Oakland born and raised. Social ontology; antisemitism; political philosophy; collective responsibility.
Dec 30, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
We get to a certain point where people are so stuck in their interpretation of a discourse that a thoughtful, measured explanation of a reasonable position (which is what @IBJIYONGI presents) is misinterpreted as doubling down on the weirdest and most extreme version of a claim.
I think, prior to this, I'd have been willing to defend Rupar as playing a useful social media role. (I might still say that, in a different context.)
But when someone starts responding to plain-faced attempts to engage in helpful discourse by QT-escalation... go smoke a bowl.
Dec 11, 2023 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
I've been on private for a while, because I found the discussions on this space unwieldy. But I'm coming up for air to make something important clear with a thread: @EliseStefanik doesn't care about Jewish people. She doesn't care about antisemitism. An extensive 🧵
Let's start with one of the fairly obvious and recent demonstrations: George Santos. Santos lied about being Jewish to the RJC, to get political support and donations from Jewish Republicans. Stefanik supported Santos until the end. Here's the NYP on it. nypost.com/2023/02/24/eli…
Aug 4, 2023 • 29 tweets • 6 min read
One of the things that's so infuriating about the trans panic in public schools, groups like Moms for Liberty, and public figures like DeSantis talking about grooming in schools is that they're not addressing abuse in schools. So, let's talk about it.
Big ol' CW for this 🧵
Lots of people have pointed out, over and over again, that the major threats to kids re: grooming aren't LGBTQ+ people; it isn't drag queens. It's adults in positions of authority and trust: teachers, religious leaders, sports coaches, doctors, and (crucially) parents.
Jul 31, 2023 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Since my mentions are just bombarded with this, I want to 🧵 about this ongoing discussion of the 14.88 RFK Jr. tweet, how I think we ought to appraise dogwhistles.
I'm going to criticize @RVAwonk, because she's the one embroiled; it's not judgment, just the nearest case.
She initially claimed "He does not have a history of signaling to white supremacist or behaving in ways that suggest he is trying to appeal to Nazis." This is just false, and I used the obvious example of Holocaust denier James Corbett.
Oh, hey, it's something squarely in my wheelhouse. A 🧵
So, let's side aside the question of whether "cultural marxism" is intellectually coherent or a "useful description of the ideology" and just focus on the implied question. How is it antisemitic?
There are two historical illustrations of the trajectory of the "cultural marxism" label adopted on the political right; both are true, but trace different parts of its development. The American story has been discussed extensively by Martin Jay.
May 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I find this interview pretty weak, but it does note one bit of insider California politics that I think is basically right: The Democratic delegation from California wants Schiff; the CA Democratic party (especially in NorCal) wants Lee. There are lots of reasons for this...
Some of that's about Lee being further left (which is why she aligns better with the CA party; the congressional delegation is more centrist than the party). Some of it is, unfortunately, racism. White CA congressional reps take Black voters (especially in the Bay) for granted.
May 18, 2023 • 25 tweets • 8 min read
I've been talking privately to some people in #Catholic media about this event; I'm grateful to those who have reached out to discuss it.
This is Coffin's Hope is Fuel conference. I want to say some things about it publicly, from my own #Jewish perspective on #antisemitism.
Firstly, what is the event? It is an online series of videos put together by former Catholic Answers podcast host Patrick Coffin. Coffin is a public figure and influencer in right-wing Catholic discourse. You can read OSV's survey here: catholicreview.org/hope-is-fuel-c…
Apr 22, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
When it represented verification, the blue check was valuable both to those who had it (as a way to prevent fraudulent representation) and to users (as a way to make sure sources were accurate). Neither of those things is true now. But it gets worse for Elon! 1/4
Because of the way he rolled it out, nobody pays attention to the fact that he added some functionality to the blue subscription. It's just a way of signaling willingness to buy the product, which most people regard as silly. But it gets *worse* still. 2/4
Apr 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I believe the DOJ made a serious mistake in not accepting the offer of life without parole put forward by Bowers’ defense team.
I have no interest in listening to Christians make that argument, especially because the DOJ will use this trial to talk about antisemitic terrorism.
If Christian communities were serious about addressing antisemitic extremism in their communities, if they were combatting it, then my posture would be different. But “respect human dignity!” given the attitudes of American Christians (especially white Christians) is grotesque.
Jan 13, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
The student is 23, a grown adult, and stuck around despite being warned multiple times about the presentation of the images in the course, including once right before it's presented.
But CAIR-MN is really the org that's embarassing here. They should know better.
The purpose of the course was to teach that Muslim history, including the history of art, is heterogeneous in its views of representations of the prophet. That's a *central* lesson for CAIR; it's literally listed on CAIR-MN's site as a major goal in education about Islamophobia.
Jan 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"What are the charges against him?" - @SpeakerMcCarthy, of @Santos4Congress
Well, let's see. 1.) He lied about attending and graduating from Baruch. 2.) He lied about working at Goldman Sachs and City Bank. 3.) He lied about being Jewish. 4.) He lied about his grandparents...
being Holocaust survivors. 5.) He lied about playing college volleyball (because he never attended college). 6.) He lied about his property portfolio. 7.) He lied about his income. 8.) He lied about being biracial. 9.) He seems to have lied on campaign disclosures.
Nov 6, 2022 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
I don't think Mastodon will succeed. I'm on there and have been for a while, but I think it's worthwhile to understand that it's not going to succeed and why, as well as what a new platform ought to do if it wants to eat twitter (the way FB ate MySpace). 🧵
There is an old lesson in the tech sector: just because designers want/value something doesn't mean that most users will. This was a core lesson in the PC/Mac disputes, because designers wanted flexibility, modularity, and upgradeability, but most users just wanted easy use.
Sep 7, 2022 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Alright, there are a few parts of this 🧵 that are worth developing, but I guess I'm going to talk about this one first. First, I'm sure there are some Southern Baptist and Evangelical religious leaders who are addressing antisemitism, but as a denomination, it's not happening.
Why talk about this? Because the SBC Exec Committee VP of Comma dropped in the comments and went “we’re working with Israel, so that counts!” This is pretty much the capsule of my whole thread: utter ignorance of Jewish identity and confidence about it makes antisemitism worse.
So, obviously this is silly and ridiculous, but it’s one of many cases illustrating a failure of American Christianity to address antisemitism and even offer Christians basic information about Judaism. Let’s talk about that problem a little bit. 🧵
It isn’t just about particular radtrad dingdongs online. Here’s @frmikeschmitz in the NYT insisting on a reading of the Jewish tradition which is false. He’s a priest with a significant internet presence, just being wrong and using “Judeo” as cover for Catholic sectarianism.
As people in the comments note, this is probably wrong unless understood *very* narrowly. I tried to give a narrow reading and I'm not sure it works. Some notes on how this manifests in Jewish teaching, though, for those outside of the community. mini-🧵
It's fairly standard for Jewish community organizations to note the hierarchy of organized giving where donors and recipients are blind to each other. A useful commenter notes that chabad has a version of this; my Reform community did as well.
So, this is a fairly common move from anti-abortion groups; it's a common line, from "Natural Law" theorists and Catholic bioethicists. It's simply false to say that the views expressed in this thread are non-sectarian. A quick 🧵 on the moves and their failures.
As @QueenMab87 notes, there's the introduction of a theological claim that "life" (in the morally salient sense) begins at conception. This is just flatly a theological claim, but he provides the demonstration of this in the reply, as well.
