Cranky

You're a reasonably informed person on the internet. You've experienced things like no longer being able to get files off an old storage device, media you've downloaded suddenly going poof, sites and forums with troves full of people's thoughts and ideas vanishing forever. You've heard of cybercrime. You've read articles about lost media. You have at least a basic understanding that digital data is vulnerable, is what I'm saying. I'm guessing that you're also aware that history is, you know... important? And that it's an ongoing study, requiring ... data about how people live? And that it's not just about stanning celebrities that happen to be dead? Congratulations, you are significantly better-informed than the British government! So they're currently like "Oh hai can we destroy all these historical documents pls? To save money? Because we'll digitise them first so it's fine! That'll be easy, cheap and reliable -- right? These wills from the 1850s will totally be fine for another 170 years as a PNG or whatever, yeah? We didn't need to do an impact assesment about this because it's clearly win-win! We'd keep the physical wills of Famous People™ though because Famous People™ actually matter, unlike you plebs. We don't think there are any equalities implications about this, either! Also the only examples of Famous People™ we can think of are all white and rich, only one is a woman and she got famous because of the guy she married. Kisses!"

Yes, this is the same Government that's like "Oh no removing a statue of slave trader is erasing history :(" You have, however, until 23 February 2024 to politely inquire of them what the fuck they are smoking. And they will have to publish a summary of the responses they receive. And it will look kind of bad if the feedback is well-argued, informative and overwhelmingly negative and they go ahead and do it anyway. I currently edit documents including responses to consultations like (but significantly less insane) than this one. Responses do actually matter. I would particularly encourage British people/people based in the UK to do this, but as far as I can see it doesn't say you have to be either. If you are, say, a historian or an archivist, or someone who specialises in digital data do say so and draw on your expertise in your answers. This isn't a question of filling out a form. You have to manually compose an email answering the 12 questions in the consultation paper at the link above. I'll put my own answers under the fold. Note -- I never know if I'm being too rude in these sorts of things. You probably shouldn't be ruder than I have been.

To the Reform Jewish community:

I think I have some misconceptions about the reform community. I think I'm wrong about how I perceive reform Jews and their level of observance, and I want to be educated.

No.

Reform is not “less observant, the end.”

Reform is “understand the *principles* behind the mitzvot, not merely the *form* of the observance, and work out how those principles can be manifested in the place and time you’re living right now.”

So a Reform Jew might look at kashrut and try to work out what the principles behind it are and say, ok, compassion for the things we eat, not everything exists for us to consume, etc. and decide that the best way to live that principle is to be vegetarian. Or to only eat ethically sourced meat.

It’s an approach that says our ancestors get a vote in how we carry on the tradition, but not a veto. That doesn’t mean Torah or Jewishness or mitzvot are less important to Reform communities: it means we have to figure out what they *mean* and how they interface with fully engaging with the world we live in.

Judaism is and always has been an adaptable, living culture (most Orthodox communities aren’t practicing medieval Judaism, let alone Second Temple Judaism). We differ in how we adapt to modernity.

What the person above me said. And I will be equally harsh: Frankly, I'd love to believe we're reaching a time where we don't need movements. But my first major experience with the Orthodox was my first Seder, when I was still in the conversion process, and I went to a Chabad. I offered to shake the rabbi's hand, not knowing that was going to be a whole thing, and he just looked at me in a way that made me feel like absolute slime. I didn't know what I was doing! This was supposed to be a learning experience! They knew I was a ger! I think of that night and I still feel ashamed because it feels like I impinged on something by wanting to learn. Put me in a room with an Orthodox person and a Nazi and you'll see an Orthodox person and a Nazi agree for the first time, and what they'll be agreeing about is that I'm a shame to the human race and would be better off dead. I'm a sterile genderqueer Reform ger and in the eyes of the Orthodox that makes me a mentally-ill Jew cosplayer who adds nothing to the faith or culture because my genes don't let me pop out babies, and in the eyes of the Nazi it makes me a race traitor and Jew, and neither thinks I should exist. And yes--I have actually been told this by Orthodox people, that I'm "not really Jewish," that they're allowed to be as rude to me as they want because I don't follow all the mitzvot so they're not required to follow mitzvot when talking to me (yes really I'm not joking), that my mind would "heal itself" if I married a man and accepted that G-d made me a woman, that Judaism would be better off if people like me were gotten rid of. As for "Reform Jews don't keep kosher," tell that to my Reform shul, which will not serve meat and dairy together, and to me, who gave up more than half the foods I can eat when I converted because part of my conversion was a commitment to give up pork. I don't work on Shabbat, either, and at my current job I risked getting fired to get on a schedule where I had Friday and Saturday off. Many of the men in my shul wear tallitot and not a single one will enter the sanctuary without a kippah, except the six-month-old who can't be trusted to keep on his socks, much less something on his head. (It's a work in progress. Dad is trying.)

I would say your example is a man who is off the derech. He hasn't become Reform, he's chosen not to engage with Judaism. Reform isn't where all the "bad Jews" go. It is a robust movement with a deep sense of tradition that happens to be different, and far less cruel, than Orthodoxy. The reputation the movement has is not unearned. Not by a long shot.

You know you can uplift Reform Judaism and Reform Jews without comparing Orthodox Jews to Nazis, right? Right??

I say this as someone who grew up Orthodox. Chabad, even. I have seen the worst outcomes of the movement taken to extremes, but I have also seen great community and love. My parents are Orthodox, and while they struggle with my decision to transition because they're concerned about my health, they absolutely support me even if they don't always agree with my decisions. There are plenty of queer Orthodox Jews, too, although I don't identify as Orthodox not functionally maintain all the observances I grew up doing.

You can't (rightfully) call out the way some Orthodox Jews treat Reform Jews and then in the next breath generalize and demonize all of Orthodox Judaism. You're doing the exact same thing to Orthodox Judaism that some Orthodox Jews do to Reform.

And fuck you for denigrating the value Orthodox Judaism puts on reproduction - I've said this before and I'll say it again - the main reason Orthodox Judaism encourages childbirth is because of extinction anxiety. And not all of Orthodox Judaism is like that- you are applying your experience with Chabad, which while it is a very vocal community, does not speak for all of Orthodox Judaism. Not to mention that no one shames anyone for not being able to have kids, and birth control is very much a thing within Orthodox communities, yes, even the ones you think are "ultra-Orthodox".

Orthodox Judaism has made massive progress in the last few years in regards to LGBTQ and women's rights, and just because it doesn't follow the same pace other movements do, doesn't mean you should demonize an entire group of people for it.

I'm a disabled trans man, and I can confidently say I have a lot more firsthand experience with Chabad than you do. Do I disagree with a lot of Chabad values? Absolutely. Have I seen immense harm come to people because of it? Most definitely. Would I venture as far as to call Chabadniks, and all Orthodox Jews, Nazis? No! Are you out of your mind???

I understand you come from a place of hurt, but that does not give you the right to compare Jews to Nazis and make assumptions about an entire Jewish community because of your personal experiences.

Our government legalized online gambling advertisements and now schools are sending out messages to students to stop gambling cuz they are underage and addiction is a thing.

Who could gave seen this coming?/sarcasm

Speaking of things my mother kept from me, another nice little tidbit was when I was breaking the news to her that I’d be starting testosterone shortly, she said “Ah, just like your cousin then.”

Me: um. I don’t have a transgender cousin.

Her: oh, you do, you’ve just never met her. I guess him now. She’s a man. She lives in [state literally across the entire country] and has for a while now.

Me: ……….I have literally never even heard of this person in my entire life and you not once have mentioned them.

Her: Oh it’s your uncle [redacted]’s oldest, you wouldn’t have met her, she left practically the moment she became an adult and she only writes home every couple years. Or he. I guess. I never told you about him because I didn’t want you to think you should do that.

Me: ………………………………………YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU KNEW WHAT TRANSGENDER WAS AND YOU LET ME THINK I SHOULD KILL MYSELF ABOUT IT RATHER THAN JUST INTRODUCE ME TO MY FUCKING COUSIN

Me, internally: gee mom I wonder why I also left the moment I became an adult and refuse to do more than hold you at arm’s length from my life and have made it clear you must play nice or you are uninvited from my brainspace. Does it seem maybe a little consistent on why you have people walking out of this family and never looking back? Does it make sense to you why I will not come visit and be trapped in that house with you? Do you know now why I don’t talk to you about this or anything concerning my life considering you can’t offer me the basic respect to at least not call me [deadname]?

even if billie joe was straight (he’s not) teenagers getting offended he used the word faggot in american idiot 16 years after the fact would still be some of the goofiest discourse i have yet to see on this website. if you were young and gay in 2004 that shit rocked your world bc we were living through one of the most powerful resurgences of blind american patriotism and anti-gay evangelical bullshit of the last three decades. i dont think most of yall understand how radical that song, that album, and green day’s overall anti-bush pro-gay stance was for the time. even though we were at the cusp of bush becoming unpopular by the time it was released, american idiot saw a fairly mainstream rock band condemning not just him, but the bigoted, ignorant american culture which created him. to remove all of this context from the song and act like green day was just throwing around homophobic slurs for the hell of it is exactly why people joke nobody has reading comprehension on this website lmao. he’s not weaponizing the term; he’s using it to identify with an alternative american society.

My sister told me today that her in-laws know someone English who decided to drive to Wales on the weekend during a pandemic to visit their elderly aunt, and we're SHOCKED when they were stopped and turned back at the border. Meanwhile the Welsh news is full of confused English people who somehow dodged the border patrols to go hiking in the Brecon Beacons who promptly got stopped by police, fined on the spot and fucking deported.

I can't tell what I'm enjoying more - the fact that the government has accidentally established a hard border between England and Wales, something that even Yes Cymru hasn't dared to dream of, or the whining of the bewildered English people who not only didn't realise that Wales has different rules but had never heard of devolution, and are now outraged on national telly that WELL THAT WASN'T IN THE NEWS! THE BBC SHOULD HAVE TOLD US! as though Welsh people haven't been talking about our exclusion and invisibility for decades.

#if brexit didnt dissolve the union then covid will  @a-kind-of-merry-war​

British government has released a new slogan which makes absolutely fuck all sense and will further confuse things.

STAY ALERT FOR THE VIRUS THAT YOU CAN’T SEE!

Harness that Blitz spirit to defeat a microscopic virus that functions exactly the the Luftwaffe! Ho ho on the chin plebs!

There is SO MUCH DRAMA kicking off in work right now, let me tell you. My office is in a different building from the main admin block with reception and that, and I can still hear the screaming. 

To summarise:

They absolutely don’t own her anymore, I would think? Making a deal with the breeders shouldn’t mean anything if it’s not in a contract, which, if they’re waving around photos, they likely don’t have. I’m not sure of Welsh laws, but I know that in the US (or maybe only certain parts of it?), if you regularly feed a domesticated animal, even if it’s outdoors and only comes to you for feeding, you have ownership of that animal. Given that Lord Smegma up there was caring for it, they don’t have any sort of right to the dog or its genetic material unless they specifically signed a contract designating this. And even if he was caring for it, if the person who left with the dog was actually the one feeding and caring for it, then one can argue that the dog was hers — I’m pretty sure there’s legal precedent for that in the US, but you’re in Wales, so that wouldn’t help you.

Again, I’m not sure how it works in Wales, but if you can call your local legal animal cruelty society, they should know some more and be able to advise on legalities. And if they’re screaming about bashing your head in, I think that counts as a violent threat and is illegal. I mean...not to try to teach you how to suck eggs, you’ve probably got some sort of plan worked out already, but holy moly that sounds stressful.