jews: on passover we celebrate our escape from slavery, but that does not mean we celebrate pharaoh’s death. that would make us as cruel as he was.
also jews: happy purim haman’s fucking dead let’s celebrate by making cookies shaped like his dumb hat for a gazillion years and use noisemakers and scream every time someone says his name lol
“Arsène Lupin is a man of many talents. He is a master of disguise. He can change his identity in an instant. You should never trust Arsène Lupin. His name might not even be Lupin. In reality, he has countless names. Lupin uses his talents to commit his larcenies. No obstacle can thwart his plans. His greatest talent is to always be one step ahead.”
i absolutely love seeing people’s reactions to the pink mosque 😂
the style is called “orsi” and is unique to iran
and stained glass traces its roots to south west and west asia, developed in ancient times and well before the europeans and the roman empire saw it and said “hey i like that, i’ll be leaving with it”
and while we’re talking about mosques in iran, may i present persian mirror work in a different mosque in the same city?
every time someone tries to talk to me about western churches and architecture and their superiority to that of “third world countries” i have to laugh a little at the ignorance, especially when our mosques look like this
I don’t even think Christmas shouldn’t be all over the public space like it is. Clearly it does make a lot of people happy and I lowkey I actually kind of like it too! (Sort of. But I also don’t.) So, continue covering your town square or wherever with trees and lights, I’m not saying not to. What I *am* asking for is:
- Acknowledge that Christmas is not a universal holiday and that some people either feel negatively about it or just don’t celebrate it. Stop being offended by this.
- Stop forcing people to participate. Don’t make your Jewish employees wear Christmas outfits, don’t make schoolkids be part of Christmas plays, etc.
- Stop pushing back when Jews are honest with you about how they feel about it.
- Stop deflecting to talk about how Christmas traditions are actually pagan in origin. We know, and also it’s fully irrelevant to our issues with Christmas.
- Recognize things from other cultures. Or at very least don’t *prevent* members of other cultures from expressing them. If your employee wants to put up a menorah, let them. If your coworker wants to add a Chanukah decoration to your office don’t take it down when they’re not looking because it “messes up the Christmas spirit” or whatever.
- Recognize things from different cultures at other times of the year too. Let your Jewish students and employees take days off for the fall holidays. Maybe even consider merchandise or decorations for those holidays too!
- Stop with the double standards. You don’t get to say that a menorah is religious and a Christmas tree isn’t. Either both of them are or neither of them are. A menorah actually is a ritual object but a) plenty of secular Jews use them and b) I don’t think most Christians know that, they just think of Judaism (and therefore Jewish culture) as “a religion” and Christian culture as normal. When people claim to object to Chanukah (the holiday most widely — and often exclusively — celebrated by secular Jews) because it’s “religious,” they’re actually objecting because it’s non-normative.
- Listen when someone is telling you about their experiences with and thoughts about hegemonic culture. Don’t argue that actually it’s fine becaude Christmas is secular or pagan or whatever. Trust people about the experiences they’ve had and how things impact them.
