+1. I've thrown inclusion out the window for this very reason. No one is ever happy and I'm not going to bother with the perpetually aggrieved. Honestly, I wish we could throw all the religious holidays and mandatory days off out the window because in this climate we'd be better off without them. If people are not appreciative of small well-wishes, why should the holidays be forced upon us? |
If someone Jewish says this, it's funny. If someone non-Jewish says this, it's not funny. -A Jew |
Your response is nonsense. |
I think the issue is that sometimes you can tell that the person is not actually trying to be nice or to do anything for anyone else, but rather trying to advertise themselves to be a certain kind of person. It's like those "Hate has no home here" in multiple language yard signs. You know what it takes for someone to put one of those yard signs out? Nothing. I know plenty of people with those signs who are mean spirited, gossipy, exclusionary, etc. It's the same with the social media posts. It's disingenuous and I don't view it as having much of anything to do with me. If you want to help people, volunteer or donate money or just do good works in your every day life during actual interactions with individuals. But advertising "I'm a good person! Look at me, I have the correct politics, please like me!" doesn't really help anyone. |
I actually think Jews should stop saying this as a joke because it's not helping anything. It gets harder to tell people "that's not funny" when Jews say it as a joke often, including in settings where the audience is mostly or potentially not at all Jewish. You want to make that joke to your Jewish family in private, go ahead. You want to make that joke on Facebook, to your group of mostly non-Jewish friends, or as a punchline said by a Jewish character in a mainstream movie? Well great, you've just normalized it as "a joke" to lots of people who will enjoy how blurry that line is. -Another Jew |
This is a good point. Not to mention (small tangent) that you can always find some Jews or former Jews somewhere to validate antiJewish opinions. N.B. the "my Jewish husband doesn't care about that stuff" brigade on DCUM! |
2 Jews, 3 opinions! |
| I think people who live on the East coast forget how many people in this country have never met a jew. I'm from the midwest and a good majority of them really don't know anything about Judiasm. My West coast family members have texted me about the You're Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah movie with questions. I'm not Jewish but I am apparently the expert for my family. |
This is OP - and ^ yes, exactly. |
^ OP again - and yeah, that's a good point. I guess it's ok when we say it to each other, but we should be mindful of who else is there. |
I don't know - it's fine? Christian and Christmas is the default in this country. I don't get offended when people say Merry Christmas - I do get offended (or roll my eyes, I guess) when Christians insist that their holidays are secular, though. My MIL even says this. I mostly just try to understand that being part of the majority can make a person blind to how much they control the culture. |
| I don’t think OP’s negativity is a symptom of anything Jewish. It’s a symptom of her being a resident of the DMV. |
“… not a symptom…” |
Haha! So apt. |
+1 |