POST CONSPIRACY TOOLSET

Everyone lies: it’s just a question of how, when and why. From the relationship saving “yes, you do look thin in those pants” to the improbable “your table will be ready in 5 minutes”, manipulating the truth is part of the human condition. Accept it now.

I’m positive that given our irrational nature and difficultly accepting tough truths, we’re collectively better off with some of our deceptions. They buffer us from each other (and from ourselves), avoid unnecessary conflicts, and keep the wonderful confusion of our psychologies tucked away from those who don’t care. White lies are the spackle of civilization, tucked into the dirty corners and crevices our necessary, but pretentiously inflexible idealisms create. Small lies prop up and support our powerful truths, holding together the insanely half honest, half false chaos that spins the world.

But lies, serious lies, should not be encouraged as they destroy trust, the binding force in all relationships. One particularly troublesome kind of lie is known as Bullshit (BS). These are unnecessary deceptions, committed in the gray area between polite white lies and complete malicious fabrications. BS is usually defined as inventions made in ignorance of the facts, where the primary goal is to protect oneself. The aim of BS isn’t to harm another person, although that often happens collaterally. For a variety of reasons BS can be hard to detect, which is why I’m offering this missive as a crash B.S. in BS detection. But be warned: to keep you on your toes there are several bits of BS tucked inside this essay which you will have to find for yourself............................Time & Pressure
A good thought holds together. Its solid conceptual mass maintains its shape no matter how much you poke, probe, test and examine. But BS is all surface. Like a magician’s bouquet of flowers, it’s pretty as it flashes past your eyes, but its absence of integrity become obvious when you hold it in your hands. Anyone creating BS knows this, and will tend towards urgency. They’ll resist reviews, breaks, consultations or the suggestion of sleeping on decisions before they’re made.

Use time & pressure, the third tool of BS detection, in your favor: never allow big decisions to be mismanaged to the point where they must be made urgently. Ask to withhold judgment for a day, and watch the response. Invite people with expertise you need but don’t have to participate in decisions to add intellectual and domain pressure (Hiring them if necessary. The $500 you pay a lawyer, accountant or consultant to review something effectively becomes a well spent BS insurance fee).

Be a leader in creating an environment unpleasant for BS. If everyone knows the gauntlet of friendly, but rigorous, intellectual curiosity claims must run through, BS will be discouraged while still in the minds of the tempted................

Anti-semitism is a multi-faceted phenomenon, which lends itself to various analyses. I would like to demonstrate that the various dimensions of analysis do not contradict one another. In fact, their juxtaposition creates a complete picture. Here we will discuss the first level, the psychological dimension. To explain it, I will use a simple allegory. Psychologists often employ the Rorschach Test in their analysis of patients. The test uses a well-known technique known as the projective technique. The patient is asked to look at a series of pictures and explain what he sees. These pictures have no intrinsic meaning. In fact, they are simply ink blots on paper that created symmetrical designs when the paper was folded in two. As previously mentioned, the pictures do not represent anything, yet people look at them and explain them. The explanations do not exist in the pictures; they exist in the person's mind. This is an opening, through which the psychologists try to enter the inner world of the person, who "projects" what is inside himself onto the pictures.

This mechanism, according to many psychologists, can shed light on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. The anti- Semite sees in the Jews negative qualities that threaten and endanger him. These characteristics don't exist in the "picture"; they only exist in the mind of the beholder. They are the projections of the anti-Semite, who uses the Jew as a blot of his own making, and upon which he projects the black sides of his inner world. This, in very general terms of course, refers to the psychological background of anti-Semitism. The fact that the Jew is a minority, a foreigner who is relatively easily identified, was a psychological cause that contributed to the choice of the Jew as the screen upon which the anti-Semites threw their fears and hatred. This is actually the explanation for a number of noticeable characteristics of anti-Semitism. We find many types and forms of attacks on Jews. In one place the Jew is described as having one trait, and in another place he is accused of the opposite characteristic. This is true regarding both his personal traits and his social and political traits. Thus, for example, the Jew is portrayed as the capitalist trying to take over the world, and on the other hand as the revolutionary, who is attempting to weaken the power of wealth and utterly abolish personal ownership. The fact that we are faced with a psychological phenomenon means that we must not search for logic here. All anti-Semites project their various and contradictory fears upon the Jew.

Anti-Semitism and Its Causes: The Social Basis

Whoever thinks that this analysis has exhausted the topic of anti-Semitism is fooling himself. Anti-Semitism is a social, not an individual, phenomenon. In addition to its psychological aspects, we must study anti-Semitism from its social and general perspectives as well. A view of history and philosophy in recent generations will be of help in our attempt. Let us therefore move on to the second level of our analysis, the collective, political and social level. Until now we have examined a phenomenon that has already been expressed by the earliest thinkers of the last century. They viewed anti-Semitism as part of Xenophobia, and indeed, the phenomena we have expressed until now are merely details within a much larger context, that of the strains that exist between various groups, between the majority and the minority, and even between various races who live together within one society. From this perspective, there is no essential difference between the hatred of Jews and the hostility that exists towards other races, such as blacks. However, this is but one level of the explanation. Until now we have identified the roots of the problem, and its individual expressions.

If anti-Semitism were only an individual psychological phenomenon, it would be similar to other forms of discrimination and hostility; however, in the modern world anti-Semitism takes on a different hue. Various groups have used it for political purposes. We can trace clear attempts to use psychological hostility – which, it seems, has deep religious roots – to forward political aims. Thus, modern anti-Semitism was born, and acquired a more and more tragic and satanic form. The widespread use of this technique began in Czarist Russia, in the struggle to smother those revolutionary attempts that finally toppled the Czarist rule. Through the Czarist secret police, the rulers attempted to identify revolutionary action with the activities of the Jews. The rulers of Czarist Russia fought against certain phenomena, and in this fight they created a kind of equation, which was supposed to prove their claims. The Czarist secret police created one of the documents that became an anti-Semitic classic, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This book reveals the so-called secret plan weaved by the leaders of the Jews, to take over the entire world. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" became a holy book among the anti-Semites.

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was simply a rewriting of a French book that attributed ambitions to take over the world to Napoleon. This booklet is called "a dialogue in hell between Machiavelli and Montasque," or "Politics of the Nineteenth Century." These accusations were not at all directed towards the Jews and Judaism. However, the dialogue was adopted and transformed into the protocols of an imaginary group whose members were the world leaders of Judaism, attempting to take over the politics of various European countries.

Even the Czar himself, Nikolai the Second, although far from bearing the Jews any fond feelings, saw that the book was a fake and opposed its publication. Despite this, the first Russian edition appeared in 1905. A number of years later, other editions began to appear. Some of the editions were altered and corrected in order to make it possible to accuse the Jews of various catastrophes that took place between one edition and another. At various opportunities, it became the topic of public court cases, in which the book was proved to be a forgery. However, this of course did not check the book's growing popularity, particularly in the wake of the Nazi influence. The book influenced various writers, who were mistakenly taken in and convinced of its authenticity. Thus, for example, Henry Ford was inspired by "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to write "The International Jew," in which he continues these accusations. Various other books were written in its wake until recent years.

This is an example of a lie and forgery that the power of truth could not effectually surmount. This abominable book became a justification of Nazism and the genocide that followed in its wake. This is an example of the phenomena that we must deal with. Forgeries spread throughout the world, and people are convinced.
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Written by Gil Student
Anti-Talmud accusations have a long history dating back to the 13th century when the associates of the Inquisition attempted to defame Jews and their religion [see Yitzchak Baer, A History of Jews in Christian Spain, vol. I pp. 150-185]. The early material compiled by hateful preachers like Raymond Martini and Nicholas Donin remain the basis of all subsequent accusations against the Talmud. Some are true, most are false and based on quotations taken out of context, and some are total fabrications [see Baer, ch. 4 f. 54, 82 that it has been proven that Raymond Martini forged quotations]. On the internet today we can find many of these old accusations being rehashed and this site is an attempt to correct the mistakes and put the true quotes into their proper perspective.

The accusations against the Talmud can be divided into four categories [see Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial, pp. 23-38].


1] The Talmud considers itself holier than the Bible
2] The Talmud contains passages that are blasphemous against Jesus and Mary

The first two accusations are essentially frivolous. What business is it of Christians if the Jewish Talmud is considered holier than the Bible (which it isn't)? And if Jews do not take the account of the Christian NT to be totally historically accurate, so what? To fundamentalist Christians, EVERY other religion is considered blasphemous. Why should the Talmud be judged within the Christian religious framework? Of course, any Jewish book is blasphemous within that framework because Judaism does not accept Jesus as the messiah. The very accusation that the Jewish Talmud is blasphemous to Christianity is redundant.


3] The Talmud has ridiculous and immoral statements

The third accusation is one that Jews have to work out for themselves. Should a Jew believe in a book that makes foolish and obscene comments? That a Jew does should not be relevant to gentiles. In fact, the allegedly foolish and immoral statements in the Talmud are sometimes non-existent but usually allegorical. The Talmud and associated literature developed an entire genre of parables and allegorical sayings that, when understood, shed light on the mysteries of life. However, when inadequately translated and ripped from their context they seem silly.

Dov Zlotnick, Introduction to Saul Lieberman's Greek in Jewish Palestine (1994), p. xx

Rabbinic texts that seem bizarre at first blush can become quite ordinary when properly understood. I remember Lieberman once being called by a popular national publication regarding a passage from the Talmud. To the caller, who was researching an article, the passage seemed silly. Its subject was the difference between a roll or a bundle of documents, and how each note of indebtedness was to be placed in relation to the other. After the Professor finished explaining the passage, the caller responded with surprise, "Why, this is reasonable!" "Of course," the Professor responded.

"Well, in that case," the caller replied, "I cannot use it."




4] The Talmud has laws that are racist and anti-gentile

The fourth accusation is the one on which I will be focussing. Because today's Orthodox Jews still lead their lives based on the laws contained in the Talmud, it is incumbent upon Jews to understand and explain that their religious laws are not racist or derogatory to gentiles. Jewish law, as contained in the Talmud, treats gentiles with the proper respect due to a person created in the image of G-d. Their property and lives are honored and any (mis)quotes from the Talmud indicating otherwise need to be seen in their original language and context.

I will be showing the ENTIRE passages in both their original Hebrew or Aramaic and in translation. I will also be providing a fuller context by bringing other quotations on the topics from other parts of the Talmud. After seeing all of the quotations, a proper judgement can be rendered. I will also be showing how Jewish commentators and legalists have understood these passages throughout history.

Even if a reader would believe that these talmudic quotations are racist, if Jews have always understood them differently then Jews cannot be considered racist. Even if someone can twist the words of the Talmud to be hateful, if Jews have always understood the Talmud in a non-hateful way then the argument is meaningless. The real exercise is to find the (allegedly racist) talmudic influence on Jews and Judaism and by perusing through the post-talmudic literature we can clearly find that this talmudic influence was not racist.

Is the Talmud racist or anti-gentile? No. But neither is it a universalist manifesto. It is a religious document written by those of the Jewish religion for others of the same faith. It favors Judaism over other religions and sets down rules on how to live in both an all-Jewish society and a mixed society. It legislates how to create vibrant Jewish communities while still maintaining respect for the gentile society. Universalists would have everyone be treated exactly equally and live in non-denominational communities. However, the Talmud, which is concerned for the survival of the Jewish religion, must weigh both the respect for humanity and the need for Jewish survival throughout thousands of years of minority-status.

What we will demonstrate is that the consideration for the Jewish community NEVER relegates those outside of this community to an inhuman status. Gentiles are ALWAYS respected and their rights are secured.

The anti-talmudic lies are exactly that - lies. The wisdom of the Talmud has sustained Judaism for thousands of years and perhaps its very success is what has engendered so much jealous hatred.