What is your most unpopular/controversial opinion or hot take?

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  • #2307024
    skripka
    Participant

    Whether political or otherwise. I’ll start:

    1) Donald Trump isn’t the best US President in history. He also isn’t the worst. He’s somewhere in the middle.

    2) The NYPD should go on a 3-month ticket blitz in Boro Park, focusing on keeping intersections clear. Anyone who is in an intersection when the light is red gets a $500 dollar ticket. The drivers there need to have their driving habits molded.

    3) The guy who makes the obnoxious Yiddish robocalls should have his personal number doxxed and hung up in every Yeshiva so the bored Yeshiva boys have what to do Bein Hasedorim.

    4) Yeshivas should teach vocational skills from 10th Grade and above.

    #2307265
    ujm
    Participant

    skripka: None of your expressed opinions here seem especially controversial or unpopular.

    #2307270
    ujm
    Participant

    1. Young adults should be ready for marriage at 18.

    2. Husbands should work, wives should stay at home.

    3. Young ladies who go to seminary after high school should do so close to home.

    4. Don’t dump Zaidy or Bubby into a nursing home.

    #2307412
    Lostspark
    Participant

    Ukraine should have surrendered from the get go. This nato proxy war nonsense isn’t going to solve anything.

    #2307454
    Kuvult
    Participant

    I was actually gonna start my own post (I still might) but here goes nothing.
    The belief that “Antisemitism is NEVER our fault.” is not true.
    Sometimes knowingly or not we bring it upon ourselves due to our actions or behavior.

    #2307455
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    Ujm,

    People shouldn’t be in kollel?

    #2307456
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    Ujm,

    People shouldn’t be in kollel?

    #2307458
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    1. “Young adults should be ready for marriage at 18”
    Biologically, they are “ready” at 13-14 YO. Emotionally, they may not be ready until 10 years later.

    2. “Husbands should work, wives should stay at home”.
    Unless, as is frequently the case, the wife is smarter than the husband and can earn 2x or 3x as much so he can stay home, take care of the kids and learn.

    3. Young ladies who go to seminary after high school should do so close to home
    It depends where “home” is.

    4. Don’t dump Zaidy or Bubby into a nursing home.
    Agreed. Drop them off with love and dignity and call them once a week.

    #2307464
    Sam Klein
    Participant

    Klal yisroel should stop sleeping and living in denial and instead wake up and FACE REALITY and openly accept Hashems wake up call for serious Teshuva Kinnus and Taanis like we did in the story of Purim and our lives were saved because of it and doing it today would bring Mashiach already bkarov.

    Let’s not force our loving father Hashem to put any more tzaros Chas VShalom on klal yisroel in order for us to wake up and return to Hashem with serious Teshuva and Achdus together as one loving nation. “Ain poranius baolam Ela bishvil yisroel” nothing in the world -rather good or bad-happens that’s not on account directly as a message to klal yisroel as a wake up call. Even if everyone involved in a tragedy is all not yidden the wake up call message still is a message for klal yisroel.

    #2307465
    ujm
    Participant

    Children must be physically disciplined at times.

    #2307466
    ujm
    Participant

    By default, barring proven extenuating circumstances, divorce, like marriage, must be mutually agreed to. A unilateral demand for it may be vetoed by the spouse.

    #2307581
    1
    Participant

    Jews shouldn’t be Democrats

    #2307713
    fandango443
    Participant

    Republicans only pretend to support the State of Israel because they want Jewish money.

    #2307732
    Kuvult
    Participant

    Everyone who has claimed & some still claim that “Jews (or Antisemitic officials) changed their last name at Ellis Island is very mistaken as it almost never happened because it was virtually impossible for it to happen.
    A captain is responsible for everyone on his ship. So he has to have accurate records of who is on board. In order for a Jew (& Non-Jew) to board they needed to show the ship line their paperwork so it could be properly recorded.
    Upon arrival at Ellis Island the immigration officials would take the Captains log to work off of. The wait in line was long. There were 9 Yiddish speaking employees (not officers just civilians) that would go up & down the line explaining to the Jews the process, arrange the documents, tell them what to say, etc). So when a Jew finally came before an officer, the officer had their name in Europe in the Captains log as well as the paperwork with their real name. A few people had a letter left out one brother “Goldstein” & the other “GoldsHtein” But that a Jew walked onto Ellis Island “Goldstein” & walked “Johnson” is a complete myth.
    So if anyone claims that tell them they’re wrong. Which some don’t like hearing.

    #2307773
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    The frum oilom is EXTREMELY susceptible to propaganda and fake news.

    #2307804
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Can’t narrow to one, here are three:

    I oppose school vouchers, if anyone wants to send their children to private schools then the taxpayer should not pay.

    I am opposed to private gun ownership in the US unless a member of the National Guard (well organized militia in 2nd Amendment), law enforcement, correction officer, bank guard.

    I am against legalized marijuana, I don’t want someone high behind the wheel if a motorized vehicle.

    #2307857
    smerel
    Participant

    >>>Everyone who has claimed & some still claim that “Jews (or Antisemitic officials) changed their last name at Ellis Island is very mistaken as it almost never happened

    My grandfather changed his name to a more Americanized one due to the insistence of the Ellis Island officials. I know plenty of other such people.

    It’s not for no reason that in Eretz Yisroel people have names like Greinaman and Shteinman while in American there are only Greenmans and Steinmans

    #2307861
    harf
    Participant

    Everyone is a member of the militia
    See This link from the James Madison Research Library.
    And to your point If what you are saying is true why does the סיפא of the 2a say “The right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed, it should say the right of the states to maintain a militia shall not be infringed. also see Heller and Bruen.

    #2307867
    Lostspark
    Participant

    The Rebbe is Moshiach

    #2307899
    DovidBT
    Participant

    Public hanging of violent criminals should be reinstated as a common practice. Stoning, burning and decapitation would be okay too.

    #2307902
    ujm
    Participant

    People shouldn’t be in kollel

    CA: Now THAT kinda opinion _would_ be controversial. But that ain’t what I said. Kollel and working aren’t a stira.

    Emotionally, they may not be ready until 10 years later.

    Dorah: Or until 20 years later, I suppose. Would you suggest young adults wait until their mid-30s to get married?

    Unless, as is frequently the case, the wife is smarter than the husband and can earn 2x or 3x as much so he can stay home, take care of the kids and learn.

    Well, there always might be that unicorn. But we’re talking about the norm, not the exceptional exception.

    Agreed. Drop them off with love and dignity and call them once a week.

    Is Zaidy and Bubby really only worth to you a remote once a week phone call?

    The frum oilom is EXTREMELY susceptible to propaganda and fake news.

    Yseribus: You’re living in the wrong circles. The real frum oilom are the least suspectable to any of that.

    I oppose school vouchers, if anyone wants to send their children to private schools then the taxpayer should not pay.

    X-CTL: Why should children be forced to suffer in failed NYC public schools rather than be given the opportunity to choose a private school that teaches successfully and without violence?

    A better idea (and one that fits what the OP of this thread is looking for) is that government should get out of the school business and let the free market operate and parents will choose winning schools that produce successful children.

    #2307909
    Kuvult
    Participant

    Bombing the tracks to the camps would’ve stopped the Holocaust is not true at all.

    #2307940
    DovidBT
    Participant

    @Ex-CTLawyer

    You’re right about one of those three issues.

    #2307945
    SACT5
    Participant

    I don’t like dogs except for the tiny fluffy ones.

    Women shouldn’t play most organized sports especially more physical ones like hockey, lacrosse, & boxing. This also solves the problem of “men” in women’s sports.

    Men shouldn’t wear wedding rings. Wearing jewlery isn’t masculine.

    Eliminate standard time and make daylight savings permanent.

    Pluto will always be a planet.

    Nuclear power should not be used as an energy source because the risks are too high.

    Fair trade is a scam.

    Modern art is a scam.

    Crypto currency is a scam and only useful for illegal activity.

    Whiskey is the worst type of alcohol.

    I don’t like cheesecake.

    I don’t ❤ NY.

    Vanilla is not it’s own flavor but the absence of chocolate.

    The best time to go to the beach is winter.

    Any temperature over 68 degrees indoors or outdoors is too hot.

    People who run marathons are idiots.

    Sorry to those I’ve offended.

    #2308029
    Kuvult
    Participant

    Smerel,
    This is why I posted this in a thread about “Unpopular opinions” It’s a MYTH people’s name changed at Ellis Island. Do you or “people you know” have any proof? I highly doubt it.
    Some Jews did in fact change their name once in America but NOT at Ellis Island.
    “Was your name changed at Ellis Island? The simple answer is no. It never happened.
    Today there are millions of descendants of immigrants to the U.S. who firmly believe this myth and, despite continued efforts of prominent genealogists and immigration experts, it seems impossible to stamp it out.
    This could not have happened for the following reasons:
    1. The only thing the clerk did was check off the names on the passenger manifest that was compiled before the ship sailed from Europe (as I mentioned). The Ellis Island clerk never asked the immigrant his or her name.
    2. In any case, some 30% of the immigration clerks were themselves multi-lingual immigrants and some 60 languages were spoken, with translators available at all times (as I mentioned 9 Yiddish speaking translators, there was ALWAYS Yiddish speakers available to translate).
    3. There was no name change form or any process for an immigration clerk to change a person’s name. It was not a court of law.
    “According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service senior historian Marian L. Smith:

    The report that the clerk “wrote down” the immigrants surname is suspect. During immigration inspection at Ellis Island, the immigrant confronted an inspector who had a passenger list already created abroad. That inspector operated under rules and regulations ordering that he was not to change the identifying information found for any immigrant UNLESS requested by the immigrant, and UNLESS inspection demonstrated the original information was in error.”

    #2308031
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @DovidBT
    If you were a MLB player hitting .333 they’d pay you millions.


    @UJM

    Failing schools should be closed, their administration and staffed sacked.
    I went to public school in the inner city during the race riots of the 60s but got a fine education.
    Eliminate tenure, get rid of unfunded mandates and improve the schools .
    This is a different issue than taxpayers paying for private education which I oppose.
    I also oppose Charter School which lets the operators skim the first 15% of taxpayer money.
    NYers are generally renters so don’t get the fact that out of town the better the public schools the higher your home value.

    #2308034
    Menachem Shmei
    Participant

    The frum oilom is EXTREMELY susceptible to propaganda and fake news.

    This is nonsense!
    Just yesterday I read on a frum news whatsapp group that statistics show the Jews are the least gullible ethnic group in NYC!

    #2308035
    GadolHadofi
    Participant

    Kuvult,

    Harav Michael Dov Weismandel, zt”l, who escaped from a cattle car and informed the world about the horrors of Auschwitz, insisted that bombing the tracks would have saved Jews.

    #2308076
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    You can tell what a person is from what he /she writes, talks about….

    Fascinating to read posts and watch the common ideologies (is that the word?) , character of each personality follow. As in Gemara lingo – לשיטתו.

    #2308078
    Menachem Shmei
    Participant

    1) Being a Lubavitcher in the YWNCR.

    2) Every Jewish home in frum neighborhoods should have a rifle locked in a safe that can be unlocked remotely by a centralized committee, to be used in case of a riot or pogrom initiated by the alt-right if, ch”v, something catastrophic happens (e.g., Trump being assassinated by a liberal Jew) and figures like Nick, Candace, Andrew, Tucker, or Alex give the signal to incite violence similar to the Crown Heights riots (or George Floyd protests), but this time by members of the NRA. The police may not come to protect, and the difference between an unarmed neighborhood and a (even slightly) armed neighborhood is significant.

    #2308106
    Meno
    Participant

    Unlocked remotely by a centralized committee? Why can’t you just unlock it yourself?

    #2308104
    Kuvult
    Participant

    A big part of the initial success of the Day Schools in America (most were founded around 1945-1955) was the Supreme Court ruling desegregating the public schools in 1954.
    Contrary to claims that the “The Jews” supported the Civil Rights movement (many did, many did not) when faced with the reality of actually having their kids go to school with Black kids they ran. If a Jewish family couldn’t move to an area with an overwhelmingly White &/or Jewish school district the next best option was to send them to the Jewish school.
    The schools were more than happy to have the opportunity to teach these kids Torah true Yiddishkeit & perhaps have a positive affect on them. Which they had some successes.

    #2308109
    Kuvult
    Participant

    A big part of the initial success of the Day School movement in America (most were founded around 1945-1955) was the Supreme Court ruling desegregating the public schools in 1954.
    Contrary to claims that the “The Jews” supported the Civil Rights movement (many did, many did not) when faced with the reality of actually having their kids go to school with Black kids they ran. If a Jewish family couldn’t move to an area with an overwhelmingly White &/or Jewish school district the next option was to send them to the Jewish school.
    The schools were more than happy to have the opportunity to teach these kids Torah true Yiddishkeit & perhaps have a positive affect on them. Which they had some successes.

    #2308110
    smerel
    Participant

    >>>Smerel,
    This is why I posted this in a thread about “Unpopular opinions” It’s a MYTH people’s name changed at Ellis Island. Do you or “people you know” have any proof? I highly doubt it.

    Huh? It’s obvious that names were changed at Ellis Island. What more proof do you want me to give than that my grandfather had to change his family name? He had cousins who emigrated to Canada that still use their original. To pick a random name that I picked before why are there no Greenmans in Eretz Yisroel and no Greinamans in the US ?

    #2308121
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    @SACT5

    Pluto will always be a planet

    Nostalgia for your very educated mother serving pizza is clouding your eyes. Pluto only barely passed muster as a planet when it was discovered in 1930. Over the intervening years its status as a planet was called into question again and again and again, especially with the discovery of other dwarf planets, like Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake (they ran out of Roman avodah zoras and started using ones from different cultures). By the time Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the NYC Museum of Natural History Hayden Planetarium decided to get rid of it in 2000, its status as a planet hung by a thread. The decision of the International Astronomical Society five years later was only the last nail in the coffin. So if you’re going to insist that Pluto is a planet, start learning a new mnemonic. Maybe “My Very Educated Mother Can Just Sell Umbrellas, Not Party Hats However Magnificent.”

    #2308136
    Kuvult
    Participant

    GadolHadofi,
    I could write a long preface about what would’ve changed?
    Auschwitz was not chosen at random. There were over 40 rail lines nearby.
    Instead I’ll tell you about the “Bielefeld Viaduct”
    This railway handled approximately 300 trains PER DAY!
    If it wasn’t the busiest Nazi railway it was in the top 3.
    This made it a #1 priority for the Allies.
    Why focus on the Viaduct instead of just “bombing the tracks”?
    Because the Germans weren’t stupid. Knowing the war effort relied on the trains they had plans in place to rapidly (usually just a few hours) repair any damage. Imagine driving a race car but not having a pit crew to service your car.
    But more importantly, over 4 years the Allies (sometimes Americans, sometimes British) bombed the Viaduct 11 times. Not a single bomb hit the Viaduct!!! A few landed close but caused a negligible amount of damage that affected nothing.
    Finally the British built a massive bomb that only needed to land close. Which it did & destroyed the Viaduct. This was in mid-March of 1945. Hitler was dead at the end of April. When the Allies bombed huge factory buildings 90% of the bombs missed the target.
    Good luck throwing something out of a moving airplane from 10,000 feet & hitting a target that’s about 7′ wide.
    HaRav Weissmandel was a great Tsaddik & Talmidim Chochem but based on what I wrote, as well as other factors I didn’t write, I (& others into this type of history) can’t possibly imagine if even if by some miracle bombs indeed hit some tracks how that would’ve changed anything.

    #2308159
    DovidBT
    Participant

    “If you were a MLB player hitting .333 they’d pay you millions.”

    That’s true, but do MLB teams let their players observe Shabbos?

    #2308160
    Menachem Shmei
    Participant

    Unlocked remotely by a centralized committee? Why can’t you just unlock it yourself?

    That may also be an option; however, some might argue that it’s irresponsible for a committee to mass distribute weapons to people who lack proper experience and training. There’s a risk that someone might mistakenly use it on a burglar with children around or during a pro-Palestinian protest or something similar.

    Having a central system can help ensure that the weapon is only used in true emergencies when the entire neighborhood requires protection.

    #2308161
    Kuvult
    Participant

    Smerel,
    Do you have your grandfather’s documents with his name when he got on the boat & the new name when he exited Ellis Island? Surely you &/or the “people you know” would have the records. That’s generally not something you throw out.
    More strangely this concept doesn’t appear until around the 1970’s (amazing with all the literature from 1910-1970 authors never mentioned this concept or used it as a plotline).
    Interestingly enough the best guess how this myth went viral is a scene from “The G-dfather” where an Italian immigrant was taken into a room, given a list of American names by immigration officers & told to pick one (which of course is total fiction) but with a surge in ethnic pride during this period people including Jews latched onto this myth without bothering or more likely not interested in finding out if it was true.

    #2308163
    GadolHadofi
    Participant

    Kuvult,

    General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, USSAF Commander in Europe felt that Auschwitz could and should be bombed.

    #2308187
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @smerel

    No, names were NOT changed at Ellis Island (for all you latecomers who arrived there, my family came in 1868 and 1872).
    Ships passenger manifests were compiled at the port of Embarkation in Europe and went from the ship to the immigration authorities at Ellis Island. Immigrants were processed with the names they used to board the ship.

    Many immigrants assumed Americanized names upon landing in Manhattan or elsewhere after leaving Island.

    My late FIL, left Hamburg with his first name o. The manifest listed as Erich. As soon. As he settled in the US he Americanized the spelling to Eric (I not discuss family name whose ending changed from ch to ck). When becoming a citizen he was permitted to formally change his name without having to go to court and pay fees.

    #2308205
    SACT5
    Participant

    My mom interviewed her grandfather for a family history project. He told her “our surname was changed at Ellis Island.”
    Turns out they actually immigrated through the port of Baltimore!

    #2308206
    Kuvult
    Participant

    GadolHadofi,
    (The Nazis loved propaganda & showing the world America was killing Jews by blowing them to piece would’ve put the Nazis on cloud 9.)
    But anyway, my unpopular opinion is about bombing the tracks being impossible & wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.
    Anyone old enough has heard numerous times, me including from survivors, “FDR (Yimach) was an Antisemite. He refused to bomb the tracks to the camps.”

    #2308208
    Kuvult
    Participant

    GadolHadofi,
    (The Nazis loved propaganda & showing the world America was killing Jews by blowing them to pieces would’ve put the Nazis on cloud 9.)
    But anyway, my unpopular opinion is about bombing the tracks being impossible & wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.
    Anyone old enough has heard numerous times, me including from survivors, “FDR (Yimach) was an Antisemite. He refused to bomb the tracks to the camps.”

    #2308224
    Kuvult
    Participant

    A VERY unpopular opinion is during the Civil War era which Rabbi sided with who.
    Jewish communities being relatively new, (the Jewish population in America jumped from around 15,000 Jews to 175,000 Jews from c.1840-1860), Jews generally sided with where they lived either because they agreed or because they didn’t want to stand out.
    But in border places like Baltimore, Jews like Non-Jews could choose which side they were on.
    The unpopular opinion is that it’s not surprising that the “Radical Reform Rabbi” was Pro-Lincoln, Pro-Union, Anti-Secession & Pro-Abolition, while the Frum Rabbi (recognized Talmid Chochem, Smicha from Pressburg, many years in Yeshiva, some of his psaks are still in force today) was Anti-Lincoln, Anti-Union, Pro-Secession & Pro keeping Slavery as it had been.
    Many Frum are embarrassed by this but looking at today with the Reform generally pushing for liberal values & progressive agendas & the Orthodox not so much is it surprising which Rabbi sided with the Union & which with the Confederacy?

    #2308226

    >> 2. “Husbands should work, wives should stay at home”.
    Gadol > Unless, as is frequently the case, the wife is smarter than the husband and can earn 2x or 3x as much so he can stay home, take care of the kids and learn.

    If she is smarter, why would she not let her husband work, both enjoying her time with kids and letting the husband take credit for supporting the family

    Note that generally divorce rates are higher in families where “smart” women out-earn their husbands. See how “smart” Ms. Harris used men for career advancement and how long it took her to find her bashert.

    I am not saying like the other guy that staying home is a mitzva, but it definitely a reshus.

    #2308227

    xCTL > I oppose school vouchers, if anyone wants to send their children to private schools then the taxpayer should not pay.

    Sometimes, I disagree with someone but can understand their position. In this case, I can’t. Maybe coming from a Teachers Union leader.

    Your premise seems to be that it is government job to _directly_ provide education to ALL the children. Not thru shaliach, and not just to poor children. I do not see where this premise comes from, maybe just an un-examined assumption that somehow creeped into your mind,

    And without that premise, why not let other institutions provide the same goods (vouchers, under proper controls and testing of results) or make it into program for only those can’t afford it and then let everyone else use a market solution.

    I mentioned before Baba Basra story of several attempts of establishing a working educational system, changed when the previous version did not work good enough. Same here, why not any solution that might work? We have lots of ways to experiment and measure results in this country.

    #2308245

    Froggie > You can tell what a person is from what he /she writes, talks about….

    This works with kids and maybe teens, which might be your peer group. Adults learn what is appropriate to say and say that even when doing something inappropriate, they can present aveiros as mitzvos. My Rav’s advice: listen to what children say and make conclusions about adults in the family.

    #2308246

    SACT5 > My mom interviewed her grandfather for a family history project. He told her “our surname was changed at Ellis Island.”

    There are a lot of recorded interviews at Ellis Island. You can find them online and listen to what people actually said.

    #2308248

    Kuvult > But anyway, my unpopular opinion is about bombing the tracks being impossible & wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.

    I think you are right. Look at current war in Russia by Russia. Bombing tracks does not work even now with precision targeting. It does not take long to rebuild tracks. It only makes sense at bridges and tunnels, maybe. During WW2, you would probably need thousands of bombs to have one hit on the tracks – all of this beyond the front lines from the West. You could have destroyed another Dresden for the price of bombing one track for a week.

    There are a lot of emotional myths like that. One example is a sustained negative campaign against Poland, amplifying anything negative that Poles did to Jews, totally disregarding reality of the time that Polish state was destroyed from two sides by Nazis and Commies and their government did not control anything.

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