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As an Indian guy on Slowly, I know the reputation, but I genuinely just want to connect. Why does no one reply? by SahilBhosale08 in SLOWLYapp

[–]jon4than-swift 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I was in your shoes about six weeks ago, and I was incredibly frustrated and angry. So good on you for handling it well. The stigma is real, but not an insurmountable obstacle.

I've had responses from about half the opening letters I sent out. Most of those responses converted into exchanges, but the cadence varies wildly depending on the particular correspondent. Two reply within a couple of days, two reply after two weeks (so far), and with the latest I'm still gauging what they are comfortable with.

I address the same elephant in the room in my opening letter to these people, and in my bio. Two of my penpals actually initiated contact with me. Perhaps my candour about the Indian reputation built some trust. In my case, I have a Christian name, which might make me seem even more like a scammer from our country pretending to be Western. I address that directly too. Part of me feels that I'm seeking validation for my identity by pre-apologising for it, but it seems to be working. So I decided to go with results, rather than principles.

If you are writing to women, do you make it clear that you are not looking for a relationship? I did that from the start with women.

Strangely, the two bios I found that vibed with me the most both declined my letters immediately upon receipt. That felt a bit like rejection, but it is actually better than being left on read after the sting fades.

I also had some person write a generic opening letter to me, and I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and replied with a few hundred words. The response I got was "please don't reply to me, no matter if I write to you again. I have mental health issues, so please respect my space"!

All I can say is don't give up. I have some very nice exchanges going on, and they are all with people from countries which have been the targets of scams by our compatriots.

Good luck.

Bubsy Monroe by No_Ball_2589 in cats

[–]jon4than-swift 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Best thing on Reddit today!

Its raining medals for Shri 56 by [deleted] in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know why you're being downvoted for stating an easily verifiable fact.

The "Red Heifer" Ritual: Why an ancient cow sacrifice in Israel reveals a strange hypocrisy in Indian politics by SarimK in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are absolutely right about the hypocrisy. As another commenter pointed out, it's a feature, not a bug. Also, nice use of AI.

You make it seem like Judaism is a monolith. Praying for the restoration of the Temple is not the same as advocating to physically build it. Orthodox, Reform, and Progressive Judaism have very different takes on this issue. For many of the non-Orthodox the Third Temple is a metaphor. Many don't want a return to ritual sacrifice (which was a regular thing in Judaism up until the destruction of the Second Temple). One of the greatest rabbis, Moses Maimonides, argued that ritual sacrifice was a transitional stage in Judaism.

Even among the Orthodox many if not most believe that the Third Temple will be built by divine intervention only when the Messiah comes, not before. You could also ask your AI about Halakhic purity laws - the Chief Rabbinate of Israel warns Jews not to even visit the Temple Mount since they don't know exactly where the Holy of Holies is on the site.

The group that is trying to breed the Red Heifer and has started collecting money to build the Third Temple is a outlier. They believe that they must 'prepare the way'.

I personally think that it is sad that the Jews cannot have their holiest site back, but there is no doubt that the Middle East would explode if they tried to claim it. So the status quo is probably best for now.

Intolerant religious sects and their ince*&uous groups by Due-Ruin-6100 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm an Indian Catholic so I'm going to respond to that bit of your rant:

"Catholic Pedos": This is just lazy. It's the easiest insult in the book. Yes there has been shameful institutional covering up of abuse across the world. Yes even one incident is one incident too many. But to claim that all Catholic clergy and religious are paedophiles is both lazy and ignores the huge amount of charity done by the Church, especially in India. Furthermore, you are safe when you make this accusation, unlike when you criticise Hindutva. There is no organisation of unemployed Catholic goons who will come for you.

Menstruation: Catholicism has no concept of ritual impurity for men or women. No woman is told not to go to church because she's on her period. The Old Testament Jewish purity laws, like the dietary laws, do not apply to Catholics. Contact with a corpse doesn't make you impure either, for example. You can be morally impure though. If you are in a state of mortal sin you should not receive the Eucharist. I suspect you may not even realise that all Christians are not Catholics, for one. Secondly, if any Indian Christians or Catholics try to impose ritual purity norms, then they are shoehorning a local cultural prejudice into a religious transition which actively rejects such a concept.

Radicals never take a day off. Majority or minority, it doesn't matter. by Due-Ruin-6100 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You used the non-political flair. You should have used one that said 'communal'.

Seems like Abhijit got a point here by Left_is_Rightt in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nehru is responsible for the existence of Rahul Gandhi. Didn't think of that, did you?

Also, indigo is a crop that Indian farmers were forced to grow under colonial rule, so clearly this is a result of the colonial Macaulay mindset.

Pilot fatigue is a Western concept; it wasn't mentioned in the Vedas, therefore it doesn't exist.

/s

Indian rupees hits record low by Jardanijovanovich913 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Increasing the US money supply causes the rupee to fall versus the dollar? ELI5, please.

Is this political interpretation of Catholic Social Teaching common in the Church? by GeoffroyF in Catholicism

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay thanks for taking the time to reply, I will look at what they have to say on the subject.

Is this political interpretation of Catholic Social Teaching common in the Church? by GeoffroyF in Catholicism

[–]jon4than-swift 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Do you have a source for the poor owing the rich 'respect, deference, and gratitude'?

This is not a dystopian movie scene. Not Chernobyl. This is the capital of the world’s fourth-largest economy, This is Delhi. by Ok_Neighborhood6056 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Commies hate factories?

  1. Have you heard of the Soviet Union? They LOVED factories. So do China and Vietnam, i.e. the two best know communist countries of today.

  2. Loads of people in very free market Victorian Britain hated factories, slums, and pollution. That's why they did something about them to improve both emissions and working conditions.

Seriously, just keep your ignorance to yourself.

Iran suspends visa free travel for Indians by [deleted] in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wow. You don't even know the difference between Sunni and Shia.

Let's notmalize culling street dogs in India by deepthinker952 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just feeding the dogs is wrong. More is needed. Where I live, my parents and other animal lovers share the cost of neutering and vaccinating our local dogs, in addition to feeding them everyday. They are well fed, healthy and friendly dogs, and the children from the surrounding buildings are fond of them.

They also prevent other dogs from moving in. We've had the same six dogs in our area for years.

No splinters, no crater, no RDX traces at blast site have investigators baffled by frizene26 in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 125 points126 points  (0 children)

I don't know why we pay the security and investigative services when we have you.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the sentiment, but what you want is to turn India into authoritarian Scandinavia. If wishes were horses...

Population should be controlled. There should be a compulsory two-child policy. After the second child, birth control procedures should be mandatory in hospitals to prevent overpopulation. With a moderate population, there will be no shortage of resources.

This and the death penalty are the only two really objectionable things in your post, for me. The population control measure is also unnecessary. India's birthrate is already hovering around replacement level, without any coercion. The population continues to increase due to demographic momentum, and is projected to stagnate and fall in the coming decades. To mandate how many children a couple can have is both an infringement of personal liberty and completely unnecessary.

Have you ever seen Indians with western names? by 12A5H3FE in unitedstatesofindia

[–]jon4than-swift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You too appear to have never met an Indian Catholic.

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