Oddbean new post about | logout
 If you're one of the three people on here, who hasn't muted me, already, I offer the interesting fact that the ethnic name "Jew" comes from "Judah" because that is where they originated from. 
 That's where the ethnos developed, which is not quite the same thing. We don't even know if the tribe of Binyamin were native or newcomers at the dawn of their literature. Tradition says newcomers, archeology disagrees.

LOL re three npubs - if I muted you, I'd only have maxi-flamewars and photos of food for entertainment. 
 That's why everyone complains that their feed is just maxi-flamewars and photos of food: they're not following me. 😂 
 Well, I'm partially Jewish, like many people with Czech or south-Germanic ancestry, and it is clearly genetically traceable back to pre-Biblical Levantine. Maybe I'm even one of Mary's distant cousins, or something.

I feel like they also owe me 40 acres and a mule, along with the Czech Republic, the state of South Carolina, Great Britain, and Nigeria.

https://media.tenor.com/3oi5zijx_BgAAAAC/brittany-bristow-wrapped-up-in-love.gif 
 My Jewish ancestry is from Silesia, but I'll happy file an additional claim to Ukraine and southern Russia - there's almost certainly Khazarian in my DNA. 

I don't want a mule, though. Can I have robots instead? 
 Should it be Ju? 
 This was interesting :
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/640221/jewish/What-is-the-Meaning-of-the-Name-Jew.htm

A Jew once told me that "Jew" literally means "someone who has a relationship with God." That, to me, means it is someone who uses their own rational capacity to discover hidden truths. An idol is anything which you believe to be true, but which isn't. And rationally, nothing can ever be proven to be true - things can only be proven false. So, I would submit that anyone honestly engaged in philosophy is a Jew, and probably the only people who can be proven to not be Jews are Zionists.  That gets into a whole 'nother discussion, though. 
 nah, i think most people are too lazy to think so they aren't jews

and i'll take that label! i'm even ... oh wait... that's mutilation 
 If you're alluding to circumcision, Christians don't need it. We're circumcised in the heart. And that's just another way of clarifying what "Jew" means, since that's allegory for being rational. Rational as in, not empirical - empiricism is idolatry. 
 yeah well, i wasn't saying it was required but rather imposed upon me 
 Well, at least its harmless. If it makes us less horny, then we can put more of our energies into building civilization. Although... IMO civilization is a euphemism for slavery. But focusing on the naive and happy aspects... 
 haha

funny how if you surgically remove the same part of a female human it's called genital mutilation and it's main effect is to reduce enjoyment of sex and has a weakening effect on bonding to the partner 
 True dat... Also funny how religious people think they need to correct what God made.  
 Etymology is always interesting to me as well.