Regretfully, I don’t think changing Israel’s course is as simple as pulling a lever. Antisemitic, or not. Though I get the general gist. Maybe we could improve the meme if we label the lever something. BDS, maybe. And the lever is rusted through so you really need to put your back into it.
Right. I fully agree that nobody is going to fix this probably during our lifetimes, but there’s a big difference between that and actively making things worse.
By the same people who think Trump can singlehandely start marching liberals of to camps the second he’s elected. They bit right into the media rage bait sensationalism and think with their emotions. Dude couldn’t even build a damn wall.
It’s a tired tale, someone throws a few rusty old rockets towards Israel that land in a cow field, so it gives carte banche to level everything withing a couple hundred miles for ‘defensive purposes’.
Considering that Ethnic Palestinians are the original Semites, and most of the Zionist are “repatriated” jewish people from all around the world, I find it ironic that they claim any sleight against them to be antisemitic.
Full disclosure, I am Jewish myself, and sorry for the book… try not to knee-jerk react to it.
I hate to partake in this genetic essentialism garbage, but Ashkenazis by and large share their paternal heritage with Sephardic Jews and other Semites, although that Semitic heritage has become somewhat diluted over time by converts in the maternal line and their descendants. My point in saying that is not to say that Zionists have any legitimate claim to Palestine - they absolutely don’t. It’s just “Ashkenazi Jews aren’t Semites” is a highly debatable and fraught claim that has the potential to lead one down a rabbit hole into actual racism, and incidentally has absolutely nothing to do with the crimes of Zionism. When I hear that implication, my mind is drawn to the adoption by antisemites (most recently Black Hebrew Israelites) of the now disproven myth that the original Semitic Jews died out and were replaced by Khazars.
I’m stopping short of calling what you said, specifically, antisemitism, but in another context a similar statement might be called a dog whistle. People can say these things unintentionally when they just don’t understand the implications. This kind of reckless use of language and ideas is at least part of why we have Jewish students on college campuses claiming they don’t feel safe. We Jews have grown up being implicitly taught to keep our ear to the ground when it comes to rising intolerance, and yes in a lot of cases that has resulted in a massive blind spot for our own intolerance, but it doesn’t mean we should ignore warning signs. Of course, as a Jew, and like you, I often scoff when I hear claims of antisemitism, and in fact I get angry about them when they conflate Jewishness with Israel & Zionism, which ironically IS antisemitism.
Now I mentioned the Khazar myth and Jewish students who don’t feel safe. The issue here is that they lack the self awareness to say, “maybe my hangups about certain things people say are a product of my own upbringing and sensitivities, rather than any intentional antisemitism on their part.” On the other hand, when people talk about Jews or Jew-adjacent issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they should also have the self awareness to ask themselves “am I contributing to a climate that lets actual antisemitism fly under the radar and should I be more careful about the things I say?”
In any case, flinging accusations back and forth is unproductive. If my fellow Jews feel threatened by protestors and their words, I would recommend they approach those protestors with humility, and listen to their grievances before making assumptions about their intentions. Which is funny, because here I am Jew-splaining in response to a flippant remark in an internet comment section, but the reason is I just desperately want people to understand each other (and themselves) better.
I think most of it is just confusion inherent in the term “antisemitism”, which TBH is a bad term because it singles out a single Semitic people among many as the oppressed ones. That false focus then in turn causes a knee-jerk pendulum swing towards another extreme.
And who’s to blame? Again, Germans: The term was introduced to replace “Judenhass” (jew hatred) with something “more scientific sounding”, as recently as 1879. Damn that’s a lot of citations there. Maybe we should switch to “Jewphobia” or something.
To be sure. This sort of argument is as productive as saying the Palestinians don’t belong there because they’re actually Arabs. Neither is true. Palestinians are about as much genetically Arab as maghrebis are Arab. Both groups experienced massive culture shifts, but there was little change in actual population.
Yeah I can definitely see how the argument about “original semites” is coming very close to outright hatred and antisemitism. We have to be more conscious of the language we use than that. We shouldn’t be making arguments in this vein but instead focusing on anti-colonial arguments. When discussing the colonialism of relocating European Jewish communities to Palestine there’s no reason to be using this kind of “race politics” language.
The relationship between Ashkenazi jews and the communities that were already present in Palestine is not something I understand very well, and more broadly the history of Ashkenazi jews as a whole is something I’m only familiar with as it relates to early 20th century European politics. It’s something I’d like to do my own research on from reliable sources to better understand how these kinds of arguments feed into genuine hatred of Jewish people.
I’m not as educated on the broader nature of antisemitic arguments as I should be. I appreciate you adding context to why some Jewish students feel unsafe with the discourse going on at the moment. Anti-Zionist action has an obligation to protect Jewish people as much as it has an obligation to protect Muslim people and ethnic Palestinians. Our goals ought to be to separate ourselves from race hierarchy and protect human rights for all. It’s critically important that in advocating against the Israeli government and the IDF that we do not tolerate anti-semitism in any form and that we reject the support of ant-semitic people wherever it appears.
I appreciate you adding context to why some Jewish students feel unsafe with the discourse going on at the moment.
I feel like a dick talking about it with what’s going on, but it’s still important. And to be clear, we Jews who are inculcated with Zionism and the generational trauma of the Holocaust from a young age have to zealously interrogate our unconscious fears and biases. The protests provide the perfect opportunity to confront it head on if you can swallow your pride and just listen. My Arab & Muslim friends are some of the most thoughtful people I know, with strong opinions and moral convictions that come right from the deepest parts of their being. I feel as at home with them as I did in the Synagogue growing up, and I have no doubt if I were to attend a peace protest that I would find many more like them. They’re an absolute gift; I was never a supporter of Israel, but their friendship has thrown the whole thing into even sharper focus since October 7th. I hope one day the Zionists can be defeated, and from the river to the sea, all good people will finally be free.
The issue here is that they lack the self awareness to say, “maybe my hangups about certain things people say are a product of my own upbringing and sensitivities, rather than any intentional antisemitism on their part.”
Ah, yes. The suggestion that racial minorities just get over it. Don’t we determine racism based on the experiences and opinions of the victims?
I don’t think that’s true at all. Collectively determining racism is a complex process that involves interrogating social structures and power imbalances as a whole. Minority opinions are an important part of that, perhaps the most important part, but not the only part. Intersectionality taught us how flawed that was. That’s how we got the TERFs
In this case he’s talking specifically about an intersectional issue.
Well, yes, I suppose, and that’s why I said all the stuff I imagine you must have read before you got to that part, and the thing I said right after that, too.
II) During the time of Moses, the Semites lived partly in India, towards the Ganges, partly on the coasts of the South Sea to the Persian Gulf, in Elymais, Assyria, Chaldea, and in southern Mesopotamia, and with further expansion in some areas of Palestine, in the north and south of Arabia, finally too, but maybe not yet in Moses’s time, in Abyssinia or Ethiopia.
Which isn’t totally off compared to our modern understanding of who spoke proto-Semitic. “Semitic” as a descriptor of languages is unchallenged in linguistics because, well, symbols are arbitrary anyway and “Descendants of Shem”, as in Noah’s son, ancestor of Abraham, is not exactly a contentious thing among a group of related cultures having birthed no less than three Abrahamic religions.
I think you a both right. Historically, Semites referred to a large cultural group.
Over time, it has become a nonsense word because those cultural groups have become so dilute and diverse that you can’t point at someone and say they are part of that group.
More recently, the label has become misappropriated by some sort of whacky religious nutbaggery so they can oppress other people.
The thing is that there isn’t. Israel could continue to exist if they didn’t murder all the children in Gaza. In fact, there is probably a derailer on the track with the people, since all this killing makes for great recruiting for Hamas.
Could be recency bias, could be that fashion is a cycle that repeats and old fashions are rediscovered. Could be laziness because at some point it becomes easier to trim a beard once every month than shave everyday.
Some people’s skin also can’t handle daily trauma from razors.
It also looks more interesting than a vanilla clean shave, imo. People might be looking to stand out for that reason.
Same here. I used to shave my head and face but recently I went through a period of over-work and didn't have time to shave. Everyone told me I looked better with hair and beard, including the wife. So hair and beard it is then
Some people’s skin also can’t handle daily trauma from razors.
Pili multigemini…
I might have fucked up the order, but it means “multiple twin hairs”. Like, where just one hair should grow out of your skin, you have multiples.
If you let it just grow, you’re fine. But if you shave it’s very easy for it to be ingrown because the “hole” the hairs come thru was only meant for one hair.
When I was in the military and had to shave every day it was horrible. I don’t know if shaving makes more grow, but I’d have stubble thicker than mechanical pencil lead, and when I’d pluck it I’d find out it was 3-5 hairs attached to the same “root”. One of those becoming ingrown is a huge hassle.
With a beard, it’ll just shed normally or come out when I comb it. The problem is when you shave and the hair bunch has to keep pushing thru the skin over and over.
The biggest problem with growing a beard is that it only looks good after a certain amount of time. When people grow beards it’s usually when they are on vacation because it is nice not having to shave and you dont have to look professional with a crazy half grown beard.
A couple of years ago the word took an extended vacation and a lot of people took the opportunity to grow a beard.
Eh, idk. Depends on the person. I’ve been going for a “scruff” look for a few years now. I trim close-ish 1-2 times/week, just before it starts to get itchy from hairs getting long enough. I always have at least 1-2mm facial hair.
If I go clean-shaven, I have baby face and I look 10 years younger. Not a good look. A bit of scruff makes me look closer to my age, but I don’t like the look of a full beard on me since I can’t grow a decent mustache. It looks like I’m trying too hard.
Becoming a wizard isn’t so trivial as just being declared one - many wizards apprenticed themselves to gain knowledge and improve their chances but that elevation is a personal journey.
You will know you’re a wizard when you can look at fellows in your skill and know that none of them would challenge your adoption of the title. I wish you the best of luck. It’s a title within reach of everyone in their lifetime.
The staff and robes are optional but who would turn down a badass purple robe.
Exactly. When I was clean shaven, it was easy, I could just hold the shaver against the contours of my face.
Now, with a large beard, I only need to shave every one or two weeks, but it takes much longer to do so and is much trickier. I’ve got to sculpt and shape a mound of hair manually. And every day I still brush and oil it.
Ha, NSFW example but my God when people call the tight trimmed triangle a “natural bush” on women I laugh. It’s more work to maintain than just about any other alternative.
A short trimmed beard you have to do the neck and maybe cheekbones, it’s a lot of upkeep.
I think lots of guys had that type of beard pre-covid, then let it grow out. Once it’s long enough you don’t have to do the neck because it’s hidden by the rest of your beard.
And some guys never have to do cheeks because it grows in good.
Like how 20 years ago it was cool for teenagers and 20 somethings to have goatees. It took me a while to realize most were doing it because they couldn’t grow a full beard.
There’s a lot of variation in facial hair, including where it grows and how thick.
Exactly, it’s actually MORE work to shave with a beard because instead of just completely removing all of the hair and you have to shape it and make sure it’s symmetrical.
Very variable, depending on style and your personal growth pattern. I have a small patch on each cheek that has to be cleaned off, but otherwise it doesn’t require shaving. With a big beard you have to care for it like normal hair, though, with haircuts and products.
its the other way around for those people: they have a beard because they stopped shaving, not because they wanted a nice looking beard.
tbh there is a part of me that resents this “ew you grow facial hair and don’t shave around the edges to create sharp lines” view though. Its like women feeling they have to shave their legs or pits, it’s BS and people shouldn’t be judged for literally just how their body naturally is. Its not like there’s a legitimate sanitary reason for shaving legs or necks.
I’ve (recently) stopped shaving entirely, but I use my trimmers to to a quick hackjob on the area I used to manually shave. so my facial hair care routine is about 5 minutes every 2 weeks or so, plus maybe 5 minutes a month to buzz my head. can’t believe I used to spend that much time every couple of days to look like shit. now I still look like shit but have a few more minutes
WITH file synchronization you’d use nextcloud-client, obviously, otherwise I think GNOME file manager can connect to a nextcloud instance and browse files without downloading them
Dawg like a year ago I came back into the office for the first time since Covid and all the 20 year olds had somewhere between pedo stashes and handlebars. Zoomers crack me up they’re great
It’s partly because of Top Gun and some other recent pop culture occurrence I can’t recall off the top of my head. But yeah, I know several people at work who recently started doing it as well, and one of them mentioned that as their inspiration. I’m guessing a few started bc of that and more followed suit, because why not or something.
You’d be surprised. Just Google it, there are tons of pop magazines and websites that discuss it and how it was trending on TikTok for awhile after the movie came out. And just to add, most fads begin with celebrities/influencers starting them across the various age demographics.
I think zoomers are young enough not to have the generational memory of how creepy mustaches are, so suddenly they're cool again. I'm afraid it'll last until the zoomers are old enough to be the creepy ones.
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