Me: Haha just a fun quirky story about queer supervillains, nothing deeper to see here!

Me, a year and a half later: Oh shit I made this about Judaism didn't I?

tbh for nazis its not even about ppl being jewish they just needed a scapegoat and took a mile with jewish ppl and they cant stop now or their narrative will fall apart, revealing their true intentions to their rw cult.

I think a huge problem in internet Judaism (also sometimes irl!) discussions is often that we're so focused on fighting or pushing back on misconceptions, Christian normativity, and distorted Christian ideas about our theology — that sometimes in the pursuit of this, we forget to approach a more complicated internal reality, or we overlook parts of our own religion while trying to not assimilate.

Things like the Talmud talking about Yom Kippur being a happy day. A lot of folks were surprised and didn't know there's a huge tradition that YK is supposed to be a positive holiday and many Jews observe with joy. Then some folks went on to elaborate that if someone wished them a happy Yom Kippur and they were Jewish it was fine, but if they were gentiles who simply didn't know anything and didn't bother to learn, then they were annoyed by the lack of care re: cultural nuance or whatever.

But like...of all the annoying christian-normative bullshit that exists — someone trying to wish me a happy holiday on a holiday that is noted to be solemn AND positive, but not really knowing anything about my religion — that doesn't really make a list of things I have time to be mad about! Or even irked by!

There's a lot of ways in which people are shitty and careless or make it obvious they consider our non-christian holidays an annoying quirk they have to acknowledge, but "happy yom kippur!" Is not one of them. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I want other people to assume the best of me, even when I am the one who is socially awkward or ignorant, or stumbling around just trying to be an okay person. And sometimes I am the clueless one who has only a shallow understanding of someone's interior life/culture and I said/did nothing actually offensive but treated the situation the same way I treat similar ones in my own life because everyone has cultural blinders somewhere.

So sometimes, I have to look at other people doing The Thing and ask myself if it's at all malicious or harmful, and if it ISN'T, shouldn't I assume the best of another human bumbling around like I do all the time? "Hey thanks. Yeah I had a meaningful holiday."

Likewise, YES, we do have a history of wrestling with G-d and pushing back and asking questions and so on, but no, stiff-necked isn't wholly complimentary, it's...frequently the opposite of that. And the knee-jerk reaction is often to push back against Christianity and Islam vilifying Jews and their stubbornness/failures/wrongs in the Bible. Which is totally reasonable, there's a huge history of a theology of antisemitism and blaming there that impacts us today.

HOWEVER, we can push back against the antisemitic theologies and interpretations of these stories without necessarily having to recharacterize everything beyond recognition?

Yes, Abraham yelled at G-d that one time, and it was great. It may have even been a test of Abraham. Yes, Israel wrestles with G-d. Yes, the Jews in the desert complain to Moses they are dying of thirst and ask what was the point of leaving Egypt if they should only die while wandering instead?

Great. Love that. BUT ALSO: yes stiff-necked is not always a compliment. Yes, the Israelites struggled and made mistakes, and are utterly and painfully human just like people are today. Flawed. We are not so stiff-necked as to say we have not sinned!

Is anything as scary as a group that admits no flaws? No errors of judgment? Never questions themselves or learns from past mistakes? Idk to me, it's all very "with great responsibility comes great accountability, and power isn't the point here." Yes? If we take pride in the moments of arguing and the pushing back, then by that same token, we have to own the failings just as much to learn from. The relationship between G-d and Jews is a two way street.

It's not a failing to be an imperfect human, but it would be a failing to screw something up and then never admit it or keep doing it when you can change.

Idk I just...there's got to be ways we can dig into meaty and interesting stuff without having to constantly be like "just because some ancestors screwed up and G-d was angry at them doesn't mean you can say Jews lost the love of God and the covenant and were replaced you absolute weirdos."

started flipping tables in my head again like those old rage comics cause cbc published another article on solidarity with palestinians that presents 'from the river to the sea' as a call for the ethnic cleansing of jewish people, but that 'its meaning and use is more complicated'. ill click the link on the part of the sentence that says 'experts told cbc' (its complicated) when i feel like flipping tables again but in the meantime lets try working with one instead of dropping the whole thing.

from the river to the sea palestine will be free from jews is an antisemitic position, one that is no different from the same calls for the ethnic cleansing of jewish people antisemites around the world call for in their own countries. a problem arises in that israel benefits from antisemitism in what it maintains as diasporas, antisemites and zionists have worked together for over a century to tie jewish people to this particular colony in palestine, and the notion of jewish people as necessarily foreigners wherever they may be maintains its legitimacy specifically through the exception that is israel.

to belong somewhere is too often not to belong elsewhere, and in the case of zionism, belonging is employed in a way that existentially ties the struggle against antisemitism, the ongoing genocidal process that targets jewish people, with zionism, the ongoing settler colonial process that targets palestinian land and produces a genocidal relationship between its settlers and indigenous people. for jewish people not to belong 'here' and not to 'belong nowhere', they must 'belong somewhere', and for them to 'truly belong' (the american way), they must put into question the belonging of everyone only to fall back on settler bourgeois property relations. that is why the right to return of palestinians is something zionists refuse to concede to, and fundamentally can not: because the unbelonging of palestinians from their land is a necessary function of israeli sovereignty, through the colonial establishment of bourgeois property rights.

the violence capital has wrought on the body of the earth has been given a special attribution to jewish people for a long time. so called socialists have historically tempted to solve the contradictions of capital by means of scapegoating jewish people. the violence committed in the name of israel is not uniquely jewish in character: it is colonial, imperialist, capitalist violence being committed by people who are jewish. even though israel is a product of global antisemitism and a pervasive cultivated desire in the west to expel jews, the israeli economy and its settler bourgeois property relations is its material raison d'etre, and this, again, is not uniquely jewish, it is simply another segment of the bourgeoisie being bourgeois. what one calls a national bourgeoisie

from the river to the sea palestine will be free. from apartheid. from genocide. from settler colonialism. from imperialism. from capitalism. but right now it is not. the sun will set on israel one day, just like canada and the us, just like the so called thousand year reich that only lasted a handful of years because of its imperialist colonial and genocidal relationship to its volk, lebensraum, and whoever and whatever was next door.

to fill the gap of 'what does freedom involve' with 'the ethnic cleansing of jewish people' shouldnt be considered more reasonable when the topic is israel and palestine. it should be rejected as an antisemitic position, and yet it is so often being presented not only as a reasonable conclusion but as the only way it could be. as common sense. of course freedom means kill the jews, and to question this is the real antisemitism. of course this is all the palestinians could ever mean by freedom

when mel gibson was screaming about freedom in that movie do you think it was about getting back to committing pogroms? that jewish presence was his characters real problem with the english? idk ive never seen it but why would it necessarily be the case with israel and palestine? there being a greater need to expel jews because there are a higher proportion of jews is just antisemitic reasoning. it being a colony that is so jewish it explicitly considers itself as such shouldnt be a reason for us to implicate every jewish person globally as a collective in punishment and further buy into and reproduce zionist propaganda.

to abolish israel would not only liberate palestinians, it would also liberate jewish people from zionist claims of an existential relationship to apartheid in palestine. to believe that without zionism jewish people could not culturally or biologically survive is to take the zionist claim regarding existentiality and colonialism to those degrees.

the liberation of palestine is historically inevitable. it will happen. this process necessarily involving the ethnic cleansing of jewish people is an antisemitic lie that serves a dual function: rejection of palestinian resistance based on essentialist claims of antisemitism and rejection of antisemitism based on essentialist claims of zionist interest. zionism puts the interests of jews and palestinians in conflict, and only a free palestine can allow for actual jewish safety there.

from the river to the sea palestine will be free from collective punishment. but right now it is not. palestinians are experiencing genocide at the hands of israel and its supporters. the end of apartheid is a historical necessity: it will eventually happen. you cannot stop it from collapsing, only delay it. israels days are numbered, just like canada and the us. every day without a ceasefire is another particular form of breath of existence for israel, and another set of breaths taken away from palestinians. ceasefire now.

i’m a queer convert and ngl i also don’t get this phenomenon, in that ur right that there’s some heavy philosemitism going on, because i’ll talk to other ppl trying to convert/converted and they say they’ve converted bec of the freedom or smthg that you have in judaism or smthg… and maybe it’s bizarre to me because i’m quite religious but it screams “i’ve only ever interacted with reform spaces”. which isn’t necessarily negative but even after they’re conversions they don’t acc try to get to know the landscape of jewishness both contemporary or historical. it’s def an issue and one that is enabled by less traditional (not less egalitarian etc, but traditional in halachic observance) synagogues which don’t rlly emphasize how jewish community at large actually looks like. it’s okay to have an idealized version of something you’re unfamiliar of but it seems that there are people that don’t ever see beyond it even as they go through the process. i also just don’t get why anyone would convert if they’re not doing it for religious reasons…

theres also a lot of people who seem extremely shocked to learn that if youre anti zionist you will probably have to completely be silent on your beliefs or claim to support israel to complete a conversion and idk its just annoying to me that sometimes you can tell someone just has this view of judaism being the unproblematic religion. youre right about the reform stuff for sure. i also cant understand why anyone would convert to something if you dont really believe it, right, and i wasnt raised religious so i cant relate but genuine belief makes sense as a rationale. converting because of its perceived greater freedom/spirituality is westoid christian cope

Hey I was scrolling through the dst tag and saw an old post of yours saying Maxwell is a massive antisemitic stereotype, is that true. Like is he coded as Jewish in any way, is it his nose or something about his backstory. I thought he was an englishman. I'd genuinely like to understand how and why his character's antisemitic, it concerns me bc I don't want to perpetuate bigotry but I also wanted to draw a cool monster!max design so idk if I should do that now. (question mark key on my laptop is broken hence the weird punctuation)

i'm not jewish, but i have many friends who are and i have seen several (albeit older) posts on this subject, so i'll try to summarize what i've seen about antisemetic stereotypes wrt maxwell.

the whole association of crooked/hooked noses with greed and evil, plus making his skin grey/blue is particularly what's antisemetic, because even if he's not coded as jewish necessarily, these are traits by and large used to stereotype and villainize jewish people.

giving him a crooked/hooked nose in general is not bad, but there are a lot of ways that you can draw him with a crooked nose that ends up just looking like a huge antisemetic stereotype. overemphasis on his nose/making his nose really disproportionately big. i also don't recommend making his skin grey/blue, as that's associated with making jewish people inhuman.

i'm not exactly an expert on this subject, being not jewish and all that, so i don't know how much more i should get into this subject. if any jewish fans of don't starve want to get into this subject and talk about antisemitism that would be awesome.

I'm feeling Some Type of Way about other Jewish folks being like. "They're chanting to Kill Us" about "from the river to the sea". Like.

It feels the same type of way as usmericans (I am one, for context) getting afraid for calls to return the land to its native inhabitants. That doesn't mean kill???

Also, do they just think that because Israel exists, Palestinian Jews just.... All got up and left? Nobody stayed? With their families, their friends, their Homes???

I find that. Unlikely.

And FURTHERMORE. It's not free of Jews! It's free of Israel!!! It doesn't even imply the people of Israel getting hurt!

And look. I do believe that there are lots of folks here in the US who can't tell when their activism maybe crosses the line into antisemitism. But. Just saying "X thing is antisemitic" with No Further Conversation???? Like people don't have a right to go "how? Why do you think it means what it does? Have you considered you might be wrong?"

It's frustrating. People getting arrested and harmed for protesting a Fucking Genocide that we're complicit in and like.

Even if you as an individual believes it's fine for Israel to exist and it has a Right To Defend Itself like... Can we use critical thinking here? That maybe actions of The State have Ulterior Motives for killing 30k people, even while retaliating an act of terrorism???

It's like being like "well, I think the United States has a Right to defend itself" to protestors against the war in Iraq and such. And it's like. Okay! Cool. Conversation to be had after the civilian casualties slow down, ya?

Like. I have Thoughts about violent resistance against oppressive regimes and how people like the Idea of it but not The Reality. And that there are harms that are done to relatively innocent individuals but that sad fact doesn't necessarily mean that the method isn't necessary, but moreso what steps were taken before, and how can we solve these systemic problems with oppression and colonial power being inherently abusive Before it reaches this point.

Like. Maybe we can look at the bombing, the mass casualties, and go "isn't Israel supposed to be some kind of powerful military- who not only has been offered their hostages back in exchange for Palestinian hostages, at a rate consistent with the ratio of Palestinians Taken hostage, so why do they not use this method instead? How can they be sure they aren't killing their own citizens when they bomb areas like this?? Can you think of any Ulterior Motives a colonial state may have for bombing a region and then trying to develop real estate???? Any at all????"

And idk. I'm not A Great Wordsmith who can get these ideas out in an evocative and thought-provoking way. I'm just tired and mad. And want less oppressive regimes in the world.

hi! hope you're doing well. i got a question for you about the what if with marc's funeral, if that's okay, and please let me know if i'm missing the mark or overstepping in any way. as a jewish guy, seeing a non-jewish funeral kinda felt bad to me. like marc was already buried, no one who loved him or knew him participated in the burial, and yes the heroes wore their gear instead of traditional mourning clothing, but putting a star of david on the tombstone felt like an afterthought. marlene's 'may your memory be a blessing' was nice, seeing gena and the kids and crawly was like yes those are his people! but overall idk the setup and eulogy wasn't working for me. tldr my question is, what's your take on marc's funeral?

Hey! Thanks for stopping by! I guess before I say anything I should preface this by mentioning that I’m honestly just some dude on the internet and I really shouldn’t be considered an authority on anything. I’ve just read an unfortunately large number of comics and while I do dedicate a lot of time to learning as much as I can about anything, I definitely shouldn’t be considered an expert on matters as richly complex and integral to people’s very identities as religion or culture. In other words, I definitely appreciate you starting this conversation, but I really can’t offer anything more than a personal opinion that everyone should just take with a grain of salt.

But!!! thank you for sending this message, because, yeah, I realize that sometimes I can get so swept up in any writer even acknowledging that Marc is Jewish that I forget that, “oh yeah, this could be better and we should be well past the age where we had to hope for even the barest crumbs of representation.”

Accordingly, I fully see where you’re coming from and you’re probably right in that there was more the writer could have done. Even as I write that though, I can already hear the long list of excuses that could be made by devil’s advocates about why Marc’s funeral in What If…? Dark: Moon Knight was presented as it was. Most probably could be pretty easily refuted by anyone that wants better from the comic industry, but, hey, that’s comics: they thrive on intense, impassioned reader discussion and can somehow be ahead of their time in terms of cultural sensitivity AND painfully slow in breaking out of some really poor ways of depicting cultures, races, and religions.

[Putting in a read more because this got a little long (sorry all, mea culpa)]

But yeah, some of those excuses I can imagine include, first among them, space limitations. The creators had one page to depict the funeral in the single issue allotted to telling Marlene’s story of becoming Luminary. People could easily say something offhand and questionable like, “oh yeah, Marc’s mom sat shiva, but it all happened off panel,” but that explanation always feels a little cheap to me, as I know for fact that comic artists can get very creative with how they format a page to include critical information, but, eh, there it is.

Some people in these situations sometimes bring up the point that authors that share a background with the characters they depict can approach matters with a good understanding of what’s appropriate/significant. I can see the validity of that approach, but from the (admittedly brief) research I did, I haven’t found any conclusive statements on the writer’s background at least and I personally would rather not make any assumptions/speculations. (Again, that’s strictly a personal thing, because in my line of work, I come across a lot of bad actors who, from their perspective, “““accuse””” people of being certain races or ethnic backgrounds and I am,,,,very tired). Plus, that’s not necessarily a cure all, at least that’s what I’ve gathered from the heated debates on Bemis’ Moon Knight run that I still stumble upon on occasion.

The next thing that comes to mind, well, I don’t want to sound like I’m entirely absolving the creators since, sure, they probably could have done more, but I’m so used to grappling with the bad hands comic books deal me, that sometimes I propose what I guess could be referred to as Watsonian interpretations??? Like, yeah, this was ultimately written like this because creators are flawed, but I cope by trying to puzzle out in-universe explanations. In this case, I see this as potentially being some sort of hazy, not quite well constructed, reflection of Marc’s complex relationship with his background that characterized his adult life. Elias Spector, who frequently represents Marc’s connection to his past and how he wrestles with really complex questions of religion and identity, is dead by this point of time in both of Marc’s established origins, and while I am sure the organizers of Marc’s funeral, like Marlene and Frenchie, fully and deeply loved him, I’m just not sure if Marc ever communicated to them what they should specifically do for his funeral (fully traditional or as small/nondescript as possible if he even thought he deserved/would get a funeral), as enigmatic and….not always forthcoming in discussing such matters Marc circa Marc Spector: Moon Knight was, so they did their best.

But gosh, even as I write that out, that’s such a load of copium. I’ll admit that my fondness for the comic book genre results in me desperately trying to hammer something worthwhile out of sometimes (or frequently????) mediocre material, so thanks again for sharing your thoughts! You are well and away within your rights to not be satisfied with how the matter was handled and I know I thoroughly appreciate your critical eye. Arguably, it is only by such a capacity for critique that the industry will ever shake off some of its worst aspects that still haunt it and evolve into something really consistently worthwhile.

hi! i noticed in your pinned post that you said you try to include your hungarian heritage when it comes to your craft. may i ask for some recommendations regaring this? i'm hungarian myself but everything is about catholicism these days and i couldn't really find good books about the old ways.

thank you in advance, hope you have a wonderful day!

Oof. Idk if I can really provide recommendations tbh- at least not comfortably.

This is a tricky question as I am someone who supplements much of her craft with academic literature and research. Things like anthropological studies, folkloric studies, historical papers, etc.

However, there has in fact been an ongoing reframing of history in main-stream Hungary since the 1970s, influenced by nationalist rhetoric and spurred by a romanticized view of that history started by academics as early as the late 1800s .

These academics, inspired by the current European Romantic ideology of the time, sought to uncover the "true" history of Hungary that would illuminate the pre-conquest ethnic and cultural practices of ancient Hungarians. Though there are many notable academics we can trace back to the foundation of this reframing, one of the most well known is Vilmos Diószegi.

Diószegi worked incredibly hard to prove that Hungary's spiritual history was tied to a mysterious historical figure called a 'Taltos'. It was Diószegi's belief that the 'Taltos' was a Finno-Urgic-based, Turkic style 'shaman' who assisted in priestly duties in their respective communities and used a drum to enter an ecsatcy induced trance. Diószegi would even go on to theorize what the Taltos 'shamanistic world view' would have entailed. However, many scholars, including Éva Pócs, doubt these theories and have pointed to inconsistencies in Diószegi's research and reconstruction. Though there was undoubtedly Turkic influence, these scholars suggest that the Taltos has more in common with pre-christian Balkan, Bulgarian and Southern Slavic traditions.

Now, overall there wouldn't usually be a problem with that. Disagreements happen in academia all the time. The issue is that Diószegi's work is treated as absolute, and is the basis for most modern Hungarian paganism and reconstruction due to the unique ethnic and cultural identity it can provide. A cultural identity Hungarian Nationalists love to hold up on a pedestal and point to as evidence of a glorious and mystical past that existed before Christianity and, of course, Jewish People.

Therefore, when studying Hungarian paganism and folk practices one has to be discerning. Despite Diószegi's influence on Hungarian Academia as a whole, it doesn't mean it's all without merit (it doesn't necessarily mean all of Diószegi's work is completely without merit either, just that it shouldn't be treated as gospel especially with the inconsistencies surrounding it and the romantic european foundation it was already working from). For instance Mihály Hoppál's work has been known to research not only "modern" (60's and 70's) Hungarian folk practices, but source them by region. I've learned much from his detailing of Hungarian folk practices- I just don't take everything he has to say as fact. I question it and compare it with other research- rigorously.

As for the Catholic element of Hungarian practices, my personal take is this: Embrace it. That isn't to say that you should become a Christian or even agree with Christianity. Despite the fact that I, myself, am not Christian, I personally just find it unrealistic to separate the two. Christianity has been established in Hungary since the year 1000. Over that time the 'old ways' and Christian practices have undoubtedly been syncretized past the point of being able to concretely tell them apart. This is the fundamental problem I have with reconstruction as a whole, because much of it tries to simply omit Christain concepts from folk traditions without, ironically, realizing that in doing so we may be equally erasing pre-christain approaches and philosophies. They're just too entwined. My closest ancestors were catholic as opposed to pagan. Granted, weird catholics who saw things and knew things, but catholics none the less. Their history and traditions are just as valid, and are also just as important as the pre-christian beliefs that undoubtedly found themselves braided into that same history and those same traditions.

I'm sorry if this doesn't really answer your question, but regardless I hope you found it helpful.

i was trying really hard to make a post about how i keep seeing jewish characters in shows that seem to never escape the stereotypes/patterns that ive noticed are basically always there, but man im really not the person to try and talk in depth about things, im not very good at it

that said, literally even what i would consider the better rep of jewish characters still seem to fall into the same stereotypes/patterns of every other jewish character and its like... why is that? even in shows that seem so aware of every other issue being faced by minorities, jews are the ones left behind?

and its not necessarily bad that they fall into these patterns, especially if theyre given more depth and allowed to be people outside of those things, but like... those things are still there. idk maybe im being weird about it

ok anyway i’m gonna draft this cus this might just be me getting mad about a thing that is very specific to me idk

basically i saw a post (and it really doesn’t matter who wrote it cus it’s more than a year old now and it didn’t even break 300 notes) which was making fun of people for claiming to have religious trauma when OP assumed they hadn’t been to X amount of catholic services. this by itself is a bit silly bc catholics gatekeeping religious trauma as being exclusive to them is obviously myopic, but one of the tags was like “you don’t have religious trauma you have ptsd from familial abuse that used religion against you” and im like. i fail to see how that’s not religious trauma?

like i’ve said before on this blog, my religious education was primarily reform jewish via my mom with smatterings of various christian denominations mostly via my dad; you could not measure any amount of “christian religious trauma” i have by continuous service attendance but like yeah my experience of christianity is still primarily one of punishment, alienation, antisemitism, supersessionism. and like sure, my dad is a dipshit who never stuck with anything for very long including going to any one church, so no that trauma does not include X hours of christian education or whatever. but boy oh boy did he still like weaponizing our “christian heritage” when i exhibited any proximity to judaism!

and i also feel like *part of* my difficulty with christianity is specifically not knowing what the fuck christians are talking about when they talk about concepts that are seemingly basic to them and having to piece it together after the fact from the random smattering of things i *do* know. and these concepts are just woven in the fabric of US society; everyone seems to understand them instinctively but me! or like i’ll be talking with my (ex-)christian friends about our various bad run-ins with christianity and then it’ll be my turn to talk and they’ll look at me like i have three heads because they can’t conceive of religious trauma that’s specifically centered around christian antisemitism. or i’ll be talking with my jewish friends and because *they* had a more rigorous or conservative jewish education, i won’t fit in with them either--and this too can be partially due to religious trauma on their part!

i guess the other thing too is, this post was kind of in keeping with a different post i saw about protestants appropriating catholic iconography when trying to make art about *their* religious trauma. and on the one hand it’s funny to me that we’re supposed to care about the trappings of a colonial institution being appropriated, on the other hand it’s funny as an outside observer cus i do think the iconography they listed as examples are more alike between catholicism and protestantism than they are different. like i remember some of the examples were stained glass and gothic churches (protestants also have those; i live in a city with many protestant gothic churches) and multi-eyed and winged angels (those are described in the tanakh; they are not exclusive to either of you).

and like maybe it’s corny but i do think they have become kind of signaling things for people with religious trauma to find each other and talk about their experiences. are these particular symbols necessarily 100% authentic to everyone’s experience? probably not, but 1.) they make cool art, and 2.) the looming and foreboding nature of some of these symbols (i’m thinking of the exteriors of gothic churches especially) can be evocative of the sense of alienation one feels when you’ve definitively decided you no longer want anything to do with the church, but it’s still ever present. imo these types are mad because they want exclusive use of the cool art symbolism more than they want to facilitate community. if you wanted to say that art symbolism is not a solid basis for a community, THAT would be an argument i’d respect, but that’s not what y’all said.

Hi!!! I heard somewhere (possibly from multiple people or sources) that a lot of jewish laws were important at the time they were made, but not so much anymore.

Ex: don't eat pork. Ans: Pigs were fed scraps & slop & often got worms. If you didn't cook it well enough, you could get sick. Modern: Canadian pork is so safe that you don't need to eat it well done. Federally or provincially inspected canadian pork is practically kosher.

Ex: don't sleep around. Ans: Having multiple sexual partners increases the risk of spreading STI/Ds. Modern: As long as you use protection, it's fine. (But at the same time there are scientific studies that show that when you sleep with someone your brain releases chemicals & you form an emotional attachment & in theory you should only build up that strong attachment with your forever-partner(s).)

Ex: Wash your hands. Ans: Germs exist??? Modern: Tbh I think we should all do this one. Wash your hands before cooking & eating, people! Or idk use hand sanitizer. (I have a hellenic pagan friend who uses baby wipes when it can't wash its hands for w/e reason.)

Ex: don't b gay Ans: remember the aids epidemic? yeah that was devastating. Modern: Use protection & pep/prep & make sure u'r clean.

How do you feel about this theory? What rules do you think would exist nowadays? (My personal fave: You must keep your name hidden & kept to yourself. as in, don't share ur name online.)

I think first of all I would definitely not wanna say that the Torah prohibits gay sex as a public health measure. That seems homophobic to me (though I don’t think you intended it that way!) and also, AIDS was millennia later.

In terms of the framework in general… yes, this is the framework a lot of people use. I don’t, personally. I think that the rules were taboos created by an ancient culture for a variety of reasons, and some were kept for a variety of reasons, and ultimately at this point this is my ancestral culture and I think that living Jewishly is part of connecting to my people.

For myself, living Jewishly doesn’t necessarily mean following halacha, but it does mean knowing about it, being informed by it, and interacting with it. Specifics will depend on the situation. I don’t think there’s a specific “expiration date” for any particular halacha. And in general, halacha has spiritual and cultural significance; I don’t love boiling it down to utilitarian reasonings. Besides I don’t think we know why a lot of these rules were created.

I think if someone wants to use the above framework to inform their own personal philosophy and practice that is valid, but I don’t like it as an overarching framework that describes halacha, if that makes sense.

Hey so I’ve had these thoughts about all these “shovel talk” fics/posts in which Bobby, Maddie (tbh, I understand it with her, she’s off the hook), and firefam warn Eddie not to hurt Buck…but each of the firefam has something in common with Eddie that should make them protective of him as well: Bobby’s a widower, Hens a parent, and Chimney had a partner leave him with little warning. Idk, I just don’t find it as cute as some people that they would only think about little baby Buck. Eddie’s a single father of a special needs child, and there’s no doubt that Buck loves them, but I think somebody needs to have a talk with him about what that kind of commitment really means, and how much it would harm the Diaz boys if he really wasn’t ready for all of that. Maybe it’s just me, but even if I was friends with both of them, knowing their histories, Buck should be given at least one shovel talk from the firefam on Eddie’s behalf!

Hi Nonnie, thank you for your ask!

OK, so I have two parts for this, one about this specific scenario and the other in general about fics. Just keep in mind, this is my opinion only. I have no monopoly on the truth, I’m just sharing my own thoughts.

Regarding this scenario, I tend to agree with you, I can't see the 118 giving Eddie alone the shovel talk. They absolutely all have something that makes them identify with him and his situation. But it's also that they're all a family. All of them. 'Shovel talks' are usually reserved for family members to conduct with strangers (or at least outsiders to an internal circle of a chosen family), and Eddie just... isn't a stranger. Which is why I also don't see them doing the opposite, having a 'shovel talk' with Buck alone. The 118 love and care about both men, and I believe they would want to be there for both of them and not do anything that might be interpreted as choosing sides. Also do think the 118 see both Eddie and Buck as capable of handling their romantic business. If no one gave Taylor the ‘shovel talk’ in spite of knowing what she was willing to do to Bobby in 206 because they trusted Buck can handle himself, and Eddie is a much better human being than she ever was...

Now admittedly, this is considered a 'cute' thing for people to do because TV has used it that way. It's been repeatedly used on many shows as a way of saying, "we love our family member and we are protective of them" as well as a way of demonstrating that the person conducting the shovel talk is aware and/or accepting of their family member dating this person (a fact that they were either opposed to or unaware of in the past). So it makes sense to me that people have grown to like it and want to recreate it for their own characters. I don’t judge people for wanting to see or for writing the ‘shovel talk,’ whether for Eddie or Buck. Whatever makes you happy is what fan fiction is for in my book. I also keep in mind that just because IMO something isn’t ‘in character’ - it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m right, and also, even if I am right, who says fic has to be in character? If people wanna see what they think of as cute, and it’s not actually harmful for anyone, I don’t mind at all. Or if it fills a need... Like maybe the author identifies with Buck, and the author needs to feel loved and cared about by their friends, and they get to experience it through Buck, I’m totally cool with it. Life is hard enough, I’m ok with fics giving people whatever they need.

There is that exception of stuff being actually harmful. I remember years ago, I did an AO3 search and came across a fic in a fandom I was not active in, but it was a historic AU set during an event with significance in Jewish history. The ship wasn’t cast as Jews, but Jewish people were a part of the setting for this fic. So as a Jew, obviously I wanted to read it. The author’s notes stated she really researched this event, so in I went, actually excited to read this fic. It was awful. Every single action taken by Jews was interpreted in the most negative light possible. The Jews did X? It’s because they’re bloodthirsty. They did Y? It’s because they’re bigots. Just. Everything was horrible. It started out bad and just kept getting worse. And it’s exactly the fact that the author clearly did do their research and did know the facts that made it worse. It made it evident that the awful interpretations weren’t a result of ignorance, they were a choice. It left me understanding that I, as a Jew, can’t get away from antisemitism, not even when I turn to fic. And maybe that’s a part of what shaped my very chill attitude towards everything else. Like, unless people are being intentionally harmful, I really am ok with people using fic to make themselves happy whether it is in character or not... 

Which is to say, whatever I think is in character for the 118, I am totally cool with those writers who want Buck to have his teammates be protective over him with a shovel talk, and I am totally cool if you wanna write your own version where they do it for Eddie! Whatever makes you happy, is what I want for you! And if venting to me about those fics that irk you helped, then I’m also happy about that, you can always come rant to me! *LOTS of love* xoxox

(and if anyone’s looking for it, here is my ask tag! xoxox)

under a readmore because. yeah. cw for discussion of like. everything happening on the news rn

i don't know how to talk about any of this without it sounding like i am making. like. Literal G*nocide (censored to avoid tags not because i think it's a Bad Word) about Me And My Mental Illness so i guess prefacing with. like. this is not any sort of #Take, i'm just processing some complicated personal feelings that i don't know how to talk about with my therapist. at the core of it all i'm scared and not sure how to help and i feel like there's so much confusion that if i ask for real, tangible things i can do, there's a not-insignificant chance i might end up helping to make things worse.

anyways like. i've probably got moral ocd and at the very least have a lot of the symptoms, and i also have cptsd from like. a million different things but partially from constant, unrelenting exposure to horrific news (specifically, in a way where the narrative tends to be both "if you aren't spending a majority of your time and effort thinking about and trying to solve this, you are complicit" AND "this is hopeless, there's nothing the average person can do, no amount of donations and calling your reps and front line activism is ever going to help") since i was a young teen, again, who probably has moral ocd, and just. idk. everything happening right now is immensely triggering on so many levels.

i don't know what's *actually* happening because it feels like there are a hundred different narratives but i know there's a horrific genocide happening and i'm terrified that by not reblogging or talking about it much i'm not doing even the bare minimum of my part. but so many of the posts i would actually reblog (specifically, posts with actual information or ways to help -- as a personal rule, i won't reblog posts that are just fear or anger or venting (not because i think that's Bad(tm) but because it just makes me feel hopeless and suicidal)) seem to go out of their way to like. pin the blame on average citizens, or even jewish people, instead of the israeli (or hell, the united states) government, and i know that like. nuance gets lost when you're scared and angry and grieving and as an outsider it would be ridiculous to tone-police but with the rise in rampant antisemitism in the last few years, at least in the US, happening alongside all of this i am so so scared for my jewish friends and i'm scared for what it means for me when i eventually start my conversion process (or if it means that i'll never start, for my own safety) and i've already been struggling with activism burnout since like 2020 and i'm just. i feel sick watching genocide happen across the world and not knowing how to help and being scared that even if i attempt to help it's going to make a different problem worse. and i feel disgusted and horrified at myself for being so paralyzed by fear and confusion and my own much less significant trauma that i'm essentially no better than someone who intentionally sticks their head in the sand and doesn't care at all. which, see above, makes me worry that i'm complicit.

i'm open to replies to this post, including ones that challenge the way i feel and especially if anyone has any suggestions on constructive ways i can help (or groups i can donate to who are doing constructive things -- i've heard someone say even donations aren't helpful right now, i don't know if that's true or not) but i'm begging for compassion because like. believe me, whatever thing you're going to say about my position of relative privilege or like. White Guilt(tm) or anything like that, my brain has already guilt tripped me about it. i'm not necessarily asking for advice on how to turn this into actually constructive activism because i know that ultimately it's kinda on me, but i'm open to hearing advice anyone has

sorry for this being kinda incoherent, i didn't want to talk about it at all since i know it is like. the way i personally feel about this is not relevant or important. but it's consuming a lot of my thoughts and energy and i'm trying to find a way to find some sort of balance where i can still function without just sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending it's not happening

So the source is like a guiding hand that seems better than it being god. I still don't know how the omniverse works

Idk what brought this ask on but two things: 1) I also don't know how the omniverse works and at this point I am too afraid to ask, and 2) I don't know if the Source being a guide and the source being God are mutually exclusive?

Like disclaimer I'm a goy and don't know shit about fuck, but from what I know, the Source's depiction in Kirby's The New Gods seems not dissimilar to the Jewish God.

To my knowledge, the Jewish tradition is based heavily around debate, and Jewish relationships to God reflect that. This seems very similar to how New Genesis' relationship to the Source is portrayed in Kirby's The New Gods. The Source is the source of all creation, the source of life and the universe, a being that has reached out to Highfather and gives advice, writing its commandments down with a flaming hand. And the advice is wise, it is good; I don't believe it has ever been wrong in Kirby's comics. But the choice whether to follow it is ultimately Orion's, Metron's, Lightray's, Highfather's, etc. And when the advice appears, there is debate around the words and what they mean, whether following them is the correct choice.

Like once again, not Jewish, and Judaism, like most systems of religion or forms of spirituality, really flies well above my head. I could be completely off base here. But even to my ignorant goyische ass this seems really, really Jewish. I'm not saying the Source was necessarily intended to be the Jewish God, but Jack Kirby's Judaism influenced a lot of his work, and I think the portrayal of the Source was almost certainly influenced by it.

Which makes it all the worse that a bunch of culturally Christian assholes then immediately decided that the Source must basically be the Christian God.

hello! it’s your Tolkien secret Santa :) and I was wondering if you had any headcanons about dwarven winter celebrations/dwarves in general?

hiii dear tolkien secret santa!!!! i hope ur having a good day :) unfortunately i haven't any specific headcanons (that sort of creativity hasn't quite called me in all my fandom years although i couldn't tell you why...i much prefer the passive side of reading what other people think like my dwarf connoisseur mutual @matrose even tho idk if i mina has anything specifically for winter time) BUT i will try and pick my brains a little for you!

family is really important obviously all times of the year but i think at winter time when it gets cold that's even more important. so i imagine lots of gatherings in front of fire places and telling stories and singing songs and just being Together yknow? perhaps it's even a time to reach out to people you'd kind of lost contact to and take them back into your life!

i really like that you said winter celebration and not christmas celebrations bc dwarves are inspired by jewish culture and thus we as creators shouldnt necessarily put them in a christian context!!! i'm not super familiar w jewish holiday traditions but i think lighting the menorah would fit nicely esp w what i said above abt valuing familial relationships

light just in general! the importance of light fixtures in the dwarven homes really cannot be understated so maybe they have specially made lights for winter time? as a sort of event w the larger community. perhaps a few young apprentice dwarves get to show off some of their work/craft!!

adding to that i love the idea of dwarves and stained glass windows/art !

i like the dwarf toys that are mentioned in lotr, the ones that bilbo gives out at his birthday party and while i dont think that dwarves would have an advent calendar with like 20+ presents they do give out little hand/selfmade toys to children during winter time....perhaps older dwarves even teach older dwarf children how to make simple wooden toys :’)

tldr family, lights, crafting!!

idk is that something you can work with? i’ll keep thinking about it! wishing u a very lovely weekend!