@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
Your feelings have absolutely no relevance to the lives of anyone. If, in a person to person relationship, you wished to discuss what makes you uncomfortable, that would be reasonable. It is not reasonable to posit that there are large numbers of people who are not known to you, whom you can justifiably resent because they don't run up to you in the street to tell you all about themselves.
Your choice not to associate with people "from many backgrounds" is just evidence of your bigotry, and in the United States, it is entirely possible that you could already be associating with such people, and not know it. Do you know anyone named Martin? Are they of English descent? The name is common in English, German, French, Spanish and Polish and several other slavic languages. How can you tell the players without a score card? Do you rush up to people to point out that you're Jewish? (In your case, that wouldn't surprise me.)
Should homosexuals perhaps have pink triangles sewn on their clothing, so you can readily identify them? How long before you are told to sew a yellow, six-pointed star on your clothing?
You really can't see that your obsession with categorizing people is an appeal to superficiality and ignorance, and not to intelligent assessment of people. There is no good reason to allege that there is nothing wrong with prejudice, because it is a willful abdication of intelligent assessment based on superficial and misleading characteristics.
You talk about being Jewish all the time because you are obsessed with the labels, and not the contents. Because you can't see past the surface. Try to absorb what Mr. King meant when he called for people not to be judged on the color of their skin, but the content of their charactesr. And do us all a favor and don't tell us what "we humans" can or can't tolerate.
Being Jewish today is not like being a Jew in 1942 Berlin. However, there are many people that subscribe to the "popular culture" for their perceptions, beliefs, and values. And, let us both be honest, in that many people, that are not big practioners of "intelligent assessment," have pre-judged opinions about Jews, be they secular Jews or religious Jews. So, I play the statistical odds, so to speak, and only when I have known someone for quite awhile do I accept them for any "intelligence assessment" they might effect. Otherwise, I steer clear of strangers, just like my mother told her Foofie ages ago.
But, those homosexuals that remain in the closet are still annoying to me, since they are either acting like a Jew in 1942 Berlin, or I have to wonder if they like to have encounters with someone that took them for straight. There really are some homosexuals that like to have encounters with unsuspecting straight males. The same would be for some lesbians in the closet (aka, lipstick lesbians). And, a few too many drinks is always a good alibi the next day.
So, like the Seinfeld sitcom said, "nothing wrong with it" (being homosexual); however, I just like to know who I am talking to. And, labels do count, in my opinion, since the origin of those labels (Jew, Catholic, White, Black) often are the recipients of a great amount of specific brain-washing to make an individual a true reflection of that label. Otherwise, there would be little need for Parochial schools, Yeshivas, etc., etc., in my opinion.
Let me bask in the warm waters of my limited comfort level with strangers.
Now, if I was an Evangelical Christian, I would guess many people would not argue any of this with me, since they would understand my social mores have a very narrow view. So, just because of my secular Jewish identity do I get all sorts of rhetoric that my thinking is skewed?
But you did, in my opinion, punctuate your post above with such nice parenthetical phrases, using a comma. Good punctuation really makes the poster, I believe.
