This is something my mother got very, very right. She never pressured us to hug, kiss or have physical contact with anybody, even though it pissed off the grandparents/aunts/uncles. She wouldn't even tolerate nagging; if they tried to guilt or cajole us, she'd say, "we don't have to kiss anybody, ever."

It's absurd. The idea that eating fat makes your fat and eating cholesterol raises your own cholesterol is like sympathetic magic or voodoo, and yet it's so ingrained. Does eating vegetables make you a vegetable?

It's almost as if we didn't have a massive obesity epidemic!

It's about the right to exist as a full human being instead of just an incubator.

When I meet a kid from Buttfuck Idaho who's never met a Jew, it is *not her fault* that she has no idea that I don't have a Christmas tree, or that my kids haven't been "saved." If I don't feel like answering why I don't accept Christ as my saviour (and I'm asked this more often than you'd think) I have many ways of…

Exactly this.

I would automatically assume something about his taste and common sense.

It's a whole industry dedicated to trolling us.

It shouldn't reflect on your group; don't get me wrong, I think it's terrible that this is how humans work, but that is the absolute truth. If you're a Jew in a part of world without many of them (midwest, for instance) you are told growing up that if you screw up badly and publicly, it looks bad not only for you but…

Well, I disagree. I think we all have obligations to act civilly whenever possible. There are polite ways of refusing to enter a dialogue, or of refusing to answer a question, or of removing yourself from a situation entirely. Manners go a very long way, even (especially) in response to rudeness or ignorance. They…

99% of the time, when people - particularly in the Urban Outfitters demographic - say "I'm depressed" they mean "I had a bad day" or "I'm annoyed" or "my entitlement expectations are not being met." They seldom mean "I am suffering from a diagnosable mental disorder.

Having worked in media, I am convinced that half of ALL of it is persona and theatre. Which makes it more, not less, troubling that it's the main vehicle through which most people get their information, but that's a different rant.

It was a dumb, mean throwaway remark, and I defy you to find a single human being who hasn't uttered one of those per week since the age of 4. Glenn Beck is right on, in this case.

Wait, why is Alec Baldwin leaping into this to make an asshole of himself? Does he have some dog in this fight, or is he reduced to this now that his shows are cancelled?

For sure you can't be expected to educate everyone, now should you expect other people to spend lots of time teaching you. But there is a world of difference between "it's not my responsibility to educate you" which is hostile, rude, and what my sainted grandmother would have called ill-bred, and "X is a really good…

No, it means that if I'm talking to someone who references an experience I don't know much about, and I find them at all interesting, I will express curiosity in a contextually appropriate way.

1. You are not using "passive aggressive" correctly.

Yes. When people respond to a sincere and polite request for an explanation with "it's not my job to educate you," I can only conclude that if it isn't worth their two minutes to speak with me about it, it certainly isn't worth my time to learn about it when I could be learning something I value more.

I like how your generalization is accurate and fair, while all the other generalizations are ignorant and offensive.

And a ginger!