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crippleprophet · 1 year

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I'm really sorry if this is the wrong place to send this but you're the only person i know who still takes covid seriously. I live with someone who won't get vaccinated or mask as well as several other people who won't take covid precautions for the most part. I've been masking at home around them to be safe, but now my parents (who i have to live with still) have decided that I'm not allowed to wear a mask at home anymore. I don't know how to keep myself and others safe like this, especially since I live in a place where no one else in public will mask either. Legally I can't move out yet (I would love to) but yeah sorry if this is inappropriate I just don't know who to ask or what to do

no need to apologize at all <333 i am so fucking heartbroken that i’m the only connection you have to someone still taking covid seriously, but i’m also incredibly grateful & honored that i can be that for you.

we definitely aren’t the only ones, no matter how much it feels like it - the discord i started recently has 41 members and growing, and that’s just folks who’ve seen my tumblr post. you’re absolutely welcome to join if that’s safe for you, but if your circumstances don’t allow it, please know that there are other people in very similar circumstances to yours, who’ve been masking in their homes and whose right to manage their own risk is being denied.

https://discord.gg/5f5ahBjVax

i don’t want to tell you how to conceptualize your own experiences and relationship with your parents (lord knows i couldn’t apply certain language to my own until i was ready for it, and i believe it’s so crucial to respect your autonomy here when it’s being denied elsewhere) but please know if no one else has told you that that form of control absolutely qualifies as abusive, and it is not, under any circumstances whatsoever, your fault that you are being denied the ability to protect yourself and others.

i’m reminded of a quote about how systems of power, in this case referring to how affordable products are dependent on exploited labor, intentionally force people to break our own moral codes in an effort to break our spirits. again, this is not your fault, and the most important thing to remember right now is that keeping yourself safe includes (unfortunately, ironically, heartbreakingly) keeping yourself safe from & with your parents, which right now may mean not wearing a mask. any infection that may happen as a result is their fault, not yours. it is the fault of every layer of the ableist system that has stoked their resentment of others, not yours.

i usually don’t talk about this, but i left my parents’ house (“ran away from home” rubs me the wrong way but would not be inaccurate) in 2017, a little less than 3 months after turning 18, so i have counted down the days until i was legally my own person, and throughout the duration of the pandemic i’ve thought a lot about the nightmare that would be still living in that house. i can’t fully imagine or understand the grief and fear you’re experiencing, but my heart goes out to you & all others in your situation.

what’s been most instrumental to me in maintaining my personhood in situations where i’ve been denied autonomy has been reading sociological studies, because it helps me understand my circumstances as an outcome of oppression and not a personal failing, and by virtue of others writing about it reminds me i’m not alone. if you’re interested in that sort of thing, i recommend literature my scholars & activists on children’s rights and liberation. the UN is definitely deeply flawed, but i’d point you to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a starting point because of (at least for me) the impact of so many governments agreeing that this is what should be happening, even if it’s also a massive grief when it isn’t.

my advice when it comes to covid would be to do what you can when you can, especially because it would likely give you some feeling of autonomy, which is so crucial under these kinds of circumstances. simultaneously, you are under no moral obligation to risk your safety with your parents—if their response to finding out you’re masking when you’re out of the house would endanger your physical or mental health, for example, please do not feel pressured to do it. all of my posts about masking, and anyone else’s if they aren’t a piece of shit, are directed at people whose behavior is not being controlled by others upon whom they depend.

to put it super bluntly, you can’t keep anyone else safe in the future if you’re dead. in order to protect others later, you need to protect yourself now, whatever that may look like based on your decisions. you, and others who aren’t being allowed to mask, are among the people everyone else should be masking to protect, and i’m more sorry than i can ever put into words that our society has failed you.

i’m gonna ask a few folks in similar circumstances if they have any advice, and anybody reading feel free to add on, but remember that you’re the authority on your circumstances and you don’t have to make any decisions or follow any advice you think would put you at risk.

so much love to you, and my asks & dms are & will remain open if there’s anything at all i can do.

#asks #coronavirus #covid 19

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affairsintop · 6 years

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I'm Back. Here's Where I've Been

New Post has been published on http://www.anblogger.com/im-back-heres-where-ive-been/

I'm Back. Here's Where I've Been

I won’t make any assumptions about how many readers noticed I took a three-month break from column writing.

Nevertheless, I want to explain why.

I needed the time to finish the first volume of the biggest project of my life as a writer, a commentary on the first five books of the Bible, or what are called the Torah in Hebrew.

The commentary is addressed to people of every faith and, especially, to people of no faith.

The Abandonment of Judeo-Christian Values

I have believed all my life that the primary crisis in America and the West is the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values, or, one might say, the dismissal of the Bible. Virtually everyone on the left thinks America would be better off as a secular nation. And virtually all conservative intellectuals don’t think it matters. How many intellectuals study the Bible and teach it to their children?

And yet, from the time long before the United States became a country until well into the 1950s, the Bible was not only the most widely read book in America; it was the primary vehicle by which each generation passed on morality and wisdom to the next generation.

Since that time, we have gone from a Bible-based society to a Bible-ignorant one; from the Bible being the Greatest Book to the Bible being an irrelevant book. Ask your college-age child, niece, nephew or grandchild to identify Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel or the ten plagues. Get ready for some blank stares. I recently asked some college graduates (none of whom were Jewish) to name the four Gospels. None could.

Worse Than Ignorance

But what we have today is worse than ignorance of the Bible. It is contempt for it. Just about anyone who quotes the Bible, let alone says it is the source of his or her values, is essentially regarded as a simpleton who is anti-science, anti-intellectual and sexist.

Our society, one of whose mottos is “In God We Trust,” is becoming as godless as Western Europe — and, consequently, as morally confused and unwise as Europe. Just as most professors regard most Bible believers as foolish, I have more or less the same view of most college professors in the liberal arts. When I hear that someone has a Ph.D. in sociology, anthropology, political science or English, let alone women’s studies or gender studies, I assume that he or she is morally confused and bereft of wisdom. Some are not, of course. But they constitute a small minority.

Whenever teenagers call my radio show or I meet one in person, I can usually identify — almost immediately — the ones who are receiving a religion-based education. They are far more likely to act mature and have more wisdom than their Bible-free peers.

One of our two greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, rarely attended church, but he read the Bible daily. As he said while president, “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man.”

Were he able to observe America today, Lincoln would be shocked by many things. But none would shock him as much as the widespread ignorance of and contempt for the Bible.

Teaching Torah and Lessons Learned

I have taught the Torah, from the Hebrew original, for 40 years. Of the many things I have been blessed to be able to do — from hosting a national radio show to conducting orchestras — teaching Torah is my favorite.

When asked how it has affected my life, I often note that in my early 20s, when I was working through issues I had with my parents, there was nevertheless not a week during which I did not call them. And there was one reason for this: I believe that God commanded us to “Honor your father and your mother.”

In my commentary, I point out that while the Torah commands us to love our neighbor, love God and love strangers, it never commands us to love our parents. It was sophisticated enough to recognize that love of parents may be impossible but showing honor to a parent is a behavioral choice.

In America, there is an epidemic of children who no longer talk one or both of their parents. In a few cases, this is warranted. But in most cases, adult children are inflicting terrible, unfair pain upon their parent. This is one of a myriad of examples where believing in a God-based text is transformative. Secular callers tell me that they hardly need the Ten Commandments to desist from murdering anyone. That may well be true. But apparently, a lot of people could use the Ten Commandments to avoid inflicting terrible pain on (admittedly, flawed) parents.

The title of my work is The Rational Bible because my vehicle to God and the Bible is reason. If you have ever wondered why all of America’s founders revered the Bible, let alone why anyone today might do so, this book should provide an explanation. My ultimate aim is to help make the Bible America’s book once again.

Dennis Prager’s latest book, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code, was published by Regnery. The Rational Bible: Exodus will be published April 2, 2018 and is available for pre-order. He is a nationally syndicated radio show host and creator of PragerUniversity.com.

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