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1/ A month ago I talked abt the 'Emperor's New Clothes' fable & the new perspective the Trump (ym'sh) era has given me. Now I need to add another wrinkle:

Seeing how many people cling to their BenGarrison grotesque fantasies, I didn't appreciate how much people WANT TO BE FOOLED
2/ In our modern re-telling of the Empy Clothes, the courtiers wouldn't be embarrassed by the kid's revelation, they would suppress it & not b/c they're embarrassed by the truth, but b/c they desperately crave that the fantasy will continue
3/ Yeah, we're in a wacko mass cult moment in the US, but no different from other autocratic populist cults over the past century. This is the script. 35% of the population will kill you if you burst their delusional hate dream

The US has been grooming these rubes for yrs for rn
4/ I've said often that a key lesson I learned from battling abusive monsters is that they never stop being awful & destructive until you END them. While we normies are just trying to live our lives & be functioning societal adults, they're off uprooting crops & hurting for fun
5/ Add onto that the American attitude of 'live and let live' in the name of 'Freedom' & wide swaths of our country were allowed to descend into cults of ignorance & hate

We repair all of this damage by instituting education & the Enlightenment (the root of real freedom) to all
6/ But, again, my new conclusion: the cultists who think the emperor's new clothes are amazing aren't being bullied into acquiescence, they desperately need the falsehood & fantasy and they'll attack you for revealing the truth
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Joshua Cypess
@JoshuaCypess
1/ My daughter, an animal lover & thus frum vegetarian, gets upset abt the entire notion of korbanot. She has heard - in the popularized form - about the Rambam position from Moreh that sacrifices were a necessary practice given the mindset of ancient people. She asks if I agree.
2/ I explained that Rambam held a belief (echoed in the Enlightenment & *until this day*) that reason, education, philosophy etc will eventually triumph & make ppl reject superstitions

Sadly, I think we can say, esp. in 2020, that superstition is a built-in human condition
3/ While I identify w/Rambam's incorporeal & rationalistic relationship with Hashem, he also knew that this was a minority psychology. Most people serve God out of 'fear' = they expect reward & punishment, often literally, & immediately *in this world*
Read 18 tweets
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Joshua Cypess
@JoshuaCypess
1/ Re: renaming syrup:

How much of the conservative reactionary worldview is based on a physical & mental & emotional antipathy to learning new things?

Aggrieved minority: stop calling us hateful slurs

Fragile Conservatives: Never! Stop making me learn new words!!!
2/ I think this a core issue in the Conservative Culture War About Political Correctness (TM), that they hate having to learn, especially if it's paired with being empathetic

Freedom, to them, means never having to change. The autonomy of stubborn selfishness
3/ Also see: not telling raunchy jokes at work. These stolid revanchists whine & wave their tiny fists b/c they cannot or will not learn a new way to talk to ppl. It frightens & confuses them

'If I can't tell a woman she's hot, what *can* I say?'

Infinite possibilities, my dude
Read 4 tweets
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Joshua Cypess
@JoshuaCypess
1/ Lessons for living ethically with white privilege while recognizing intersectionality:

(a) Know Thyself, know the power that privilege gives you even despite having disempowered identities (e.g. I'm a cishet white male = power; redheaded Jew = disempowered)
2/ (b) Embrace the power and use it the way all power, all abilities, all resources should be used: to do mitzvot (the commandments for we theists, atheistic beneficence for all)

Power isn't a sin. Misuse of power, disuse of power, abuse - those are sins
3/ (c) Your use of Privilege Power is ethical when it will risk losing the power. It's foolish - and wasteful - to lament having privilege, USE it. Use all your power.

Power is given to you so you will do good things, especially to make the world more equal, ethical & kind
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