Judaism

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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sinesalvatorem:

brin-bellway:

sinesalvatorem:

The person who called me an anti-Semite and blocked me is now reblogging me on Israel/Palestine.

I am irrationally upset and very anxious, and this is dumb. Argh.

Last I heard, if you block them back they can’t reblog you.

But I kind of don’t want to, because it feels unvirtuous to block someone who isn’t doing anything to you. And then I would feel less like I have the moral high-ground when I think about that argument. (Although I so so do, because calling a Jew and anti-Semite for saying that gentiles are allowed to make mistakes about Hebrew is insane.)

Tags:

#(October 2015) #conversational aglets #Judaism #discourse cw?

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

cryptovexillologist:

I wonder how many interfaith families do combination Easter egg/Afikoman hunts

I wouldn’t call us interfaith (Mom converted to Judaism in part to *avoid* having an interfaith family), but yes, there was at least one year where my parents hid plastic Easter eggs they’d filled with kosher-for-Passover chocolates around the house.

Tags:

#Judaism #reply via reblog #my childhood

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

mousefeets:

god, EVERY YEAR one of the local churches puts up a big sign that says “HE IS RISEN”, and EVERY YEAR whenever I see it I just think “OH HE IS, IS HE??? WELL IF HE IS RISEN THEN HE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED AT MY SEDER, LEAVENED MESSIAHS ARE NOT KOSHER FOR PASSOVER!!!”

I also post about this on my blog every year but

that’s okay

because

IT’S OBJECTIVELY HILARIOUS

EVERY

YEAR

Tags:

#Tumblr traditions #Passover #Easter #puns #this post was queued to ensure proper timing

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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brin-bellway:

*

I have been seeing a disturbing amount of Maccabee glorification lately in the name of anti-anti-Semitism, so:

This Hanukkah, I would like to reiterate that I do not condone killing people for attempting to convert away from Judaism. Including and *especially* when the reason they are attempting to convert is because they think being non-Jewish will be safer for them.

This is not what supporting me looks like.

Tags:

#of *course* I would rather be an alive Hellenist than a dead Jew #and what the hell kind of right do you have to stop me? #why the hell would you even *want* to if your goal is to help me? #if you really think I’m going to be up against a hard place the *last* thing you should be is a rock #no I don’t think it’s *entirely* that people didn’t think through the Maccabee stuff #because I see it in other non-Maccabee forms too #everyone–enemies and ””allies”” alike–wants to keep me trapped in Judaism #at least enemies don’t have the gall to claim they’re doing it for my own good #oh look an original post #Judaism #rants #our roads may be golden or broken or lost #Hanukkah #anti-semitism cw #murder cw

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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mugasofer:

brin-bellway:

justice-turtle:

biscuitsarenice:

Black and British: A Forgotten History 

Francis Barber’s descendant Cedric Barber [x] [x]

#kind of perpetually surprised that this is surprising #generations and genetics happen? #smaller phenotype populations are mixed into the larger ones #this doesn’t mean they magically disappeared #or were never there

I don’t know about the British perspective, but coming to it as a white USian raised in Southern culture, I think at least some of the reason this isn’t obvious to a lot of people is that we do have that history of blood quantum, of tracking whether someone was one-eighth or one-sixteenth black and refusing them civil rights, of basically forcing the black community to intermarry among themselves, so that they *didn’t* mix out and disappear this way. (Of course, there were also a lot more black folks in USia than there ever were in Britain, I’m not saying that’s the only reason. Just, I think that is a part of the perspective I’m personally coming from. *thinking out loud*)

As a white USian raised in *Northern* culture, I’m not surprised by the intermarriage thing, but I *am* surprised by this clip nonetheless. The surprising thing is that they portray *positively* this guy having an Emotional Connection to His Ancestral Culture because of someone from *five generations back*.

Once you get to smaller fractions than one-quarter or so, having Emotional Connections like that stops being Celebrating Your Heritage and starts being Failing to Stay in Your Lane. The “white person who makes a big deal out of being 1/32 Cherokee” is a *negative* archetype.

As it happens, I too have a black former-slave great-great-great-grandfather (and likewise no black ancestry more recent than that). I don’t have an Emotional Connection about this, but…like, you have no reason to believe me when I say that, because I would say it regardless of whether it were true. You bet your ass I wouldn’t dare openly claim a Connection: it would be seen as cheating, as trying to claim the advantages of being black while skipping out on the disadvantages.

That’s interesting; maybe I’ve been primed by the above, but I would not view you having an Emotional Connection to your former-slave ancestor …

… depending on the form of the connection, of course. It would be weird if you literally identified as nonwhite (I think this is the point of the “1/32 Cherokee” thing?)

Well, I *am* Schrodinger’s White†, but that’s not from the one-drop black, it’s from the one-half Ashkenazi.

(But even then I try to avoid doing anything that even *suggests* claiming non-white-ness, partly because I suspect I would lose the ensuing argument over whether I deserve the privileges (so to speak) of that rank (I pretty much always collapse to white, since I’m pretty much always observed by people for whom that’s the lower-status answer), partly because–as someone who has literally never experienced anti-Semitism–playing the Jew card feels dishonest and distasteful, and partly because I think encouraging the idea of Judaism as innate is counterproductive (I want religion exit rights, mostly on general principles but with a side of “if I ever somehow *do* fall into the hands of people who think Judaism is a disease, I want them to think it’s a *curable* disease so I can let them cure me and survive”).)

—

“Oh, but it’s a different *form* of connection” reads to me as an excuse from someone who *was* trying for a best-of-two-worlds power-grab and is backpedalling now that they’ve realised they aren’t going to get away with it. Mind you, I *am* fairly paranoid and *do* have a tendency to see power struggles where they may or may not actually exist.

—

†When I am observed, the waveform collapses into whichever answer is lower-status by the observer’s standards.

Tags:

#*knocks on wood* #reply via reblog #our roads may be golden or broken or lost #racism cw? #anti-semitism cw? #Judaism #inb4 someone blames my hierarchical thinking on my germophobia #(also tbh I don’t *like* talking about Judaism pretty much at all) #(even mentioning it can feel like encouraging people to see it as a Big Deal) #(when really I want it to be at most a Little Deal)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

mousefeets:

god, EVERY YEAR one of the local churches puts up a big sign that says “HE IS RISEN”, and EVERY YEAR whenever I see it I just think “OH HE IS, IS HE??? WELL IF HE IS RISEN THEN HE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED AT MY SEDER, LEAVENED MESSIAHS ARE NOT KOSHER FOR PASSOVER!!!”

I also post about this on my blog every year but

that’s okay

because

IT’S OBJECTIVELY HILARIOUS

EVERY

YEAR

Tags:

#Tumblr traditions #Passover #Easter #puns

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

animatedamerican:

dialmformara:

agitatedtortoise:

animatedamerican:

so tonight I’m at synagogue, listening to the Purim Night reading of the Book of Esther, like you do

and near the end of this chapter my brain presents me with the following:

nooooo ooooone plots like Haman
calls the shots like Haman
plans a genocide by casting lots like Haman

(It only works with the Hebrew pronunciation of Haman, which, like Gaston, is accented on the second syllable.)

By the time we get home my brain has added:

for there’s none so well-favored and kingly
yes, we all can be certain of that
he’s so rich that his pockets are jingly
and he looks really sharp in a three-cornered hat

*face in hands*

Petition to sing this every year at Purim.

I shared this with my dad, and he added:

No one’s spruce as Haman,
Nor abstruse as Haman;
No one’s half as good tying a noose as Haman!
He’ll use gallows in all of his decorating!
No one else hangs as well as Haman!

niiiiice

Tags:

#Tumblr traditions #Purim #Judaism

Anonymous asked: What do you think of Christians adopting Jewish practices like Passover and Hanuka because they are seen as less pagan? Does this appropriation bother you?

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

slatestarscratchpad:

Asking a non-religious Reconstructionist Jew about appropriating Hanukkah is kind of like asking Elizabeth Warren whether it’s okay to wear an Indian headdress.

There’s probably an official halakhic opinion about this, but if celebrating Hanukkah is appropriating Judaism, then having scrupulosity attacks about whether your celebration is wrong and searching for an official halakhic opinion about it is definitely appropriating Judaism, so maybe you shouldn’t check.

My own feeling is that if there’s ever some resurgence of anti-Semitism, I would rather Christians think of Jews as the friendly people with the beautiful rituals who drew them into their circle and invited them to share in their celebrations, than as the scary people who screamed “CULTURAL APPROPRIATION! ONLY WE ARE ALLOWED TO DO THAT!” every time they tried to light a candle.

Also, there are a bunch of prophets who say things like “There shall come a day when all the nations of the world shall bend the knee together in glorious worship of the God of Israel”, and I imagine that upon the fulfillment of the prophecy, one of the Jews turns to all the nations of the world and gives them a lecture about cultural appropriation, and then God facepalms.

Tags:

#pretty much #@Jews glorifying bloodlines and martyrdom: you’re not just endangering yourselves #you’re endangering *me* #fuck off and stop trying to drag me down with you #(the defanged version of Hanukkah is all well and good) #(I approve of candles and singing and gifts and I do these things myself) #(I do *not* celebrate a man who murdered someone for doing exactly what I would have done in their place) #(I will worship Zeus if I deem it necessary and you have no fucking right to stop me) #rants #tangents? #Judaism #antisemitism #raw nerves

The Rationalist Stereotype Survey

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

the-grey-tribe:

ilzolende:

socialjusticemunchkin:

socialjusticemunchkin:

Now with a scoring guide (choose one or none from each sub-category)

Age:

  • 21-25 years +1
  • 16-20 +½
  • 26-30 years +½

Jewishness:

  • Yes +1
  • Kind of + ½

Gender:

  • trans woman (regardless of hormone usage) +1
  • any kind of amab using estrogen +1
  • amab non-binary (no estrogen) +¾
  • other non-cis or dubiously cis (afab trans, agender, magic button trans, etc.) +½
  • cis by default (not magic button trans) +¼

Poly:

  • Yes +1
  • Kind of, or open to the idea +½

Sexuality, part A:

  • gray-asexual or demisexual +1
  • asexual +½
  • asexual and kinky +1
  • kinky +½

Sexuality, part B (replace “sexual” with “romantic” if doing so would give you a higher score):

  • bisexual, pansexual, sapiosexual, any other kind of “gender isn’t really such a big deal”sexual +1
  • any kind of “gender isn’t a massive deal but it’s somewhat of a deal”sexual +½
  • gendersexual, but would take the bisexuality pill +½

Gifted child:

  • very +½ (eg. peerless in one’s childhood environment, or not peerless, but with a highly unusual peer group)
  • quite +¼ (eg. one of the highest-achieving in one’s slightly less highly unusual peer group)

Badbrains:

  • at least 2 of: ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression at least to a sub-clinical but noticeable degree +½
  • one of them +¼

Field:

  • CS student, or working in programming, AI, CS, etc. +1
  • self-learning any of the above +½
  • student or working in mathematics +½

Politics, part 1:

  • supports open borders, or at least massively increased immigration +½
  • supports significantly increased immigration +¼

Politics, part 2:

  • supports basic income by whatever name one wishes to use +½
  • supports some other kind of less bureaucratic, more market-based approach to welfare +¼

Politics, extra questions (can’t increase the total politics score over 1):

  • refuses to identify with ideological labels +½
  • identifies with a weird made-up “non-“ideological label +½ (“futarchy”, “meta-level politics”, etc.)

Geeking out:

  • transhumanist nerd stuff +1
  • any other uncommon and specific nerd stuff +1
  • less unusual SF/F or STEM nerd stuff +½

HPMoR, 3 Worlds Collide, Dragon-Tyrant (add scores from each):

  • has read all of it, or most and intends to finish +1/3
  • has read a lot but doesn’t intend to finish, or is starting +1/6

SSC:

  • regularly +1
  • sometimes +½
  • rarely +¼

I tried to not break legacy results compatibility so most people’s scores should be the same and this would just clarify the questionnaire; if people’s results change, it’s because I’ve changed some things to better reflect the original intent based on data acquired so far (looking especially at you, @sigmaleph, because that “politics” answer was the most stereotypical rationalist thing ever and I’m embarrassed to have overlooked that possibility)

And now I have the result categories as well:

(break ties with Newcomb’s dilemma; one-boxers upwards, two-boxers downwards)

12: The Chosen One

10-12: True Yudbot of the Hivemind

8-10: Stereotypical Rationalist

6-8: Typical Rationalist

4-6: Quite rationalist-adjacent

2-4: Kind of adjacent I guess

0-2: I don’t know how you ended up taking the survey, please tell me your story

Taking the revised survey!

0.5 age, 1 Jewishness, 0.25 gender, 1 poly, proooobably 2 sexuality, 0.25 gifted, 0.25 badbrains, 1 CS, (tentatively) 0.5 immigration, (tentatively) 0.5 basic income, 1 transhumanist nerdery, 1 fiction, 1 SSC, putting me at… 10.25.

[attaches “True Yudbot of the Hivemind” keychain to keyring, which even without that has more random keychains than it does useful items]

I wonder if the Jewishness in the rationalist community is just confirmation bias, Jews inviting people from their peer group to join tumblr, or a memetic influence of Jewish scholarship. Like Saul Kripke’s direct reference theory, which applies principles from rabbinic literature and scholarship to the semantics of human language.

I kind of figured it’s because Jews and rationalists have similar taste in fiction. I mean, that’s probably not all there is to it, but Luminosity (the first ratfic I read, and so the one where I wasn’t judging it in comparison to other ratfic) definitely reminded me of the books of Jewish folktales I had as a kid. (“Clever, genre-savvy protagonist achieves goals by exploiting loopholes in the laws of nature.”)

Tags:

#I get 7 and 1/6 with a very conservative reading of the checklist #8 and 5/12 with a less conservative reading #(the other 1.25 is ”pan-kinky” and ”maybe probably qualifies as having anxiety”) #(a *remarkable* number of people have gendered kink preferences) #(this confuses me greatly)

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