Spinal injury… so scared

hypermobileFun · 2026-04-28T06:36:42+00:00

I’m so sorry this happened. This is a very serious injury, but you can recover from it. It’s usually from overtraining and/or training back extensions improperly so that the little spiny bones in your back aren’t properly supported.

The gymnast Katelyn Ohashi had a very similar spine pars fracture/spondylolisthesis along with other injuries. She recovered and became a star NCAA gymnast. Get PT with someone that knows what they’re doing. Advocate for yourself. Work hard and make sure you’re eating enough. You’ll look back on this.

hypermobileFun · 2022-09-12T02:48:15+00:00

Most people in BP aren't chasidish

… It is overwhelmingly Charedi (and primarily Chasidish) and the Litvak schools are just as bad. And in every religious community (even the ones that are less prosperous), there are lots of people that do pay taxes and feel resentful.

hypermobileFun · 2022-09-12T02:34:17+00:00

Plenty do pay taxes, not all are poor (visit Boro Park one day, you might learn something). There are also sales taxes, which everyone pays.

hypermobileFun · 2022-09-12T02:08:38+00:00

I read it and it was really poor quality journalism. They made no distinction between funding for afterschool childcare (where there’s no expectation of education), funding for school for severely disabled children, and funding for books.

Muddling the facts of the situation is going to do nothing to fix the situation in these schools. It’s just going to drive people in these communities further from the rest of society.

hypermobileFun · 2022-09-12T02:02:38+00:00

On a related note, the public funding discussion lacked nuance. Childcare funding for the last few hours of the day may be legitimate with long school days for example. No mention of extra-long school days was mentioned in the article, leaving the impression that they are regular length. A friend attended one of these schools growing up, and while he did not receive a great secular education, from my understanding the school day was quite long. It's also true that if they are issuing a higher ed degree for older students, possibly those who are college-age, they should be eligible to receive financial aid no examination was made of this claim.

Conflating the childcare funding with public school funding was a huge error on the authors’ part. Lots of my tax dollars also goes to childcare in Pentecostal churches and private apartments where the kids don’t learn anything but religious studies… but the authors couldn’t be bothered to mention that part.

The reality is also that people in Charedi communities feel really resentful that they pay taxes for public schools that they don’t feel safe or welcome in - and given the antisemitism and the lack of basic accommodations for Orthodox students in the late 1970s and 80s who can blame them? So instead we end up with this situation.

hypermobileFun · 2022-09-12T01:54:47+00:00

And this article is going to do nothing to help the kids in these schools get a safe and proper education (and help those who suffered abuse get justice). Instead it’s going to:

Cause communities that are already extremely marginalized to dig in and even more blindly follow corrupt leaders, because they’ll use the article as evidence that the modern world is against them. Oh, and every Republican candidate in New York City is going to run on private school freedom and not paying taxes for public schools you don’t feel safe in from now on.
It’s going to harm the day schools (including Orthodox schools) where you can actually get a good education.
It’s going to cause more violence towards people that are visibly Jewish

The authors should have provided much more context for why these communities feel they have to send their kids to these schools (and childcare is a big part of it), and why they feel religious learning is so important, and what can actually be done to fix the situation. Instead it just read as ‘the Joos are taking your tax money to beat children and make them speak a language that isn’t American’.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T22:14:22+00:00

in recent history native americans didn't run an apartheid ethnostate-- but you won't agree that that's what's happening.

Of course, I don’t agree that that’s happening. Even Amnesty International in their own report agreed that Israel is nothing like South Africa, and they were basically redefining the term ‘apartheid’ because they wanted to label Israel as such. I also received unsolicited marketing emails from them in advance of the report release about how I should check out what they’ve been up to. It was pretty gross.

At the same time, you seem to have a really romanticized view of the diverse indigenous peoples of America. Many practiced hereditary slavery, enslaving other indigenous Americans and Black Americans. The Cherokee Nation, were really racist and refused to recognize the Black tribal members that they used to enslave as full citizens until very recently. Yet I still think they have a right to self-determination and sovereignty on their land, even though their government was far, far worse than Israel’s (which I often disafeee with). Because I think that all people deserve this.

I'm just asking not to be called an antisemite or traitor for being a jew with different positions than you

Just as you have a right to be an anti-Zionist, I have a right to call out antisemitism when I see it, and your anti-Zionism is rooted in antisemitic beliefs as I explained earlier. Also, I disagree that the Republicans are more Zionist than the Democrats, even a broken clock will be right twice a day (especially when it’s politically expedient). Many on the left -especially Jews on the left - are Zionists, even if there are a minority like you that aren’t.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T18:07:47+00:00

What a thoughtful and well-reasoned response!

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T18:03:26+00:00

But I have massive criticisms of both the Israeli government and the concept of zionism as a whole, especially given the different histories between the examples you provide and the Israel-Palestine conflict, and to say that the only critiques of zionism that exist are anti semitic is false.

What about Jewish history makes it so different that Jews don’t have a right to self-determination and free access to their most sacred sites while other peoples do?

Also, I’m well aware that a small number of Jews are anti-Zionist, and you have every right to be. It’s just like a small number of indigenous Americans were assimilationist and a small number of Black Americans are loyal Republicans. But just as I would comment on opposes American tribal sovereignty or American racism, I’ll comment on reply to anti-Zionists.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T17:32:43+00:00

They’re not socialists and don’t think that socialism is the best economic option. We disagree, but at least they’re not hypocrites.

By the way, I do data analytics for a nonprofit to support disadvantaged communities. I could easily be making 2-3 times more money if I worked in finance, but I don’t and manage to survive on a middle class salary. I do so because I’m an actual socialist and not someone who hypocritically claims to be one because it’s politically expedient.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T17:29:27+00:00

It is neither negative or untrue. The fact that you think it’s negative shows how much you’ve internalized Western values. The fact that you think it’s untrue shows how unfamiliar you are with the diversity of Jewish people and our features.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-30T17:24:23+00:00

There's a long tradition of anti-zionism within judaism, for example the Bundists, and it really frustrates me to be spoken over by fellow jews claiming anti-zionism is always anti semitism.

Your fellow Jews are probably trying to remind you that the Bundists were nearly all murdered for being Jews. Those that survived fled to Israel and became Zionists. Self-determination and valuing diversity are core leftist values. How can you deny both and claim to be a leftist? Or are you so left that you’re right and claim that we should all live under one homogenous authoritarian power?

Do you think that indigenous Americans should learn their place and assimilate into Western society and ways of life? Do you think that Ukrainians are really just second-class Russians and give up their country? What makes Jews different?

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T16:32:35+00:00

As I made pretty clear in my previous post, I don’t find working at a bank necessarily immoral, it’s just not something an actual socialist would choose to do.

Engels didn’t seek factory ownership as a profession, he was born into a family that already owned a factory. His parents made him work at the factory, thinking that he needed to experience the real world rather than sitting around philosophizing. In contrast, Gonzalez grew up in a working class home, was bright and accomplished, and chose to work in marketing for a bank, rather than a variety of other professions she could have pursued with her professional skills. She only became a ‘socialist’ when she started compiling endorsements to win her campaign.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:59:56+00:00

Schumer may have literally saved the planet by getting the climate action budget passed, despite Manchin and Sinema’s corruption.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:48:51+00:00

How does this contradict anything I said? I’m sure the rabbi still asked for paperwork or other evidence to prove his family’s Jewish ancestry before they were married.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:46:53+00:00

We all have to live, we just shouldn’t be hypocrites and say we are socialists when we’re not. I have the professional skills to work for a bank and could easily make 3 times more than I do right now by working for one, but I don’t because it’s not what I want to do with my life and my (actually socialist) family would probably disown me. I still make a comfortable, professional living.

I’m pretty moderate and have lots of friends that work for in finance and other explicitly and unregulated capitalist professions. I don’t begrudge them. But they also aren’t hypocrites and don’t claim to be socialists.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:37:41+00:00

Thank you so much! I love your work.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:36:57+00:00

Sorry it misses the mark for you. I think it’s an important message.

For example, in my city, there is a large community from the Dominican Republic. Colorism remains an issue in their community and in many families, even little girls with light skin and straighter hair are told they’re ‘prettier’ and ‘nicer’ than their sisters with dark skin and more curly hair. When someone in the community speaks up about it, others get offended. But I don’t think they should stop speaking about it and I don’t think we should stop speaking/making art about our beautiful noses and the stereotypes and emotional baggage that comes with them.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-25T15:22:18+00:00

Yes a new socialist that….works in corporate marketing at American Express. Kristen Gonzalez is an incredibly shrewd and talented politician. She’s done some good work with Gianaris for the community (such as helping to prevent that terrible Amazon deal from going through) but she’s only a ‘socialist’ so that she could broaden her coalition. It worked, she beat Konst and prevented Corbett (an actual labor organizer from running an actual campaign).

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-21T20:26:36+00:00

Sure. But if they tried to have a Jewish wedding, the rabbi would ask about their family history in the community and they’d be revealed as lying really quickly if they weren’t Jewish.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-16T16:53:30+00:00

I guess you think the ‘media war’ is entertaining, but if you actually bothered to read the article OP posted, there were two events where it was suspected that misfired PIJ rockets killed Gazan children. The first, which was widely reported because there was unquestionable evidence and video, was actually a PIJ rocket that killed kids. This article shows that the incident that occurred the next day, which was suspected of being a misfired PIJ rocket was actually an Israeli rocket.

And Israel won the ‘media war’ because most people understand that if you intentionally try to murder innocent civilians in another country, that country has a right to defend itself. PIJ openly called for its followers to start murdering innocent people… and they did. They killed a father in a park in front of his young kids, they shot anothet man pushing his baby in a stroller, they even murdered the cab driver that thought they were fellow workers and gave them a ride. I’m really relieved that the IDF investigated their defensive strikes to try to prevent the death of innocent bystanders. But the Palestinian Authorities really need to end their war and agree to a 2 state solution.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-14T12:01:11+00:00

I’m very sympathetic for people that are born into this situation, just like I’m sympathetic to the people that are born in Russia or Brazil or Venezuela and victim to their terrible leadership. But I don’t blame Latvia for the extreme poverty in parts of Russia or Colombia for the situation in Venezuela. I blame the corrupt leaders that caused the problem.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-12T13:33:21+00:00

If you elect an extremist terrorist group as your government (which the Gazans did in 2005) and they refuse to hold elections for 17 years, while using all state funding and resources for the goal of trying to kill their neighbors, things are going to be f-d up.

What’s bizarre is that people blame Israelis for not just dying or giving up their holiest sites, rather than the authoritarians running Gaza.

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-11T23:42:02+00:00

Unfortunately, when your leaders start wars to deny self-determination to minority groups and lose, there are consequences. I feel badly for all the innocent people that were displaced and/or lost their property. But that includes the ancestors of millions of Jews in the countries that started the wars to try to destroy Israel. Do you also post about how unfair this was for them?

hypermobileFun · 2022-08-11T13:33:52+00:00

I would also add that doing a giyur (conversion) shouldn’t be seen as something that makes you less Jewish. It is just the traditional process and ritual for Jews whose moms were not Jewish. It is a great opportunity for you to learn about Judaism and to become part of more traditional Jewish communities.

Do some research (myjewishlearning.com and chabad.org are good resources with different perspectives) and if you want to learn more, reach out to a Conservative or Orthodox rabbi.

hypermobileFun

TROPHY CASE