this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 181 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The moneyed class wanted a way to collect interest for their moneylending, but as “good Christians/Catholics” usury was Biblically forbidden. ‘Do good unto your brother in faith’ etc

Jews provided a convenient workaround for that restriction. And bigots spun that into a global conspiracy.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's wild, I had no idea.

[–] undergroundoverground 48 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"Its not usury, if we call it interest because our God is a moron."

Christians apparently.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

All the Abrahamic religions have these hilarious workarounds, like just leaving your oven on all Sabbath to avoid using a machine

[–] undergroundoverground 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Oh for sure and, as I imagine you know too, for me, the saddest part is, if their religion were ever found to be true, none of these work around they think they found would work.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lol I like to imagine the God being like "oh you little scamp I didn't think of that one!"

[–] the_toast_is_gone 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From my understanding, Jews don't believe that things like this are loopholes. They believe that, God's law being perfect, they were intended features of Jewish life. Then again, you have so many different sects of Judaism (like you do with Christianity) that you don't get a clear-cut consensus on issues like this across the whole religion.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean yeah, of course any religious folks engaging in shenanigans would shape the narrative to justify it.

Like this is just hilarious

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KosherSwitch

But as you say, there is no consensus, as seen in the article.

[–] uranibaba 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wouldn't a wall mounted motion sensor be better?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I think they can't be the agent that creates the work, even if it's just a sensor.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I think it was Mormon teens that started "soaking". It was decided by them that sex wasn't actually sex unless you were thrusting back and fourth. Just sticking it in and not moving was fine.

Then, logically, it's still not sex so long as you aren't the ones trying to move while you're soaking, so if a third friend happened to be bouncing on the bed and it was causing the motion of sex, that's still OK too.

[–] chonglibloodsport 4 points 1 month ago

For all his omniscience, God never understood the time value of money.

[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Yeah, that's the part I never understood.

"Let's make Jews only merchants and bankers"

"Why are so many rich persons jewish???"

It just shows again: being hateful disables your cognitive functions.

[–] PugJesus 35 points 1 month ago

Dumb as fucking rocks, it is. But I guess no one ever accused racists of being too smart.

[–] niktemadur 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Sadly, one of the big takeaways here is that "christians cannot be trusted". The catholics did it to them, and so did the protestants and I'd even say the russian orthodoxes, disguised as some twisted mockery of an atheist government that was the Soviet Union.

EDIT: anyone remember how Stalin studied to be a priest in the orthodox church?

[–] psycho_driver 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It wasn't that they were forced to work as money lenders, it was that their religion did not prohibit it whereas Muslims and early Christians were not allowed to charge interest on loaned money.

[–] PugJesus 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, Jews were legally barred from most professions in much of Europe. If you can't be an artisan, a retainer, or a peasant farmer, not sure how many more viable options there are for making a Medieval living.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

So, you ban a group of people from most professions. You exclusively allow them to work in another profession. And, it's a group of people that share a religion, so they intermarry and attend religious services together.

It's a real mystery why so many of them work in the same profession, isn't it!

Incidentally, this also explains why there are so many jews in Hollywood. Being a populist entertainer (like vaudeville) was one of the careers you could pursue as a jew in the late 1800s / early 1900s. When radio and movies first started, there were no incumbents who could refuse to allow jews into the business. Hollywood itself existed because it was a way to try to get out of the range of people trying to enforce Thomas Edison's patents. I'd imagine it wasn't just Edison's patents that they got away from, but all the existing power structures that kept jews out of jobs.

[–] Makhno 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can be forced into a role by society and use that position to leverage privilege. Just look at the Irish becoming cops in the US

Doesn't have to be mutually exclusive 🤷🏽‍♂️

[–] PugJesus 2 points 1 month ago

Next step is talking about "Rootless cosmopolitans" and "Labor aristocracy"