...(please read this... no cutting or pasting here,... I took a lot of time to write this...
If you read it with an open mind,.. you will either agree, learn something new,... or just keep a closed mind... it is up to you...
All I ask is that you read it)...
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Decisions, decisions, decisions...
Allow me a moment to point out a few statistics, and pieces of historical context...
...and I hope you will accept them with an open mind...
Very open... open wide...
...
Statistically,... the very most significant predictor of whether you will believe a conspiracy.. (the very most)...
...is, whether you believe in any other conspiracies...
The likelihood of your being Republican or Democrat,... Christian, Muslim, Jew, or non-religious,.. is mostly based on what your parents believed...
Both of my parents claimed Christianity as their faith... but,.. I was not churched...
I did pray a child's prayer as a toddler, and was fascinated by a semi-comic book rendition of the life of Jesus that I had as a child...
So,.. you might say I was raised a lightweight Christian...
I'm now a godless atheist... (but admittedly, I wasn't much of a Christian)...
So,... you are what you are born... your beliefs are your parents...
Secondly,...the history...
You are what you are taught...
Jews have been persecuted...
This didn't start in 1948... it has been millennia...
Why?...
The why, is money... they seem to have it... and we are suspicious of why they got it... (and why we don't)...
It comes from the suspicion that they are no better than us, but they have more, and they must be doing something dastardly that we can't figure out in order to be doing so much better...
They control money...
Well,.. they control money because we told them to...
A thousand years ago,... when "Christians" were more devout,... Usury (lending for profit), was a crime among Christians... but, Christians did need loans... So, they invited Jews to their communities... wealthy Jews, that had no prohibition against usury...
Christians used Jews for their money, and simultaneously resented them for it...
... and this is the root of the hatred of Jews by Christians...
All the "they killed Jesus". and "Jews are cheaters", is rooted in this resentment of their lending for profit when Christians weren't allowed...
Today,... Christians lend... there is no disgrace in investing, lending, or making a profit from your money... most of us get interest from our savings, and 401k's, and stocks or money market accounts...
Years ago you would have been stoned to death...
Today it's different... but the old prejudices remain... passed down parent to child, in the same way we hold our Southern, Jersey, British, accents...
They aren't directly taught,... just culturally absorbed...
If you think you aren't affected... try not sounding Texan,... or Carolinian,... or British,... or Jersey...
Some things are ingrained...
You can pretend different,.. but it is deeply set...
Very many things... not just accents and prejudices...
We are what we are made... becoming is a tiny part us...
The more we stretch ourselves, the more we overcome it...
...but never doubt that it is there...
And it isn't some awful thing,.. it is natural...
All creatures have a wariness of the unfamiliar,... and a comfort from the familiar... Birds, monkeys, fish, humans, even bugs...
There is no shame in having a good instinct... but as humans, we have minds that can control our beliefs...
Best to all... JMHO...
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