then, the Palestinians moved in. It is undeniable that Palestinians were forced off land they had lived on for generations in order to create Israel. But if you're gonna argue that living on land for many generations means you have more right to it than the people who originally held it, you've just shot every land back movement in the foot.

That's not fair to the Palestinians! I agree with you. And if I was forced off my property because Native Americans had it first, and told to go back to my homeland -- which, because I am a mutt of Irish, Italian, German and probably random others' descent, is nowhere -- that would be pretty unfair to me, too, since I didn't participate in stealing it from the Native Americans. Good thing no land back movement that anyone takes seriously is actually demanding such a thing, or there would be billions of displaced refugees of European, African, Asian and mixed heritage being forced to live exactly nowhere. Which is why the Palestinians were given half the land mass of ancient Judea, because goddamn, this situation is unfair to everyone. Jews deserve a homeland and so do Palestinians and it happens to be the same territory. There is no facile "correct" answer here.

Israel is an ethnostate. So is England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, etc, etc, what's your point? Any land that wasn't taken over by colonizers is technically an ethnostate. However, there are a lot of non-Jews in Israel. Some of whom, the Druze, had several of their children recently killed by a bombing attack by terrorists who are supposedly pro-Palestine, so, um, if an ethnostate by nature oppresses those not of the ethnicity, then those people, oppressed by Israel, should have had common cause with Palestine, right? Yet pro-Palestinian terrorists killed them. Kind of does a lot of damage to the "Israel shouldn't exist because it's an ethnostate" argument. Also, what's Palestine but an ethnostate? And how do you argue for land back movements in colonized territories and also say "it is bad for an indigenous people to be in control of their own homeland?"

The problem with Israel and Palestine, as others have pointed out, is that it is too complicated to have facile solutions. Long-term antisemitism among Muslims prevented the Palestinians from reaching a good mutual agreement with Israel when it was founded 75 years ago, and there has been enormous bad blood and bad actions on both sides ever since. Both sides have hardened into radical positions like "wipe out all the Jews" or "every Palestinian is a potential terrorist and should be treated as such, even babies." This started because of a horrific unprovoked terrorist attack on civilians (which, by the way, is not an effective strategy for "freedom fighters" to get what they want, ever), which lead to the massive and literal overkill of Israel turning Gaza into a parking lot and murdering thousands of innocent people by bombing civilian targets to get rid of Hamas (which, by the way, is not an effective strategy against terrorists, ever).

This doesn't mean the Jews were wrong for wanting a homeland, or wanting it to be on the land that was stolen from them 2,000 years ago by the Romans. It is also not wrong for the Palestinians to want safety in their homeland, particularly since they are not the Romans and weren't responsible for the initial expulsion of the Jews. Both sides are right in what they want, and both sides are horrifically wrong in how they're trying to get it. But being "anti-Zionism" means you are explicitly against an indigenous group who have been persecuted and oppressed for two thousand years returning to their own lands and ruling themselves. I mean. If you're in favor of landback for any other indigenous group, but you're virulently against it for the Jews and only for the Jews, I don't know what to tell you, buddy. That's antisemitism. The Israelis currently engaging in horrific tactics against a civilian population does not negate the necessity of Israel to exist for the safety of the world's Jewish population, who, again, have been persecuted and oppressed for being different than their neighbors, not for anything they actually did, for two thousand years. If you're queer, neurodivergent, a religious minority such as Wiccan or atheist, an ethnic minority such as African-American, or basically anybody who is not an absolutely normal, average member of the society around them... how the fuck do you justify this belief?

Just to repeat for the people who can't read, I am not Jewish. I am a former Catholic who is now an atheist. I just, you know, happen to not be disgustingly antisemitic, so I notice when Jews are treated differently than other people in a situation that's at all similar to theirs. Try learning some history, and paying some attention, and remembering that whatever you learned about Jews from antisemites, it was wrong and you should be re-educating yourself. A nation that commits atrocities does not need to cease to exist, or why is Germany still here? Why is the USA? Why is England? A nation that commits atrocities needs to stop committing them, and make reparations, and try to prevent it from happening again. And there are many Israelis, and many non-Israeli Jews who believe Israel should exist, who want to make that happen. Condemning "Zionists" because Israel is currently engaged in atrocities when you are not in favor of forcibly ending the existence of England as a nation (not Great Britain, I'm talking about England), or the US, or Germany... boy oh boy, I'm smelling antisemitism on the grill there, and it smells rancid. Knock it off. You can support the Palestinians and be absolutely opposed to the actions of the Israeli government without hating everyone in the world that thinks Israel's very existence is a thing that should continue.

[alaskan-wallflower]

I totally agree with your post on censorship of Israel and Palestine. Obviously what is happening between them right now and tragic and disgusting. Lately people have been grouping all Jewish people into being zionists which is so harmful, I’m Jewish and my father was beaten in the city to the point where he was hospitalised just because he was wearing the Star of David. I was with him when it happened, he didn’t do anything aside from being Jewish, my family isn’t even from Israel, we are in full support of Palestine but people want to label us Zionist for a culture we were born into. Jewish and Israeli people can’t control their heritage and calling all of them zionists for it is insane, real zionists are terrifying and to throw the term Zionist around waters down the impact of them. They want to erase history of Jewish people and make us collectively look bad, comparing current tragedies to the holocaust, no violence should ever be compared like it’s a competition. Of course there are Jewish people who are bad and hold radical beliefs but that also goes for every other culture, ethnicity, and religion. I do not condone Israel’s actions in any way but I strongly disagree with showing prejudice towards Jewish and Israeli people who have nothing to do with the war and do not support it.

Tw Antisemitism, politics mentions of the Israel/Palestine conflict, read at your own risk. Come after me all you want. I don’t care. But I need to talk about this because it’s important.

First off, I’m so sorry that that happened to your family. Nobody deserves that at all. I send my deepest condolences and I hope that your father (and the rest of your family) is okay. It is absolutely disgusting that that happened. I’m assuming by ‘the city’ you mean NYC, and I know that antisemitic hate crimes have risen 200%, and it’s just vile, especially because Jews in places nowhere even near Israel are hiding blamed. It’s not their fault.Its not even the Israelites’ faults. It’s the Israeli government’s fault.

Secondly, I agree whole heartedly. There are good Jewish people in Israel. Good, innocent Jewish people who haven’t done anything wrong and absolutely do not deserve to be censored. Although I do not condone what is going on there right now, I absolutely do not condone October 7th either. You could argue that none of this would have happened if October 7th never happened. If you’re gonna talk politics, you have to look at both sides, not just the one you support. That goes for any politics, be it this, your position on the left/right spectrum, whatever. You have to look at both sides.

Words can’t even describe just how awful it is that Jewish people in places that have nothing to do with Israel are being blamed and harassed mot just on the internet, but in r3al life too. Watching it just makes me feel sick. Again, while I do not and will not ignore the fact that what the Israeli government has decided to do is absolutely disgusting and tragic, I also cannot and will not ignore the fact that innocent people are being labeled such harmful terms and their voices aren’t being heard. That’s like saying every American ever is anti immigrant or that every American in the world supports what’s going on in the government there, albeit on a much less extreme scale.

But yes. I absolutely don’t think that Israel should be censored while Palestine isn’t. If you want to censor one you gotta censor the other. What happened with me was that the person said they n didn’t want pro Israel people finding my post’. The thing is I don’t care who sees my posts. People aren’t always going to agree with me and my opinions and that’s fine. People aren’t always going to enjoy what I say. But I can take it. I don’t need a group of people to be censored for the sole sake of ‘protecting me from “the bad guys”’ (putting that in HEAVY quotes).

Again. I’m so sorry that that’s happening to you and other people on the internet. I’ve seen it happen. One blog I like in particular had been labeled a Zionist when they aren’t. And I feel awful for them because it isn’t fair. They’ve never even indicated that they are. In fact they’ve heavily denied it and I feel awful that so many people get this sort of traction on the internet. Everyone deserves to feel safe online, including Jewish people.

I don’t expect anyone to really listen to me though. I myself am not Jewish so take what I say with that in mind. I’m also a technical minor and nobody listens to minors so you know. People are probably not gonna care about what I say. But I’ll still say it because I wanna raise awareness

(Sorry for the rant)

[faithfromanewperspective]

I feel like there are two almost opposite takes on the sermon on the mount in Christian influenced progressive spaces: one in which it’s used as proof of the hypocrisy of their oppressors, and another where it’s used as a form of oppression to police thoughts and perpetrate a purity culture that leaves no aspect of your life alone.

and to that I have to say: if you’re using the sermon on the mount as anything but a ‘hey stop being so self righteous that you think you’re above other people morally and you get to judge them and base your social standing on it’ you’re being extremely unrealistic about the capability of any human to live a life of kindness and respect for others. if you had someone imply that following all the principles of the sermon on the mount is possible, achievable and something to aim for, I’m sorry. Do yourself a favour and don’t listen to anything that person says; in fact turn the sermon on the mount back on them to see their hypocrisy, and realise, none of this has any power over you.

the sermon on the mount was given early in the gospels before Jesus spends 10+ chapters telling the religious leaders of the time not to be so up themselves and think they’ve got it right and have the right to exclude others from a closeness to God because of it. and constantly showing them up by displaying the love people they thought of as sinners and outcasts could have for God. it was given to the Jews in AD 30, at which point if you were listening to it you were likely in one of two camps*: 1) someone who knew you’d fucked up and was constantly reminded of that in society and oh it was liberating to hear that you’re no worse than those people who think they’re better than everyone else or 2) someone who based their entire identity around Not Fucking Up and Being Godly and would probably built their rules around what is possible for me is good and I do random extreme things to please God like washing my hands 10000 times but I bend the rules about helping the poor to the bare minimum because I can’t deal with the idea that I might not be The Best and is in power so everyone else has to be judged against their rules—who Jesus is trying to be like ‘actually your rules are dumb look at all the stuff you missed, you don’t actually care about the heart of what pleasing God is about’

*there would be people there who felt shame for other things like being childless was a big one for women and unfortunately this is hard to neatly put in a category as this would be likely perceived as ‘I fucked up and God is punishing me’ but these people actually did nothing wrong explicitly and we really do need to talk about how the things we consider ‘sin’ don’t really apply to oppressed people groups at least not in the same way

and so if we take it into our lives today with any other message than ‘destigmatise sin and don’t ever expect yourself to do everything perfectly and so as a result you can be kind to someone you see sinning as you are to yourself’ (which when applied with the rest of the gospels is actually you don’t have to worry about fucking up and not being perfect Right Now or Ever because God knows how you work and Jesus took care of it in case you need any more proof he wants you to forgive yourself for whatever you feel ashamed for, instead focus on to the best of your ability showing this same attitude to the people around you especially if they don’t believe they’re worthy of that), if you do anything else with this passage than use it to call out those who think they are morally superior and comfort those who feel shamed and outcast, you are going to hurt people. It’s a powerful passage! And unfortunately it’s been used to isolate people with intrusive thoughts or anyone who gets horny or people with trauma backgrounds who can’t just ‘forgive’ and maybe don’t think they’ll be free while their abuser is alive. Unfortunately people it’s meant to call out have not been called out by it and people it’s meant to comfort have been called out instead.

and I know yeah, we all have our own takes on it. but I’m sorry, if you truly think it’s possible to follow all its rules to the EXTREME way it paints it you take it literally you are so naive and please go check your privilege and stfu. and idk how else there is to take it?? symbolically? even if you do that you know it’s calling out the oppressors right? because of their religious hypocrisy?? I hope that’s obvious because we have a lot of religious hypocrites going around trying to shame people for their intrusive thoughts and trauma and mental illnesses and sexuality while trying to pretend ??? they aren’t in the same boat I guess?? and there’s no sweeter and also often more effective thing to do sometimes than turn their own standards against them. you are allowed to do that if someone is hurting someone else btw!!! and if you don’t think people are getting hurt by it. also please check your privilege