fix your hearts or die

For example, emotionally, I genuinely think less of someone who buys into stupid conspiracies about organ donation. I think that morally, if you are unwilling (unwilling, not medically unable) to donate organs, you should not be an organ candidate. I don’t think you should be able to say ‘If I’m dead I want all of my organs to rot, even if they could save lives. But I also want to benefit from other people’s sacrifice.’ Fuck you.

But I do not believe it would be ethical (or practical) to legislate that. I think it would be a horrible ethical violation and medical coercion. I recognize that, even as I’m disgusted by people who would let someone die when saving lives would cost them nothing.

But what I want to highlight is the political bloc who were most effective against the law, and led to its defeat: community healthcare workers who were on the frontlines, whose careers very often were at that intersection of drug abuse and child suffering. 

Their argument wasn’t primarily about the parental rights of the mothers, or about the criminalization of substance use disorders. Instead, it was about what public health policies work in the real world, and what policies cause more harm. They argued these women would be afraid to access resources for harm reduction during pregnancy. This would result in heavier drug usage during pregnancy than if they were able to access harm reduction strategies and resources. There would also be an increase in abandoned infants, babies who are very sick and need immediate medical help. Fear of punishment wouldn’t help anyone. 

Irish Americans have different experiences to Irish people who have never left Ireland, but both groups originate from the same place, carrying the same foundational identity, with shared heritage. Irish Americans are never referred to as "Irish of American descent," even while acknowledging that being Americans has shaped them, and even while being proud Americans.

And genetics reflect that. If Irish Americans had hailed from America, rather than from Ireland, the two groups couldn't possibly have common genetic markers, pointing to common ancestry. But they do. And so do Jews. If we didn't all come from one common ancestral place, there would never be any common genetic markers for Tunisian and Romanian Jews. But there are. Across the globe, Jews carry the markers of common ancestry. To claim that "A German Jew is from Germany, not Israel," or "A Syrian Jew is from Syria, not Israel," is to erase Jewish ancestry, to wipe out our connection to our ancestors and between our communities. It IS antisemitic.

It’s really that simple.

If you look at any other existing tribal culture and you look at Jews, you will find more similarities than you will to the way Christianity or Islam is organized currently.

All Jews are part of the same single tribe.

Conversion is an induction into the tribe for outsiders into the tribe.

Bnai Mitzvot is a coming of age ritual.

We have harvest festivals timed to the moon.

We are only not making burnt offerings because our holy site has been colonized.

We are a tribe indigenous to the land of Israel.

The difference between us and other tribal cultures is hyper-ritualize WRITING EVERYTHING DOWN.

That’s it.

We’re all part of a single tribe. All the minhag, in Israel and in the diaspora, throughout all of time, born and converted.

The declaration of faith of Judaism in the Shema is: Hear O Israel the Lord is Our G-d the Lord is One.

It identifies first and foremost that we are Israel. Our identity as Israel, together, is how we are instructed to recognize G-d, as one.

Jews have been executed for that prayer. The story goes Rabbi Akiva was martyred by the Romans, flayed with metal rakes, saying that prayer.

Because we are Israel. It’s in the Shema, in our declaration of faith.

We’re a tribe.

"Assurance by Emma Lazarus

When I was doing my criminology degree, I went to several professors with several thesis ideas, and all of them were denied. These were all ideas based on transmasculine crime and victimology stats. Every professor shot down every thesis I had on ideas related to transmasc victims of various crimes.

Their reasoning? There's no need for this. This is useless. Nobody is interested in reading about trans men and transmascs being victims of crimes. They wouldn't even let me do my thesis on estimating more accurate stats on transmasculine victims of homicide. Which is an INCREDIBLY important thing!