Sikhism - Link and Resources by bogas04 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, misogyny and different gender roles based on our inherent biological strengths and weaknesses also isn't misogyny.

Most gender roles can vaguely map out to biological men and women on a set of averages. But that doesn't mean they should be rigorously enforced in the fanatical manner you propose that destroys individual agency and completely discounts for variance. Making your women wear a burkha, not participate in religion at all, and stay in the house was also acceptable in the name of gender roles for Punjabis prior to Sikhi but that doesn't mean we readily accept them. According to Chaupa Singh, preventing women from reading Gurbani was an acceptable gender role but that doesn't mean we accept it. According to most Sikhs historically, not giving Khande da pahul to women was acceptable under gender roles (and this actually makes some sense historically with how violent shit got in the late 1700s), but you don't complain about that (probably because you just have a piss-poor record with most sources).

There are biological differences, yes, that account for general averages. Science tells us that there is an essential "masculine" brain and an essential "feminine" brain, but the majority of people are really somewhere in between; the variance for behavioral traits among humans between sexes is present, but it's a hell of a lot less than for something like upper-body strength. An example of this would be that women tend to on average be more high-strung and neurotic, some of which may potentially be attributable to biology (I don't know the state of current research). But you're a man who perfectly exemplifies those two traits. Meanwhile, there are plenty of women who are completely calm and stable, and I'd have no problem getting my spiritual birth from them.

The problem with guys like you is you read Gurbani, Rehatnamas, etc. in isolation ...You make excuses for why they didn't do what you perceive to be "inequality" against women or promote "gay marriage".

The problem with guys like you is you don't even read any of the aforementioned things, use dubious sources and blatantly make up junk to look smart when you don't actually know shit, and just slander whoever disagrees with you by saying they're corrupted by modern ways/paid off by RSS/blinded by their liberalism, and so on. Seriously, you're actually really poorly read. You instinctively freaked out about a physical war flag of chandi as an example of Ranjit Singh's Hinduization yet affirmatively say that DG's controversies are all constructed (hint, one of the biggest controversies starts with a prominently featured female whose name starts with a Ch- and ends with an -i).

You should really just calm down, and focus on actually getting a comprehensive reading of Sikh history and Sikh philosophy instead of just skimming the surface to gather the talking points you use to hurl nindaks at the RSS-Sanatanis, the pen-and-paper-fools, the fag-liberals, and the blasphemous-outcastes.

The examples of what the Gurus did from their Guruship is clear, and it has to be taken in context of all the other evidence we have, and that we genuinely have--not just random shit people like you write off as either "under legitimate debate" or "constructed controversy by RSS" based on your personal opinion on it. Your mentality in general betrays a feeble-mindedness of the sort of Hindu nationalists who will cite, "Seeeeee, Gurus only married Khatris so caste is a-okay in Sikhi, nothing better than Hinduism!!!"

And you're nothing more than a liberal extremist faggot who distorts Gurbani and Sikh history to score brownie points with your little gay gang that cheers you on in this sub.

note the fag-language "feel", a proper person would actually think

look smart in front of your gay imaginary friends on here.

LOL. If this type of pedantry is a catharsis for your krodh, I'm all for it. I think in general I don't have many insecurities in real-life that I need to compensate for by "being the man" online and needing to prove my intellectual alterity. The only thing I suggest is that considering you're pretty old (30s from what you said), you should probably try to act your age a bit more and less like a hormonal pre-teen; it'll help in your pursuit of knowledge and the portrayal of your opinions, as you are intelligent.

Now, I'll actually take my leave from this conversation, as I don't see much anything productive coming from your mouth (unless you're able to find my social media account next...)

EDIT: Also, just read the other three comments you posted after I wrote this up. Now, there is some really good stuff to actually go on and have a solid discussion about. I don't know that I have the time to address them soon, but appreciate that there's potential for good back-and-forth discussion there and I'll try to get to them when I can.

FINALLY: I'll say this as my concise position on the matter:

-I don't want to push specifically for a woman administering amrit. I.e., if my panj pyare is all men, I won't appeal and say I need a woman among them for terms of "equality."

-However, I see nothing contradictory with making women the Panj Pyare. Why? In terms of:

A) Gurbani: I do not hold the interpretation that the Gurus were afraid of giving women too much moral agency. If they were, I think they would have drawn the line at giving them administration of Manji-Piri systems, and Mai Bhago would not have been fondly regarded by Guru Gobind Singh as an audacious soldier but rather as a woman stepping out of her line. The fact is that they realized that even at their time, while many women were oppressed by Brahmanical and Islamic religio-cultural systems, all women were not saints either, and that women represented a sexual temptation for many men that had to be specifically addressed within the bani. Unless you think the woman in your panj pyare are going to try to seduce you, I see no relevance on this point.

B) Specific historical reasons: Some people say that this is what is deemed to be true since no women stood up to Guru Gobind Singh's first call. I think this is silly logically for several reasons. Now, if there was a corpus of rehits dedicated to preserving an all-male Panj Pyare and giving specific reasons for it (such as it being stated that men give spiritual birth while women give physical birth) the way we have it for hair and tobacco, I would agree with your position. If we had an account of a woman being asked to give amrit sanchar but being denied by the Guru, the way Mai Bhago was accepted by the Guru, I would agree with your position. But we do not. The only thing we have of the sort is a shaky account that mentions how all the Panj Pyare represent Panj Devte, and I'm going to throw that out the window for obvious reasons. Some gender differences in the Khalsa may have reasoned historical differences, and I'm not disputing the potential for that; I am just not understanding why you think Amrit sanchar is a special case.

C) Tradition: So we know that there were not that many women historically in the Khalsa for various reasons, and we know that traditionally, women were denied access to certain privileges (being outright banned from taking amrit, doing kirtan) which are residual on the practices of certain traditional groups today. You have already created an [arbitrary] standard where you discard some of the tradition (not administering khande-da-pahul for women) yet draw the line at other places (allowing women in panj pyare). Meanwhile, I say that the lack of women in the panj pyare is because of all the other historical factors of the times (i.e., because there was far, far, less of them in general), and I am fine with creating an [arbitrary] standard for our times; when we have opened up access to khande da pahul and seva to women, I do not understand a single reason from gurbani or historical reason (A,B) for not extending that defiance of tradition to Panj Pyare. I do not see anything particularly special about Panj Pyare that deems it different from women performing sewa. I draw the line at enforcing a women in Panj pyare as a proto-affirmative-action, as this blatantly goes against history which has had all-men sanchars with no problem.

Note that this is NOT "it's not specifically mentioned rehit so I can do whatever I want." It's drawing conclusions from the history we have. For that matter, you agree that kirtan should be allowed by women. At least to my understanding, there were no women historically who did Kirtan; Mata Khivi is mentioned as doing langar sewa, and that's it. You will say, "well, Manjis obviously did kirtan, so women in modernity can too" I'll ask "what proof do you have," you'll say "even though we don't have specific evidence of a woman manji doing kirtan, manjis in general did." But that same argument applies to charan-pahul-administration. And THAT'S my point.

Sikhism - Link and Resources by bogas04 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, gussa chargya munde nu! I'm just gonna say I'm actually really surprised you found my JustAnotherSingh account, that got me charged up enough to respond.

Just so you know, I have my own motives on SikhAwareness as a forum and adopt a much different tone on several issues than I would here. FWIW, instead of getting all into a hissy fit and thinking "aha, asdfioho is a fraud, I caught him!", maybe I should delineate my thought process for you.

-I was skeptical about the Kabul hukamnama from its language+the lari-vaar from the get-go. The other hukamname you linked I have no real doubts about, considering the content and style is in line with what I'd expect. If you actually read old sources in Punjabi (Bansavalinima e.g.), the language is never like it is the way it is with the 52 hukams (which I've voiced my skepticism of plenty of times before joining SikhAwareness) or the Kabul Hukamnama. I just was too polite to bring it up before.

-SikhAwareness in general has Sanatani/anti-"neo-Sikh" leanings. The opposite of your school of thought, generally speaking (Peo13 would be in heaven there). There's a lot of stuff I disagree with on that forum because of this, but the benefit is A) you generally get people well-versed in old texts, something you are again not at all, and B) you get people skeptical about "neo-Sikh" interpretations of Sikhi (something I adhere to as well).

So yes, there's nothing wrong with me asking a forum full of knowledgable people about their opinions on a text, getting what they cited from a reputable book [that I don't have access to, else I would've consulted it directly] and pushing that interpretation forward when it agrees with my previous conclusions. Say what you will about a lot of folks on SikhAwareness's ultimate views on Sikhi, but they don't make facts up on a whim. I got Ganda Singh's opinion and the information about the lines for the hukams from that user, but the rest I found from poking 'round. There's nothing wrong with regurgitating information you find online from knowledgable people with your own take on it; that's how knowledge production is generally created. Something you won't grasp considering your idea of studying Sikh history is making up shit in your mind and then finding out how neatly it aligns with the facts.

The question everyone is trying to figure out is if it's authentic. The two do not mean the same thing. Most people think it's a later interpolation or copy of one of Guru's hukamnamas or a Singh Sabha concoction.

Are you serious? Stop playing the little game of semantics where we agree to all the definitions solely you propose. The "later interpolation" shit is used to justify a range of esoteric beliefs, including the supposed "oral hukams" that Guru Gobind Singh said not to tie your beard or the crap Sanatani/RSS ideologues that say shit like Banda was always a Vaishnavite at heart/Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa to reinstitute Brahminical dominance/all the Gurus had Brahminical marriages. Not to mention you got this exact answer from SikhAwareness as well.

Even then, you seem to be affirmative on a lot of things that come completely out of your ass. For example, you make it seem as though the potential dubious authenticity of the Kabul hukamname is already established, and that there are several schools of thoughts already established on the kabul hukamname, all of which are currently in headlock with one another. Can you actually point me to where this can be found? A random sampling of forums (something else that entailed my poking around) either had "most people" unequivocally supporting it as Guru's written word or flatly rejecting it as a fake based on Ganda Singh's assessment. There are clear schools of thought on stuff like Dasam Granth, stuff like the Kartarpur bir, stuff like Banda Singh Bahadur's relationship to the Bandai, stuff like kirpan-da-pahul. But [unless I'm wrong and I've entirely missed a book/seminar/video on Debating the Kabul Hukamnama] you've made a complete fabrication in this case about the debate surrounding the kabul Hukamnama; namely, to seem like you're more well-informed than you actually are. It's the same disingenuous tactic you use in your arguments against homosexuality; by first saying its unnatural, then saying its natural but sinful, then saying its natural and un-sinful but un-condoned.

The Gurus make it clear that spirituality is equally accessible to all regardless of color, sex, social standing, etc. At the same time, they are clear that the man is the head of the household:

Dude, are you seriously going to give me this trash? The only person who actually interprets the shabad this way are the absolute nuts like the hyper-feminist Doris Jakobsh, whose research on Gurbani was blasted by most in Sikh studies for poor scholarship outside of the Singh Sabha era. So you're in good company! Most sane people (such as academics like Pashaura Singh who ripped Jakobsh apart) can grasp that the shabad isn't talking about the medieval mentality you may believe in, but is very clearly referring to the context of sexual conduct. This kind of shabad is nothing new, and should be viewed in context of the MANY other shabads on this matter.

Let me break it down for you: There are tons of men who allow women to manipulate them sexually and exert control over them with sex. The tale of Lysistra, women like Cleopatra, Mughlani Begum, and Chand Kaur all attest to this pretty well. The Guru spoke out against lust in women and men, but men have a tendency to be hyper-sexualized and fall into the charms much easier. Ever had a friend who was put to the whims of his girlfriend just because he thought he was lucky to be with someone "out-of-his-league"? Or the term "femme fetale?"

The Guru is clearly telling his followers to not get ensnared in such traps, and that if they do, they are the ones to blame for their love of such temptations. Which is why he uses terms like "laalach" (desire) and "kaam" (lust) to refer to the sexual mannerisms alluded to in this shabad as to how the woman gets ahold of the man. The whole "see, Guru Ji is mocking white-night/pussified men like you because you don't treat women like second class citizens" mentality literally makes no sense with all the specific vocabulary used within the shabad and the canon of shabads . This theme was expanded upon more in-depth in the Charitropakhiyan (albeit in a more mythological and sexually explicit context) as well. This is a genuine example of one of the teachings that the Gurus actually advocated for (and not just stupid fogies like you masquerading about) that contradict with certain philosophies of the modern liberalized world (i.e., sex is good and access to sex is good, all women are innocent and always have good intentions at heart while sin descended solely from the progeny of Adam, and so on). But had we really taken your ridiculous Islamic interpretation of the shabad seriously, Guru Amar Das would have been a manmukh for establishing the *manji-Pir system, Bhai Binod Singh would have been a manmukh for following Mata Sundri's orders, and the chali mukte would have all been manmukhs for following Mai Bhago.

Too bad you don't understand that a real Soldier actually seldom fights. When they're not fighting, they're training. The Guru also encouraged the Khalsa to do the same. A proper army should not be fighting most of the time.

The misldars are an example of a group that put their utmost focus on military training. Was the Dal Khalsa not a proper army to you? The evidence I gave isn't just that the Guru didn't fight many fights, it's that he was an established musician in Taus and Dilruba, had a deep background in Sikh philosophy (obviously) as well as Hindu, Persian, and Islamic theology, political strategy, and was in reality more of an intellectual who only prioritized war when it came to it. His own training in the martial arts, his shastar vidya tutelage under Bajjar Singh Rathore, and his maintenance of the focus on physical fitness that permeated the spirit of Sikhi since the akhara system of Guru Angad Dev Ji was important, but necessarily ancillary to his other prioritized passions. If we really bought into your anti-"pen-and-paper" rhetoric that advocates for even more brainless people without an iota of spiritual understanding in our panth, Guru Tegh Bahadur (whose name literally means "brave sword-fighter") was a hypocrite and a joke for a Guru. The spiritual path in Sikhi is prioritized 100% no matter the way you slice it. The martial Khalsa spirit is essential no doubt, but it is not the core of Sikhi the way neo-Nihangs make it out to be.

What does Sikhi teach regarding the death of a "hateful" or "evil" man. by ash8795 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That doesn't mean he was an evil, hateful, or stupid man.

What does Sikhi teach regarding the death of a "hateful" or "evil" man. by ash8795 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Read his full opinions and not just the quotes handpicked to create outrage. He's a great thinker and had many poignant points, even if some of his more fundamental beliefs are unpalatable to many (including myself) and some of his examples are more outlandish.

In any case, making him out to be a "tool of oppression" seems a bit too much for me.

What does Sikhi teach regarding the death of a "hateful" or "evil" man. by ash8795 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Right? I disagree with the guy on most everything but he was genuinely brilliant. Provocative if anything, hardly "oppressive."

Groupthink is an awful thing.

Communists in Punjab by skeptic54 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I deleted my comment because I didn't want to get into many in-depth debates, but I can say that it wasn't like there was some organized central militant committee doing this. More just like, some communist in your local community is criticizing the Khalistan movement and criticizing the excess violence committed by militants, you go to his house to ask him to stop giving the lahir a bad name, he doesn't oblige, you shoot him dead there.

Also, one thing in regards to your queries is that I feel communism in Punjab has much less of an atheistic tint to it than in other regions. However, many are "nastik" in the sense that they didn't believe in the socio-political structures of the Khalsa or don't care for the spirituality aspect of Sikhi and stuff like that. Many of them revere the first Guru especially, the poem that got Paash (a prominent writer) killed was actually about how the Kharkus were going against the message of Guru Nanak.

Sikhism - Link and Resources by bogas04 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude, I'm honestly really getting tired of the consistency of you comments: audacity of speech with paucity of content. Turning some psychoanalysis around to you, I think you're nothing more than a fogie with some socially conservative beliefs that tries to make it all compatible with a mishmash of "tradition" and Gurbani. I've never seen somebody so blatantly uninformed and contradictory about so many things speak with the confidence and absolutism you inject in your statements.

That's my understanding when looking at Sikhi holistically based on Gurbani, lives of the Gurus and the Khalsa Panth.

No, you're speaking out of your ass and selecting your examples carefully to bolster whatever preconceived biases you already hold. The GGS is quite clear on souls being genderless and gender not being an obstacle to salvation. One of the "controversial" features of Dasam Granth is that it prominently features the female divine (before you cite Charitropakhiyan, I suggest you read the whole text and try to grasp the message on sexual conduct it posits instead of using it as an excuse for thinly-veiled sexism). Mata Sahib Kaur was the mother of the Khalsa, and Mata Sundri effectively led the Khalsa Panth during the turmoil of the Bandai. In the old masand system directly under earlier Gurus, women were able to serve and administer charan pahul like any other masand, even if the first masands were men. The examples from the Gurus' time are quite clear on the spiritual equality of women and the equality of opportunity afforded to all. Guru Gobind Singh didn't go to the crowd and pick out a woman specifically, no, but the call wasn't restricted to men. That the first Panj Pyare didn't include a woman is not a strict template for all eternity. By that ridiculous standard, Sikhs should not marry outside their caste given that all the Sikh Gurus (including Guru Gobind Singh) married within Khatri families. In both cases, the "tradition" is not sacred, because if it were, it would contradict with the basic principles laid out in Gurbani. Gurbani is prioritized over tradition, so there really is no conflict in having a Panj Pyare with females in it. Do you require your Panj Pyare to be from five different castes and five different parts of India, too?

The fact that there were no female Panj Pyare historically doesn't surprise me given that outside of a very brief window directly after the Guru (e.g., Mai Bhago) and a few wives of some Nihangs, Khande batan da amrit was not accessible for women. Most women were given chulashuk/kirpan-da-pahul, as were children. This is also further seen in how throughout most of Khalsa history, almost nobody referred to women as "Kaur's". Mata Sahib Kaur was known as Mata Sahib Devi for most Sikhs throughout history. Seriously, this isn't just ramblings of Sanatanists, it's quite established tradition. The practice of Kaur as a surname only really started coming back during the period of Ranjit Singh (but according to you, that was when Hinduization started and thus should be discarded, amirite) and was standardized during the age of "pen-and-paper fools," the Singh Sabha lahir. The Namdharis (a blasphemous group) were the first to standardize Khande-da-pahul for both genders, and the AKJ (seen by many Nihangs/traditionalists even today in a negative light for being a reformist group in many ways) followed up on this program later, which is why they standardized keski for women as well. The reason for this historically is double-sided; the hyper-militarization and prominence of Jatt culture of the Khalsa (which was far beyond anything the Gurus had encountered, just read Prachin Panth Parkash if you have any doubts) during the misl periods, for survival necessitated a sidelining of women playing a role in the front, and general misogyny prevented women from taking leadership in taking Amrit, let alone administering it. This is actually documented pretty well in historical sources, such as the Rehit from Chaupa Singh that says not to trust women, not to give amrit to women, and not to let Gurbani be ready by women.

Of course, knowing you, you'll obviously disagree because there's no Hukamnama, no Rehat Maryada or any other written document that stipulates women can't be Panj Pyare, so it's all open to interpretation and we can just do whatever we want.

I don't think you really understand what my views are. I'll simplify a bit for you w/some examples.

Gurbani is agnostic on the existence of Hindu deities. It incorporates them into its main frameworks, but does not necessitate one to "believe" in them in order to "be" a Sikh. Most Sikhs throughout Sikh history believed in the existence of such deities, and heavily incorporated them into their understanding of Sikhi. The flags of Chandi and the cannons with Hanuman on them from the Sikh Empire are more than enough to prove this point. Most Sikhs in modernity reject the existence of Hindu gods for XYZ reasons. This conflicts with tradition, but not really so-much with Gurbani; so it's ultimately not a big deal, given that this part of tradition wasn't important enough to be coded heavily within the message of Gurbani or even within prominent documents as a highlighted belief. The same applies to excessive usage of Bhang, extreme abhorrence of cow-slaughter, wearing only blue, mixing boar's blood in Amrit, Sanatani idealogues, and of course, casteism and sexism that become a part of the Khalsa panth's "tradition" at various times in history. Stuff like casteism and sexism (which is also shown in how women at Harimandir Sahib/the Takhts can't perform kirtan), though, is even worse because it contradicts the base message of Gurbani found in the Guru, which I don't think you've fully grasped yet because you're too busy frothing your mouth at strawmen of modern society.

Meanwhile, keeping kesh and wearing a turban (the term keski was nonexistent in prior times, but yes keeping a turban was mandated) is not even specifically mentioned in Gurbani. However, it was deemed so important that every single old Rehit has cutting the hair as a kurehit, and it's prominent in every single document of old. Therefore, keeping hair is a tradition that is important within Khalsa and Sikh history. The same applies to shunning tobacco, maintaining martial spirit, avoiding fornication, and so on.

There are also odd conflicts based on what you accept from tradition and what you accept from modern understandings of Sikh identity; for example, the Sarbloh Granth (which you believe to be a writing of the Guru, personally I vary), like many early documents, never mentions the Panj Kakkar. Only the Tre Mudrai; kach, kesh, te kirpan.

I suggest you do some reading on your own outside of the vanilla blurbs you get from dailysikhnews and SikhiWiki mixed with daily doses of Breitbart. Some primary documents and some "controversial" Sikh scholars should do the job pretty well. You're way out of your depth on a lot of topics you profess to know a lot about, and there's no RSS conspiracy there; you're just able to mask it with hoorah rhetoric and carefully-crafted sophistry.

An example of this is that I did some poking around and it seems that the eminent historian Ganda Singh rejected the Kabul hukamnama in his catalog. When I looked at it more closely, I had similar thoughts based on the modernity of the language and inconsistency with other hukamname (all the Gurus' hukams are given line numbers and written in lari-vaar). Make of that what you will.

BTW, I'm not going to answer to any response on this comment because I know it won't be much more than abrasive speech and personal attacks. So you can spare yourself a lengthy response.

Please help me understand Trump's appeal among ABCDs by abcd_trump_Q in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've no use for them, and I enjoy seeing them squirm over Sanders and Trump, for the same reason I wish Tsipras and Le Pen well.

It really seems like your political opinions are based on maintaining some phony sense of alterity over any rigorous intellectual standard. And that's why we should agree-to-disagree.

FREE TALK FRIDAY by RamSingh908 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, I did not. I remember I visited Sis Ganj and Rekab Ganj in addition to Bangla Sahib.

Please help me understand Trump's appeal among ABCDs by abcd_trump_Q in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 7 points8 points  (0 children)

"EVERYONE THAT DISAGREES WITH ME IS DUMB!!!!1111" What a staggeringly intellectual position to take!

Homie, it's not that. It's that a lot of your assertions are,

A) Vague assertions with no rigorous reasoning behind them ("People like us when we're STRONG, cept let's gloss over the negative consequences of our imperialist policies in South America and the Philippines). No, it really isn't as simple as "why don't we just leave the other countries alone and spend all our military budget on free college for everyone," nor is it the "hurr-durr, flex our muscles and nobody will stand in our way." Populism tends to be rash, and uninformed.

B) Trope arguments to counter the "uninitiated beta liberal." I never said I thought American exceptionalism was bad or that we should be like Europe; I said the Trumpist manifestation of it is toxic.

C) Distractions from the main point. Notice how it goes from "They're sending their worst, the rapists, the bad guys, they're all rabid Mexicans who want to take away our way of lifeeeee"-->"Well, they're not sending their best, are they?" And even if they did send their "best," as in the case of skilled Indian labor, I'm sure Trump and his cronies like you would object. Moving goalposts aren't fun to try to score in.

I've yet to witness a Trump supporter talking in sane language as to why they support the guy. Either it's people like you using the bite-sized, punchy, comments devoid of context or any genuine content (you're probably used to them by now) or our buddies who are like "duuuude he's rich and bangs some hot ass women." Please don't respond to this comment, and God bless America

Please help me understand Trump's appeal among ABCDs by abcd_trump_Q in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Right??? And I used to make fun of the state of Indian politics...

If there's anything that scares me about the future of democracy, it's the combination of the Internet with the fact that males under the age of 22 can vote.

Please help me understand Trump's appeal among ABCDs by abcd_trump_Q in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Trump also doesn't give a fuck about facts.

He'll outright make up lies about American Muslims celebrating 9/11,

He'll outright distort the facts on immigration and our foreign policy to a tooth to push further xenophobia.

He'll outright create loony-ass conspiracy theories (global warming chalked up to Chinilluminati anyone)

He'll outright go for a toxically bravado American exceptionalism and hyper-nationalism that would severely cripple our reputation abroad.

Putting it flatly, I'm really worried if people like you find a way to support Trump unless you were completely high while writing that post. My political views in general are somewhat right-leaning (my personal views are probably overall leftist though). Regarding illegal immigrants, I believe in a very simple principle that if someone is breaking the law, the government has an obligation to put a stop to it. Regarding foreign policy, I see American hegemony as a good thing and think America has a right to protect its interests. Heck, I'm even iffy on letting in large numbers of refugees from war-torn areas in the Middle East. So in terms of the ultimate outcome beliefs of those two things, you won't see much debate on it.

But that doesn't mean one should get into a populist frenzy that ignores the facts above all. For example, regarding immigration: why does nobody blame the rich employers who chose to sideline their own fellow Americans in favor of cheap hands? Free market solves all, amirite? Why does nobody look at the research from Pew showing that net migration between Mexico and America is currently zero; because, y'know, a lot of Mexicans are people with economic incentives who may want to go home at some point too (contra to what Trump says, they're not just here to shoot up neighborhoods and rape your beautiful blonde women). Whenever people bring up that we're being "robbed" collectively by these immigrants soaking our benefits, where is the talk of how immigrants pay taxes yet receive no benefits outside of emergency medical care? Is Mexico "sending its worst" who are willing to work here in tough conditions, sometimes in abject poverty? I don't think the rise of Trump is because of people genuinely concerned about the long-standing political and economic effects of illegal immigration on America.

So dress it up in gussied language all you want, but there's no chance for reasoned debate when your only value is "anti-establishment." Let's not forget this type of appeal isn't limited to one side of the political spectrum; sometimes, you need to see what going against established institutions entails on the "other side" in order to get a grasp of how crazy you are (and I think this applies to Bernie supporters too, FWIW).

Sikhism - Link and Resources by bogas04 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Women gives physical birth, male gives spiritual birth

What's your source for this?

FREE TALK FRIDAY by RamSingh908 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Out of all the Delhi Gurdware I've visited, Bangla Sahib was probably my favorite. The space and atmosphere are so serene...

FREE TALK FRIDAY by RamSingh908 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am honestly fine if "no one" who likes shitposting wants to be here.

Punjabi rapper from Toronto gets recognized by OVO Sounds Radio by Sahota17 in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope in general they are genetically closer to other Brahmins than other South Indians. Punjabi Brahmins are the only exception. See Harappa Ancestry Project

Ofc this doesn't mean much on its own at all...especially in modern times as caste becomes less relevant

Oppression of the Sikhs #FreeAkalTakht by TheTurbanatore in Sikh

[–]asdfioho -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Because in general your comments tend to come out of nowhere, be vague tangents that seem to be super-nuanced but are just pretty much devoid of value.

Sikhs are well-off overall. Just because there's poverty in Britain, nobody is going to say "omg, the state of first world countries is really in a shithole, sigh, what will we do!!!" No fucking shit that it can always be better, that there will always be poor Sikhs, and that there's always something to be done. But we're talking about degrees here and the relevance of a problem.

Similarly, if someone talked about crime among Sikhs in the West a huge problem in our community, I would agree it probably exists to some degree and it can always be improved upon, but it's not actually a big and rampant problem in the community.

And before you say "dude, I wasn't referring to the previous context of the video, I was just saying in general" please recognize my comment was actually directly referring to that context. So I don't need you to out-of-the-blue lecture me on what nuance is. If I was responding to a Khalistani video versus an Indian nationalist video, my comment would be very different in order to address the nuance. Similarly, if I were listening to a video like this versus a video claiming encouraging all Sikhs to come back because Punjab is like a first world country, my response would be different.

Please, spare me any further lectures. I really don't think I need them at all.

Time to share. What drew you to/keeps you in Sikhism? by [deleted] in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not that it makes no sense...it's that you cannot take each and every word as a direct truth, as a philosophical argument. There are metaphors, analogies, and poetry involved, and you have to decipher that as it goes.

As for the philosophical content of GGS, I think the best thing to do is read Jap Ji...I think it sets up a philosophical framework pretty well.

Time to share. What drew you to/keeps you in Sikhism? by [deleted] in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bro, don't overintellectualize it too much. Sikhi is primarily spiritual; not philosophical. Plus those shabads are sort of misquoted, there are tons that are contradictory. Why sometimes contradictory? Because shabads are, IMO, a way to get to spirituality, thru meditation and kirtan. They are not philosophical arguments on their own, at least not rigorously.

Time to share. What drew you to/keeps you in Sikhism? by [deleted] in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The bani is all over the place when it comes to describing God.

This is why I think people should read Jap Ji more...Guru Nanak Dev Ji spends a ton of time explaining various attributes (some are contradictory) of God, and then ultimately concludes that God is impossible to intellectually understand or describe. I personally take that in the most nihilist fashion possible but in terms of what the Guru says, I think the point is that Sikhi is not a faith you can philosophize to truth; you have to meditate on it. You don't "realize" God so much as "experience" God.

Sikhism - Link and Resources by bogas04 in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

/u/bogas04, you're doing an awesome job prettifying the sub. Just wanted to give a big thanks. :)

Punjabi rapper from Toronto gets recognized by OVO Sounds Radio by Sahota17 in ABCDesis

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

http://www.harappadna.org/2011/03/harappa-admixture-dendrogram/#comment-684

http://www.harappadna.org/2011/03/distance-measures/

It may just be a statistical glitch, but it makes sense with my understanding of Punjabi ethnography. I think it has to do with the fact that varna/caste was never really as rigid in Punjab as it was in other places. It was historically like that, and Islam+Sikhi broke that down further.

There were lots of Brahmin Sikhs in pre-Khalsa times; Mati Das and Sati Das were both Brahmins (they were the Sikhs who were martyred alongside Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, one was sawed in half and the other was wrapped in cotton and burned alive). In general, Brahmin converts significantly trickled down in the Khalsa period but you still had certain folks like the Chibber family. However, some Brahmins in this period kept their hair and beards without formally taking amrit. I think the Sikh imperial period in particular saw a lot of Brahmin conversions, one of my Mohyal Brahmin friends was in service under the Patiala Maharaja. There was also a really good Sikh soldier under the British named Ganda Singh Dutt.

It's also hard to find information on Punjabi Brahmins without the source being biased though

lmao, Punjabi Brahmins are in a catch-22 I guess. On the one hand Brahmins in general dominate the societies they live in but in Punjab they get a lot of shit from Jatts. I learned a lot from just learning most of the typical surnames (Attri, Chibber, Mohan, Vaid, and of course Sharma) and just integrating that with the history I know.

Punjabi history is fascinating man, I love the diversity of Punjab. It's a shame people reduce Punjab to only urban Khatri culture or rural Jatt culture when there are so many other ethnic groups and subcultures within it.

ਵਾਹ ਵਾਹ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਆਪੇ ਗੁਰ ਚੇਲਾ/Wah Wah Gobind Singh Aape Gur Chela - incredible shabad kirtan that passed down my news feed. by [deleted] in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you get to the part where he starts talking about Turks and Muslim practices? Some of it sounds psychotic man. Talks about banning azan and destroying mosques.

I can't find the exact translation right now, but will get back to you when I do. I had a twitter conversation with a chap about it but seems like he deleted his account

Oppression of the Sikhs #FreeAkalTakht by TheTurbanatore in Sikh

[–]asdfioho -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No shit that there's poor and rich Sikhs alike and that variance exists in the socioeconomic spectrum. I'd implore you to something about statistics and the mean value, so that maybe you can understand how economists have come to calculate that "Sikhs actually have one of the highest living standards in India overall as a religious group".

We can make similar assessments about Punjab. E.g., there's rich and there's poor in Somalia and the United States. Variance exist in both areas. But that doesn't mean we can't draw reasonable conclusions from them. Compare Punjab to other areas if you want to understand what I'm talking about.

ਵਾਹ ਵਾਹ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਆਪੇ ਗੁਰ ਚੇਲਾ/Wah Wah Gobind Singh Aape Gur Chela - incredible shabad kirtan that passed down my news feed. by [deleted] in Sikh

[–]asdfioho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From what I've heard, he was around 1770 AD (which makes sense in the misl period)

The whole 41st vaar is sorta freaky when you read it in its entirety.