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Comment by mreiland | Hacker News Reader

imo this just screams unintelligent person.

Ok, fine, you hate jews, whatever, that's your opinion.

But then you find out you're atleast partly jewish so you go whole hog into the jewish culture instead, and we're supposed to celebrate this?

how about thinking for yourself and not basing your thoughts and beliefs on who you think your ancestors were?

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People who make their identity all about what tribe they're in (whether that tribe be their color, creed, country, or simply hobbies or tastes or sports team) don't have much of a self-identity to begin with.

Edit: By "people who make their identity all about their tribe" I'm referring to racial supremacists, religious fundamentalists, political extremists, or ideological zealots. That could explain how someone can go from being a racist to being a big fan of a heritage he only recently recently discovered. If you don't value who you are as a person, then you're more likely to fetishize a mythic ancestral past. That's one reason for why fascism appeals to defeated peoples.

"whole hog into Jewish culture." Made me laugh.

Your comment though was less entertaining... You make it sound like a guys life journey happened over the course a fluff piece in a newspaper. whose yo say he didn't go through years of self discovery, thinking for himself and finding meaning in his rich cultural heritage... The only thing to take out of this story is that it's important to keep an open mind... You are advocating on making decisions and than never rethinking it in the future...

I am really glad you aren't (I hope) an anti Semite or racist because all the enlightenment in the world won't change your clearly well thought out thoughts and beliefs...

>You are advocating on making decisions and than never rethinking it in the future...

No, he's pointing out how the guy just went from one extreme to the other.

He didn't just go from one extreme to another...There was a long journey in between.

Couldn't agree more. Good for him not hating jews anymore but it's switching your whole belief system due to finding out your heritage is just stupid. In this case it was for the better but more often than not is a recipe for disaster (both switching and being instilled from a young age applies here).

> how about thinking for yourself and not basing your thoughts and beliefs on who you think your ancestors were

We'd all live in a better place if more people did this...

I found his transformation even more disturbing than his anti-Semitic view. Any semblance of intellectual reasoning he had to support his anti-Semitic view gave way to self-preservation and a need to not hate himself.

I wouldn't be surprised if even his most vocal opponents lost respect for him over this.

In general converts (though you could argue he wasn't a de jure convert to Judaism, he was for all intents and purposes one) can easily be super rigorous in the practice of their new faith, I've noticed. He's merely swapped one (distasteful) extreme for a much less distasteful extreme.

Though I suppose if you take your position to its logical extreme, everyone who is Jewish should question their Judaism, since its dependent on who your ancestors (specifically your female ancestors) were.

Is this really extreme? Relatively recently we managed to get rid of the idea that you should be a ruler of a country if your parents were rulers. Slightly later the idea that you should be stuck in the class you were born with. My generation got the idea that they don't have to be Christian just because ~99% of previous generation in the country declared themselves as such.

I'd be very happy if people made such choices on their own and questioned traditions in a logical and considerate way.

The thing is, encouraging people to question their Jewishness just because of happenstance of who their mom was, is going to be interpreted as anti-semitic.

Sure, but everything can be interpreted as pro/anti-semitic if it happens to affect Jews. I think this question becomes more logical and less emotional if you ask this about a made up group:

Joesons say that if your father was named Joe you belong to this group by default and whatever rules the group has written down apply to you and you should follow them. You'll be judged by them as a bad person if you don't. If you question your belonging to Joesons it will be interpreted as anti-joesonic.

Does it bother you that's you're labeled anti-joesonic in that case? Why would the situation be different for anti-semitic? Because of current number of Jews? Their history? Other reasons?

To question and not accept blindly is encouraged. Even the word "Israel" means to struggle with God.

Jewish people should question the ideology and politics that the Jewish community promotes, just as Hungarians should question the ideology and politics of the people who claim to represent Hungarians.

This guy did a full about face from "Gypsies and Jews are destroying Hungary" to "Jews should be welcome everywhere, but we need to stop Muslim immigrants from destroying our tolerant open society".

"Gypsies and Jews are destroying Hungary" to "Jews should be welcome everywhere, but we need to stop Muslim immigrants from destroying our tolerant open society"

Family infighting sure does suck, doesn't it?

The point wasn't really about judaism specifically, but yes, I agree everyone should give thought to who they are.

But then you find out you're atleast partly jewish

I can't find out that I'm partly Baptist for what should be obvious reasons.

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