Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[The Minsky Moment]

Just like with Judaism the reigion evolved surrounded by other religions and cultures and was influenced, you can clearly see the Sumerian and Egyptian influences early on and the Person influences in the second Temple period. Likewise the Persian and Greek cultural influences are all over the New Testament.

Probably more than casual influences.  In Ezra-Nehemiah, the people resist the efforts of the exiles in purportedly restoring the faith; Nehemiah comes to back the exiles by force.  When the Temple is finally (re?)built, Ezra then reads "the book of the law of Moses" to the people (i.e. the Torah or some version of it).  It is clear from the description of the scene that this is new to the people.  The Bible explains this by suggesting that the Assyrian and Babylonian conquest involved  wholesale population transfers.  That is almost certainly not what happened; much more likely is that "elites" (priests, nobles, officers, scribes) were removed with some retainers and the bulk of the  peasants and herders left in place.  Pre-exile there was probably already a difference between the priestly religion of the capital and folk religious practice -- the account of Josiah's reign reflects that -- but that is a gap that widens very considerably during exile.  The practices and beliefs of the exiles were changed under the trauma of the exile and the close contact with Babylonia and Persia.  Indeed I think that it is fair to say that what we understand as Judaism - a monotheistic faith based on communal reading of and observance of a written Torah - is a post-exilic phenomenon driven in significant part by exposure to more sophisticated and literate cultures, as well as exposure to religious ideas about a single supreme divine being

I just think there is a little bit of a difference between things influencing each other and having a cultural transfer than assume Christmas is somehow NOT Christian but secretly a Pagan festival!!!

But that is not the argument.  Rather, the argument is that an expanding Christianity - an urban-based religion that was so suspicious of rural superstition that it defined the religious traditions that it opposed with a Latin word denoting rustic villagers - finds itself with the difficult  task of implanting itself in countless villages in a de-urbanizing late Roman and post-Roman world, and with only limited human and material resources.  It's not practical to foment a radical religious revolution village by village.  Rather, the path of least resistance is to take whatever folk traditions and practices exist on the ground and overlay them with a veneer of Christian names and stories.  Preparing the way so that when a church is built and a priest placed in the parish it will be accepted.  Because it doesn't really matter much what the peasants think or believe, as long as they accept the performance of the sacraments. This is a pattern that lasts to this very day.  Popular faith and practice of Christianity has little to do with what Jesus preached, or what is taught in the seminaries or university divinity schools.

[Jacob]

I will concede that at least in Scandinavia there are examples of Pagan-Christian continuity.

I will agree that there are definitely also examples where people overstate or misinterpret alleged pagan links to current Christmas practices.

[Syt]

[Josquius]

More self owning I see.

[grumbler]

The question in the first cartoon was "Did Donald Trump win the 2020 presidential election" and Arthur's response was "no."

And when Jesse Kelly, the part of the media Jesse Kelly knows intimately, says that media is claiming that they are the enemy of the American people, he's obviously referring to Jesse Kelly. And he's right.

As Tyr says, more self-owning.  But we already suspected that MAGAts can't use social media without shooting themselves in the foot.

[PRC]

... I do regularly check a few obvious right-wing AND left-wing sites just so I get a sense of what different sides are talking about.

Anything you can recommend (right and left)?

There's a real lack of decent Canadian right or left sites - if you have any please suggest.

Uh totally agree. I read La Press in french, but they rarely have any national stories. For US stuff I mainly check The Hill. It's a barebones kind of reporting, which I like: "This is what happened", no fluff.

France stuff I go to France24, mainly because the rest of sites have paywalls up now.

Anyway, the lack of in-depth, rigorous journalism outlets in Canada is annoying (to me).

Here are a few I've come across.  Whether you consider them "in-depth" or "rigorous" is up for debate, but I find the content consistently good.

https://theline.substack.com/

The Line, this is a Western centric oped site similar to the Dispatch but Canadian. Led by Jen Gerson who is probably well known as a journalist.  I'd call its stance Centre.  Latest article is titled "Jen Gerson: The strange truth is that Alberta wants to be more like Quebec".

https://thetyee.ca/

The Tyee, this is also more BC / Western centric, with a definite Left slant.  Good content

https://www.sprawlalberta.com/

The Sprawl, another Alberta / Western site.  I'd call it Centre / Left but others may disagree. 

https://daveberta.ca/

Daveberta, focused on Alberta politics.  I'd also call this Centre / Left.

https://kimsiever.ca/

Site by Kim Siever, a local Lethbridge "citizen journalist" I guess.  Alberta focused again.  Definite Left slant, I think, good content and seems to be well researched.

[Barrister]

I'm familiar with some but not all of PRC's links.  I will check check them out.

The only problem though is they aren't much more than glorified blogs.  I think the writer may be earning a living from their site, but it's generally just a single writer/employee.

[crazy canuck]

I'm familiar with some but not all of PRC's links.  I will check check them out.

The only problem though is they aren't much more than glorified blogs.  I think the writer may be earning a living from their site, but it's generally just a single writer/employee.

The problem is you are passing judgment on all the links in the second sentence after stating you were only familiar with some of the links in the first sentence.  The Tyee is definitely not a single writer/employee struggling to make a living.  It is a digital newspaper.

[Barrister]

I'm familiar with some but not all of PRC's links.  I will check check them out.

The only problem though is they aren't much more than glorified blogs.  I think the writer may be earning a living from their site, but it's generally just a single writer/employee.

The problem is you are passing judgment on all the links in the second sentence after stating you were only familiar with some of the links in the first sentence.  The Tyee is definitely not a single writer/employee struggling to make a living.  It is a digital newspaper.

Fine, looking at The Tyee it has several different bylines.

But The Line is a substack site, so it's paid access only (good for them if they can make it work), and looks like it has about 3 bylines.

The Sprawl has several bylines, but half way down I see a note that they're downsizing to just one employee.

Daveberta (which is the site I know the most) is definitely just one guy - a guy name Dave.

And kimseiver is a site run by a woman named Kim Seiver.

SO I think my comment that " it's generally just a single writer/employee." stands up.

[PRC]

Yeah, it's a fair point that some of them are more "blog" oriented than true journalist sites.  As noted Tyee is definitely not on that blog side.

Neither would I consider the Line, as it has some veteran journalists on it.  The Line is substack, so has many subscription only articles, but also has many free articles - same as the Dispatch which was mentioned earlier, or Slate Star Codex / Astral Codex Ten.

Kim Siever is a man.  He is in that blog space but I think would be more properly categorized as citizen or independent journalism.  He states his sources and they appear to be very well researched. 

[viper37]

Easy one, but still funny

[HisMajestyBOB]

Easy one, but still funny

That's because most people are still working from home, and now with Metro running 30 minutes between trains, there's even less incentive to return to the office.

[grumbler]

Easy one, but still funny

That's because most people are still working from home, and now with Metro running 30 minutes between trains, there's even less incentive to return to the office.

Dat's not da joke.

[Berkut]

[HVC]

If no one knows what's going on how do you do research?