Former Hasidic Jews reveal hidden world

[Ava]

[Ava]

I feel a kinship with anyone who leaves their own birth religion behind. I don't really care that I was raised a strict Catholic and refused to get confirmed and declared myself agnostic around age 15. But it was a huge issue to my father, and I stand out in in a negative way with my large extended family.

Anyway, that video nicely summarized what all apostates seem to have in common: curiosity. Desire to know the truth, even at a great personal loss. I admire that kind of spirit.

Another video:



Leaving:



I can't stand religious abuse.

[Ava]

I post too many videos.



Yet another one that brought me to tears though.

[Ava]

Oh I hope this isn't culturally insensitive, to talk about this. I look at all religions about the same way, seeing the good and the bad.....well except Scientology, I don't consider that a religion.

Jewish people have been particularly oppressed as everyone knows. I have tons of respect for Judaism and its people. I'm just always curious about the ways in which religion can backfire, malfunction, leave some people out in the cold and vulnerable.

At the same time as I was clicking through these videos I found a lot to admire. Again, many of these values resonate with what was instilled in me as a child, like the importance of modesty, abstinence, following all the rules carefully, honoring tradition. That kind of thinking always reminds me of my own youth.

[FruityLlama]

Religion is interesting to me from a historic point of view.
The core values are admirable and the rituals are an interesting way of honing those and maintain a respect for the culture, I guess.

However I dont understand the idea of worship and never will. To me God isnt an ego maniac but then... if God is also all of us... of course it is!!

It gets confusing but strip it back from the double standard analogies and it represents an interesting facet of the human spirit.
It (religion, dont care which) can uplift or stagnate our development depending on what we desperately desire at the time. Another double whatsit and I find religion does this kind of thing a lot really.

But yeah, Im not one for excessive worship or rituals telling me how to be a good person. But many people find such things helpful or comforting and thats fair play.

[Ava]

Jul 31, 2017 3:10:59 GMT Ava said:

Jewish people have been particularly oppressed as everyone knows. I have tons of respect for Judaism and its people. I'm just always curious about the ways in which religion can backfire, malfunction, leave some people out in the cold and vulnerable. 

I see this as an attack on Jews, and I cannot say enough about how loathesome it is to me.

www.apnews.com/13ef6b7b83914b9b84ef8dc6e06d071b

The Orthodox community was targeted here and in Rockland, NY. The law fell on the side of the people in Rockland, but basic human rights are violated here. For one thing, why isn't everyone in the country being either force-vaccinated or fined? Why do some people have to pay $1,000 per person to refuse the vaccine, while others are under no such financial burden?

In my opinion, there is no reason anyone should have to submit to an invasive medical procedure against their will. If someone is infected, we have quarantine laws. From what I understand, measles does not qualify for quarantine, because in the First World it is typically a mild illness (this is why many countries do not mandate measles vaccines.) It's too harmless to qualify for quarantine, yet this is okay? Just randomly and suddenly springing new laws on people? 

Vaccines are not kosher. This is like forcing Jews to eat pork, or forcing Muslims to eat pork...since when is this okay? America was supposed to be about religious freedom. 

Sorry if I'm offending anyone, I know this is a sensitive topic. 

[Deleted]

Ava , America's freedoms seem to be diminishing fast. Todays news - Julian Assange was arrested in the UK while at the same time USA is seeking his extradition to punish him for his whistleblowing activities on wikileaks. Freedom of speech advocates said that an extradition over the leaks constituted an end to press freedom.

[Ava]

Apr 11, 2019 20:47:36 GMT @astrokeen said:

Ava , America's freedoms seem to be diminishing fast. Todays news - Julian Assange was arrested in the UK while at the same time USA is seeking his extradition to punish him for his whistleblowing activities on wikileaks. Freedom of speech advocates said that an extradition over the leaks constituted a risk to press freedom.

Yes Thank you for seeing it. 

My husband is a great fan of Julian Assange and spent yesterday in misery. 

I also think the press has been co-opted and is largely useless, when it comes to informing the people about the issues that truly matter. 

One of my favorite quotes:

"There can be no freedom for a society that lacks the means with which to detect lies."

- Guy Debord

And Trump is worse than useless, he's got a dictator mentality so the police state is creeping in.  

[lumina]

Apr 11, 2019 19:39:09 GMT Ava said:

Jul 31, 2017 3:10:59 GMT Ava said:

I am not saying anything against or for vaccination here, but that is a thought that the first world likes to believe but actually it is not true. I do not have the numbers at hand at the moment (and am not invested enough to search again), but the percentage of people who die of the consequences of measles or are being heavily afflicted afterwards, are higher than "a mild risk".

Personally I would recommend the vaccination against measles but am strictly against anything to FORCE this on people, despite it being a pretty high risk illness. Any vaccination is actually a "bodily injury" and as such noone ever should be FORCED to accept that (even though in most cases I think it would be reasonable to get a measles vaccination - especially considering the increase of heavy physical consequences in the aftermath of a measles infection in recent years-, but it should always be voluntary and there needs to be a valuing of the positives and negatives. There are also reasons why I would not advocate vaccination just in general, it is actually an individual weighing, depending on how the kids bodies can handle the vaccine. There are cases in which vaccination might have more severe consequences than the illness itself, but there is no way to generalize this.) 

[Ava]

lumina,

From my studies, best I can determine is that measles is typically mild in First World countries because people are separated from each other (lighter toxic burden, one is not exposed to measles from the whole family packed into a small house at once), hygiene is better, and our nutrition is better, in particular our Vitamin A and K levels.

Only one person has died of measles in the US in the past 14 years, so it's hard to consider it as being that deadly.

The risk of contracting measles from the vaccine is also real; there are established cases of vaccine-induced measles spreading to other vaccinated individuals whose immunity had waned.

Well it's a huge matter, what the value of this vaccine is. Those who are very adamant about closing immunity gaps seem to disregard waning immunity as a factor and seem to never care if adults are in a "risk zone." They do not argue that adults should have titers checked for antibody levels. Yet, we know the vaccine is fallible.

The measles, the vaccines, all of this, I think it doesn't matter half as much as the fact that American regulatory agencies are corrupt and broken; therefore we are left to do our own research and must draw our own conclusions.

The fact that the FDA approves drugs that are later proved by independent researchers to be associated with sudden death (Vioxx, for instance) illustrates the magnitude of the problem, as I perceive it. How could something as clear-cut as that be missed? And in America, safety testing on vaccines is unbelievably lax, and suing manufacturers for damages is impossible. Looking into the situation carefully, one sees a great need for reform, beyond the simple biology and efforts to keep people healthy.

Even if everything was done in a way that really inspires confidence, I would insist on the human right to decline medical interventions, at least for adults. That is a slippery slope that I don't want to set foot on. Children are a special case of course, but we are entrusted to make sure they all interventions are safe and done with the best regulatory oversight. I just despair that this is not the case in my country. I have more faith in Europe.

[lumina]

Ava

I am not really wanting to get into a debate about that.
I find it very curious however, that only one person in the US should have died of measles (you were also counting the later-consequences, right? which can be up to 5-10 years later after the being infected and in some cases lead to brain damage and death), when in Germany the number is considerably higher.
My aunt has been working as a nurse for several years, and she alone was witnessing more than one case contracting severe complications due to a measles infection and in some cases even witnessed the supposedly rare (but if it hits you or your family, it is not really all that rare), damage to the brain leading to death.

Also some babies have had to suffer these consequences due to the crazy thing some parents do here called "measles parties", bringing kidst together thinking it is best they undergo the illness in a young age, (it`s not really all that great having your healthy child become handicapped through a measles infection the body wasn`t able to handle and to know that you willingly initiated that, of course with the best intentions at heart).

There also have been lately some "measles epidemies" (which I would not really call epidemy, this is the typical exaggeration, however it is true that in certain cities and regions in Germany there are periodically those larger percentages of infections which are like a little epidemy, because people are not really all that separated from each other. They are in families, they are visiting schools and kindergarten etc, and that is unfortunately often leading to more cases of measles than just singular ones. I remember in recent years we have had to send pupils home twice or so, because of caution-measures to prevent a further spreading of the infections.

I don`t know anything about Americans procedure, but it sounds like a nightmare and actually seriously criminal! It seems quite different than in germany (though of course our pharma industries needs to be observed very closely).

[Ava]

Thanks lumina,

I do know the measles can be bad, my interest has been in the best approach to dealing with that. I like to think I'm objective. My major problem is with corruption...and the fact that any question about vaccine safety is marked as inappropriate...therefore there is too little public demand for safety. I feel we've been cowed into accepting a dubious situation without comment. But, I just had to be clear, I think there is a critical need for reform.

Definitely, Germany is more functional and responsible than the US.