Happy Birthday, Trudy!

And just in case your Mom happens to be lurking about to see this, Happy Birthday, Kara!

Not really here. Working very hard. No, really.

Ugh. Just got hit with some antisemitism in a part of the internet where I didn't know I had to have my guard up. I'm going to be in my "I hate people" bubble for a while now.

Oh, yuck, Hil. Sorry. I've just been spatting with a friend (whom I've never met) of a (long ago high school) friend on FB, and I'm finding people pretty odious and avoidworthy right now too. But that's much more just annoying, and much less personal and gutpunchy than antisemitism. Vent if you need to, or just hide here and avoid.

It was (TRIGGER WARNING) in an I Fucking Love Science post. The post was about a new study done on the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews. The comments almost immediately went to "Hitler was right" and a bunch of cartoons of rabbis with big noses grabbing at money.

People seem more tetchy than usual all over FB. Although I might just be wading into discussions I usually avoid. (And MAN, people hate Common Core math, even when they don't understand what it is!)

t edit Wow, that is SO MUCH WORSE than the people who reflexively hate Common Core Math because it's new and scary and therefore must be burned.

The comments also pretty quickly went to "See, Ashkenazic Jews are really just European! That means they've got no right to Israel at all!" Which wasn't even what the study said, and is stupid anyway.

Aw, hell, that's completely vile. Were they regular commenters letting their masks slip, or invaders? I've definitely noticed, in related discussions on other boards, that most of the conversations are smart and civil but every now and then apparently some kind of Stormfront rabid bat-signal goes up and for a couple of days the whole place is swarming with horrifying trolls.

There are so many interesting conversations that can be done re: genetic distribution without getting politics messed up in it. Idiots.

I'm not sure. They've got a few thousand followers, so I can't really keep track of who's a regular. Usually, the only controversial stuff there is whenever they post something about vaccines, there will be a bunch of anti-vaxxer crap in the comments, but I can just roll my eyes at that without getting emotionally invested.

The Common Core math thing bugs me because there's almost nothing new about it. It's basically the same math that's been taught in most public elementary schools for a decade or so. And also all the same "I can't understand my kid's math homework" complaints, but now with "Common Core" labels.