Ground troops in Gaza. Give me one good reason why this is needed?

[Comrade Tovya]

akuma587 said:

Comrade Tovya said:

 

It was just another one of the many fabricated stories about Jews that went around, especially during the middle ages.  Another one was the whole Jews killing Christians to makes matzos and wine on Pesach....

I don't mind if you make a mistake, I'll never hold a grudge against you... Everybody says something at some point that they wish they wouldn't have said.  We're all human, so no worries.

But, I will say that whether you say something racist behind a pulpit in front of the media, or just privately to one of your friends, not one action is worse than the other.  Both are equal in stupidity.

And I also think blaming the Jews for Jesus being killed is pretty ridiculous.  If you actually do any research on the subject, Pontius Pilate was certainly not as nice as the (later Gospels in) the New Testament make him out to be.  The Romans killed Jesus because he was a threat.  They didn't do it for any lofty or any ignoble reasons, they just were worried about keeping order.  You don't get to become the overseer of a territory (can't remember the technical term, something similar to a governor) by baking people cupcakes.  Though the Romans in many ways were pretty tolerant as long as there were no threats to the stability of their power.

I also don't hold grudges against people who unintentionally (or often even those who intentionally) offend me.  It doesn't accomplish much of anything.  My comment just happened to coincidentally be more racist than I intended to be.  My racism really just extended to the degree that I wanted to throw latkas into a Jew joke.  If you watch a show like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David (Jewish guy) loves to throw Hebrew words into his jokes.

I do disagree about the comparative stupidity, as one makes the front pages and the other doesn't.

 

 

Right, but Larry David, as you stated, is Jewish, so it's not the same thing.  It's like Snoop Dogg saying the *N* word in his raps... if Eminem said the same thing he'd get his ass beat.  I'm adopted, and my Mexican grandfather makes fun of illegal-alien Mexicans... and my adopted grandfather on my dad's side is Polish, and says "Stupid Pollocks" all the time. 

So, it is no doubt different when an insider and an outsider says something.  Obviously someone of your ethnic group is not racist against themselves, so it's really not that big of a deal.

As for your comment on "comparative stupidity", I couldn't disagree more. 

When I was 16 (MANY MANY years ago) I had just moved to a new school.  Well 3 skinheads at the school called me a stupid "kike" and picked a fight with me.  Well, as you can figure, that didn't go over too well with me (I'm a little bit of a rough-neck by nature anyway, so dumb move), and I beat all 3 of them to a bloody pulp... the cops literally tackled me to get me off of my last victim.

Anyway, these guys had no pulpit, they were just normal people expressing themselves, and well, it didn't go so well for them.

Luckily for me, I've always been a pretty tough guy, so I faired pretty good, and well, they didn't obviously.

Looking back 14 years on the situation (as an adult), I'm quite sure that these little turds probably learned this crap from stuff they had heard at home (as there are no neo-Nazi politicians with a pulpit in modern America).  It didn't give them an excuse for their behavior, but in retrospect, I actually feel pretty bad for them.  Someone, somewhere, taught these kids that racism and racist behavior was okay. 

What I am trying to say is, everything that we say can inspire someone to do something great... or something very wrong.  Just a few little words can change someones life for the better, or for the worst. 

It's 100% okay to disagree with someone, or to challenge people (verbally of course).  Attack my character, beliefs, politics, or anything really... I have no problem with it.  I'm a HUGE proponent of free speech.  All of those things are voluntary traits that I have chosen.  But attack the things that I can't control (race, color of skin, etc) and that's just too much for me.  You can't change who you are when you are born.  And those genetic traits don't define who you are.

So, long story short, everything that each of us says, from the most powerful person to the least, can make a huge difference to those around us... it's only up to us if it is a change for the better or one that has negative implications.