"Scantily clad hipster cyclists attracted to the Brooklyn neighborhood made it difficult, the Hasids said, to obey religious laws forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex in various states of undress."
this is pretty funny, but some of the comments are also really offensive. either way, why can’t bearded dudes with silly hats get along?
Yes, this article is 98% ridiculous. But yeah, keep blaming ‘everything’ on the Jews. Make fun of their hats, the way they dress, and how many children they have. Make fun of how they only socialize with their ‘kind.’ Maybe they just don’t want to deal with the fucking close mindedness of most other people and don’t want to explain themselves. Doesn’t seem like you want ‘em around anyway.
I dunno if I’m just missing the sarcasm, but aren’t the bearded dudes with silly hats the Hipsters? Do you capitalize Hipster?
The world has no obligation to bend to your religious whims. It has nothing to do with whether they’re Jews, Christians, or Muslims; it has to do with the dangerously insane idea that your personal choice should be immediately adopted and accepted by the world as a whole - even if the world has to change because of it.
People seem to think that claiming “religion” excuses the most abhorrent of behaviors from criticism since there’s a “higher” reasoning behind it that by complete coincidence reinforces their own worldviews and intolerances.
Religion is the Konami Code of intolerance and criticism.
I can’t agree more. I think this comment from the article sums it up:
But Baruch Herzfeld, who has tried to bridge the gap between hipsters and Hasids with a bike-rental program, said safety is not the issue so much as xenophobia.
“They don’t want the hipsters in their neighborhood,” he said. “It’s like in Howard Beach back in the day when they didn’t want black people in the neighborhood.”
If they’re truly concerned about safety, then they would want to keep the bike lanes — it makes cycling safer/more visible on the street, and bicycles hitting children should be a much smaller concern than cars hitting children. And if bicycles hitting children is the major concern, then they should instead focus on adding signs to the neighborhood and educating its residents on looking both ways before crossing the street AND on being aware of people that may be crossing the street if you’re on a bicycle.
But since safety isn’t the real issue here, xenophobia is, I have to give props to the vigilantes for repainting the bike lanes — they’re the ones making the neighborhood safer.
