Yidi's Blog

Meet Shmily, he is 23 years old and lives in Williamsburg. He is part of a very insular community known as Satmar Chassidus. He spends his day praying, studying religious texts, helping out with the three kids at home, and then more praying. Shmily’s whole world exists within a few blocks of the home where he grew up. His synagogue is on the corner, his grocery store is a few minutes down the block, his children's school is across the street. His entire life is based in the community with virtually no outside exposure. His friends and acquaintances live similar lives, share similar opinions, and are similarly confined to this world of several blocks. No one in Shmily's community is fluent in English, only Yiddish, Shmily included. None of them had any kind of secular education. The very notion of attending a public school would have resulted in excommunication from his community.  In Shmily’s community, voting in general elections is absolutely encouraged. For Shmily, every pol...

Why does it feel like political discussions never get anywhere? During a political debate at a family dinner with your stubbornly opinionated uncle, have you ever felt like you are just going in circles? Have you noticed how, at those family dinners, no one came out with a different opinion than the one they started with? There are probably many answers to why this happens. I think it comes down to one very specific problem: the all-or-nothing political mindset. When you make an argument with a general theme that someone disagrees with, people with the all-or-nothing political mindset may feel the need to view you as wrong. You, as opposed to your argument which is what they actually disagree with. From this point forward, any further arguments you make, whether correct or incorrect, whether they agree with it or not, already fall into the category of “wrong” in the eyes of this individual. When that happens, any further discourse you try with this person just results in meaningless, o...