October

As expected, the new thread about the Gaza war continued to lead as the most active thread yesterday with over 750 new posts. The next most active thread was somewhat related. Titled, "If things get worse for Jewish people" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the original poster describes himself as not Jewish, but living in an area where lots of people have safe rooms. He doesn't have a safe room, but wonders if people are constructing them due to recent events. The course of this thread may have been predicted by the first two responses. The first response simply said, "Move to Israel". Ignoring, as that poster obviously did, that the original poster is not Jewish, the state of things today is such that it is impossible to tell whether this is meant in the "go back to where you came from" sense or the "Aliyah would be wonderful" sense. Either way, it wasn't particularly helpful. The second response, posted by a poster describing herself as Jewish, was simply, "What on Earth...". Again, it is sort of hard to know the cause of this poster's astonishment. The thread is 35 pages long and I haven't read much of it, but from what I did read things didn't really improve all that much from these two posts. It is clear that many Jews do feel threatened right now. Nobody can, nor should, deny those feelings. There are many posters in the thread who describe their current fears and actions they are taking to deemphasize their Jewishness (for instance, removing mezuzahs from doors). Still, there are posters who don't hesitate to "goysplain" that things are not really that bad. "You are being overly dramatic", claims one poster. Other posters point to events that have impacted non-Jews in order to show, well, frankly I don't know what they were trying to show. There are any number of posters — both Jewish and non-Jewish — in this thread who want to speak for Jews. This doesn't go over well. If there were one piece of knowledge that I would want to leave to the world, it is that groups are collections of individuals. There are obviously characteristics that bind members of the group, but ultimately the members are all different in many ways. A considerable amount of effort is wasted in this thread on debates caused by generalities that may be broadly true, while having a lot of exceptions. Just about the only outcome of these debates is lots of hurt feelings. There is also a dispute that I've found very frustrating about which end of the political spectrum presents the greatest threat to Jews. Is is the White nationalists on the right who chant that "Jews will not replace us" or the progressive leftists waving "Free Palestine from the River to the Sea" banners? I have little faith that any posts of this sort are based on any real concern for the safety of Jews.

The thread about the Gaza war continued as the most active thread yesterday with over 600 new posts. The thread about billionaires withholding funds to colleges that I've also previously discussed was the second most active. So, I'll start with the third most active thread which was titled, "People tell me being weird is a great thing, but I find it isolating" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster says that she hates being weird in the way that she thinks and the activities that she enjoys. Being weird has caused her lots of loneliness and she wonders if others can relate. I guess I just have to come out and say it. This thread is weird. The original poster absolutely, unconditionally, under no circumstances will explain what is weird about her. She does let on that she is "heavily obese", but that is hardly weird. As a result, it is very difficult for others to offer advice and it looks like the original poster eventually abandoned the thread altogether. Several posters also described themselves as weird, but in their cases they claimed to be normal or better than normal in their appearances. As such, they tended to attract normal people which was problematic for them because normal people can't relate to their weirdness. Some posters who are not outwardly weird even reported being rejected by groups of weirdos. This left them stranded in a world in which they are too weird for normal people but not weird enough for weird people. Eventually the thread was almost completely hijacked by a poster who is a woman, but much prefers to hang out with men. This is something she thinks is weird. This led to all kinds of debate about gender stereotypes and expectations for women. Then a weird thing happened when a poster announced that she was a "female farmer" which I don't actually find weird in the abstract, but I was surprised to find on a forum for "urban moms". But, I welcome the poster who provided one of the more elucidating responses. To further disabuse me of my notions of who frequents our website, a second poster immediately identified themself as also being a farmer. So, maybe I am the weird one. One poster attempted to politicize the discussion with a claim that the "Democratic left" celebrates "eccentricity" and being "offbeat". I have no objection to that assertion, but his claim that this is a bad thing was, frankly, weird. Conformity prevents change and, without change there cannot be progress. So, of course I celebrate those who are weird.

The most active thread yesterday continued to be the thread about the Hamas attack on Israel. But, for the first time the number of new posts was below 1,000, though still nearly 900. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, topics such as this tend to find their way into other forums. Such was the case with yesterday's second most active thread. That thread was titled, "Discussing the recent Israeli-Palestinian Conflict In Schools" and posted in the "DC Public and Public Charter Schools" forum. The original poster says that the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict came up in her 6th grade child's class and, based on "talking points" with which her child came home, she wishes the topic had been skipped. She wants to know if teachers have free rein in discussing this topic or if there are guidelines. The dispute highlighted by this thread is basically how an event as horrific as the Hamas attack should be viewed. Speaking broadly and not just in the confines of this thread, some individuals argue that the attacks were so terrible that there can be no excusing them. Any attempt to add context or explain possible causes is seen as doing exactly that, even if that is not the intention. Again, broadly speaking, others, some of whom may acknowledge the atrocity of the attacks and some who won't, argue that context such as the conditions in Gaza are an important part of the conversation. In today's emotionally-charged environment, there is a real lack of listening and thoughtful discussion. Instead, there is a tendency for black and white thinking. A person who condemns the Hamas attack but doesn't express concern about Palestinian civilians in Gaza may be called a supporter of the genocide of Palestinians. Similarly, someone who suggests that Israeli policies toward Gaza might have created an environment conducive to violence will likely be condemned as a supporter of terrorism. Even those who try to be objective can not escape this trap. Objectivity itself, ironically, may be perceived as taking a side. For instance, discussing the history of Israeli violence against Palestinians will likely be viewed by many as false equivalency in a discussion of the Hamas attacks and pro-Palestinian. I dare anyone to attempt an "objective" explanation of how the Palestinians came to live in Gaza in the first place. Some will say they fled at the behest of Arab armies attacking Israel. Others will say they were forced into exile by Israeli forces. Another argument might be that they are forced to stay there by Arab countries to be used for political leverage. A few extreme voices might argue that there is really no such thing as a Palestinian in the first place. A teacher would have to spend nearly the entire class simply trying to be "objective" with regard to this one historic question and there would still be those who are critical of what was presented. Due to all of this, there are those who argue the topic shouldn't be addressed at all. But, leaving children ignorant is the exact opposite of what schools should do. Regardless of all of this, the thread itself turned into a political discussion and, therefore, I locked it.

Since the first news of the Hamas attack on Israel Saturday morning, I have had to devote myself almost around the clock to moderating discussions of the conflict. I have seen supporters of Israel, especially those who are Jewish, suffer shock, horror, and then anger. This anger was first directed toward Hamas specifically and, occasionally, Palestinians more generally. But later the anger turned toward fellow Americans who, instead of joining in solidarity with Israelis and American Jews, demonstrated support for Palestinians. In some cases these groups simply opposed the expected Israeli retaliation that would most certainly result in the wide-scale killing of civilians in Gaza. In other cases, they went further and actually blamed Israel for the violence. Many could not even bring themselves to condemn the senseless attacks on Israeli civilians. I then saw another emotion come to the surface in many of the Jewish posters. That emotion was fear. Fear because Hamas had undertaken what was probably the single biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and people who might have been seen as allies were not only not there to provide support, but in some cases actively engaged in opposition. Not only were Jews not safe in Israel, but in America demonstrators took to the streets not to support the victims, but rather in favor of the perpetrators. Fear and anger were amplified by a sense of abandonment.