Notices by Richard (richard_merren@mastodon.social)

@jcast @Nochem The idea that you are going to find and unlock some simple biblical quote which will make us stop dead in our tracks stammering with our entire belief system shattered is both laughable and insulting to us.

@jcast @Nochem And don't assume that Jewish opinions about Israel (for or against) are some scriptural matter that you can lecture us on. I have (and I suspect @Nochem has) a range of factors affecting opinions on Israel--political, social, moral, ethical, religious, practical, etc.--and those opinions don't hinge on a facile interpretation of one arcane phrase in the Torah. Give us the benefit of the doubt that we have spent many years thinking about this and have complex opinions about it.

@jcast @Nochem Just stop already. You do not understand, or likely do not care, about the many ways you are being offensive. Continue criticizing Israel all day, but don't try and tell Jews what or how to believe, don't expect Jews to be responsible for justifying or condemning Israel (or anything else), don't argue with us about what is offensive to us and what is not, don't single out Jews or Israel for special rules, and don't adopt the language and conspiracies of traditional Jew hatred.

@jcast @Nochem You say you get it, but you don't seem to get it at all.

@Nochem @jcast I want to be clear here that I am not criticizing @Nochem for his having a stance on the existence of Israel that disagrees with mine. But I think that @jcast needs to understand that a Jewish person explaining why they oppose (or support) the existence of Israel is a far, far different thing than having a non-Jewish person fish for ideas about how to tell Jewish people what is the correct Jewish way to think about the existence of Israel.

@jcast OK...it's time for you to fuck off.

@jcast I will make it simple: ASCRIBING COLLECTIVE GUILT IS ANTISEMITISM. I do not have guilt. Your expressing that I do or should is the racism I am talking about. Multiple people have told you now this is offensive. Stop doing it.

As for fedi being a safe space: Since Oct 7 last year I have seen much more antisemitism here. There are a lot of bigots like you who pretend they are enlightened but don't seem to care how offensive they are, because it's just the Jews so who cares. Just stop.

@jcast @Nochem Not phrasing it was an option, too. Why don't you just let individual Jews use their own criteria to decide what Israel means to them and stick to just criticizing Israel for its actions that you find objectionable. And reflect on why your little research project is racist and offensive. Reflect on why you single out Israel for the justifying its right to exist. Why not Lebanon? Jordan? Saudi Arabia? Canada? Brazil? Because only Jews have to meet your carefully crafted standards.

@jcast Collective Jewish guilt is one of the oldest European patterns for antisemitism. Do we also owe you an explanation for why Jesus died? Criticize Israel all you want. But posts like this, which you may think are innocuous (or even clever), perpetuate the antisemitic collective guilt that gets our kids threatened in school and our friends attacked in the streets.

Here's a tip: would you ever demand this of a black person, a Hispanic, or a Native American? No, because it would be racist.

@petergleick This goes for men, too. You can vote for Kamala Harris and nobody has to know that you are secretly a decent person that cares about democracy, women's rights, opposing racism and antisemitism, and generally just having a non-deranged person running the country. You can privately do the right thing and publicly let your beer buddies think you are still a total douchebag.

@br00t4c Is Peter Thiel money more or less damning than Russian money? Hard to decide.

@dansup SNAFU

@tillshadeisgone II guess you are trying to say that if this guy doesn't quit Google then he is supporting genocide? He gets a pass because he says the right stuff online even though he continues providing material support to and drawing a paycheck from the company you think is directly supporting genocide while I draw your condemnation because I dare to question whether the term "genocide" applies here even though I have no direct connection to this or any other genocidal acts. Princlples.

@tillshadeisgone To be clear, it was the people who run the office who complained about the disruption, not me. And they gave these protesters multiple chances to disperse without being arrested and the protesters refused because they preferred to make a big show. And without even arguing the offensive misuse of the word genocide here, this company is not accused of participation in genocide--this group has complained about the relationship with Israel since long before this war began.

@tillshadeisgone But I do not work for Googlr and have always chosen to work for ethical tech companies and avoided working for the FAANG companies for MANY ethical reasons despite lower salaries. if you really believe that Google is involved in genocide, then you should urge this OP to quit his job. If not, what is wrong with him? If you believe the company is this tainted, then criticize him for working there, not me who has nothing to do with any company involved in the things you despise.

@zachklipp This protest group has been around for three years and nobody was fired until they disrupted the office and refused repeated offers to disperse with no consequences. I understand that you and others feel strongly about not wanting your company to do business with Israel (though it is not an opinion I share), but it is hard to fathom why someone would stay for years at a company they find morally objectionable, or assume they could keep their job after this type of office conduct.

@Gargron @Noshir Their Marco Polo is my favorite.

@dansup @pixelfed It would be cool to feed this data into the interface while I am typing a hashtag to help me choose which of the several variations is the best one to choose. (And I realize that this might not be realistic given the wide array of hashtags out there.)

@aral That is a good "gotcha" question, and Israeli government ministers should be facing these types of questions and should have to defend their actions. But there should be similar pressure on Hamas leaders and their government supporters in other countries and we all know that's just not going to happen.

@dansup Terminator 7 plot: Skynet was not an AI. It was a cat placed in charge of a single website that took over the entire net and started exterminating humans and dogs with killer robots. But a brave dog is sent back in time to stop her...