jik

jik, 24 days ago

The normalization of #COVID by well-meaning politicians* all over the world is another example of this. The push to "return to normal" was driven by the fundamental belief that order is preferable to chaos because it is easier to govern and makes it easier to predict future outcomes.
Career politicians Get Shit Done, as Biden definitely has. But this is their Achilles' heel.

*I know there are many #CovidIsNotOver folks who don't believe they're well-meaning. I think some, like Biden, are. 🤷

jik, 24 days ago

@purplepadma "thanks I'll get right on that"

jik, 26 days ago

While we're on the subject, there is only one best way to wash dishes:

1. Soak in bin to loosen caked-on dirt.
2. Wet sponge and put soap ON SPONGE.
3. WITH WATER OFF, use sponge on every surface of dish until it feels and looks clean.
4. Put soapy dish in sink next to
5. Occasionally turn on water briefly to moisten sponge; occasionally add soap to sponge.
6. Continue steps 3-6 until there's no room for more soapy dishes.
7. Rinse soapy dishes and put in drain.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 until done.

jik, 26 days ago

If you're running the water while you're washing the dishes, then (a) you're wasting a huge amount of water and (b) you're washing away the soap before it has a chance to lift the grease from the dish. So you're wasting soap and your dishes aren't getting clean.

jik, 28 days ago

@revk I'm 100% certain that the previous version of the terms said they could amend them whenever they wanted, and that continuing to use the service after being notified about the change in terms indicates acceptance of the new terms.
What they're doing here is slimy but not likely to be illegal. They have an army of lawyers that made sure of that. People who don't like the new terms can delete their accounts like I did. The company doesn't care if that's inconvenient.

jik, 28 days ago

@grumpybozo @revk These are specifically the U.S. terms and they're probably enforceable in the U.S. based on current law and precedent, because our Congress is too chickenshit to ban binding arbitration clauses.

jik, 29 days ago

In 2020, communal Jewish institutions my family were associated with initially followed the science and effectively protected their people from COVID. Then, most of them just decided it was time to "move on." The let-down, once again, was intense.
(Shout-out to Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, MA, and Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, where my wife teaches, both of which continue to accommodate COVID-cautious community members and protect the community.)
4/10

jik, 29 days ago

In the midst of all that, a leader of my congregation, who is about a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than I, stood up in a congregational meeting, verbally assaulted me, and threatened to "take it outside," because I expressed disagreement with him. I was certainly not the first person he had bullied. He refused to apologize and faced no repercussions. I found myself having panic attacks every time I was in proximity to him. As a result I am no longer a member of any congregation.
5/10

jik, 29 days ago

And then, October 7 happened. The obviously right thing to do was to condemn Hamas's attack and their refusal to return the hostages while ALSO condemning Israel's massively disproportionate response, the statements from members of the Israeli government endorsing genocide, the targeting of aid workers and journalists, the overwhelming famine conditions, and Israel's various other war crimes.
6/10

jik, 29 days ago

But once again, too many Jewish institutions haven't done the right thing, because they're too steeped in pro-Israel propaganda to see past it, and their leaders are afraid of "sowing discord," and they're afraid of losing pro-Israel donors.
Institutional leaders claim that supporting Israel is the "inclusive" choice, but that's nonsense. They're choosing whom to exclude: people like me, who believe that opposing war crimes is the right thing to do no matter who's committing them.
7/10

jik, 29 days ago

So here we are. It is blindingly obvious to anyone who isn't entirely ignorant of history that the student protesters are on the right side of it and are bending the arc toward justice. But institutional leaders have backed themselves into a corner: they have to oppose these protests and falsely claim they're antisemitic* because to do otherwise would be to admit they were wrong, and yes, again, to anger pro-Israel donors (it always comes back to money!).
8/10

jik, 29 days ago

(*If you feel compelled to come back at me and point at examples of antisemitism displayed at these protests, please save your breath and block me now. First, they're a small minority. And second, in at least some cases, the supposedly antisemitic behavior has been staged by pro-Israel counter-protesters—there's literally video of this happening last night at Northeastern—to create a pretext for the universities to crack down on the protests.)
9/10

jik, 29 days ago

So, here we are. I know there are many American Jews like me. I've found some of them here in the Fediverse, and I'm immensely appreciative of that. But there is a painful hole in my heart, and my life, where I once felt like a part of communal Jewish institutions that have driven me away through short-sightedness, parochialism, hypocrisy, and allowing donors to set institutional agendas.
This sucks.
10/10

jik, 29 days ago

P.S. Forgot to mention: another way all this isolates me is that so many of my Jewish friends and relatives have bought into the false narratives being promulgated by the leaders of these communities.
So I am confronted on a daily basis with the ongoing choice between speaking my mind to these people and possibly (probably) alienating them forever, or remaining silent and feeling hypocritical and inauthentic. It's draining, tiring, and demoralizing.