[quadrangle]

We're not blank slates. There really are genetic differences. It very well might be that stereotypes about arguing and having opinions etc. are genetically-connected personality traits, who knows? Maybe some science has brought us a smidgen of understanding just enough to be dangerous…

The weird uncomfortable part is understanding that the strange individualistic rejection of culture and interest in just taking the best ideas from everywhere is actually a common experience of secular American Jews. You know what it's like to be a minority, just not part of the same club as everyone around you, so you question things and easily find the conclusion that most of the old traditions and views are nonsense. You're left wondering whether it's okay to find a "tribe" you fit (political or cultural or whatever) or if really the concept of tribes is itself just bad. If everyone else would stop being tribalist, we could all just live in a post-ethnic, post-diversity world or something where no individual has any more claim to any worldview or idea or culture than any other… but that's fantasy too.

The fact is: most people on the planet haven't even had the chance to be in a situation where they truly separate themselves from their traditions and consider the possibility of just not being of the group they grew up identifying with.

Consider the trans-racial ideas of that controversial lady in Spokane… these things are not easy ideas to grapple with.